KickstarterReviews 206

I have supported a friends art project and paid with my credit card. Instead of securing the amount, they withdrew $1 from my account and saved all my credit card information. While I was on vacation, they tried to charge my card, when it didn't go through they informed my friend that I withdrew my support from her project. Now she's pissed at me and won't accept the support. Kickstarter doesn't care about the problem and I'm not sure if they still keep my credit card details and if they will attempt to withdraw from my account in the future.

I pledged 30 projects within a short time. A few have already provided what I pledged for, so that's good. I'm still waiting for the rest. One project, Maple Syrup Infusions, completely did not provide $59 of stuff, then they deleted their website and email. Kickstarter now says they will not help me at all... but Kickstarter takes 10% of my pledges as its fee... I am disgusted by Kickstarter, their business model depends on allowing innocent people like me to be scammed by fraudulent projects. Kickstarter is not operating in good faith. I will not pledge anymore, and I discourage others from pledging.

Kickstarter is absolutely horrible. Our project had reached its goal, & then some, & then 5 days before completion, it was 'suspended.' No explanation - we had absolutely not violated any terms. (and we scoured them again afterwards to be sure.) I have no idea what agenda they're pursuing, or what motivates them, but it is very bad business to rely on them for this service. Don't make the same mistake we did. There are much better fund raising sites out there.

Kickstarter was awful in every part of my experience. I had an idea for a unique fishing reel, but they rejected it because it was a "consumer product". After looking around on the web, I found that a lot of funding sites also do not like the "consumer products". A friend told me about a new crowd-sourcing site called Product Funder; they are actually focused on consumer products and have helped me find manufacturers to help produce the reel. These guys are way better than kickstarter.

I guess the site has done good things but my experience was pretty negative. I was setting up a photo studio which was going to use a vintage method of photography. In my presentation I included that the kickstarter would help to rent the space. Seems like a studio would need a space to work out of.

Three days after submitting I got a denial email saying that my project went against their policies due to the funds being used "to acquire real estate".

I emailed back twice explaining that the space was essential to the project and that I'd already paid for it out of pocket but would definitely reimburse myself if the project was successful and sent in an appeal letter which they suggested.

I never heard anything back from them so went with indiegogo and got my project financed with only 4% fees instead of the 12% that KS charges.

$#*!ty service.

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?

. 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.

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.

We've raised $1.2 million (and counting) over two projects this way (Zombicide and Sedition Wars). We've also tried running our own pre-orders and barely scratched $30k, so for an apples to apples comparison, Kickstarter is excellent.

Kickstarter is an incredible huge machete in your little Swiss Army Knife of marketing tools. If you've got enough strength to pick up the knife and know how to use it, it beats the dinky little 3" one any day. If you don't know how to use it, it won't do anything for you; in that the other reviewers are right, Kickstarter will amplify your existing audience exponentially, but won't do much if you don't already have one.

If you're raising money for a product, rather than a project, then Kickstarter is an excellent place to do it. Viewed as a pre-ordering system, 5% is an extremely low commission on a sale, since you'll need to pick up the tab for credit card processing anyway. Compare this to other marketplaces like eBay and Amazon that have a large reach, the fees here are usually close to 15% excluding credit card fees. Or, compare to affiliate programs which you can run through providers like Commision Junction or on your own sites, if you offer anything less than 10% no one is going to want promote your product.

Compared to Indiegogo, Kickstarter has a significant advantage in funding potential; with huge pluses in both perceived credibility/safety and audience. Non-US companies have realized this and are intentionally opening representative offices in the US in order to use Kickstarter (Carmageddon Reincarnation is a recent high profile example in the video games sector).

I'm not sure how long this phenomenon will last but while the audience is enthusiastic that's the platform we'll be using in the short term (before the JOBS Act).

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!