Kickstarter: ME Models Tracks for both metal and ABS only track pieces

[Eric J. Olson]

This is my problem. The orders are setup by individual depending upon what was ordered and grouped accordingly.

I can ship them separate...but here is my dilemma: since they're grouped by what you ordered, when I go to ship, if you ordered BOTH, it's going to mark the whole thing off as shipped. I can go back and *TRY* to find the people who I may have missed, but I'm concerned about the "customer service" nightmare that may come with it when we start overlooking people.

Here's the second part of my problem...shipping will cost us around $10 per package on average and we have over 400 orders...

I'll ask you all for input here, would it be better to wait and ship them in groups as the system is laid out, or do I risk the "flame mails" that say, "you forgot about me," and just take care of them as they come? :)

Edited October 21, 2014 by Eric J. Olson

[SavaTheAggie]

I only ordered plastic track, so I really don't have any skin in the game. But if you must deal with an automated kickstarter supplied shipping system, and it does not support split orders, then I can understand you wanting to wait.

That said, could you export who ordered what to an Excel document? Have two columns - "plastic shipped" and "metal shipped", and keep track of them internally? Then you could ship off the plastic orders, marking through Kickstarter those who only ordered plastic as "shipped" but marking everyone down on your spreadsheet. Then, when the metal track was ready to ship, mark those on both Kickstarter and your Excel spreadsheet.

--Tony

[Eric J. Olson]

That's a possibility too, Tony. I'll have to take a look at how many have "split" orders...

[Rail Co]

Quick question! When will Me-Models metal track be avaliable (meaning not pre-ordering items)?

Thanks for bringing 9v back!

-Rail Co

[ericb]

Do what's best for you. Don't bring too much stress on yourself by making things more difficult or confusing. For customers, the product will be worth the wait.

Edited October 25, 2014 by ericb

[antsiranean]

Since the debate over this topic isn't what you would call "heated", I would go with the option that's easiest for you: ship the plastic only orders as soon as you can, and then ship the mixed orders once you've got the metal rails too. There's no reason to keep everyone waiting just for the sake of fairness (we might be childish, but still we are adults), and splitting orders seems like a lot of work for you. Save those hours and use them for designing plastic switches instead. With an "X"-switch to start.

Says me, who ordered plastics only.

[zephyr1934]

I made my pledge because I want a few loops of plastic track, that was my main goal. I tossed in a metal sample pack just to see what it looked like. At this point I definitely do not want to have my plastic track delayed by the metal track sample pack. While I certainly understand the production delays necessary to get it right, I also do not want to wait a second longer than I have to to get the plastic track once it is ready to go (I made a kickstarter pledge after all, of course I'm anxious). The plastic track is already a little behind schedule and while the metal track should be coming a month or two thereafter, I am simply too anxious to wait for the metal track.

So if ME can't ship the two separately, is there a way to cancel the metal track from my order and be refunded just the $17? Or at the very least, issue a coupon good for a free metal sample pack in a future order? Then ship the plastic track from my order as soon as it is ready to go?

[ericb]

Looking forward to it, whenever that may be. It will be a nice surprise when that package arrives.

Edited October 28, 2014 by ericb

[Eric J. Olson]

Let me do a full count of mixed orders and get back to you...frankly, at a quick glance, I don't think there were that many and if that is the case, I have no problem breaking them up.

--EDIT--

There are only about 25 people who ordered a mixture, so we'll ship them separate. I hope I can keep that straight. :D

Edited October 28, 2014 by Eric J. Olson

[zephyr1934]

YEAH! Thank you

(and again, if it does prove problematic to split the shipments, I would be fine with a coupon for the already paid for metal sampler pack with a future order)

[Eric J. Olson]

Latest update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/memodels/me-models-railway-system/posts/1049303

[rockethead26]

Eric,

Any updates on the plastic track?

[Eric J. Olson]

Yes, in fact, I was going to put out another KickStarter update later this week once I had a little more definitive detail.

The manufacturer now has the completed mold and has placed the order for the raw plastic material. We should, with any luck, actually be in production later this week or early next week. With that said, we will, at that point, begin shipping orders from KickStarter and BackerKit to our supporters while also simultaneously selling product through a variety of retail sites.

It's important to realize that the manufacturing process will take a little bit of time as when products are pressed out, we will have to be "choosy" with quantities, varieties, etc. So, in short, some people will see their stuff sooner than others just because of the "nature of the beast". Rest assured though, everyone WILL get their stuff and they WILL get it as soon as practical from our side.

Likewise, as I said with quantities, etc, anything that would be a leftover (that is, can't be combined to fill a specific backer order based upon supply, etc) will be available through our site.

[rockethead26]

Yes, in fact, I was going to put out another KickStarter update later this week once I had a little more definitive detail.

The manufacturer now has the completed mold and has placed the order for the raw plastic material. We should, with any luck, actually be in production later this week or early next week. With that said, we will, at that point, begin shipping orders from KickStarter and BackerKit to our supporters while also simultaneously selling product through a variety of retail sites.

It's important to realize that the manufacturing process will take a little bit of time as when products are pressed out, we will have to be "choosy" with quantities, varieties, etc. So, in short, some people will see their stuff sooner than others just because of the "nature of the beast". Rest assured though, everyone WILL get their stuff and they WILL get it as soon as practical from our side.

