Hellish Rebuke
3 months ago
– Wed, Feb 07, 2024 at 02:59:47 PM
An update? But isn't the campaign closed?! Yes, yes, it is. However, there are many of you who have asked about the Hellish Rebuke and this is the best way to communicate about it to those who wish to grab some while it is available. As we have mentioned, while we did get enough made and packaged to fulfill the Kickstarter, we have opted not to continue with this product at the time as it's frankly miserable to package. However, we are left with a handful of stock that's burning a hole on the shelf. As such, we are going to do a limited release until this stock is depleted. We have about 170 bags available. These are currently live on our website. So if you are one of the brave few who enjoy drinking lava, hurry on over and claim your bag while supplies last.
https://www.dandtea.com/product/hellish-rebuke/
Thanks again to everybody for their support.
David
Closing Time
4 months ago
– Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 02:08:39 PM
Greetings Adventurers!
We hope you are all enjoyed the holiday season with warm tea and even warmer hearts.
We are wrapping up the year with a wrap up of this Kickstarter! The last of the orders shipped out just before the holidays, but we wanted to give the shipping companies just a little time to deliver before we made this announcement. Most of you should now have your teas at hand, though many of our supporters overseas may have to wait for things to clear customs and such. We are hoping you receive your teas soon.
If you have not received your teas, please first check your emails (including spam folders please) for shipping information. If you cannot locate such an email, or if there are issues with the shipment, please contact us at the email below.
If there were issues with your order that have not been resolved, such as missing items, please also contact us at the email below. Even if you have emailed us before, there is honestly a pretty good chance that we lost track of some things in the chaos of the juggle and the change of watch. For that we apologize.
[email protected]
Now, for the final big news, by the time some of you read this, you will be able to top off your favorite tea once again! We had chosen the New Year as the launching point for our new teas but of course, nothing in the Feywild ever quite goes to plan. As such, we are making the release on Friday, January 19th instead.
There will also be several more social media announcements about the state of the business and our teas over the next several weeks. Some of them cherries on top, some of them hard pills to swallow, but all in an effort to stabilize and become a better company for all of you.
It has been an educating whirlwind of a year and I, David, want to personally thank you all again for your support and your patience.
May 2024 be a year of great adventure, peaceful times and happy memories.
Best Regards, David
International Orders over 4 lb!
5 months ago
– Sun, Dec 10, 2023 at 04:42:53 PM
Greetings adventurers!
This is an update for the 50 international orders that were heavier than 4 lb. We have emailed each of you to alert you to the situational, but are also going to mention it here in case emails find themselves in the spam filter.
Anything over 4 lb does not qualify for Simple Export Rates, at which point the best option becomes UPS, with the next best being sometimes double the cost. UPS is notorious for charging unnecessary brokerage fees so we are going out of our way not to use them so that you are not hit with hidden fees.
So we devised a solution. These 50 orders will be split into smaller orders, under the 4 lb limit. This qualifies them for the Simple Export Rates, which still comes out as slightly more expensive than UPS, but lower than the other options plus the benefit of not having hidden brokerage fees.
This does mean some of you will be sent multiple emails and tracking numbers and receive 2 to 3 boxes instead of one.
One thing I forgot to mention in the email is that our system is not fancy enough to split the shipments automatically so we are doing them all by hand. So it's going to take me a little while to get through them all. This is, unfortunately, why these orders are amongst the last to go out.
If you are not one of these 50 and haven't received an email, please, worry not. There are just as many other orders that we are also working on. Mostly international but a few US stragglers mixed in.
In case you all don't hear from me before the holidays, I wish you all a happy holiday season and a wondrous New Year!
David
Quick update! Still alive!
5 months ago
– Mon, Dec 04, 2023 at 02:20:45 PM
Hello adventurers!
In an effort to keep up on my 2 to 3 week update pattern, I'm giving you all a very short update.
As mentioned in the previous update, we were away at various conventions and we just got back at the beginning of the month. So there is a bit of catch up to do, then it's back to shipping your orders. We did have to spend the first days back getting our convention setup ready for Anime Frontier, but that's said and done now. Sam will be on her way to Fort Worth for the last convention of the year, but yours truly will be here to see this finished! I did manage to get a pretty decent chunk of orders out before my trip, so there aren't too many left. Hoping most of you will see your orders by Christmas or the new year.
