Our response to COVID-19

To our seller community:

Over the last two months, we’ve seen record sales volume at TeeChip. This growth has put strains on our production capacity and has resulted in delays getting orders into the hands of your buyers. Making our turnaround times faster is our single biggest priority right now and we’ve made major improvements that I want to update you on.

Investing in Production

• We have committed to investing $6 million to open a new production facility with state of the art equipment in Indianapolis this summer.
• This new production facility joins our existing facilities in Indianapolis and Dallas.
• When it comes online, we will have the #1 and #2 largest DTG facilities in the US.

Ramping Up Capacity

• In addition to investing in a new facility, we are also adding new staff members and making optimizations to improve our efficiency. 
• The end result is that we expect to double our DTG capacity in August compared to May.
• Once we get through our backlog, we expect our turnaround times will be even faster than they were pre-COVID-19 because of our increased capacity.
  

Mask Backlog 

• Masks have been one of our most best selling products since we launched them in April.
• Our increased production capacity for masks means that we expect to be back to normal turnaround times by the second week of July.

DTG Backlog 

• For DTG products, we will start seeing positive progress and get back to normal turnaround times by mid-August as our new productaion facility comes online. 
• We expect extremely fast turnaround times by the end of August and for the rest of the year. We’ve made major investments in our DTG capacity and will have the two biggest DTG facilities in the US this year. As a result, we believe we’ll be the most reliable print on demand vendor this holiday season.

Behind the Scenes

I recently visited our Dallas production facility and wanted to share a look at our operations with you. Our production team is working hard to complete your customers’ orders and we’ve added weekend shifts to help us catch up with our backlog.

We occupy this entire production facility in Dallas.

Our production team working on customer orders.

Inside Dallas facility

Our investments are being made to ensure we remain a strong partner to you for the long run. We believe that TeeChip will be the only print on demand company that has the resources and dedication to handle these kinds of high volumes. There are so many particular websites are available in the same area which serves you all the essential fun of gambling over your laptops and computers with the help of good internet speed. 

From an industry perspective, we know that there is a widespread print capacity shortage affecting many companies. The difference with TeeChip is we are able to aggressively make the changes needed to solve this problem.

All of us at TeeChip are 100% committed to serving our seller community and providing you with the best possible service. Thank you again for your continued support and for partnering with us to grow your business.

Sincerely,

Raymond Lei

CEO

To our seller community:

2020 has been an intense year for all of us. Even as we’ve seen record sales volume over the past few months, we have experienced major challenges with production times, shipping delays, managing the impact of COVID-19 and keeping buyers happy. We know that the buying experience on TeeChip has been negatively affected recently due to a combination of these issues.

As CEO, I take personal responsibility for making things better for our buyers and for you, our seller community. Last week, I gathered a team across our product, engineering, customer support, marketing and seller support groups to put into action a plan to improve buyer satisfaction. We won’t rest until we see strong improvements in how we are serving and satisfying your buyers.

You have my personal commitment that we will make things better for your buyers. We are making changes we believe will improve their satisfaction and ensure that we win together in the future.

Beginning the week of June 8, we will be rolling out the following updates to our operations:

• Discounts on future orders (at no charge to sellers). We are creating a system to issue coupons to buyers whose orders have been delayed. These coupons will give buyers a discount on future orders and will be issued by our customer support team.
• Proactive live phone support. We will be introducing live phone support to offer high quality support and complaint resolution. Our customer support team will reach out to buyers with complaints and offer to call them to resolve their issues.
• Chat support from 9 AM to 3 AM. We are increasing the size of the team that provides chat support to reduce wait times. Chat support has recently been extended to be available 9 AM to 3 AM EDT. We are working to extend chat support coverage to 24 hours.
• Directing satisfied buyers to provide Facebook page reviews. We will direct buyers who give a 4 or 5 star review of your store to your Facebook page where they can leave a positive recommendation of your page. To enable this, you will need to enter your Facebook page URL in the Social Media section of the Domain Details page on your TeeChip seller dashboard. Click on “Domains” on the seller dashboard then click on “Details”. From there you can enter your Facebook page URL.

