Carbon Fiber vouchers Kickstarter update
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It's brilliant to hear that all your hard work on this matter looks like it's going to pay off. And thank you John for contacting me about the matter so I'm able to have some input.
However, like @Peter I'm finding myself with just a couple of questions (though there's a fair chance I'm missing something obvious here).-
First of all, you mention the value of the vouchers that those of us affected should expect to receive, £15. That's around half of what you're selling the existing models for just now.
Will that £15 equate to a replacement ring (ie will we be able to order them at a price of £15?) or will it be a discount against a higher cost? -
Secondly, you mention specifically the Stealth Bomber rings and ones with carbon fibre inlays as being eligible for vouchers.
I'm pretty certain that my original pledge included a Stealth Bomber and a slimmer ring with a black metal finish, which was also similarly delayed/never went into production. I can't remember if I'd requested carbon fibre inlays or just normal black ones but, either way, I never got it.
I basically just wanted to check that, even though they're nor specifically mentioned, any ring with the black metal finish will receive a voucher as they were all affected, right? -
Finally, though this sort of comes back round to my first point, what if we'd rather have a different style of ring now instead of the Stealth Bomber/carbon fibre/coloured metal?
By setting the voucher at £15, it doesn't allow backers to choose an alternative style that they might now prefer, not without having to pay extra for it.
Thanks in advance for any further info.
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Hey guys, all very useful questions.. My answers below.
- Voucher towards the ring.
- Yea that voucher can only be used on certain rings. -- Although see #3 @Step666 below - If we do end up allowing it to be used on anything in the store then they(2014 model) would ship earlier.
- We're aiming for December but that is TBC.
- I'd say thanks for their support. It's worth noting we did significant amounts of vouchers/upgrades on their original order anyway so we did way more than fulfilling their original pledge.
- It won't directly equate but it will be a big chunk of the special price available for KS backers. Way over 50% but that the final price is TBC.
- This only covers rings that had Carbon Fibre, not the black/black etc.
- Yea I think this might be doable but it could mess up how the vouchers work, It could be impossible on our store (Shopify) so I will need to check!
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I have updated the update to read this:
Qinetiq Zephyr - Stealth Bomber and Carbon Fiber Update
TLDR; You may be entitled to a voucher towards a replacement ring.2 Years ago when we ran our campaign we introduced a ring called the "Stealth Bomber", this ring was a black ring with a Carbon Fiber inlay cover and it looked really great. During the production of this ring we hit three major issues.
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The PVD plating looked terrible after a few months of wear.
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The Carbon Fiber affected the read performance of the ring.
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The Black on Black caused issues during the polishing phase causing high rates of visual QA fails during production.
Because of these issues we decided to stop shipping these rings and instead we issued a free place-holder ring. The Fiber issue also affected all of our Carbon Fiber rings so we decided to stop shipping those too. We had come so far and we were not willing to accept defeat. We always wanted to make a ring that looked exactly the same but didn't suffer from these failures. Today I'm happy to announce we can make these goals a reality.
It's worth noting at this point that we don't compromise on quality. We apologize for the delays but all of this time has been spent in development and fine tuning so we can introduce rings that have great performance and look even better than the original concept. I'm really proud of our new rings and I'm super excited to get to show them to the world soon. Naturally our backers are always the first to hear and as always have been vocal in helping to draft this update.
What will the voucher consist of?
We will issue you a voucher to the original order value of the ring from your pledge. So if you pledged £15 for a stealth bomber ring and we provided you an alternative ring, you will get a £15 voucher. Pretty cool huh? Collection folks will get the value of that ring from the collection, we value each ring from the collection at £15 so you will get a voucher of £15 per substitution.Claiming your voucher
It's important to note that the voucher will not be usable on Kickstarter (Sadly KS don't support this) and there is no way we can manage a different pledge level with discounts for these backers (Kickstarter limitation again).When we introduce the new rings we will introduce them on Kickstarter and as we reach each stretch goal we will introduce the rings on the NFC Ring store, at this point you can use the vouchers on the ring you want.
