Kickstarter’s earns a 1.2-star rating from 19 reviews, showing that the majority of project backers are dissatisfied with the crowdfunding platform.
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SmokPub - cocktail smoker
21st November - Backed the project, paid the fee of $49 plus extra for wood chips. (£52.75 in my currency) Backer number - #8595 22nd November - completed survey and then was charged a further $28 in shipping fees. Stated guaranteed delivery for Christmas but have had no shipping notification at all since paying. No reply to any of my emails, no reply on their Instagram account either.
Read full review of Kickstarter and 1 commentHeisenberg Robotics
Heisenberg Robotics received my $1506.00 pledge to produce a robotic mower while following the rules of Kickstarter. The rules of Kickstarter has been violated due to Heisenberg not providing timely updates and keeping backers up to date on matters that affect completion and delivery of the lawn robot and accessories. There has been no update since October and no responses from Heisenberg since that time. I have written Heisenberg on this issue and have received no response. I also made a request for refund.
Claimed loss: $1506.00
Desired outcome: Refund $1506.00
Confidential Information Hidden: This section contains confidential information visible to verified Kickstarter representatives only. If you are affiliated with Kickstarter, please claim your business to access these details.
Cinera
I’ve been waiting over two years for this thing, nothing but false promises and lies from Peter Lin and his lackey Sunny.
I’m backer #215 and am so angry at Kickstarter for allowing this to happen. Cinera are selling their products from their website, surely even you can see how wrong that is!
I will never use Kickstarter again and I will go out of my way to warn others too 😡😡
Desired outcome: REFUND!!!!
me to my money was taken by cinera too I too got nothing
Is Kickstarter Legit?
Kickstarter earns a trustworthiness rating of 91%
Highly recommended, but caution will not hurt.
A long registered date for kickstarter.com can be seen as a positive aspect for Kickstarter as it indicates a commitment to maintaining the website and its domain name for a long period of time. It also suggests that the company is organized and has taken steps to secure its online presence.
The age of Kickstarter's domain suggests that they have had sufficient time to establish a reputation as a reliable source of information and services. This can provide reassurance to potential customers seeking quality products or services.
Kickstarter.com has a valid SSL certificate, which indicates that the website is secure and trustworthy. Look for the padlock icon in the browser and the "https" prefix in the URL to confirm that the website is using SSL.
We looked up Kickstarter and found that the website is receiving a high amount of traffic. This could be a sign of a popular and trustworthy website, but it is still important to exercise caution and verify the legitimacy of the site before sharing any personal or financial information
However ComplaintsBoard has detected that:
- While Kickstarter has a high level of trust, our investigation has revealed that the company's complaint resolution process is inadequate and ineffective. As a result, only 5% of 19 complaints are resolved. The support team may have poor customer service skills, lack of training, or not be well-equipped to handle customer complaints.
- Website's registrar is popular among scammers, it means that a significant number of scammers have used that registrar to register domain names for their fraudulent websites. This can indicate that the registrar has lax verification processes, making it easier for scammers to register domains without providing accurate information.
- Kickstarter protects their ownership data, a common and legal practice. However, from our perspective, this lack of transparency can impede trust and accountability, which are essential for establishing a credible and respected business entity.
- We conducted a search on social media and found several negative reviews related to Kickstarter. These reviews may indicate issues with the company's products, services, or customer support. It is important to thoroughly research the company and its offerings before making any purchases to avoid any potential risks.
Pledged for product but never recieved - scam from the start
I tried claiming from bank within the agreed window of claims - bank reversed the transaction but then kickstarter took it back again.
kickstarter would not help at all, not even claim the money back from the project. Basically it was all a lie from the start, no communications or anything, they just took our money and ran
see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seedmakers3/seedmaker-particle-s3-lcd-3d-printer
you can see from discussions about what happened in comments section.
value was HK$ 3,726 - july 30 2021
my logon/email is [protected]@gmail.com
Desired outcome: some monetry value given back would be nice.
complaint
Purchased through Kickstarter. The owner, Xatziri Cruz Salas, stole $755, 000 of people's money without providing a product and finally went AWOL. Phone number for owner/creator/developer of project: [protected]
What is the sunrise Pillow?
