All these wonderful goodies on their way to me- what did you get?

[rabergnc]

Same thing with as well. Kept refreshing until they were 'in stock'. Had the choice pre-set. Added it to the bag and one thru the checkout process. Clicked on submit and got the 'out of stock'. I estimate it took maybe 30-45 seconds to get to the point as I was signed in and just clicked thru things as they came up with no changes. Oh well, now on the 'notify me' list. Maybe it'll be available and shipped prior to a mid-January trip 'south'.

[bijoux]

My 2 cents - Presale window of 1 hour for members

.... publicly announce on sale time is 7am / 1pm

.... but have a link or password (registered members only) to access the sale one hour earlier 6am / 12pm

[logella]

The Black/Black Icons went within SECONDS! Same thing happened to me. I was hitting refresh on the Icon screen, so I put one in my cart probably within 1 second of it going live.

Same thing for me except I did not get a stealth Icon. I started hitting refresh every 10 seconds at 2 mins before the hour. With 1 min before the hour I was down to every 5 seconds. Once the top of the hour passed I was doing it non-stop. As soon as the stealth became available I added it to cart which was preloaded with my account information (but not credit card info). In the 10 seconds it took me to enter my cc info the bag was gone. I quickly added a black/island Icon and was able to get through the purchase process.

It was an expensive day when combined with my morning order:

Pika in Nebulous grey
HLT1 in Coyote
HLT2 in Nebulous grey
Travel Cubelet in Coyote
Cubelet in Coyote
Sidekick in Nebulous grey
Aeronaut 30 in Nordic
A30 large packing cube in Island

[Darcy]

I appreciate the feedback and ideas; please keep them coming! As we continue to offer new designs, colors, and fabrics and continue with our plan to pursue only modest growth and manufacture here in Seattle, we clearly need to be more and more thoughtful and creative with solutions around ordering that make it as fair, reasonable, and stress-free of a process as possible. It's possible you guys will think of things we haven't yet (you already have) and I appreciate it.

We're still shipping and answering emails here! I think this may end up being our busiest "Monday after Thanksgiving" ever. I told Fong about how popular the Icon was today and she was so excited and proud. We have conflicted feelings here this evening because we are incredibly thankful for your support and we are so sorry for those who did not get to order and we know we can do much better next time. Everyone in fulfillment did an amazing job today and Kim and Ben helped folks in the showroom so Cody and Kat could answer phones, emails and live chats while Matthew helped ship.

I usually take a photo at the end of this day every year but I don't know if I'll get a chance! I will make sure to post something this evening so that people know we will be making plenty of Icons, HLTs and the other designs into 2020.

[Awesomepants]

Two of the five items I had in my cart went out of stock when checking out about 3 minutes after adding them. They need to figure out a better shopping cart system.

[anna2222]

Three Icon colors were sold out at 8am. Why would they become available before the specified time?

Email notifications. Ordering went live for some customers a couple minutes before the actual debut because they requested to be notified when the product was in stock.

[bchaplin]

I was describing to someone else how the items disappearing as I tried to move them from my Wish List to the cart were like blinking Christmas tree lights Icons disappearing from the screen right and left. Fortunately things moved somewhat slower in the afternoon, and I got an earlier start.

It might be good if there was a 2-3 minute hold once the item actually made it to the cart, if that is technically feasible. I get a text which -- I think -- lets me validate my identity and quickly load the addresses and stored credit card info. However, that text was slow to arrive. Another thought is that there could be the ability to pre-load the credit card info, and shipping and billing info, into the cart, and that would be saved for a few hours until the items could be added. I remember a similar process when buying Hamilton tickets, which was no less fraught.

[capncat]

Email notifications. Ordering went live for some customers a couple minutes before the actual debut because they requested to be notified when the product was in stock.

fwiw, I was already checked out with my last item — which I’d missed out on this morning by the skin of my teeth — by the time the notification email came in. I started refreshing my wish list page a minute or two before the second batch was scheduled to go live.

[JoshNYC]

I got really lucky -- set up my "wishlist" on Sunday night and then added it all to my cart once the page refreshed.

In the end I picked up the following new items:

Synik 22 (Nebulous Grey/Island) + FS (Black)
P.I.K.A. (Black)
HLT #1 (Black)
HLT #2 (Black)
Color Zipper GWOP - Super Mini, Mini, Small (Black/Iberian)

Got some other stuff too...caught up in all the excitement!

