Kickstarter

My horrible experience with Kickstarter​. This is a great and powerful tool, don't get me wrong, but there is a lot more to know about it. They will promote the things that they want. There were things that they constantly put above others. No matter the design, practicality, or use, they will make sure that funding happens for only the things they want to by promoting it in different ways like "staff picks" "New but worthy" and etc. Also they keep piling on their favorites on top of the list, and by default, when you do look at a specific category, the projects are sorted by "MAGIC!"? Seriously? The magic of, "we think you should fund these and not those"? While I appreciate the website and allowing opportunity, I was less than thrilled by the way things were handled. Good luck to everyone else and your Ideas. But I'll tell you this much, that it is very hard to get your project, great Idea, and unique designs noticed, when they keep putting projects that are 1700% funded on the top page, and your project somewhere on page 175!

Similar to Kriss V, (above) I paid $159 for 4 facecradles and never received them even after updates that the product was going to ship and arrive around Xmas... that was their most recent update. A couple weeks ago I contacted Kickstarter via email asking for assistance. They replied with a type of "form letter" that only advocated the company and their services. It was worthless to the issue I wanted help on. I then replied asking for the contact info for Hairy Turtle Pty... they never replied. I'M NOT LETTING THIS SITUATION DROP.

I tried to raise money for a memorial for my family who lost their lives in a family house fire. The set-up for the campaign looked to be going great. Great feedback from everyone, too. Until Kickstarter reviewed it and accused me of raising money for "food, personal expenses and pleasure travel"? I appealed. Their answer was the same. Then I asked around, all across the Internet. EVERYONE informed me that Kickstarter will ONLY help finance leftwing media concerns, projects to "better life" in communist nations and industrial idea theft for mass-producers in communist nations. I never would have dreamed this. BUYER BEWARE AND BE WARNED TO ALL WHO ATTEMPT KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGNS! Kickstarter is a leftwing idea-theft scam front site for communist nation concerns and communist nation silent-partner owners. DO NOT EVER SPEND YOUR MONEY ON KICKSTARTER! BUYER BEWARE!

The idea behind it was great, but now, after many years and kickstarters inactivity to honour it's original terms of use "Project Creators are required to fulfill all rewards of their successful fundraising campaigns or refund any Backer whose reward they do not or
Cannot fulfill.", it has become a site for scammers stealing millions from those who want to help others start their dream. My advice is DO NOT BACK ANYMORE PROJECTS, and do your research on the creators, it's the same people using different names to scam people.

Solar powered free energy scam us for 400 000 € and kick starter says:
Hi there,

Thank you for writing in and bringing this to our attention. We expect creators to communicate regularly with their backers, and I'm sorry to hear that FreeEnergy has not been doing so.

We've reached out to them using the contact information they provided when they launched their project and have asked them to respond to any unanswered messages. We've also encouraged them to post a new update to address backers' concerns.

We do our best to try and help creators when they run into these situations. We have a resources page of services to help creators with project completion, and communicate backer sentiment when we hear it from our community. A big part of Kickstarter's mission is to support creative freedom and independence; we don't step into the actual creative process itself and as such creators are responsible for their own project.

I'd encourage you to keep reaching out to the creator to ask for an update, and stress that even a short note that they're still working on their project would be preferable to silence. If you've already sent a message through Kickstarter and haven't heard back yet we'd suggest waiting a week and then following up with them again. A creator's inbox can quickly become overwhelmed, and they may still be making their way through their messages.

We know that when a creator is being uncommunicative this can lead to concern and we really appreciate you getting in touch. I hope you and the other backers hear more from this creator soon.

Best,

Jennifer

Kickstarter is nothing more than LIES! What you see really is their own narrow minded opinion without giving merit to REAL projects! I have a project that commemorates as well as pay homage to all those who lost their lives in the 911 tragedy. They tell me that "This Does Not Meet Their Guidelines" BS! I read their SO CALLED guidelines and this actually fell under "Sculptures! How dare they say that they are "AMERICANS"! I agree that they are no more that a bunch of adolescents who don't know *******@it about REAL business and need to be SHUT DOWN! I VOW TO TELL ALL OF AMERICA THAT THEY REFUSED TO HONOR THE AMERICAN MEMORY OF 911 BECAUSE THESE A"HOLES WERE EITHER IN DIAPERS OR WASN'T A EVEN A SPERM CELL WHEN THIS TOOK PLACE! THE MEDIA WILL KNOW!

I backed two projects, one not received, the other was two items, both which did not function. Kickstarter told me to contact the creators... No surprise that I received no answer to my numerous emails. Kickstarter then suggestsThe burned backers resort to social media. In summary... kickstarter promotes projects, helps to take your money, and if you receive nothing, then they do not feel obliged to step-in. So it is wild west and encourages fraud.
-I will NEVER BACK ANOTHER KICKSTART PROJECT AND WILL DISCOURAGE EVERYONE I KNOW FROM DOING SO. BEST TO WAIT TILL PROJECTS ARE ON THE MARKET, SO IF YOU RECEIVE A NON-FUNCTIONING ITEM, YOU AT LEAST GET YOUR MONEY BACK OR A REPLACEMENT

Do NOT expect to get any support if a project is proven to be a scam, dozens of people lost several hundred dollars each after being taken for a ride by a heated jacket company. Be warned!

I just launch my first Kickstarter project a little over a week ago. I'm over 50% funded in 7 day. Yes, it takes work, making a video, having a web page set up, and emailing out to people you know.