'We created the Sunrise Pillow to revolutionize your mornings and your nights. It's simple to use, ultra-comfortable and wakes you naturally. With the Sunrise Pillow's Deep Sleep technology for nights & Sunrise Alarm to start your day, you can effortlessly improve your body's sleep & wake hormones thanks to the power of science & technology. Say goodbye to restless nights and groggy mornings.
How you sleep is only half of the equation. Nature's sunrise isn't just to light the way to the work in the morning. The gently rising light starts an invigorating chain reaction that's natural and is key to being your best and feeling vibrant, every day.'
*Health Improvement Features*
Sunrise
In the morning your pillow will simulate a full sunrise. The gradually increasing light falls on your sleeping eyelids telling your body to stop producing Melatonin (the sleep hormone) and begin producing the energy hormone. This mimics the natural wake-up process you get when waking up to nature. By controlling when the sun rises in your bedroom, you can minimize fatigue and grogginess every day.
Wireless Audio
Once your sunrise is complete, nature sounds (or your favorite music) gradually increase to ensure you're awake--completing the wake-up experience.
Smart Alarm
The Sunrise Pillow tracks your sleep cycles and wakes you at an optimal time based on your circadian rhythm
We all have an internal clock (aka circadian rhythm) that naturally tells us when to sleep & wake up. The Sunrise Pillow detects your sleep cycle and knows to begin the wake-up process when you're sleeping lightly. Your sunrise will start at the optimal time or up to 15 minutes before your set alarm time--to ensure you wake up feeling fully rested, every day.
For example: If you set your alarm for 9:00am but are in a light sleep at 8:50am, your sunrise will start to rise then, rather then letting you fall deeper into sleep and disturbing you later. Traditional alarms aren't smart enough to detect your sleep cycles and go off while you're in a deep sleep. This is why you wake up groggy regardless of how many hours you've slept.
Sleep Score
Take control of your days by improving the quality of your nights. Your sleep score gives you a better understanding of the most important factor of your day; your sleep. With the Sunrise Pillow app, your sleep trends & history show you how exercise, late nights, and even alcohol consumption affect your score, so you can perfect your sleep.
Waking up to the latest technology is one thing, but falling asleep to it is taking it to the next level. The Sunrise Pillow is equipped to wake you with a smart alarm and sunrise simulation but it can also put you to sleep with 6-deep sleep options that are sure to put you to sleep faster.
Supercharge your mornings or reboot after lunch. Studies show that exposure for 15-30 minutes of blue light can improve productivity, alertness, and also boost your ability to sleep at night. Blue light suppresses melatonin (the sleep hormone) and shifts your circadian rhythm twice as much as regular indoor lighting. Which can benefit you greatly when you want to focus and get something done.
The way we've been waking up (with ordinary alarms) is unnatural, even harmful and needs to change. Waking from a deep sleep not only sabotages your morning energy & mood but more importantly your daily momentum.
When you start the day off groggy you are more likely to make poor choices that turn into a chain reaction that negatively affects your day, week, and year.
When you wake up improperly you're likely to:
•Choose bad foods
•Skip the gym
•Spread Nutella on everything
•Reschedule your diet for another day
Outdoors or on vacation, when the sun rises you feel incredibly excited about the day, and even happier. This is simply because a rising light naturally reduces the sleep hormone (melatonin) and increases our energy hormones before we wake up. By experience your own sunrise, you set the tone for a better day every day.
