Kickstarter Project Pebble Leaves Backers Hanging

Sensationalism. I backed Pebble ($255) because they had a solid product and working prototypes. This article (among a number of other "oh noes Kickstarter will take all our monies" scare-articles doing the rounds lately) misses a number of key points:<p>1. It's a new product and a new team. Delays are a normal part of any ambitious project and don't necessarily mean the product won't ship.<p>2. For instance, consider that forecasted sales determine forecasted timelines<p>Their original shipping dates are based on raising a projected $100,000. At $99 for the cheapest Pebble, one can imagine that their worst case scenario was to ship roughly 1,000 Pebbles within their original timelines. Their Kickstarter actually raised over $10.25 million and consequently they are supposed to ship 85x more Pebbles than that. It's not hard to understand that such a dramatic difference in actuals vs. forecasts will result in a dramatic change in shipping time frames.<p>3. More importantly, constant communication from the Pebble team shows they are making steady progress (current backers have until the end of the month to make their colour selections, and in the past month their team took advantage of their 70k backers to perform free market research into desired Pebble colours, which is a wise business decision); I really don't see much to objectively worry about.<p>4. Backers of the project weren't ordering anything, and are naive if they think they were. Anybody know the Latin for "backer beware"?

If I were in charge of Kickstarter, I'd have an Czar Of Managed Expectations hired specifically to work with high profile projects.<p>I'd ask that person to talk to the folks at the big projects on a very regular basis (at <i>least</i> weekly) and help them manage the expectations of the backers. I'd advise them on how to update and to keep the communication lines very very open. I'd use this to apply very light pressure to the projects to keep things moving and to tell the backers what's happening.<p>Heck, I'd try to help the big projects hook up with experienced mentors to help solve their problems.<p>I'd do this because the entire success of Kickstarter depends on it happening, and I would under no circumstances leave it to people who hit the KS lottery to figure it out on their own.

This is the one Kickstarter project that I was really interested in as to how it turned out.<p>Going from 1000 watches to 100,000 watches is a huge undertaking, and requires a lot of special skillsets. 1000 watches you could probably do by yourself with some friends that you hire, but 100,000 requires a factory, and a whole different set of skills.<p>Their product looks really cool and I hope that they succeed, but my speculation to my friends was that they might be the victim of their own success. It might be the case that maybe they should have capped their first set of orders at 1000, and then slowly build out their capacity while learning from their mistakes, but now with their high-profile Kickstarter campaign and $12M, people might not give them a second chance if they encounter big problems.

<i>Unfortunately, Pebble's 85,000 backers who prepaid for a Pebble have no legal recourse to receive a refund.</i><p>That's not true. In Kickstarter's terms of service it states:<p><i>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.</i><p>Now, the tricky part is I don't believe there's a time limitation placed on this, but jumping up and down the very same month they expected to release is far from practical. In a year? There's a serious case to answer.

I find it amazing that people think kickstarter is like Amazon, and talk about "orders" - the person being interviewed talked about "canceling their order" - there is a reason why you are considered a "backer" and not a "customer". Kickstarter backers should fund a project with the understanding they are trying to encourage people to do cool things, and that their is better than even chance nothing whatsoever will come of the project. Then, the rare time that something gets delivered - it is a pleasant surprise. I was shocked when I actually got an elevation dock that was, if anything, better than what was described. I really don't think the planetary annihilation guys will be able to build what they say they are - but wow, if they do, money very, very well spent...

This is nothing. The Orbit reached its funding goal in October 2011. Still haven't received anything, and still no ship date.<p>Anyone who has worked in hardware knows how incredibly difficult it is. Your manufacturers will constantly make mistakes which cause unexpected delays. Give these guys a break.<p><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832784035/orbit-a-swiveling-smartphone-suction-mount" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832784035/orbit-a-swivel...</a>

I backed Zioneyez for $150 on 6/6/11 ($343K Kickstarter) and still don't have them: <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zioneyez/eyeztm-by-zioneyez-hd-video-recording-glasses-for" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zioneyez/eyeztm-by-zione...</a>

The way to fix this is to do all your "backing" (which is actually pre-ordering, no matter what clever wordplay KS tries to apply) on an Amex, where chargebacks are decided by default in your favor and they go after the merchant on your behalf.<p>I backed a failed project, where the creator indicated they'd spent the money on something else (!), and that they weren't going to issue refunds. A 5-minute call to American Express later and I had my money back.

Their website (getpebble.com) states that they will ship in "early 2013".

Surely a lot of these problems would be solved by having a 'backing ceiling' - once this amount is reached, that's it, no more pledges accepted. It seems to me this would stimulate funding (so people feel they won't 'miss out') and also avoid the problem where suddenly someone has way more money than they wanted, and hence has to address production (of physical objects) in a completely different manner. Sometimes too much money (and hence responsibility) can be a curse.

I may be beating a dead horse here, but I anticipate a similar outcome for the Ouya. Missed ship date after missed ship date.

The fact that people equate a KickStarter backing to a product order is ridiculous.<p>When you back a project on KickStarter, you are taking a risk on a team, and you can't go in with the expectation that all will go according to plan. If you don;t have the appetite for risk, wait for the post-kickstarter retail launch.

&#62; "I don't know where I could go and cancel [my order],"<p>Doesn't that highlight a pretty broad dichotomy between what users are paying for and what they think they're paying for? As far as my understanding go, you fund something in the hope for an outcome (a clock, say), you don't place an order.

Expectations. Set them wisely.

The title is misleading.<p>Suggests that there's going to be no Pebbles, while in reality the watches are seriously delayed.<p>Cheap link bait.