Kickstarter

Hi Everyone,

We are through the first week of shipping and hopefully some of the early shipments should be reaching their recipients this week.

The good news

We shipped out ~300 packages last week learning a lot about this process. Using the lessons learned we have trained the warehouse staff to streamline the process to the point where we should be sending out ~350 packages today.

The challenges

Tracking Numbers

Tracking numbers are not updated in the shipping company’s system until they pick up the package from our warehouse. This means that as we generate shipping labels, you will receive an email with the tracking number but the shipping company will not recognize the tracking number until they have picked up the package from the warehouse.

Exacerbating this issue is the fact that our shipping company has not been picking up the packages every day and/or has failed to bring a truck large enough to handle our shipping volume.  This has further delayed any updates to the tracking information for each tracking number. 

We have escalated this to the district manager level and we have been assured that we will now have daily pick-ups (they are supposedly sending a 32 ft. truck today) so hopefully tracking information will be updated by the end of each day /  the next day. 

International Shipments

When setting up our shipping software, I first set up the international shipping incorrectly. Although corrected now, this meant that the customs forms would not print correctly thereby delaying the international shipments. With the issue fixed we are testing the solution today and, if all goes well, there will be more international shipments going out this week. 

Thanks again for your continued support and I hope you all enjoy your Savinos.

Cheers, 

Scott

Hi Everyone,

Thank you again for your incredible support during this journey. I am very happy to report that we are ahead of our last posted schedule and will be sending out our first shipments today: Friday, March 15, 2013 – wine and wine lovers rejoice!

It will take at least two weeks – and maybe up to four weeks – to ship all of the Savinos to our backers. When we transmit your Savino(s) for shipping, we will send a shipping notification to the email we received from Kickstarter.

Again, thank you and I hope you – and your wine – enjoy Savino.

Cheers,

Scott

PS  Here's a picture of the float and the first Savino packed for shipment

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from visiting several of our manufacturing partners and the International Housewares Show in Chicago and I am jumping out of my skin with excitement for Savino.

Our manufacturing partners are producing exceptional quality at incredible speeds. I believe they are creating the best product that can be manufactured by anyone, anywhere and I want you to experience their true craftsmanship and attention to detail – even the lowly bar code on the package has a surprise for you. Unfortunately, we are all going to have to wait a little bit longer as I have decided to delay shipping by up to two weeks.

Why? Why would you delay this close to the end?

The answer is very simple: We have an opportunity to make the product even better. We believe we owe you, and all of the future Savino customers, the best product that can be produced and to do this we have to push back the shipping date.

As we received the materials from our manufacturers, we observed that our manufacturing tolerances are even better than anyone thought could be manufactured. With these improved tolerances, we have the opportunity to decrease the gap between the side of the float and the inside of the glass carafe to a distance equal to the width of five human hairs – providing you with the best consumer experience possible.

To take advantage of this opportunity, we have to change some tooling and re-manufacture some of the parts that have already been delivered to our logistics provider. Since only a few parts are impacted, we expect these changes will slip our schedule by, at most, a couple of weeks. 

Updated Timeline:

➢ Week of March 4th – Rework tooling

➢ Week of March 11th – Final pieces delivered to logistics provider

➢ Week of March 18th – Shipping begins

➢ Week of April 8th – Shipping of orders complete

If we can beat this timeline – we will. Thanks for your continued support and I know you will love your Savino.

Cheers,

Scott

P.S. Here are some pictures of the glass components at the factory

Hi Everyone,

Wow! In less than 24 hours ~75% of all the backers have completed the survey. Thank you for your timeliness …I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately I have also heard that some people are having some challenges completing the survey. To complete the survey, you will need to answer every question on the survey (I apologize but this is a limit of the survey software). 

The easiest way to answer every question is to: 1) answer each of the multiple choice questions and 2) type “NA” into the text fields that do not apply to you or you prefer not to answer.

Thanks again for the overwhelming response and we can’t wait to get you your Savino.

Scott