KickstarterReviews 206

I like the idea of Kickstarter. I participated in many projects since 2017 (47 projects). 6 projects turned out to be a scam and never materialized. I didn't calculate the money I lost because of this and for me it weren't the most expensive ones that didn't get through. Nevertheless I think Kickstarter should find a system to keep more control over the money they collect and distribute to the producers. It seems too easy to create a scam product, collect the money and run. (I only added 4 photo's)

Better way to assure our money with those crowdfunding company's is 25% upfront
And wen the project is ready then it will be time to give the rest of 75% of the money
And with the need of a tracking number for the item.
Made a review on Better business bureau to.
Lost 525.00$ Cad money with this phoney project

I backed one item only at this stage with a couple hundred dollars down the drain. Even tho the kickstarter customer services reps are responding in a timely manner, there is 0 solution to any of the problems, especially when you get no responses from your creators.

Kickstarter started as a great platform to give legit creators a way to pass the hurdle of advancing their own creations but now it's a big clusterfck and all they can do is point to the T&Cs.

I'm utterly disappointed with the lack of anything they can offer/do after money has been released to the creator. So many flaws in the system. I hope others have a different experience. I for sure won't back anything anymore as I lost trust in the actual system.

Today I was trying to buy a card box from a Kickstarter campaign. I opened the page as soon as I got the email, about 4 minutes after the campaign started, in order to try get the limited edition version. When I got to the payment page, Kickstarter froze and would not accept any form of payment. I tried multiple credit cards, including ones I have used succesfully on Kickstarter before, and after an hour of attempts on several computers, Kickstarter informs me that the (limited-edition) pledge is no longer available. This is embarrassing performance from a website which has been online for around a decade.

This company does nothing but crush people's hopes and allow scammers to take their money. Terrible company/website. This site couldn't be worse and nobody should ever back any project advertised on Kickstarter.

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.

Assists with raising money for misinformation campaigns regarding COVID-19. They are aware of these shows that are raising money on here although refuse to take any action. They are indirectly responsible for the people who view these projects and either die or have chronic health problems from COVID-19. Terrible terrible organisation, do not support. I also have heard they skim money off the top and keep a large portion of the money from fundraising. Use facebook or alternative sources. While working here management was abusive and HR laughed at me and belittled me when I brought it to there attention, they also lied in the interview about pay ad extent of job, left very quickly.

Avoid! Any "Creator" can scam you into purchasing something and Kickstarter "cannot" do anything about that. They are just pointing fingers at the creator, saying contact them. WTF? They just ignore every attempt if they wanted to! You can't even ask for a chargeback from your bank, because the money is going through KS and they just decline it. Perfect example of a scam: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adjustabot/fully-automatic-sit-stand-desk-with-power-hub?ref=profile_backed Kickstarter earned about 30.000$ (5% of 600k) on it without lifting a finger.

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

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

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.

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.

As of writing, almost 70% of the projects are over priced, but you will come to know only when you get your product on hand you will realize this is not worth the hype. And there are scammers to. In our case, almost 5K people invested in this project called Lumonitor display monitor and they are delaying the shipping for the 4th month now with no proper commitments. They are not ready to refund the frustrated backers also.

One project I backed has taken more than a year plus to start mailing out the rewards for backing a project. They say the mailing process has begun. It took much longer than was projected. Ok... I'd wait. But we decided to move to a different state. I looked for a place to notify the project. Couldn't find any method. Went to Kickstarter help. I came across help docs for project creators. It says that creators don't have to offer backers a way of notifying them or shipping address changes. So my project didn't. I'll never back another Kickstarter project.

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.

Although I think the idea of Kickstarter is great, but they are of zero help and non-responsive when a project you've backed has failed to deliver or even communicate. They don't seem to care that people are getting ripped off on their website. Per their terms, "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." But they do not enforce it. I have lost confidence with Kickstarter and even though there may be some great projects out there, I will NEVER back a project again.