Hello everyone,
Today we would like to share some news to you.
Firstly, the good news. Our RDL products have started to be packed, and currently all the RDL heavy metal and most of the RDL Core have been packed in Dongguan, as shown in the photos below.
These include the crowdfunded products, products that are currently available for order on our official website, and some products that we will be distributing to our distributors for offline sales.
Additionally, if you have previously placed an order on Kickstarter, Backerkit, or our official website but need to change your shipping address, this is the last opportunity to request an address update. Before the Deadline, you can send an email to our customer service email or join our Discord channel to request an address update. All orders will be shipped to the address on file at the time of the Deadline.
If you have not previously ordered RDL series products but are now interested in purchasing, you can visit our official website to make a purchase. We are in discussions with relevant third-party service providers to increase the option of credit card payments, but it will take time. If you wish to catch this shipment batch, PayPal is currently the only payment method available.
(Kindy note: if you had pledged on Kickstarter and/or Backerkit, but you cannot use PayPal to pay the order, your item is produced and will be stored in our warehouse. As soon as we open the credit card payment method and you finished the payment, those products will be shipped out.)
Now for the bad news.
We are running out of cash flow. As some of you may already know, PayPal has frozen approximately 60% of our account funds, and the remaining amount has been invested in the production of this batch and the next batch of products. To put it bluntly, our pockets are almost empty, and the founder Cyprinoid has personally borrowed the majority of the funds on his own credit to invest the production.
For us, ensuring the smooth production of the products, fulfilling our crowdfunding commitments (which will also help persuade PayPal to reduce the frozen amount), and moving on to the next phase of sales are crucial for the survival of EMBER: Obsidian Protocol.
Therefore, until we expect to receive some funds back, we will temporarily pause the acceptance of refund requests. This is a temporary strategy based on our financial situation, and we anticipate some funds to flow back around May to July. Once our financial situation improves, we will reopen the refund process.
Our promising on "refund all users who request a refund" remains unchanged, and we will not ask crowdfunding users to make additional payments. The increase in production costs may only result in a subsequent increase in selling price.
At last, there are some more good news. Our factory has sent us photos of the trail batch of terrain parts, and that looks good. It means our production process for the Game Pack is in T0 state and it will come soon. We will keep sharing the latest update or our production process.
Best regards,
Queti Tectonics