Many thanks to the TB Crew for being so awesome!

[moriond]

I was describing to someone else how the items disappearing as I tried to move them from my Wish List to the cart were like blinking Christmas tree lights Icons disappearing from the screen right and left. Fortunately things moved somewhat slower in the afternoon, and I got an earlier start.

It might be good if there was a 2-3 minute hold once the item actually made it to the cart, if that is technically feasible. I get a text which -- I think -- lets me validate my identity and quickly load the addresses and stored credit card info. However, that text was slow to arrive. Another thought is that there could be the ability to pre-load the credit card info, and shipping and billing info, into the cart, and that would be saved for a few hours until the items could be added. I remember a similar process when buying Hamilton tickets, which was no less fraught.

I've noticed that if you set up your purchases so that Shopify recognizes you because your email and preferred shipping address is stored from a previous purchase, along with preferred credit card, then the checkout process can go amazingly fast. If you have to change the shipping information or other details (and this included things like whether you didn't want the default for later purchases when there was a preorder), then making changes about payment, etc. took longer. The same sort of add-ons to the time to complete the checkout process might then take place. One of my concerns is that people who don't make frequent purchases from the web site for whatever reason -- they are international users and bunch their purchases, or even just because they use their bags for a long time and don't make new purchases until something very new comes up (I recognize a lot of old forum members by name in recent threads and can even remember their color preferences) -- are at a disadvantage.

Some guideline suggestions like logging into your account well before you start ordering should be made. Wishlists can be useful in the case of products that have really long drop down menus -- like all the different sizes and colors of Ghost Whale Organizer Pouches and the the Nik's wallet options. In these cases they can keep you from inadvertently clicking the wrong color or size when you check out. There are other instances, like helping you order the 50% RECYCLED GHOST WHALE ORGANIZER POUCH, which is on a different product page from the Color Zipper Ghost Whale Organizer Pouch and the original Ghost Whale Organizer Pouch where the Wishlist can help reduce confusion, but this isn't clear beforehand. Perhaps we can develop suggestions beforehand? And I know that at least one Ravelry user had problems checking out fast because of her Shopify settings, and couldn't get through to ask for help by phone in time to troubleshoot things because of the debut crush in activity.

Just my thoughts about potential concerns.

moriond

[julia]

I remember a similar process when buying Hamilton tickets, which was no less fraught.

Hamilton tickets were so bad, I went to the box office. Hamilton PR tickets were a pipe dream.

[Honey]

I wonder why I can’t place an order, and if it isn’t available, place it on back order to be notified when ready. Pre-order in other words. I find it very frustrating to scramble for items. I wanted a firewood carrier and a black P.I.K.A. but didn’t get either. I don’t mind paying in advance, but I’m not a fan of rushing. I shop online to avoid the hustle. @Darcy maybe you can explain?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dreamer]

I got what I wanted, but I feel sad for the people that weren't able to.

I think the only way to debut long awaited and new items during the Christmas shopping season is to ensure enough lead time and fabric stock to have a larger number of new items. The ICON in the more reserved color zipper combos for instance- I knew those were going to be snatched fast. (Guilty.)

There's something endearing about so many people believing in and wanting to carry and try your designs.

[BigBadD]

Have to say that I found this scramble a disappointing frustration. Clearly shows the continuing success of the new Tom Bihn product range, but some severe underestimation of product stock for a launch. Good luck to those that were successful, hope you enjoy your new bags. Let's hope that there can be some new stocks before too long in a more normal selling mode.

[Yarpy]

My first TB order!

Synapse 22 Navy 420 Parapack / 210 Cloud Ballistic, Ghost Whale Super Minis in Black, Island and Cloud, and a Small Q-Kit (plus a bunch of key leashes).

That felt like an eBay auction counting down to the last second. I started refreshing my browser around 10:55A EST. Around 11:01 all the “In production” colours for the Synic snapped to “In stock”. The whole ordering process was completed in under 5 minutes. I see the Navy Parapack is already out of stock. I received the ‘back in stock’ notification email for the Synic about 4 hours later. Glad I didn’t wait.

Package has already cleared customs at Pearson and I may even receive it today (we are very close to the airport). $42CDN in brokerage/duties. About what I expected.

Can’t wait!