Backers from Russia or Belarus

If you are a Spectrum Next Kickstarter backer or have pre-ordered one at the SpecNext.com website and have set a delivery address in Russia or Belarus, please read below.

Please note, if you have already changed your delivery address to another country, there’s nothing you need to do – all is good to go. This message is only for the backers/customers who are still expecting their Spectrum Next to be delivered to Russia or Belarus.

Unfortunately, we don’t bring good news. Due to international sanctions, as a British company, we are forbidden from shipping the Spectrum Next to Russia and Belarus.

This is not a case of being able to ship or not – we are forbidden by law to send you the computers from any country, even from China. We are also forbidden from using mail forwarders. The sanctions expressively mean we, as a British company, cannot send the computers to Russia or Belarus regardless of where they ship from, or how they get there.

We took legal advice on this matter and there is no legal way around this problem, unfortunately. We are still looking at solutions, such as the possibility of requesting a government exception, given the orders were placed before the sanctions, but this remains elusive and unlikely to result in a positive outcome.

Refunds also present challenges as we are uncertain if PayPal and Kickstarter are able to send you back the money you paid. The risk is that we ask for a refund, but you never get the money back, as most bank transactions and payment methods are also under sanctions at this time.

Therefore, there are three solutions at hand:

#1. We store your Spectrum Next until such time the sanctions are lifted;

#2. You provide us with an address of a friend or family member outside of Russia and Belarus whom we can send your Spectrum Next for safekeeping;

#3. Refund. Please note we cannot guarantee Kickstarter/PayPal will be able to send you the money back. We can start the refund process, but we do not know if you will receive the money.

We are very, very sorry for this situation, but there’s little we can do about it at this time. Please do get in touch with us via the Kickstarter message system (if you are a Kickstarter backer) or via the email info@specnext.com (if you are a specnext.com store pre-order customer) and let us know which option you would like (#1, #2, #3).

Kind regards,

The ZX Spectrum Next team