Fair warning, the international orders over 4 lb are going to take more time to process as we have to do them individually, one at a time. Still aiming for that New Year though.
Well, back to work for me!
Take care everyone,
David
How's the weather?
6 months ago
– Wed, Nov 15, 2023 at 03:45:42 PM
Hello adventurers!
Over the past several weeks, we have hand-boxed 349 sampler boxes, each with 36 teabags, for a total of 12,564 teabags. That's just what made it into the boxes. Due to the known issues mentioned with the machine and wanting to ensure we had a safety net of product at hand, we processed with a +50% buffer for an approximate 19,000 teabags. We then hand checked every single one of those foils in a best attempt to weed out any mistakes. Such issues include empty foils, too little tea, broken teabags, partially or completely open foils, foils being sealed over the teabag, and so on. Every one of those 19,000 foils has been felt and held to the light in an effort to keep you, our beloved patrons, from receiving a subpar product. I fear it is near impossible to know if we caught them all but there was no small amount that didn't make the cut. Not a dragon's hoard per se, but much more than what I would call acceptable. There will be more battles with this beast until it has been properly reared but for now, the battle is over. Victory has been obtained.
Now for a bit of bittersweet news. You know the old adage of 'when it rains, it pours?' Well, it is the rainy season in the Evergreen State. I have until Tuesday to process and ship as many orders as humanly possible... completely on my own. I have taken but one day off in the past two weeks and will not have another until Thanksgiving Day, followed by three long days at Fan Expo San Francisco. This is not a complaint. I love this job and this community. I only wish to convey that I have been dedicating relentless hours to this Kickstarter and this company. All for you.
My cohort, Sam, has already departed to manage our booth at Anime NYC and I will be shipping out Tuesday evening to manage our booth in SF. I will be working to complete orders until the moment I leave for the airport. We will both return on the 29th of November. I've mentioned before that there are only two of us at the shop, which means for a little over a week, there won't be anybody at the store to fulfill orders. When we return, there will be a frenzied juggle of fulfilling standard orders from that past week, the monthly subscription orders that arrive on the first of every month, and preparing our shipment for Anime Frontier the following week. Sam will be managing our booth there, but I will remain. Remember that rain I was mentioning? Forecast says...
Complete transparency, this will obviously delay shipments during that absent week, and mostly the international ones. We honestly need the sales from the conventions to cover the costs of the larger international orders so the timing was fairly inevitable. We are very sorry about this. Oversights at the beginning of this campaign mean we have to carefully balance and budget in order to reach the finish line. That is the tough reality of it. Trust me, I don't enjoy delivering the bad news any more than you do receiving it.
Sorry this update hasn't included the pep and humor of my previous updates. Admittedly, I'm running on fumes but still want to be here for you all. The end is in sight and I will claw and crawl my way there. Then... I will take a long rest. (there, threw one reference in for y'all ;) )
One last thing I wanted to cover, as we've received a lot of emails, messages and comments asking this. We will not be releasing the new Kickstarter teas on our website until we can rightfully call the Kickstarter complete. With the exception of a very small handful of special cases that we expect to arise as we bring this to a close, the new teas will not go live until each one of you has their teas in hand. When we do release the teas, there will be an announcement made across every one of our social media platforms as well as an update here on Kickstarter. When we know, you will know.
Finally, a small request for my own benefit. If you have questions or requests, please don't post them in the comments. They can be difficult to navigate and are more prone to being missed. A direct message on this platform is best, as it won't get lost in the emails, but the second best option would be emailing [email protected]. This is the email that is checked most regularly by the most sets of eyes. If you have had missed messages, comments or emails in the past, please direct message again. I haven't been here for the entire campaign so I have no way of knowing what has been missed.
Until next time adventurers, be kind to each other but especially to yourselves.
~David
PS, if you happen to be attending any of the cons mentioned above, please do pop by and say hi. Meeting all the wonderful people that have helped build this company is one of my great joys.
