Summer Raffle Extravaganza 2020 WINNERS!

[Malik Thanewulf]

Those Guardians are nickle plated right? So sweet. My sabers arrive tomorrow after work. I'll soon know what I won. So excited.

[Malik Thanewulf]

My entry saber was a Crimson Empress. My 1st prize was....the Bellicose. That's right. I have another Bellicose. My 1st is a custom job. The 2nd is an emerald saber with foc and premium V4 sound. Pictures to follow.

[GeorgeJedi]

I ORDERED ON JUNE 8th AND MY ORDER IS STILL “PROCESSING.” WHAT IS GOING ON? Please respond. Please send me my order. I spent $200+ dollars. Please ultrasabers.

[DarthRondoudou]

I ORDERED ON JUNE 8th AND MY ORDER IS STILL “PROCESSING.” WHAT IS GOING ON? Please respond. Please send me my order. I spent $200+ dollars. Please ultrasabers.

As Cyclops942 would say :
This is a group of UltraSabers customers and fans, not a way to reach UltraSabers customer service.  Nobody here works for UltraSabers.  We can give advice, but we can’t provide specific information about your order because we don’t have access to any of that information.

ORDINARILY, you would probably have your saber in your hand already, because their turnaround time was typically 1-2 weeks.  Lots of us old-timers have that as our default experience with UltraSabers.  HOWEVER... in early December of last year, thanks to all the fan excitement surrounding the last Star Wars movie, a new Star Wars TV show that apparently should have been titled “Baby Yoda” instead, the release of a new Star Wars video game, the Christmas gift-giving season, and a winter sales promotion, they began to have so many orders that they fell behind.  In January, there started to be issues with parts and components, because of the COVID-19 issues in China, where some of the electronic parts are manufactured, and they fell a little more behind.  In February, the fallout from COVID-19 started to have effects here in the United States, and some of their more-local parts suppliers fell behind, not just the ones in China.  As time progressed, and as social-distancing measures needed to be put into effect in the workplace (causing more than the usual scheduling issues of getting the right technician, the right saber, the right parts, and the right tools all at the right workstation at the right time, multiplied across the multiple suppliers used), the backlog continued.  On May 25, they lost all their emails prior to that date, and that has caused its own issues.  They have staff working 24x7 trying to catch up from the backlog, and some progress is being made, but they are nowhere near back to normal yet.

Their overall delivery times have slipped quite a bit; although some folks still get their sabers in a week or two, some sabers take three or four weeks, and some take eight weeks or longer.  Note that the orders are NOT worked in a First-In-First-Out queue order; there are too many dependencies on various parts, technician skill sets, machine/workstation availability, and Lord-only-knows what else for that to be even close to efficient.  There have been entire books— heck, entire college courses— written on efficient manufacturing-process scheduling, so there’s no way I can give a full explanation here; just know that it’s very complicated.

The response times on the customer service emails have slipped quite a bit, too.  All I can say is to keep sending POLITE emails to info@ultrasabers.com with your order number in the subject line, but I wouldn’t send an email every day; that will just clog up the Inbox and make it harder to find the emails that need an answer other than “Yes, we have your order, and it’s in the processing queue, but I can’t tell you when it will ship, because we are waiting on <fill_in_the_blank>.”  There’s nothing wrong with wanting an update, because you have sent them your money; just understand that right now, getting an update, or your saber, is going to take longer than normal, and longer than any of us would like.

PLUS : some people have been waiting longer than that. What did you order? Maybe you are about to receive an email stating the estimated lead time for your saber and options to swap with available hilts. That's what's been going on lately. I have 2 processing orders. One from June 7th, one from July. And bot will take more than 10 weeks because I want the sabers I ordered and didn't want to swap for ready to ship hilts.

[Greywalker83]

As Cyclops942 would say :
This is a group of UltraSabers customers and fans, not a way to reach UltraSabers customer service.  Nobody here works for UltraSabers.  We can give advice, but we can’t provide specific information about your order because we don’t have access to any of that information.

ORDINARILY, you would probably have your saber in your hand already, because their turnaround time was typically 1-2 weeks.  Lots of us old-timers have that as our default experience with UltraSabers.  HOWEVER... in early December of last year, thanks to all the fan excitement surrounding the last Star Wars movie, a new Star Wars TV show that apparently should have been titled “Baby Yoda” instead, the release of a new Star Wars video game, the Christmas gift-giving season, and a winter sales promotion, they began to have so many orders that they fell behind.  In January, there started to be issues with parts and components, because of the COVID-19 issues in China, where some of the electronic parts are manufactured, and they fell a little more behind.  In February, the fallout from COVID-19 started to have effects here in the United States, and some of their more-local parts suppliers fell behind, not just the ones in China.  As time progressed, and as social-distancing measures needed to be put into effect in the workplace (causing more than the usual scheduling issues of getting the right technician, the right saber, the right parts, and the right tools all at the right workstation at the right time, multiplied across the multiple suppliers used), the backlog continued.  On May 25, they lost all their emails prior to that date, and that has caused its own issues.  They have staff working 24x7 trying to catch up from the backlog, and some progress is being made, but they are nowhere near back to normal yet.