What will be important is that you get your friends etc. supporting the Kickstarter project as that will give you more options to use with your voucher in the NFC Ring store. It also means we will get funded and we can make the new rings a reality!
We will be shipping Kickstarter and NFC Ring store purchased rings at the same time so you wont get your ring any later than backers.
Who is entitled?
Anyone who ordered a Stealth Bomber ring or Carbon Fiber ring and did not get a Stealth Bomber or Carbon Fiber ring.But I ordered multiple Stealth Bombers/Carbon Fiber rings and I got multiple replacements!
Single substitution claims will be the easiest for us to process, multiple substitution claims will require database checking and may be delayed.Nothing to see here....
You can skip this paragraph, move along.. Okay, still here? We have 400 prototypes of our new ring and we want to give you guys first go at testing them in the field. The rings are all in one size (US 10). To get your hands on one we just ask you to post to Social Media with the hashtag #nfcringcan showing off how you use your ring. If you are lucky enough to get one of these rings we would like your feedback. Winners will be chosen based on the creativity of their application as judged by our community.How will the next ring launch happen?
We will post a Kickstarter soon with an update will be details on how we intend to bring the new rings to life so stay tuned for that!Sounds Great (Too easy)! What should I do?
Now is the time to act. You have until the 13th of September at 5pm GMT to complete the form. https://nfcring.wufoo.com/forms/nfc-ring-fiber-voucher-claim-form/Thanks for being awesome and again our apologies for the delays!
J
Q. Will the voucher be for a value or for a ring replacement?
A. The voucher will be for a value of £15. This will cover the majority of the replacement ring cost. You will be required to cover the rest of the cost and shipping fees.Q. Can I use the voucher on current stock rings such as the Signature?
A. Yes.Q. When will the new rings be shipping assuming Kickstarter is successful?
A. We're aiming for December 2015.Q. What if I don't want a voucher or to be part of this campaign any more?
A. That's fine, we appreciate your support.Q. Am I eligible for a voucher if I didn't order any type of Fiber ring?
A. Nope this voucher only covers Carbon Fiber backers. -
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@johnyma22 said:
Yes but sadly not in a good way.
@johnyma22 said:
- It won't directly equate but it will be a big chunk of the special price available for KS backers. Way over 50% but that the final price is TBC.
- This only covers rings that had Carbon Fibre, not the black/black etc.
- Yea I think this might be doable but it could mess up how the vouchers work, It could be impossible on our store (Shopify) so I will need to check!
Unless I'm very much mistaken, for someone in my position who pledged for 3 rings originally, even though not one of them was correct all I'm getting is a single £15 voucher that won't even cover the cost of a whole ring.
After all the promises during the campaign, this seems rather a long way off from what we were lead to believe would happen. -
@Step666 yes, you're very much mistaken and have run with it:
But I ordered multiple Stealth Bombers/Carbon Fiber rings and I got multiple replacements!
Single substitution claims will be the easiest for us to process, multiple substitution claims will require database checking and may be delayed.So, you may claim for all fiber rings that you didn't get - Stealth Bomber and any other carbon fiber rings.
BUT! To avoid any issues that might crop up, if you make a claim for multiple rings it will have to be manually checked against the orders database. This isn't as easy as it might seem at a glance due to various issues that were had during the kickstarter process and may delay your vouchers.
Anyone who chooses to go the easy route and simply claim for one may, if you claim for more then you may also do that but there may be delays. -
I don't think @step666 ordered multiple fibre rings?
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2x Stealth Bomber, if I read that right. Black ring = SB?
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Ah if it's 2x stealth bomber then yeah that's a multiple replacement job
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Update now posted and live! : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mclear/nfc-ring/posts/1331909
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So do rings with a black PVD finish that don't have Carbon Fibre inlays now count as 'Stealth Bomber' rings? Because nowhere is that made clear.