At TeeChip, we are 100% committed to delivering buyer satisfaction. There is nothing more important to us than ensuring your buyers have the best possible experience with their orders. This is just the beginning of our efforts to improve the buyer experience, and I encourage you to get in touch with your feedback and suggestions.

Thank you for being a valued member of the TeeChip seller community.

Sincerely,
Raymond Lei
CEO

Earlier this week, we shared in an email that our support team is working harder than ever to accommodate an influx of customer inquiries that have been pouring in since March. Today, we’re sharing big wins owed to the team’s hard work.

Thanks to our A+ customer support crew, we’ve cut down backlog volume by 85%, returning to numbers we hadn’t seen since the end of March! Most of our email responses are going out within 24 hours of receiving the customer query. We hope to reduce this wait time down to a few hours by Monday at the latest. We’re also looking into adding extended chat hours or phone support.

The entire team is doing everything in our power to ensure your customers know they’re a priority. We hope you’re as proud of this good news as we are!

To our sellers:

As you know, the majority of our operations continue to operate seamlessly with exceptions only where logistics are constrained by government restrictions. The latest addition to this list is Canada.

Starting today, we will temporarily be discontinuing shipping services to Canada for all complex AOS products, including hoodies, zip hoodies, low-top shoes, high-top shoes, and quilts.

We will move forward with all orders that have already been processed, but will not be accepting any new orders until normal services resume. To prevent new orders from being shipping to Canada, we have also temporarily removed “Canada” as a shipping destination at checkout.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Our teams are in constant contact with our logistics providers and we intend to update you the moment this situation changes. Thank you for your patience as we all work through this. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at sellersupport@teechip.com.

Sincerely, 

The TeeChip Team

To our seller community:

Due to cost increases from our providers, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to temporarily increase base costs across our Cut & Sew collection, effective May 12, 2020.

Let us explain.

Our shipping providers are currently faced with several challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• E-commerce sales have increased by more than 4x since the beginning of the crisis, with more than two billion people worldwide in some state of lockdown.
• International commercial aviation restrictions have caused a massive shortage of cargo space to ship e-commerce goods.
• China has prioritized the delivery of medical personal protective equipment using China Post, putting significant strain on the delivery of non-medical goods.

All of which has caused a spike in shipping prices. We always prioritize customer satisfaction and have decided to absorb this price increase at a loss to us. Your customers will not experience higher shipping rates.

However, to ensure the loss does not affect business operations, we will need to temporarily increase base costs. We do not intend to profit from these increases. Maintaining a competitive base cost will always be our goal.

We know this news comes during an already difficult time. Please understand that we do not take this lightly and have explored multiple avenues before coming to this decision. As many long-time TeeChip sellers can confirm, we’re fully committed to providing our sellers with the best base costs.

The temporary base cost changes on our Cut & Sew products are as follows:

For your reference, here is the email communication we have sent to buyers with instructions for submitting a mask reprint claim:

We’re aware that these measures coincide with our May Challenge, and have therefore delayed the pricing increases for as long as we can (May 12, 2020) to keep sellers incentivized. We’re also announcing additional incentives for this particular month, so stay tuned! 

We’re in constant communication with our service providers to resume normal operations and costs as soon as possible. We’re in this with you and we’re going to see it through with you.

Sincerely,
The TeeChip Team

To our seller community:

We are actively working to resolve a recent production issue that resulted in a bad batch of masks being shipped to buyers. We appreciate your patience and support during this time. We wanted to update you on the status of the situation and the steps we’re taking to fix it.

Last week, we discovered that one of our US-based suppliers has been experiencing a high rate of sewing and print defects in their production process. While this supplier accounted for only 15% of our mask volume, we take full responsibility for the products we ship and are proactively making changes because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

Here are the steps we’re taking to fix this problem.