Likewise, as I said with quantities, etc, anything that would be a leftover (that is, can't be combined to fill a specific backer order based upon supply, etc) will be available through our site.

Thanks for the update, Eric. I'm one of the KS supporters and am "patiently" awaiting my track, especially the straights.

[swissbagger]

Hallo Eric

Can you say, when will be the plastic rails ready to ship?

Kind regards

Beat (Swissbagger)

[Gioppa]

Take your time, i can wait when everything is ready, i wait also switch ! and when you see a massive order from Italy you know who is!

.....oh...no... is not Lego.....(for this time ...who cares...Good job My friend)

[gololo]

Hi Eric,

When you start making the goods available for general purchase, please let us know here! :-)

I'm one of those who was late for the KS campaign and would like to buy some curves and straights hehehe

[codefox421]

Hallo Eric

Can you say, when will be the plastic rails ready to ship?

I would also like to know. The last update was mid-November and said "we should have in-stock and begin shipment of the plastic rail products before the end of the month." It's well passed the end of that month. Have you started shipping?

[legoman666]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=870250246331574&id=126935137329759&comment_id=870288446327754&offset=0&total_comments=3&notif_t=feed_comment&ref=m_notif

[fred67]

Any day now, any day... if I hadn't had previous dealings with ME, I might be tempted to dispute the credit card charge. Getting only metal rail means I apparently have a LONG wait.

But let's everybody be patient. Hoping ME takes up the slack with 9V and uses this experience to be better able to make other 9V parts, like switches and, oh my! A motor?

[v6TransAM]

I think we should all become paranoid and freak out about it :-)

Relax folks, I am sure they are doing all they are able to get this out to us.

If you have never been involved in something like this before, I can tell you this much, if it can go wrong it will and if you think it will be done in one month it will end up being three months.

Small scale does not have the resources of a Hasbro or Lego and in house development so it all takes longer than anyone will originally think.

[codefox421]

Relax folks, I am sure they are doing all they are able to get this out to us.

If you have never been involved in something like this before, I can tell you this much, if it can go wrong it will and if you think it will be done in one month it will end up being three months.

Small scale does not have the resources of a Hasbro or Lego and in house development so it all takes longer than anyone will originally think.

I hear you and believe you. Still, it would have been nice to have seen an official update when they didn't hit their mark (or when they started shipping; I guess I don't know which happened since there was no update )

[Eric J. Olson]

An open letter to our backers with a long-awaited update:

First and foremost, ME Models would like to thank everyone who participated in our community rail initiative. We would also like to thank everyone for being extremely patient with us as we have tired to demonstrate to you, the hobbyist and fan of model toy train railroading, all of the steps of our process including the capital needs, engineering operation, and the coordination and effort it takes to make a NEW product compatible with an existing product without any outside technical help.

Over the past six months, we have updated everyone with information and pictures as we reach milestones in the development of the new rail geometries. One has to keep in mind we are not in control of the six (6) small companies we contracted with in order to produce the track we all want. With that said, time-lines, projected delivery, and forecast, all become a moving target with no real delivery time.

We have also had to overcome shortfalls in capital. Some of the pledged monies from the initial offering went uncollected, therefore, we needed to self-fund the balance plus unforeseen testing costs. Along with 5 months of mold production, 6 weeks of mold adjustments (to make sure everything fits together), time for educating the contractors how to approach making a plastic railroad system, metal process testing, development of new fabrication techniques, and now the production of the track, this process has lead us to where we are today -- December 26, 2014.

We have decided to share with you what 260 backers generated for parts production. In order to fill the pipeline for those folks we need to make 229,500 connectors, rails and plates in ABS. (THREE (3) TONS of ABS -- 6000 lb.). In addition we will be producing 19,560 metal rails to cover all geometries. Our plastic manufacturer has been stamping for two weeks. We have ordered 44,000 feet (8.3 miles - ONE TON of Aluminum Alloy -- 2000 lb.) of extruded rail and are expecting delivery in early January.

We are accelerating the metal rail production. We have been working right along side our metal fabricator and they are focused on getting our metal rails done. Again for those of you who ordered the metal rails we are committed to delivering to you a high quality product that will meet expectation.

Now that we have brought you up to speed we are going to begin shipping and selling the plastic ABS track this Friday December 26.

If you are wondering why we are also opening up the ABS track for retail sales, we have been notified by the manufacturer that they will guarantee us NO machine down time during our product launch and we will get priority line time if we have larger part orders. This translates to faster delivery to you.

Again, we ask that everybody please be patient on delivery. We have added personnel to help with the shipping and packaging. Plastic rail orders will go out as fast as we can humanly process and package. You still may not see your order for 2 to 4 weeks. So please understand your plastic order will be delivered to you - AGAIN THANK YOU FOR THE PATIENCE!

Lastly, we have been working on additional geometries and the narrow gauge connector and will move ahead with additional geometries once we have completed our initial orders. As we dig out of the "hole" we will be looking to take care of the train community as we move forward.

We are very excited that you are all a part of this and could not have gotten this far without your involvement.

Happy Holidays!

Mike & Eric

ME Models

[jamesed_1971]

As soon they are available to purchase, I plan to buy some as due to several family crisis this year, I could not afford to back this project

[peterab]

Awesome news, Eric.

Part of my reason for backing this project was the hope it would lead to a permanent resource for the LEGO train community and it sounds like it will.

I eagerly await my order and wish you every success in the future.