Ted T.

I have backed three projects on Kickstarter in the past year, but will not do so again. The first project was well organized and progress was well communicated. For both the second and the third the creators had no business sense or understanding of expectation management.

You pay well upfront for the opportunity to be one of the first to receive the product. Well, if you are not in the United States that can be a real problem. I received one of the products last week after shipping was promised in September 2016. Actual shipping was at the end of November and the cheapest route was taken. Almost three months to ship a small package. The software is full of bugs and the creators are now asking for additional pledge to put in a feature that should have been included from the start.

The other project has been ongoing for quite some time too and I received notice today that it was finally shipping. Estimated shipping was November 2016 and the notice is that it will be shipped this week. Will not hold on to see how long it takes to arrive. This backer sent out updates, but again used those updates to solicit for other projects when they had not delivered on their first.

Mostly, the problem is non-response on the Kickstarter site or a very delayed response. The backers just do not seem to understand how important maintaining good communications is with the backers.

Also, Kickstarter serves as a flow through only. If the project is significantly delayed and you want a refund, that will not happen. Kickstarter plays no part in this aspect of customer service.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice shame on you Kickstarter.