Making the right choices from the moment you wake up will give you positive momentum and affect your:
•Food & drink decisions
•Work performance
•Test scores
•Energy levels - to enjoy more time with your family & friends
The way we look at traditional alarms as normal, is outdated. Virtually throwing away 50% of your sleep is unacceptable. Regular alarms neglect our sleep & wake hormones and this needs to change.
Push wallet
Ben Yoshiharo and his wife Xatziri Cruz Salas have raised $755, 000 on the Kickstarter site for these pillows and failed to update backers or ever provide product.
At this time backers are filing FTC complaints against her and her company as well as with the Orange County District Attorney's office for fraud. She defrauded the backers of this money and posted fake pictures on Kickstarter and stole the money.
Kickstarter does NOT protect consumers that back products and the site should be avoided at all costs.
Xatziri Cruz Salas is listed at this address:
Xatziri Cruz Age 30
1741 Pomona Ave, SPC 6
Costa Mesa, CA [protected]
Phone Numbers
[protected] - Wireless
Ben Yoshiharo Has done this in the past: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dapperbox/push-your-wallet-at-the-touch-of-a-button-iphone-5
The have raised almost 1 million on Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
kickstarter is a rip off with no guarantee of fulfillment
I backed 2 projects for over $500 that were supposedly almost market ready. As it turns out both have gone belly up. I will never get my promised product nor a refund of my money. I didn't realize this was such a crap shoot and that you may or may not get what you paid for. Be aware of what you are signing on to before backing any of these projects. I thought I was supporting honest fellow inventors, but found out the hard way these are scams and that Kickstarter is useless and possibly partially at fault for not vetting the projects.
Very disappointed!
I was working on a huge project and decided to get some financial help from Kickstarter. I tried to raise some money and people really loved the idea. But then I found out that some guy stole my idea and said it was his and also tried to make money. Asked Kickstarter customer service for help and their said it was not their problem. They said that they need some proofs that it was mine and asked if I had a patent. I said that I did not have a patent, but I had all the material, early plans of my project and etc. They said that it was not a proof. I'm extremely disappointed!
password reset
I forgot my password. I followed the directions to reset my password and the link kept sending me back to the page to enter my password. I tried several days, i could not contact kickstarter because you have to log in with a password. UUUUGGGHHHH!. I missed being able to get a publication that I wanted to assist in funding and my credit card had been denied. I could not fix it, I won't get the publication, I will never will use this site again
Two campaigns failed to comply
I have participated in several Kickstarter campaigns. Two of the last three I funded failed to comply in any way with their stated responsibilities. One was a small amount but one was $500. Kickstarter did not even respond to my emails with guidance and despite several calls and assurances, the $500 premium was never sent. I finally just let them off the hook because I could not stand the stress of trying on my own to get them to keep their promise. I had done another minimal funding and they never sent the premium either so no more kickstarter for me unless I know the people and the project. Too bad.
kickstarter scam xeriscope watches
Avoid this scam on kickstarter.com! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watchismo/xeriscope-the-orbiting-mechanical-automatic-watch
This scam watch is going for $350 to $400 on kickstarter right now. Only you can buy the same watch for $80-$90 on ebay and amazon and many other websites and these watches have been on the market for approximately 7-8 years already.
Mitch Greenblatt, Andy Greenblatt, and Terry Allison should be ashamed of themselves for trying to scam people!
Here is a link to ebay showing the same watch for $79.00 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Constantin-Weisz-Carousel-Watch-/290979436731?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item43bfb9d8bb&nma=true&si=JlOpY0Z%252FvPDUSieuQrPV4aPTM1Y%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Here is a link to an article on watchuseek started 3 years ago when people were talking about this type of watch: http://forums.watchuseek.com/f72/watch-pts-karrousel-st1201-1-st1206-543522.html
Here is a link to this cheap chinese movement's manufacturer's page showing this exact movement: http://www.ptsresources.com/watch_automatic_03.htm
Here is a link to a replica watch forum on which they are talking about the xeriscope watch being low quality and way overpriced for what it is. http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/watchismo-watch-kickstarter-164182.html
These guys at watchismo - Terry Allison, Mitch Greenblatt, and Andy Greenblatt are scammers who are trying to rip people off! Avoid this low quality watch.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
We feel that it needs to be stated here that Terry Allison has no affiliation with Xeric or Watchismo as we have never heard of this person. We've never worked with, met, nor heard of Terry Allison before. Watchismo and Xeric is wholly owned by Mitch and Andrew Greenblatt and no one else.
