Open letter from the EU Shipping Group to NIANTIC

Hello Team from Niantic,

Hello Team of Ingress,

Hello staff reading this letter,


I am writing to you on behalf of a huge community. It's about the sale of the Dronekits, which was released on 20.12.2021. But what happened?

Ulrich and I (Tobi) started a wonderful player initiative at the beginning of 2021, when the NL-1331 Birthday Kits were released. The kits v1 were initially sold exclusively in the USA. So we created the telegram group @nl1331shipping to share them with agents from Europe. Honestly, at first we only wanted to offer this locally, but overnight we became pretty well known. There was no going back - we went for it. With the Birthdaykits v1 we drew quite a bit of ire from the agents as we bought 325/600 of them. But our agents in the group were very happy about it.

Shortly afterwards, the NL-1331 BirthdayKit v2 was released. There we were also in the running again and were able to secure 300 pieces - that was just enough to deliver to our agents.

But the question is: Why did we do this? For one simple reason: we have a huge fanbase in Europe who also want the swag. Since at that time Brandfuel only shipped within the US, there was no legal way to get the kits without being suspicious of an agent. Ulrich and I took a big financial risk because with v2 we didn't ask for the money until after the purchase. With v1 we would have had to make a lot of refunds, which fortunately did not happen.

Everyone who is and was in the NL shipping group saw what a job we had with the kits. The v1 kits were crappily packaged, just thrown in the box. We sorted out missing cards with codes and thanks to Ethan we got a list so we already had codes to tell the agents the missing code on the card. We had to check all the kits and repack them. In addition, we kept the kits for ourselves that were defective. Envelope defective, sticker sheet torn. It was simply horrible what brandfuel did. With v2, brandfuel thought along and packed it in appropriate boxes. But even there we had to check everything again.

More than 500 agents from all over the world trusted us with the birthday kits. Not only Europe, but also Asia, North and South America and even Australia we supplied. The Birthdaykit v2 went to 27 countries worldwide, while the v1 only went to 17 countries. Mostly to countries that even Nianticsupply doesn't supply today.

We put a lot of spare time into it, worked on a lot of things and checked every kit ourselves to get a list from Ethan for the codes. We took a lot of work off Brandfuel and Niantic's hands. All in all, we spent a good 200 hours on this. A big thank you to @TeresTaa, who also supported us with her creative skills and her help in packing the kits for shipping. Thank you very much for that!


When the IQTech Dronekit was announced, we were flooded with requests to import and forward them again. The answer was straight away: "Of course!"

Ulrich and I started brainstorming how we could make this the easiest this time. In the meantime, we no longer live 20km apart, but 800km. We created a Googleform for those agents that Nianticsupply doesn't deliver to. In the first 24h we already had 160 preorders, which increased hourly in the coming days. When IUENG (one of the biggest communities in Europe) allowed us to share our order form as well as our group, it became even more. In the end, we had 490 preorders. Amazing! We were not only trusted by agents who were not supplied by the official store, but also by agents who we had already successfully supplied.


Some reasons why agents trust us:

- They can sit back and relax. They know we will tackle any problem. Issues like customs and import VAT they don't really know. We take care of that.

- Shipping is moderate and with a tracking number. If a kit doesn't arrive, there's money back. We investigate, of course. Since we traded as private persons, this is not a matter of course.

- We communicate honestly, openly and have the connection to the community.

- We respond to every request, if possible. An agent only wants the codes? No problem! One wants no codes and only swag? We have also complied with these wishes.


The kits were released, I ordered 500. Technically, only 10 should be possible. But if I can order my quantity directly, why not? It is not my problem if Nianticsupply did not test and adjust the shopify store properly in the last weeks/months. So with order #NLABS3303 I have ordered 500 kits at a cost of $12,500.

Order confirmed. This was the starting signal to collect the agents' money. Late in the afternoon, German time, I frantically called Ulrich. Order cancelled. Nianticsupply cut the order to 10 kits. We were and still are really pissed off. Ulrich had to transfer back about 7000 EUR, Paypal fees went on our pocket. Just because Nianticsupply didn't test the shop?

The most ridiculous email was the joke of the day.

"Thank you for your order. The kits were limited to 10 per person. The system should not have allowed you to order more than 10. We have reduced your order to 10 kits and refunded the remaining." - Britt, Nianticsupply.


Well, then I wrote to the support that I would have made 50 orders with 10 kits each in the 2.5 hours. Of course, this was only possible if the limit was 10 kits / order.

