Kickstarter

There's obviously a lot of scams and fraud on there. Some shady people are making faking products, raking in loads of cash, and then not delivering. Can kickstarter do more? I don't know if there's a way for them to hold part of the funds in a trust or something until makers start delivering, or if they can verify peoples identity so they can get sued easier if they don't deliver. But it's clear that their business model profits off of this. The legit creators get screwed, the fans funding them get screwed, and only the scammer and Kickstarter benefits. They should be doing more.

I noticed a lot of these reviews are from the backer respective, really those complaints should probably be taken up with the company's launching those products and failing to fulfill. Speaking from a creator who's launched a product / used the platform. The overall experience was great and the tools provided useful. We didn't have to contact the team for any problems, so not direct experience dealing with the customer service team.

Meh... ok...

Spent the better part of 3 to 4 days getting the entire thing written, putting it together, etc... for it just to be lost in a huge pile of other kickstarter projects. I did what I could to network and advertise via social networking sites 'n' such & read up on some of their "tips" for making the most out of their site. I basically ended up no further along than where I was to begin with. I even emailed their support for tips & advise, just to blatantly be ignored... The site seems to be useful tool but it's impossible to benefit from unless you excessively advertise the hell out of your project anywhere you can without being flagged for spam & relentless self-promotion. They should have an area for 'newly' uploaded projects to help newbies get exposure. Overall... frustrated & annoyed I wasted my time with it.

I've funded Loona, the pet bot and everything happened as expected. Now my 5y daughter has a new robot friend. We are still waiting for the charging dock. The site is very transparent and straight forward.

I've backed 2 projects: one went off without a hitch, came on time and everything worked out spectacularly. The other was delayed about a year, had no communication (aside from telling us about more delays and product issues) and pretty much killed the brand.
That being said, that's all the start ups and not Kickstarter itself. I can't speak for the site, but as a consumer just know what you're backing and understand that there is some risk involved. But yea, most of the stuff is either insanely expensive, very niche or crap. Also way too many people trying to fund little homemade candle operations.

Kickstarter was awful in every part of my experience. I had an idea for a unique fishing reel, but they rejected it because it was a "consumer product". After looking around on the web, I found that a lot of funding sites also do not like the "consumer products". A friend told me about a new crowd-sourcing site called Product Funder; they are actually focused on consumer products and have helped me find manufacturers to help produce the reel. These guys are way better than kickstarter.

I had bad experiences trying to run a campaign (twice) on kickstarter. No customer service or way to contact them to ask questions. I mean there was no support at all. I tried creativejump.org and was assigned a personal consultant that worked with me throughout my campaign... even helped me promote. Where I barely raised $1000 with kickstarter I was successfully funded with Creative Jump.
Like most people I'm not a professional crowd funded and help setting page $#*! well as the ability to ask questions that get answered is more important that they imagine I guess. For that I'll never used kickstarter again I recommend creativejump.org

I am trying to block sends from kick starter offers. I have been ripped off 3/4 of the time. Now Kick starter is refusing to stop sending me offers. Most recent one has no way to unsubscribe. Do not put up money for these things. I did that and then the product kept getting delayed and then delayed 3 more times. Then there was the film, even sent a t-shirt and a bumper sticker. I tried to check it out but it disappeared without a trace taking my money. Rip offs 3/4 of the time is too much.

I've had my account permanently banned on a whim by a mean Kickstarter employee. Despite being a regular and active customer on Kickstarter, you can have your rights revoked in a moments notice with no way to get them back beyond pleading with whomever is working the customer service email. You can find that you lose access to all the content you backed because once an account is blocked, you cannot contact anyone through KS, or ask for a refund on their comments section. The KS staff are a close knit group of miserable trolls who enjoy rewarding loyalty with a banned account. Before you give these people money, be warned. They have even banned people for being the victims of harassment and stalking. They are a terrible, wretched group of unprofessional children in control of a multimillion dollar website.

I have been a backer for several Kickstarter projects and would like to share a word of caution for those contemplating being a Kickstarter backer. My recommendation is to first read the Kickstarter's "rules" so that you know what you're getting into when you back a project. If something goes wrong and the backer doesn't deliver or doesn't fully deliver what they promise, you are on your own. Kickstarter does not intervene nor will they even attempt to push the developer to comply. From my experience, I would say that the general tone from Kickstarter is to take the developer's side ("things happen", "developer is solely responsible", "be patient and understanding") versus a more balanced, business like position. Yes, you have the option of legal recourse against the developer but good luck with that approach.
Word to the wise - don't count on Kickstarter to stand up for you as a backer.

I look on kickstarter app nearly every day to see the newest projects, yet when I see them for the first time the early starter rewards have gone! How? My friend does more social media than me and says that is how they are advised. So Facebook shared the idea days earlier than kickstarters own app? Seems it happens as the first time I see these projects the 2 or 3 day early starter rewards are already gone! So frustrated I will drop the app and stop sponsoring the creators. I have supported 5 projects to date only 1 did it do on early starter which shows the problem is inconsistent but frustrating especially when I like the look of the offerings.

May be other sites are better for this sort of investment.

I backed a backpack project that was just a scam, it became clear quite quickly it was a scam, they pretended bags were being shipped but the community confirmed that no one had received anything.
There are thousands of comments in the project highlighting it is a scam, asking kickstarter to at the very least take the project down and they left it in place for years, just scamming money off people.
Kickstarter never acknowledged the situation, they didn't support anyone in pursuing a refund even when in their own terms of use it says people are allowed a refund. Kickstarter did nothing but cream their slice of the stolen money off the project and were happy to just sit back watch thousands of people get screwed.
So be warned, do not invest in anything you see on Kickstarter. We all accept that some projects do fail, but this was a scam from the start and in these situations, kickstarter will do absolutely nothing to help you

As you can see in the reviews, Kickstarter is nothing but fraud although I only lost $100 for the Lumen - Eternal Flashlight, lots lost more and total scam could be in the hundreds of millions or billions. Not sure why the FTC is not cracking down on this company. There is no repercussion if the company ends up being fraud. I would say if you want lots of money fast and get rich quick use this site and take peoples money for paying for "unbelievable technology"