Hey Sleepyheads,
We are pressing pause on preorders at our retail partners. This was a tough decision to make but we feel that it is a necessary step at this time. During this pause we will rework our retail strategy to better serve our customers.
Why are we doing this?
- Some retail partners started taking paid preorders sooner than we expected. This led to a large number of preorders that we were only recently made aware of, and unfortunately too late to be fulfilled this manufacturing batch.
- We’ve always strived to stock retail partners synchronously for the sake of fairness. This requires a substantial inventory – something we’ve been contending with as demand has grown. Even though we significantly ramped up production at the end of 2020, parts shortages and manufacturing delays associated with the pandemic have made it difficult to build the inventory required to stock our retail partners in a timely manner.
- We take pride in the level of support we have been able to provide through this forum and our wonderful team over at support@sleepycircuits.com. Taking a break from retailers will ensure that all customers have access to this same level of support, without the need to go through a third party.
What’s the bottom line?
- If you recently preordered a Hypno from our website, it shipped earlier this week and should arrive soon.
- If you’re waiting on a preordered Hypno from a retailer, we will prioritize fulfilling the entire pre-order backlog after the next batch of modules arrives in early March.
We hope you’ll accept our sincere apologies for this disparity, it was not our intention for this much time to elapse between restocks. We’re taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and wanted to make sure you’re fully informed about the situation.
Every synth shop we have worked with or spoken to is filled with amazing, passionate people. They are honest small businesses that are doing important work for their local communities and beyond. We want to support these incredible small businesses and look forward to partnering with them again after this hiatus.
Every challenge we have faced could have been avoided with better communication and clearer setting of expectations. We are very new to this all and plan to use this experience as an opportunity to improve. This is exactly why we need to take a break from selling at retailers and carefully rework our retail strategy.
Moving forward, the fastest and most direct way to get a Hypno is ordering one from our website. A limited amount of preorders have opened up again. Once we’ve stabilized the supply of Hypnos, we’ll reassess the retail landscape and let you know our plans to make modules available at your favorite synth shops again.
At the end of the day, our customers are our number one priority. Decisions like this can be difficult to make, but please know that we always have the customers’ best interests in mind.