• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Limited Run Games - Putting digital games into your hands

Status
Not open for further replies.

Shizuka

Member
$10 is the sweet spot. If you go under that, they'll charge whatever they want, at least in my country, and nine out of ten times, that's worse than paying the real price.
 

Weevilone

Member
People really need $25 international shipments marked down for customs? If that was a concern, I'd be holding off on placing an order.
 
Importing stuff can be a hassle and already cost more. International customers having an easy time turning out will probably be good for all of us and be the thing that keeps one of the bigger print runs from ending up overproduced. They probably won't be able to do as much as they are now forever, but early supporters will remember.
 
People really need $25 international shipments marked down for customs? If that was a concern, I'd be holding off on placing an order.

Where did you get the idea that it's $25? International customers pay $15 for shipping, so they're $40 shipments in reality.

And all packages with a value of €22 or more will be taxed upon entering the EU. Tax rates are up to 25%, depending on which country you live in.

So for international customers that $25 game can end up costing more than double the price.
 

Shizuka

Member
From Twitter:

"This won't affect Saturday Morning RPG orders but USPS raised their international rates an absurd amount. Apologies in advance, but future releases will have higher shipping charges. Rates went up by about $7, which is absolute highway robbery."
 
From Twitter:

"This won't affect Saturday Morning RPG orders but USPS raised their international rates an absurd amount. Apologies in advance, but future releases will have higher shipping charges. Rates went up by about $7, which is absolute highway robbery."

That's unfortunate, but out of their control.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
From Twitter:

"This won't affect Saturday Morning RPG orders but USPS raised their international rates an absurd amount. Apologies in advance, but future releases will have higher shipping charges. Rates went up by about $7, which is absolute highway robbery."

Ugh that's right.
There was an almost across the board increase in all rates from USPS at the start of the year.
For domestic shipping on packages that size it was a few cents.
I guess international went crazy.
 

Tapejara

Member
From Twitter:

"This won't affect Saturday Morning RPG orders but USPS raised their international rates an absurd amount. Apologies in advance, but future releases will have higher shipping charges. Rates went up by about $7, which is absolute highway robbery."

That's unfortunate (but as Fireworker said, out of their control); they had some great shipping rates.
 

LiK

Member
yea, USPS rates are pretty insane. even when I ship something from MA to NY and CA can be quite an increase just by distance.
 

ev0

Member
From Twitter:

"This won't affect Saturday Morning RPG orders but USPS raised their international rates an absurd amount. Apologies in advance, but future releases will have higher shipping charges. Rates went up by about $7, which is absolute highway robbery."

Man, this totally explains when I went to mail a return item to the UK recently they said the price was $20+ to send it back. I was shocked
 
Man really? WTF USPS
Just as a reference, I can send a game from Germany to ANYWHERE in the world for $5. No joke. USPS rates were already crazy high before
 
Man really? WTF USPS
Just as a reference, I can send a game from Germany to ANYWHERE in the world for $5. No joke. USPS rates were already crazy high before

German rates are really low though. If one's sending a decent amount of packages, it's actually worth it to cross the border from most neighbouring countries and send them from Germany.

E.g. Larian Studios (based in Ghent, Belgium) did just that when they sent out physical copies from their Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter.
 
German rates are really low though. If one's sending a decent amount of packages, it's actually worth it to cross the border from most neighbouring countries and send them from Germany.

E.g. Larian Studios (based in Ghent, Belgium) did just that when they sent out physical copies from their Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter.
Sounds like other countries could learn a thing or two from the Deutsche Post! Still, USPS rates are insane
 
The shipping rates only increased a little if the weight is 8 oz and below. Anything higher adds $7+.

That being said we are still losing money now shipping to Canada, and Mexico if the weight is 8 oz or below.

We will have to do a weight threshold for future releases. The rate will only increase if your order weighs too much.

I'm also not able to offer anymore refunds shipping wise. If you already got one, then congrats! But right now it is a nightmare to keep track of and with the increase in shipping we have to watch what we are doing now. :'(

This really sucks, we always want to be the good guys and we will keep our eyes out for better rates!
 

Shizuka

Member
The shipping rates only increased a little if the weight is 8 oz and below. Anything higher adds $7+.

That being said we are still losing money now shipping to Canada, and Mexico if the weight is 8 oz or below.

We will have to do a weight threshold for future releases. The rate will only increase if your order weighs too much.

I'm also not able to offer anymore refunds shipping wise. If you already got one, then congrats! But right now it is a nightmare to keep track of and with the increase in shipping we have to watch what we are doing now. :'(

This really sucks, we always want to be the good guys and we will keep our eyes out for better rates!

How much does a single copy weight? Truly curious, because I haven't been ordering anything above that.
 
Whatever USPS has done with the shipping rates out of the country are probably related to the same stuff I posted about in the English-Asia import thread on vitalounge.
 
Single games shouldn't go over 8 oz. A PS3 game w/o manual is ~100 grams / ~4 oz. A Vita game is probably 3 oz. Packaging material isn't much.
Two games could lead to problems, but if the increase under 8oz isn't that bad, maybe shipping will still be reasonable. Maybe Game + OST or Vita + PS4 copy could BARELY fit under the limit. Not sure.

Even finding out shipping charges on the USPS site is a nightmare (I guess that's why they sell horribly overpriced "flat rate" envelopes), but a single game to Germany (and most other countries I checked) should be $13.50 in postage.
 