"Hi Tobias - We are adding additional inventory today to the site. We will limit to 10 per person in order to be fair to the rest of the community." - Britt, Nianticsupply


I was getting so annoyed with this answer. Does the company Nianticsupply know what fair means? I already wrote to them a day before that I would order 500 kits. Why wasn't this answered, and I was told directly that this is not desired? Customer support is miserable. If I treated my customers like this, I would already be more than broke.

So I asked why I should be responsible for the technical error. The following ridiculous answer came:

"We have refunded your orders in excess of 10 kits. You should receive that refund within 3-7 business days." - Ben, Nianticsupply


Nianticsupply was alerted to my order of over 500 kits via email the day before. In addition, the questions of whether shipping, import VAT and customs are covered by Nianticsupply remain unanswered. This is a very important answer that has a great impact on the price we have to charge for the kits.

Besides, the cancellation went through many channels. Even after I said that the kits would be put back in the shop sometime during the day, it was not taken positively. There was real anger. We were still able to secure a total of 60 kits. But how do we distribute them fairly and equitably to the agents?


Our request to you:

Come up with something good that Ulrich and I can do to make every agent happy. We have almost 300 agents that we would have supplied. There were some community ones who ordered larger quantities. To countries that Nianticsupply does not supply. We had requests from 49 countries this time, all of which we would have supplied.


Finally, let's mention a few arguments why agents trust us:

1. We already have experience with customs and shipping, and we are there to help and advise.

2. We do not leave the agent in the lurch. Furthermore, we provide support via Telegram or email within a few hours. Moreover, we always look for a solution.

3. Nianticsupply would not have had any complaints. We would have organized the shipping of the kits.

4. Agents would only have 2 contacts. Problem? We took care of it without exception.

5. We have the connection to the community. The community pays a higher price, but Nianticsupply did not give us a discount, nor could they guarantee any takeover costs of customs or import sales tax (it would have been nice if the questions about cost takeover had been answered at all).

6. We stand for open and honest communication.

7. We can be asked questions a hundred times. We also remain calm and are happy to disclose everything.


Please contact us so that we can clarify this calmly. We want to find an appropriate solution for everyone in the community. It would be very sad if we don't find a solution. Ulrich and I answer questions every day - we are quite happy to do this, and at the same time we want to help the community through our commitment.


Nevertheless, we wish you a Merry Christmas.


Ulrich and Tobias from Germany

Agents @derfreiburger & @niulen

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Comments

  • AtunatunakAtunatunak ✭✭✭✭

    I can only speak for the v1 kit, and everything was great from your side (great attention, always available to solve doubts, repacking a few times to merge orders from different agents in the same city, keeping track of the money from different people, and many more things).

    I had to use you as intermediate when they didn't sell to my country, and now that they do ship things to Spain, I'll totally buy from you again because you offer things that the official store doesn't sell anymore (like toasts, 3 of them in my house thanks to you).

    Good luck with this, I hope that at least you can secure kits for the agents in those countries that aren't on the list.

  • Hello,

    i from France, and i am agree with all.

    Maybe @NianticBrian @NianticThia can help ?

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    So nianticsupply support is the same people running Ingress support it seems. Not helpful….

    I’ll be honest, anyone buying 500 kits doesn’t feel right to me. Regardless of the intention. It’s obvious you have the best intentions. But someone being able to pre-order a kit is different than me staying up late and ordering it like everyone else. But this could all easily be resolved if the ingress team worked with their community instead of pitting us against each other. But as we’ve learned and you’ve shown in your post, it’s not about agents or the community, it’s about moving a bunch of merch. It’s unfortunate they couldn’t work something out, but also not surprising at all.

    I’m not sure what the answer is. I guess, in my brain that hasn’t ever been involved with shipping hundreds of items, would maybe do something clever like, check this box if you’re part of the group order overseas. Which then would produce a disclaimer than there is risk and Niantic is free of liability, etc. Or work to find a company overseas that can ship to all countries. I buy a ton of records from a label in San Francisco, shipping rates got insane for people outside the US, so they opened up online shops in Europe and AUS. People asked, they delivered. I think Ingress could try harder, but I do think limits are a good thing and anyone attempting to purchase one of these kits should have to go through the same process as everyone else.


  • Nia won't ship to my country, what other options do I have? By the way, the support reply sounds evil. "Please sign up to see what else you can't have, loser!"

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    Niantic needs to do pre-orders otherwise its just a mess for everyone.. really sad they canceled the order for everyone....

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭

    You intentionally made a large order, knowing you weren't supposed to then act surprised when it's canceled SMH

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    he did contact them beforehand so they were aware.

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2021
    Post edited by KarM3L on
  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2021

    The post doesn't really make this clear.

    "Nianticsupply was alerted to my order of over 500 kits via email the day before."

    Was this by contacting them or assuming your 500 kit order went through that they were alerted?

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