Their overall delivery times have slipped quite a bit; although some folks still get their sabers in a week or two, some sabers take three or four weeks, and some take eight weeks or longer.  Note that the orders are NOT worked in a First-In-First-Out queue order; there are too many dependencies on various parts, technician skill sets, machine/workstation availability, and Lord-only-knows what else for that to be even close to efficient.  There have been entire books— heck, entire college courses— written on efficient manufacturing-process scheduling, so there’s no way I can give a full explanation here; just know that it’s very complicated.

The response times on the customer service emails have slipped quite a bit, too.  All I can say is to keep sending POLITE emails to info@ultrasabers.com with your order number in the subject line, but I wouldn’t send an email every day; that will just clog up the Inbox and make it harder to find the emails that need an answer other than “Yes, we have your order, and it’s in the processing queue, but I can’t tell you when it will ship, because we are waiting on <fill_in_the_blank>.”  There’s nothing wrong with wanting an update, because you have sent them your money; just understand that right now, getting an update, or your saber, is going to take longer than normal, and longer than any of us would like.

PLUS : some people have been waiting longer than that. What did you order? Maybe you are about to receive an email stating the estimated lead time for your saber and options to swap with available hilts. That's what's been going on lately. I have 2 processing orders. One from June 7th, one from July. And bot will take more than 10 weeks because I want the sabers I ordered and didn't want to swap for ready to ship hilts.


Agreed with everything said here. They’re just playing catch up still. I could’ve had my entire preset shipped a week ago. I had an aeon le v5, a mystery box and a 1st place prize. However, they’re out of something for the entry saber and emailed me with choices. Both of which were hilts that cost less than what I ordered and were not ones I would want but would consider for one of my kids. So I replied back with questions and haven’t heard back. In the original email they stated if I picked the other hilt I could get it all shipped in a day or two. Or I could wait 3-5 weeks for the parts for my order to come in. I’m waiting for their response to my questions before making a choice. However, as it’s already been about a week and a half since then, and with how far behind they are in emails and with the experience of weeks long delays in responses back at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t hear back till the 3-5 weeks is up anyway and they just make my original order and ship it out lol. Either way is fine with me though id love to hear back, make a choice and get things sent sooner rather than later. Like the others said though, just be patient and keep reaching out to them. They’ll make it right in the end. They’re just incredibly swamped. 

[Malik Thanewulf]

Hey forum.  Here's my raffle entry and 1st prize.
http://imgur.com/gallery/rNc8HCn

The Crimson Empress is the entry and the Bellicose is the 1st prize. The Bellicose is an emerald driver with premium v4 sound saber.

[Malik Thanewulf]

If a mod could embed the pictures,  I'd be most appreciative.  Thanks.

[DarthRondoudou]

Hey forum.  Here's my raffle entry and 1st prize.
http://imgur.com/gallery/rNc8HCn

The Crimson Empress is the entry and the Bellicose is the 1st prize. The Bellicose is an emerald driver with premium v4 sound saber.

Mmh. The crimson Empress is nice! And to m'y surprise I find the bellicose interesting!

[Greywalker83]

I like my bellicose. It’s a neat saber. Also, aria contacted me today. Got my order squared away. They’re out of the hilt I ordered but have the non le version available but will add the le pommel and claws for me onto the regular hilt. So I’ll have a v5 aeon, mystery box and the first place prize coming soon.

[For Tyeth]

If a mod could embed the pictures,  I'd be most appreciative.  Thanks.

I'm not a Mod but here you go Malik and congrats on two sweet sabers...











point for sharing your goodies.

[Malik Thanewulf]

The Bellicose is surprisingly comfortable and great for spinning. I had no idea how much I'd like it. Of course, I now have two of them. If you have the chance to own one,  I highly recommend it. Tyeth, thanks for your help with the pictures.

[GoSain]

Hi, I am the Grand prize Winner !   I chose The Fallen as my prize so I hurried and finished the game yesterday ! What a game ! I sent an E-mail with my selection but received no acknowledgement. Can't wait to get an ETA on this order.  My Son's birthday is on the 17th of september... not sure i'll recieve them in time, but you guys, getting yours already, give me hope...  A new hope   May the force be with you all !

[Greywalker83]

So long as what you ordered doesn’t have any parts out of stock you should get it rather quick. With this go around I had about a week and a half between receiving an email and responding and getting another response. As soon as that exchange took place they had my entire order ready to go and shipped after the weekend. It was picked up by fedex from US yesterday and is estimated to arrive here tomorrow. That’s TX to CO. So not too shabby. Hopefully they get back to you in the next few days. Congrats on the win. I won grand prize back during the winter raffle and chose a spectre. I opted for the non windowed emitter so I could get it sooner since the windowed one was out of stock at the time.

[Zren Tobas]

Definitely gonna do a raffle this year finally, just not sure with what like always x.x

[Tai Chi Chuan Wijchen]

Congrats to all the winners.

Malik you've got two beautiful sabers! Nice to see the Empress next to the Bellicose, I thought the difference in size would be greater...