First, we are moving all new incoming volume to our other suppliers who are ensuring quality and consistency in the masks they produce. All new mask orders will come from these new suppliers and will maintain the same base costs and shipping fees.

Second, we are proactively reaching out to affected buyers and offering free reprints for any low-quality masks received. Starting Friday, May 1, we began contacting all buyers who received masks from the supplier in question. For these buyers, our claims process is fully automated and will offer replacement items shipped to them at no extra cost. Buyers will receive replacement masks within 15-21 business days after submitting their claim.

Replacement masks include the following features:

• Washable and reusable
• Fabric: 100% cotton
• Improved thicker fabric construction
• Finished size 7” x 3.5″
• Attachment material: elastic to attach behind the ears
• Pleating incorporated to fit different-sized faces
• Machine washable in hot water, can be bleached and dried

We’re committed to buyer satisfaction and we want to make things right for your customers. Buyer satisfaction is our top priority and we’re doing everything we can to ensure this issue gets resolved immediately. Thank you for your understanding and your continued support. I encourage you to get in touch if you have questions or additional feedback.

Sincerely,
Raymond Lei
TeeChip CEO

For your reference, here is the email communication we have sent to buyers with instructions for submitting a mask reprint claim:

To our seller community:

Despite recent challenges, we want to share a bit of good news: we recently added cloth masks, which have quickly risen to become the second best selling product in the last week, trailing only DTG t-shirts.

We expect demand to remain high given the recommendation to wear masks issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since the CDC’s recommendation in early April, seven states (CT, HI, MD, NJ, NY, PA, and RI) have taken this guidance further, requiring residents to cover their faces when they visit essential businesses or use public transportation.

Due to a surge in demand, we’re experiencing delays in shipping cloth mask orders.

• US orders will ship within 14 to 21 days of purchase
• International shipping times will vary

To prevent any confusion for buyers, we’re communicating this information prominently on the buy page. For customers who placed orders prior to the notice, we’ve sent personalized update emails to explain the situation. We’re working quickly to resolve this delay and have found a new fulfillment center outside of the US to resolve this issue.

• New fulfillment capability should reduce production times to 5-7 days within the next two weeks or sooner

Our fulfillment expansion will not change base costs and campaign setup. However, given our new vendor’s location, product descriptions can no longer claim that masks are printed in the USA.

To accurately represent the product to shoppers, please remove all “Printed in the USA” claims from old campaigns and refrain from adding them to new campaigns. 

Additionally, we’ve added neck gaiters to our product inventory to offer an exciting alternative for buyers searching for shorter delivery times. Learn more about neck gaiters in our selling guide.

For the most recent TeeChip information related to COVID-19, please visit our response page. We appreciate your understanding and ongoing support, and we’re working hard to maintain the quality service we’ve always provided. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,
The TeeChip Team

To our seller community:

We want you to know we’re committed to helping you keep your business running during these uncertain times. This is what it means to be part of the TeeChip community—we have your back through thick and thin.

Over the last few weeks, we have taken multiple preemptive measures to optimize product and shipping operations to ensure uninterrupted service for you and your customers. At this time, we are actively following the latest developments concerning COVID-19.

Our goal is to continue taking proactive steps to stay ahead of any issues the outbreak may cause as well as maintaining full transparency about our actions. You can find the latest updates below.

Production
Our facilities are fully stocked and all products are available. We are actively working to mitigate any possible delays.

Shipping
While we cannot control border regulations and closures, we can control how delays get handled. In true TeeChip spirit, we intend to go above and beyond. To compensate for any production delays that may occur, we are offering free upgrades to priority shipping for all affected buyers within the US.

For locations where deliveries simply cannot be made at this time, we will be notifying customers at checkout. For an updated list of countries and cities we currently cannot ship to, please visit our community group.

Customers
Our priority is keeping your customers informed and satisfied. Our support team is working around the clock to address all customer concerns and inquiries.

Our dedicated team is here to help and can provide you with resources and information to assist you through these times. Please don’t hesitate to email us at sellersupport@teechip.com.