Kickstarter

This site depends on you being popular or having money to make money. I have 7 failed kickstarters. I have 1 successful one - and I didn't even claim credit for the book I wrote in that one. I gave my husband the credit. If your campaign isn't showing success, the system buries it so it's not easily found. If it's successful it's all on their front page, which is kind of $#*!ed if you're counting on Kickstarter to "promote hope" because it's very hopeless. With my last two campaigns I was flooded with spam from companies what wanted me to give them money to get my campaign funded (which makes no sense, if I had that kind of money I wouldn't have started the campaign) and one person wanted to know if I had hundreds of dollars to buy their stupid domain name. Meanwhile superstars who don't even need the funding get people to fund them by the hundreds of thousands... and I'm out $250 with bounced checks because I fell for the hype. I was stupid. I won't be stupid again. If I could see Kickstarter shut down, I most certainly would.

I did not want to believe it and I paid on my own skin.
I supported a project and I literally burned 600 euros. I couldn't believe that such a famous site was actually a giant fake but it really is. Project given for finished and goods given for sent... nothing never arrived to anyone and founders disappeared.

Kickstarter's answers are like: "If you have problems with the goods, talk to the founder or wait a little longer for them to arrive, sometimes shipments are delayed. Having said that, we have nothing to do with it. We're sorry, usually it doesn't work like this, however we have nothing to do with it because as you can see at this link our statute frees us from any responsibility, ciao"

Look at the photo that I attach to this review... I told them that we had suffered a scam in thousands, that the founders had disappeared for months and did not respond and that no goods had arrived... and they reply with clichés "contact the founder "or" wait longer ".
After 1 year and a half what should I wait? Contact who? They disappeared and never answered.
If the loss of hundreds of thousands dollars to innocent people weren't tragically true... we'd like to have a big laugh

It is LITERALLY a legalized scam site, really! It is incredible but it is so! I guess it's part of "getting the economy going".
But they are well done, it must be said... they still have thousands of victims a day. At this point I'm thinking of making one scam myself to get my money back... just I'm not that good at scam and I should learn first how to organize it.

Kickstarter is a innovative micro-patronage site which connects aspiring
Creatives to those who want to be more involved in endorsing interesting
Projects. The way it works is that individuals who conceive of a project but do
Not have the money to pursue it or don't want to bear the financial risk can
Submit their idea to the site. Donors can then see the projects and decide to
Donate as much or as little as they want to support one they find interesting.

The artists benefit from seeing how viable or interesting their idea really is
Before they decide to follow through on them. And the donors typically get a
Memento or are somehow incorporated into the project. For example, one project
Involved a women sending a postcard from around the world every day for 365
Days. If you donated to her cause, not only did you help out financially, but
You provide one of the 365 addresses and in turn receive one of the postcards!

Projects have ranged from new restaurants, world travel, movies, and even open
Source social networks. The homepage organizes the projects into different
Categories so that they are easy to browse and each project shows how much money
Is required and has been raised so far. I praise Kickstarter for helping reduce
The friction around true innovation and creativity.

I backed a project that seemed completely legitimate as the creator is big in the media (Scott Crider btw as I am trying to get his attention then maybe he will care). He had it posted on his twitter, facebook, facebook pages, websites etc. I backed him with 125 dollars because the reward for that was to have my dog remembered in the book with half a page photo and writing. I backed this project a year ago. It was supposed to sent by Christmas. It was delayed, but he hasn't said anything since February. I'm not the only one trying to communicate with him so I reached out to Kickstart. He is even ignoring them but Kickstart doesn't care. They keep saying delays happen. Yes they do, but we should be told about it and the creator shouldn't have seemed to drop off the planet (not to mention a few months after the funding ending he bought a new car)! I will NEVER back anything again, let alone use Kickstart. They don't care, they don't help. They deliver to scammer needs. A few of us will be taking legal action as there is no reason for us to believe this project is legitimate or that any book will be delivered. I am not going to let someone just take 125 from me. That's a lot of money and I saved up to back the project and I will not stop until I either get the book or my money back.

I was dumb enough to participate in one Kickstarter funding venture. The company was GlobellColor producing a hardware/software screen calibration device for early supporters at $139.
They charged my VISA on 8-16-16, emailed a followup note that I would receive my product in November 2016. Never got any product or followup. Kickstarter refused any responsibility and other than filing a Federal Internet Fraud Complaint I am out $139. My advice is to block Kickstarter from you email site.

