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Kickstarter is not a marketplace, it's a crowdfunding site. The projects looking for funding are not companies taking orders, they're people looking for startup

Kickstarter is not a marketplace, it's a crowdfunding site. The projects looking for funding are not companies taking orders, they're people looking for startup capital to give their best effort at becoming a company. You can't hold them to the same standards as a retailer with cash flow and profits to spend on making people who've changed their minds about a purchase happy. You pledged to back the company, not just buy a product, and they're offering to let you renege on that pledge at cost. That's generous. The fees are real (Kickstarter and Amazon both take a ~5% cut). So are the risks you agreed to take on -- Kickstarter makes it pretty clear that projects don't often go as planned and that backing a project isn't the same as preordering a product. Late delivery is something to be expected, and "I've changed my mind" is never a reasonable reason for a refund when not offered (store refund policies are, for the most part, completely voluntary things; they have no obligation to take back non-defective goods after you've purchased). In short, I think you're unreasonable to expect a full refund from a high-ticket KickStarter pledge, so long as they haven't given up on trying to deliver. Take the 85% refund if you must, or wait until the desk is delivered then sell it.

master_coder 12y ago
I see your point. I knew the risks ahead of time, and raise you the fact that I received an email about logging in to their site to give them my address and pay for shipping. This was over a month ago. I sent Jason @ Stand Desk and email, explaining to him that I paid via Amazon, and I have no account on their site. And they don't allow you to "sign up." The account must pre-exist. I never received a response from him, so I could pay for shipping. At this point, it felt like they wanted my money so they could get their ball rolling, but when it came to shipping, they chose not to solidify the sale and allow me to receive anything. I wanted to pay for shipping and give them my address so I can get my desk. To me, this doesn't sound like good business practice. I understand they're busy, but not returning an email from a paying customer who's wanting to pay even more, albeit just delivery, leaves me to question their goal. It seems like they're trying to buy more time before they send out another round of emails saying "we're delayed again." It's bad enough I've received a couple emails and read several posts about this, and on top of that one about how they miscalculated shipping entirely and upset everybody. Shipping went from $80 to $160 for people across the country. I was perfectly fine with that too, and emailed them saying it was ok, but I wanted an update. That was September, and they promised me a desk in late October, early November. Here we are now, no update for me, and I can't even pay to get the desk delivered if I wanted to. Somehow this is my fault?
- deleted 12y ago
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  - master_coder 12y ago
    That's very true too. I haven't considered it that way, although I've tried to. One thing I forgot to mention is that I spoke with Helen regarding a refund, and she said she would get me in touch with a manager. The next response was from their same internal email system, same email thread, but came from 'StandDesk Customer Support', without a name. So I'm waiting to see who's actually handling this, and whether or not it's company policy. Going to give them until tomorrow to reply to my email regarding the refund. They still haven't. They just threw the 85% at me and that was it.

master_coder 12y ago

I see your point. I knew the risks ahead of time, and raise you the fact that I received an email about logging in to their site to give them my address and pay for shipping. This was over a month ago. I sent Jason @ Stand Desk and email, explaining to him that I paid via Amazon, and I have no account on their site. And they don't allow you to "sign up." The account must pre-exist. I never received a response from him, so I could pay for shipping. At this point, it felt like they wanted my money so they could get their ball rolling, but when it came to shipping, they chose not to solidify the sale and allow me to receive anything. I wanted to pay for shipping and give them my address so I can get my desk. To me, this doesn't sound like good business practice. I understand they're busy, but not returning an email from a paying customer who's wanting to pay even more, albeit just delivery, leaves me to question their goal. It seems like they're trying to buy more time before they send out another round of emails saying "we're delayed again." It's bad enough I've received a couple emails and read several posts about this, and on top of that one about how they miscalculated shipping entirely and upset everybody. Shipping went from $80 to $160 for people across the country. I was perfectly fine with that too, and emailed them saying it was ok, but I wanted an update. That was September, and they promised me a desk in late October, early November. Here we are now, no update for me, and I can't even pay to get the desk delivered if I wanted to. Somehow this is my fault?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- master_coder 12y ago
  That's very true too. I haven't considered it that way, although I've tried to. One thing I forgot to mention is that I spoke with Helen regarding a refund, and she said she would get me in touch with a manager. The next response was from their same internal email system, same email thread, but came from 'StandDesk Customer Support', without a name. So I'm waiting to see who's actually handling this, and whether or not it's company policy. Going to give them until tomorrow to reply to my email regarding the refund. They still haven't. They just threw the 85% at me and that was it.