Some here write why not just contact the people you know and ask them to support your project. That's fine, but what Kickstarter does for you is to help you find supporters that you don't know. Over $1,000.00 of pledges so far are from people I don't know.

I personally have back 8 projects of people I don't know!

If you are thinking about launching a project there, study the successful projects and more importantly the unsuccessful ones. I study for months before I launched my project.

The key for me and why I went with Kickstarter was not raising money from people I know, but to find funds from around the world from people I don't know, and for me it's working.

Here is a link to my project, and who knows if I helped you here, you might send me a $5.00 bill :) Anything helps to reach my goal of $9,000.00 and I'm over 50% there in a weeks time.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/*******768/my-first-mural-size-photographs

I'm writing this after backing over 100 projects on Kickstarter. Let me start by saying I love the idea that people come together and help an idea become reality without the help of big banks and all the ups and downs of it. This company was one of the early pioneers of this genius concept. Do your due diligence and make sure the person/company is up to their claims and they have things like guaranteed shipping, refund period and warranty for some specific time period. There have been companies like fluxbag by Jens Thiel which is a true stand up guy and even after his partner betraying him and taking all the money and him having to declare bankruptcy, he still is trying to deliver what he promised back in 2019 even years later. He is building the products slowly from money out of his pocket when many companies take your money and run and leave you with nothing. So always read the comment section and their production projections and their reputation. A google search goes a long way so do your homework properly.

I submitted a project on Kickstarter and they approved it enthusiastically. I have all the emails and documents. The approval notice told me a video was a MUST and another more direct and personal email told me to be more creative with my 'rewards.' So, I started to go to work. I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time developing my presentation. Then, on the very day I was ready they sent an email saying they had "updated" their guidelines. Apparently, according to them, the weren't "clear" enough about some stuff earlier. As it turns out my project never should have been approved in the first place. When I complained they apologized and said the Kickstarter staffer must've "missed" it. Missed it? The very NAME of the project made it perfectly clear that this was an online TV Game show with cash prizes. When I asked (politely) how we could remedy the situation they never responded. When I threatened legal action, they never responded. Beware of Kickstarter. It's a good idea with good intentions but when it comes to accepting responsibility for their actions --- well, they're a bunch of adolescents.

Kickstarter seems like a great idea, in theory. You may want to help a company develop and deliver a cool idea, but only a small percentage of them ever come to fruition. Out of the many Kickstarter projects I have backed, only 10% were ever delivered. You may wonder why I am writing this review now. Well, because in the latest and final project I backed, I am now required to pony up A LOT of money for additional shipping to receive the items. If I don't, they keep the $169 I pledged, and I get nothing. Did shipping costs rise? Yes, they will have done in the 2 1/2 since I ordered. Why do I think this is unfair? Well, because they have been shipping to other purchasers (people who pledged and to people who are buying the items now through their website). So, because I've had to wait and am in the last shipping group of pledges, I pay more. Is that fair? No, it is not. It would be one thing if they were fulfilling pledges, but they are selling to the general population and delaying my shipment, so of course, I end up paying more and more and more. This is crazy and unfair!

That device is useless, complicated to use and has no creative criteria. There are better, more practical devices.

There are very many great projects that I would never have been able to learn of and help support if not for the site, or "crowd funding" type sites. Kickstarter, though, has some very awful people working in customer service. I'm one of the more active members, having backed well over 100+ projects yet am treated very poorly by the staff. I have faced regular harassment and had outright lies told about me in order to justify suspending my account (suspending means that, despite the fact you backed projects, you are not allowed to communicate with the projects owners or post on the comments section of backed projects). I've witnessed them allow projects that outright break their TOS, but when this is pointed out not only do they ignore you and everyone (and there were many) else, they suspend those that complain. They act like small time dictators now that KS is a practical monopoly (Indiegogo being so far behind and servicing a different form of crowdfunding). Overall, if there was any other choice, I would use it and not feed the egos of these terrible individuals, but no such option exists.

Like most people out there, I thought Kickstarter had such a noble agenda and what a cool platform that helps making ideas happen. Last August I found two campaigns and I really liked their products. So I pledged. I spent $268 to buy two jackets from Baubax and $40 on 4 small devices from AwareCar. They both claimed to arrive in November. Guess what? Both projects delayed their production and shipment time. Ok, I get it, those are entrepreneurs who make their products for the first time. So I was being very patient. I waited and waited, received a series of announcement and emails from the project owners that the products were coming together. Last month I finally received the 4 devices from AwareCar with joy, and immediately tried it. Whoops, it only worked for 3 days. Two devices died, simply didn't get turned on. With great disappointment I reached out to the project owner, he asked me to replace the battery. I'm like what? I need to buy new battery for a product I barely used. I won't spend a dime on this stupid product. And so for the Baubax jackets, it's been 6 months now, PRODUCTS NEVER ARRIVE. My patience has it limit. Here I am, wasted $300+ on Kickstarter where they absolutely do nothing to help backers.

Besides being a victim myself, I also heard so many bad experiences from other people. The site is full of crappy products/projects, or campaigns that seem so cool but product delays or never arrive. You end up losing money and Kickstarter takes their commission. Stay away folks!

See that sewer across the street there? Ok, take the $200 in your pocket and throw it down the sewer. That way you'll avoid all the hassle of trying to contact Kickstarter or their partner is the scam, Frank Anthony Shorts, and all that wondering if you'll ever see your money again. There, I saved you a lot of time and a lot of trouble... NO CHARGE.

DO NOT EVER USE KICKSTARTER... EVER.