Followup Report:
In November 2017, over a year later, I received the GlobellColor Suite. I immediately posted it on eBay to get rid of it and it sold quickly for $75. I was relieved, until I learned from my buyer that the license number was missing from the box and the company never emailed it to me. It took more than a dozen notes to three different emails including KickStarter before the company finally sent it. I sent it to my buyer and the nightmare was over. Here's a tip, go to Kickscammer.com and see all the scams that have occurred or are in process now. The number of frauds is big and no one is paying attention in Washington.

. I am an experienced writer and I wanted to use Kickstarter to fund a project about child abuse, but I am legally required to protect the personal identities of the people I would be writing about. I read the KS guidelines to make sure I could protect identities, and then I emailed KS to explain what I wanted to do and to clarify a few issues in their guidelines that would be relevant to protecting people's privacy. NO RESPONSE from Kickstarter.

You must try it once as it is a very good restaurant. Service is excellent and atmosphere as well. Staff was very polite and humble.

Never had any backed product show up. Company does nothing to support the customers. Avoid and wait for general sale.

I have backed 3 Kick starter projects that have simply evaporated. The one I backed most, buying 3 units, had a prototype on their campaign. All of these had regular updates... At first. Then, complete and total black out of correspondence and updates. Even if the entrepreneurs start in earnest, they flee like scammers. The minimum etiquette would be to admit they did not budget correctly, the tech was not viable... The truth. If that is the truth. I think when I lose $500 to a fledgling company, who enticed me with promises of product, I have earned the expectation of some notice of their failure. Jorno, for example, posts nothing to any site. They had a prototype. What happened? CST had a thin watch where batteries and the band became an issue. That wasn't so clear when they had campaigned for money... It was worse that they contacted me to clarify payment when online fraud kicked in on my card! I guess my credit card knew I was getting greased! Shame on all of them! No matter what the fine print says: we all paid to see product. We all expected regular updates. A minimum expectation would be to notify investors that they would never see goods! Kickstarter is to blame as well. If they get their cut of our investment, they should be obliged to refund their brokerage/commission when it falls through. I actually think Kick starter has the real grift. They get paid as soon as reserves are met... And feign neutrality and claim immunity. Kick starter needs to feel some hurt for these losses too!

One star is even too much for this review.

After having 2 previous campaign ideas declined and my account deactivated, I spent 3 months developing a product using the feedback I received from them. They declined my project and deactivated my account without even telling me why.

Indiegogo's only thing they have going for them is that they don't decline project. That being said, there is no organic traffic from their site to your campagn.

From what I can see, it is best to just open a Shopify store and run ads to your own site. Maybe even install a crowdfund plugin and email all of your customers. It is a shame that there is a duopoly for product crowdfunding sites and a monopoly for online retail (Amazon).

It may be time for venture capital to put their dollars to work actually challenging some of these monopolies who have zero customer service.

Reading all of the reviews on this site, it is amazing to see that for the past 8 years, they have been arbitrarily declining projects and killing people's dreams.

I will look into starting a crowdfund platform that myself and anyone else who is serious can use.

I can't reach support. Kickstart team Not intrigued enough, site deals with scammers cannot be trusted! They lack everything kickstart is about!

Foolishly I trusted Kickstarter's campaign for Lance glasses which are also promoted by Indiegogo. This was a complete and horrendous RIP OFF. The campaign promotion touted that by backing this "Lance Air Glasses" manufacturer in France, one would be able to obtain glasses at the spectacular price of $89.00 plus $15 for shipping. Unknown at the time and not explained was the fact that this was NOT the final price. Also not explained was the fact that it would take months for one to even start the real ordering process to get the glasses made to one's requirements. To make a long story short, by the time I was notified (through a "Survey" process) about the details of the glasses that would be needed, it was too late to back out of the "backing". The REAL PROBLEM was that the cost of the glasses (once the prescription information was being entered) was a ridiculous price that is 2 to 3 TIMED HIGHER than one could get for these glasses at any retailer in the US. The entire process was a disaster and leaves one with the feeling of being cheated and abused by glitzy Kickstarter and Lance Air BS. I will never trust Kickstarter again. The money is now lost as the delays caused by Lance Air and the Kickstarter team made the time for an eligible refund to quickly run out. Do yourself a favor and stay away.