As for the discussion on the quality of our Xeriscope watch, the only similarity here is the movement. The functions of this movement (power reserve meter, minute hand and 2nd timezone) must be in the same position due to their placement on the movement itself. We have designed an entirely new watch based upon this movement. It has more attention to finishing, leather quality and overall execution and the XERISCOPE is indeed it's own watch.
In comparison, the Swiss ETA 7750 chronograph movement is used in watches ranging from $1400 to others WELL above $5000. See some examples of the following watches, all using the same ETA 7750 chronograph movement:
Oris - Williams F1 Team Chronograph $1440
TAG Heuer - Formula 1 Chronograph $1695
Breitling - SuperOcean Chrono $3085
Panerai - Luminor Marina $6175
We feel our XERISCOPE design perfects the use of this movement and hope you do too!
The Watchismo Team
Agree 100% I bought one on eBay a while ago for $250, it keeps good time but even at that price it's pushing the limit.
$350-$400 is unashamed price gouging
Kickstarter sucks, I will never use kickstarted ever again
Kickstarter sucks, I will never use kickstarted ever again. They do not answer questions directly, they deny unique projects, and approve projects that violates their guidelines. Kickstarter choose projects they want appearing on their website which is favoritism. There is other websites that is 100% better than kickstarter like indiegogo.com, which I personally use.
Avoid this website at all costs
We worked countless hours writing, editing and then rewriting our Kickstarer project. And then we spent alot of time and money on developing a compelling video about our KOEZY project. After all this effort we just found out that our project was rejected from Kickstater! We were so surprised as we had dedicated alot of resources to describe our company and why we need Kickstarter help. The problem is that Kickstarter's response is that we did not meet the guideline but we have no idea why? The guideline are very vague. Does anyone have a view on what they really want ?
They don't let you receive your money unless you reach your goa
Rejected my project and for those who get their projects "accepted" they don't let you receive your money unless you reach your goal. So in other words, you could be 5 dollars short of your 500 dollar goal and you don't get any of it. Try Rockethub instead! They are not biased against projects and let you keep whatever people are willing to give you.
You are supposed to use the goal as the minimum amount you NEED -- that means absolutely REQUIRE -- to get your project under way. Why would you get any of the remaining money if you can't meet that minimum, and thus can't complete the project? If this is a problem for you, set your goal lower and use higher amounts as your "stretch" goals. This isn't an issue with Kickstarter, it's a matter of you not using it properly.
Does not respond to email queries
This pretends to give fair and equal treatment to all applicants, but it rejects applications after applicants have invested serious time and effort into compiling the application and being forced to sign up for an account with Amazon's payment system. It also does not give specific reasons for rejection in spite of the applications meeting all requirements and does not respond to email queries.
Avoid at any cost guys
Kickstarter is great in theory especially if you want to promote a project, not follow through and keep the money. I funded a successful project $100.00 and the "artist" Kayla Oberlin raised over $5, 000 and never followed through with the project. When I contacted Kickstarter several times over the year they told me to contact the "artist" directly. They offered no refund, or any penalty that I'm aware of to Kayla Oberlin for not following through with the project.
Meant to say yes the first review WAS helpful.
Thank you,
They rejected my fresh fashion gear, claiming it don't meet they guidelines
I can't stand kickstarter because they rejected my fresh fashion gear, claiming it don't meet they guidelines. but they have plenty other shirts up on they wall.