...Can't you share that with us here?

It was kinda tl;dr and incoherent TMI so I'll cut it down for here:

The RP tracking numbers no longer give any information on USPS, even for older orders that I received months ago. Play-Asia's customer service eventually told me that USPS started doing this sometime during the last quarter of last year, and had not given them any explanation.

I called the 1-800 number for USPS and the automated operator said the same thing as the USPS site: "no tracking information available for this item from Singapore" but also said that for future orders, only Priority Express 2-day shipping and International Global whatever will provide tracking information.

So I have/had two orders out with no way to follow them or anticipate when to be here and sign for them. That's a bad combination with my local post office's track record. I was able to get information from USPS that one package was in New Jersey and another was in Chicago. Every other order from that region in the last two years has come in through California first (which makes more sense geographically), and there's no way the first package got from New Jersey to Denver in less than 24 hours. Their own tracking info is obviously limited too, but if the locations they gave me were correct then imports from Asia going to the US are traveling 2-3x distance West now, instead of East.

I asked Play-Asia if I could change my shipping to something that will show tracking here, since my local PO is consistently unreliable. They offered Fed Ex, UPS etc, so I went with UPS. I never have problems with them and can also log into a UPS account to make sure it doesn't change hands to USPS once it gets local. $25 each for my next four pre-orders, bringing the orders up to $68, $71, $73 and $76... peace of mind isn't cheap.

I don't know what changed in the last business quarter... USPS probably really needs to make more money since they're going extinct, but maybe also some trade agreement stuff?

That was 3 days ago and the second package that was in Chicago just got here now, while I was re-typing this lol. Still, the point is the loss of tracking, the change in travel route/distance, new requirements for tracking etc
 
Yep, noticed the lack of shipping information from Play Asia during October. Total bullshit

It started that soon for you, huh? I think my Civ Rev 2 that came in December must have just squeaked into whatever infrastructure was still working like it used to.

Glad to know it's not just me at least.
 

Olengie

Member
It started that soon for you, huh? I think my Civ Rev 2 that came in December must have just squeaked into whatever infrastructure was still working like it used to.

Glad to know it's not just me at least.

Started as early as October as far as I know. Probably even September. Cant even get a peace of mind anymore (faith in USPS lost after the local post office lost my shit and it took 3 months to get another copy from Play Asia. 2 week delivery turned into a 3 month debacle)
 

Shizuka

Member
That's for people who live in the US that are suffering because of USPS, right? I've had Play-Asia tracking here in Brazil for all this time.
 
Can't you still track your Play-Asia packages through the SingPost website though? The site's entirely in English too.

Yeah that's how I do it. It's not very detailed but it does the job.

Or does USPS just not cooperate with other international carriers anymore so the tracking ends when it leaves the origin country? (which is pretty much useless)
It just tells me when it arrives in the States

I never got more detailed tracking for my orders from PA really. (Germany)

It's usually
arrived a destination post (DE)
arrived at sorting facility (DE)

and stops there. It never updates with the delivery or anything else
 
The singpost tracking stops once it leaves their hands and ends at "arrived in US" and that used to be fine because USPS site would start tracking it once singpost's site reached "parcel received" status. Then once it landed in the US, processing and movement from there would be visible on the USPS site.

Now USPS shows absolutely nothing and it's like the tracking number doesn't exist. So if it's late or gone, you won't know whether USPS ever even had it or if it's stuck at customs, being sent back etc.

That's for people who live in the US that are suffering because of USPS, right? I've had Play-Asia tracking here in Brazil for all this time.

Yeah, Play-Asia and singpost are fine. That won't effect you but whatever USPS is doing with imports is probably part of some company wide changes that's also leading to the increased shipping costs from the US for exports too.
 

DMNBT

Neo Member
Yeah, it's USPS only. I ordered 3 things during last november: one in the US, one in Singapore and one in Japan. Both the SG and JP items tracked without trouble (both before and after leaving their respective countries) and reached me without trouble, but the US one didn't track beyond informing that they indeed had the package...and didn't show up until 4 days ago.
 
Noooo! Anyone know how much it went up by for Canada?

Here's the chart of price increases
usps_2015-2016_price_comparison_stamps.jpg

Source: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m01/i21/s03

As you can see, the really nasty ones are super lightweight packages (1-2 oz) to the rest of the world, which have shot up an additional $6-7 each.

I ship a lot of stuff for my business so I knew about the rate change in advance (they announced it in October). There was a domestic rate increase too (all domestic first class packages up to 8oz are now a flat $2.60; Priority Mail and Priority Express have also gone up). Unfortunately not all merchants were paying attention and got a nasty surprise on January 17th.

Businesses like mine are especially annoyed because the USPS made an agreement to let China ship to the US below cost via a service called ePacket. That's why you can buy a $1 gadget from China on eBay with free shipping to the US, but if you tried to ship that same gadget across the street, it'll cost you $2.60. More on that tangent here if you're interested: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2016/1/1453344622.html
 

Shizuka

Member
From Twitter:

We've been slipping prototype discs into random orders. If you get one, please don't list it on eBay. We're keeping track of them. :)

Yep, Vita orders also have a shot at a different surprise (a few people who didn't have B&C in their order history may get a copy)

LRG going above and beyond to please fans.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom