The issue yesterday is exactly what happened with any NL-1331 meetups in the past.
NL-1331 meetups would have a limited supply of on-site kits but a lot of the times there were established couriers so off-site agents can obtain the kits. You had limited badges for different November Lima events such as NL-1331a and NL-1331e which automatically created demand. From what I recall, there were times that supply would run short for people who went to the event versus the off-site demand.
It's so odd with the celebration of the 7th anniversary of November Lima, yet not announced by Niantic, we have come to the exact same issues. The majority of the sales of this batch went to Europe due to the concatenation of:
a limited run of 600 kits, regardless of it being "old stock" from 2019 - this was the first physical swag pack sold since July 2019? Niantic sends out monthly polls. They couldn't ask to gauge the demand for new physical swag? I have worked within copy and print and understand third-party logistics. I don't see how producing another 600 or 1000 would run NIA into the red.
The value is supporting Niantic because it seemed like they were working in the right direction of listening to feedback. Establishing XM ambassadors. Launching their C.O.R.E. subscription service. Even looking at this as a customer versus a player, this seems so mind-blowing confusing if any business did this.
There's always limits on physical items, as they attempt to guess demand vs production cost. However, digitally delivering the NL medal would have allowed them to sell it to each player without limit.
The problem with the way they used to handle the NL van meetups was the fact that locals who might have gone decided not to when the packs sold out almost instantly. One time in Buffalo, someone from Taiwan bought 50 of the 80 available. We asked someone we had actually met from there, and were told the buyer was an ebay seller, so no local Enl agreed to pick up and ship the packs. Ethan said the buyer would be refunded and sold them there, but the attendance suffered which was the point of the meetups in the first place
That may have been true 20 years ago, but in these days of "on demand" manufacturing, it would surely be possible to find another way to deliver orders of physical swag. One possibility would be to continue to take orders up until a given date, and then place the order for manufacture. That does mean that delivery would be somewhat delayed but most people would be fine with that. This is quite a common way for swag from other games to be produced and sold.
My son regularly orders pins and figurines from games and anime which use this ordering/manufacturing method and it works quite well. In addition, the shipping costs are fairly reasonable.
The Beirut Ingress swag auction, those donating items took front and back photos of each item so each buyer new exactly what was coming.
These were collated with a minimum value each. Auction took place through our own volunteer online via Zoom. Swag was shipped by sellers after each buyer showed receipt from Lebanon Red Cross.
Comments
you must organize your time. not everyone can be online at the release.
Also, these patck it's old. I saw it in 2019. I do not understand all these disappointing. Ps5 release wasn't like this.
The issue yesterday is exactly what happened with any NL-1331 meetups in the past.
NL-1331 meetups would have a limited supply of on-site kits but a lot of the times there were established couriers so off-site agents can obtain the kits. You had limited badges for different November Lima events such as NL-1331a and NL-1331e which automatically created demand. From what I recall, there were times that supply would run short for people who went to the event versus the off-site demand.
It's so odd with the celebration of the 7th anniversary of November Lima, yet not announced by Niantic, we have come to the exact same issues. The majority of the sales of this batch went to Europe due to the concatenation of:
The value is supporting Niantic because it seemed like they were working in the right direction of listening to feedback. Establishing XM ambassadors. Launching their C.O.R.E. subscription service. Even looking at this as a customer versus a player, this seems so mind-blowing confusing if any business did this.
Each player must be able to buy the kits... EACH PLAYER
There's always limits on physical items, as they attempt to guess demand vs production cost. However, digitally delivering the NL medal would have allowed them to sell it to each player without limit.
The problem with the way they used to handle the NL van meetups was the fact that locals who might have gone decided not to when the packs sold out almost instantly. One time in Buffalo, someone from Taiwan bought 50 of the 80 available. We asked someone we had actually met from there, and were told the buyer was an ebay seller, so no local Enl agreed to pick up and ship the packs. Ethan said the buyer would be refunded and sold them there, but the attendance suffered which was the point of the meetups in the first place
That may have been true 20 years ago, but in these days of "on demand" manufacturing, it would surely be possible to find another way to deliver orders of physical swag. One possibility would be to continue to take orders up until a given date, and then place the order for manufacture. That does mean that delivery would be somewhat delayed but most people would be fine with that. This is quite a common way for swag from other games to be produced and sold.
My son regularly orders pins and figurines from games and anime which use this ordering/manufacturing method and it works quite well. In addition, the shipping costs are fairly reasonable.
а вот и первый продавец на ebay
Again, its poor organisation and not listening to the user base.
We have said for years that physical swag is popular then Niantic tease us with release then disappoint the user base.
It’s very disappointing when the kits are missing items 😒
I am amazed at no word of a digital kit alternative at this point
4 pages on this thread alone and not a peep out of anyone from the ingress team. I just don’t get it...
Seriously, I give up...
Brian offering to push codes that should already have been pushed.
Missing items.
Promising in game option instead of physical swag.
Selling out in 10min.
Allowing bulk orders on limited stock.
Its a train wreck.
Shut the game down and put us out of our misery. Cancelled my subscription.
Given that swag is less than 1% of Ingress... that's a bit of extreme hyperbole.
You know it's not just about swag as well as anyone. It's events, cheating, bugs, lack of communication etc.
I'll play till they pull pin, but seriously can they never stop train wrecking themselves?
Short answer: no. Niantic won't ever do such things properly, if they haven't learned during the previous 8 years.
Laugh on this all and being cautious to everything is the only option that is left.
Its sad, it's not rocket science.
The Beirut Ingress swag auction, those donating items took front and back photos of each item so each buyer new exactly what was coming.
These were collated with a minimum value each. Auction took place through our own volunteer online via Zoom. Swag was shipped by sellers after each buyer showed receipt from Lebanon Red Cross.
Went very smoothly.
Half a dozen volunteers organised it.
It feels like that is their current goal, taking out srevices, emptying forgotten stock, not looking forward to create new things...
Just like stores cashing out before permanent closure.
This is official merchandise that Niantic is selling. This **** up shouldn't exist in the first place.