The Stealth Bomber was always a specific, pre-defined combination of black metal and CF inlays.@Lokki: that's what my second ring was, black PVD finish, not the full 'Stealth Bomber' spec.
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Am I understanding this correctly:
I pledged for a ring, and due to a few circumstances it was a carbon ring. I received a place-holder ring, which I appreciate.
Now instead of receiving the ring I pledged for I get a 50% voucher and have to pay for postage and packing.
Good news everyone?!
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@Step666, if you specifically ordered a 'not-stealth-bomber' then that would be the case. If, on the other hand, you ordered a black PVD Stealth Bomber ring then you can claim the voucher for not receiving it. It might be helpful to think carefully about that for a moment.
@Joe169, You pledged for what we'll call "NFC Ring Version 1".
Without stepping on John's toes here, I'd put forward that "NFC Ring Version Not 1" will have cost a considerable amount more in R&D and is likely to be a huge improvement in readability, finish and style.
You're getting a voucher towards it instead of a voucher for it because unfortunately advancements like this don't rain down from the heavens, it has to be paid for somewhere along the line. The voucher is John recognising that not all went as could have been hoped for in the original kickstarter and hoping that you'll join in for the next step. He's bound to have some pretty awesome things planned out for the future and I think the vision is worth supporting.FYI, I plan to claim a voucher for all three of the rings that I ordered and didn't get, silver carbon fiber, black carbon fiber and stealth bomber but just like the previous vouchers I don't intend to use them. I think it's worth supporting him by actually helping out with the cost of further development down the road.
Just my two cents there. -
If that is so, it's still not (being able to) keeping your promise and a mistake in planning.
I am not angry. It's the risk of supporting a Kickstarter project. However, selling you additional costs as "pretty cool", "cover(ing) the majority of the replacement ring cost" (~50%, without shipping?) makes me feel I'm being played for a sucker. But no worries I can just be happy with the replacement ring and my support was appreciated.
Sorry for getting sarcastic at that last bit, but simply stating that "the costs rose and everyone (eligible) gets a voucher instead of ring, bummer" would've made a world of difference to me and had come across HONEST.
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Ok, I had thought that part was specifically mentioned but I can see now how it could be misinterpreted as 'same old, same old with a slight revamp for new kickstarter'. If you're open to it, I'd suggest you claim whatever vouchers you're entitled to, even if you don't use them... and then keep an eye on where things lead with John's next announcement. You may change your mind, dude. And claiming the voucher wont cost you anything, whereas abandoning it might be a source of future regret.
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I think we have a slight misunderstanding, which may easily be due to English not being my primary language :).
- It's okay for the costs to be higher
- It's not okay selling bad news as good news
- I'll claim the voucher
Just my 2c
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Sounds fair to me, though I'd count it as more positive than it could have been - the guys have done pretty well to make things right as I see it!
I'm speaking as someone who had three substitutions out of three choices and I still think they've made the right move. Lets see where it goes next! -
Ok, I have one question.
If a person wishes to claim vouchers for more than one substitution, do they fill one form for all of them, or do they need to fill one form for each of the rings they didn't get?
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Hi @Annita-Stephanou , it's all on the same form - you just change the 1 to whatever you need to claim. Then the guys will check through the order database and make sure all is good and you should get your vouchers. :-)
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ok, thank you @Lokki
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Well, i understand its business, we donated and got the thing started, and now after so long of waiting it will finally be here, but not what was ordered.
of the 25 pounds donated, (22 for ring, and 3 for shipping) I have a wrong size ring that i cannot use, and im getting a discount on a new improved ring.
I cannot say im entitled to anything because, as i say, we donated.
but this i feel burns.
i've redeemed my voucher, and see how I feel when this all comes about.. i may buy into it and spend more on an already purchased product, but.. i dunno. thanks guys for being so forward and supporting to backers.. it justs, maybe i'm just disappointed i never was able to get what i wanted.. sorry, i don't mean to fuss :(