What are the actual reasons they are giving you for rejecting your proposed goal? On what points does what you want to do SPECIFICALLY fail to meet their standards criteria?
It has to be more than just the fact that you want to do clothing, considering fashion has over 1, 000 current Kickstart efforts at any given time.
Kickstarter is nothing more than LIES
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 [protected]@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!
Does it not meet their guidelines because it is about 9/11, or does it not meet it for some other reason and the fact that your project is about 9/11 irrelevant to their reasons for refusing your project? The fact that you want to do something about 9/11 doesn't give you a free pass to otherwise do whatever you want, especially against their policies. Do you have any more specifics on why they turned you down or did they outright say "we don't allow 9/11 related projects of any stripe"?
Stay away from these guys
A fantastic idea. Who wouldn't want a website that helps people fund their creative projects.
Of course, the funding depends on the involvement of friends and colleagues. So far so good. The problem, however, is that you have to know in advance precisely how much you can raise and in what time frame. If you don't meet your funding requirements within the time frame you set, you earn nothing. The assumption is that if you earn only $2999 or $3000, you won't have enough to complete the project, and so you're back to where you started despite all your hard work raising funds.
In the real world, you raise what you can and what funds you earn, you put towards your project. Additional funds may come out of your own pocket, but at least you'll be in a position to apply funds once you get them and put them toward your project. You don't know how much you might earn, nor will you know how long it'll take, but at least no one's imposing a deadline and telling you it's all or nothing.
Not only is Kickstarter all or nothing, it also involves up to a 10% deduction in your funding, due to charges by Amazon and Kickstarter. In the real world, you don't have to pay for the work you put into raising funds from friends and colleagues. At Kickstarter, you pay a commission, as it were, on your own work.
If the premise of Kickstarter is built upon your own work generating interest in a project and raising funds, why not bypass the middleman and just ask friends and colleagues to write checks or make paypal payments? Kickstarter does nothing to get you any closer to funding a project but providing a platform and perhaps a motivation to raise funds since you can be a dollar short and get no project.
Yes, it's a wonderful idea, and Kickstarter, if anything, is stifling it by holding you to your initial uninformed assumptions about your project and then charging fees for succeeding. In short, it's still a great idea. I don't know that Kickstarter, with its all or nothing approach to funding, is going to make it any easier for them to get projects funded. Why try to fund a project and fail at Kickstarter when you can bypass Kickstarter and campaign as long as it takes to raise funds.Fundraising is fraught with uncertainty. It's a shame that Kickstarter doesn't appreciate that. Projects aren't all or nothing. They're dreams that evolve into fact through commitment and belief, as well as the support of friends.
If Kickstarter could lend support rather than imposing unnecessary hurdles, they wouldn't potentially kill so many projects.
Poor communication. I applied to kickstart for a non profit group of women artisans in Mexico. They need funds to finish their store.They were rejected with little information about why. They were called a "cause". Which they are not. There is no way to communicate with kickstart to find out how this was misinterpreted. There is an appeal process but that brought no more communication just another rejection.
Kickstarter is a platform. It provides the vehicle to get your project known and get funds accumulated. It forces the creative entrepreneur(s) to focus on what they want and need to get launched. If you can not figure out what you need then it is probably too early in your development for you to start fundraising. Once you know what you want they then lead the market to fulfill that need through a simple and proven funds collection process. Friends and family can always just hand you a check. The extended crowd funding family needs a vehicle providing the service of a Kickstarter platform to have them participate.
There are hundreds of Kickstarter examples of projects that were successfully launched. Whether these projects are successful longer term is to be proven as there are many more factors involved than just achieving a crowd funding launch. Many college friends are launching projects they start at school and commercialize through crowd funding support. It is a tool to formalize the flow of funds. I have no direct involvement with Kickstarter but have seen the results of several campaigns that could not have been done.
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