Reply To: Large Kickstarters should be more open about shipping costs

[jamescutts 6925xp 3]

Its worth pointing out again that there are other Crowdfunding platforms out there other than kickstarter 😀

Also the “board/gaming” side of kickstarter is only a small part of that one platform, admitidly a popular one but its still a subset. Stretch goals, unlocks etc arn’t excatly a kickstarter make or break that you must do, a lot of kickstarters for things from bikes to plastic bottles that cost $30 but can fold are as much about funding a idea or a product as including a load of “free” extras, It just seems our hobby makes excessive use of them.

My biggest issue (in the UK at least, im guessing the same applies elsewhere) is you tend to get very little consumer protection from a kickstarter and crowdfuning platfoms in general (at least now, previously credit card companies covered you) , you combine that with the mystery shipping fees its very much not something in the consumers favour because you are “pledging” support, not purchasing a product.

Which is sort of my issue/concern that the shipping stems from, a lot of these kickstarters are pre-orders in all but name, in most cases going back to games, the design has been done, the sculpting has been done for those “free” “stretch” goals, and its just awaiting production and distribution. If the $50 kickstarter suddenly has a $75 shipping fee you have no right to refund or cancel, even though you might not have been aware of that at the time, in effect your held hostage.

There are some genuine crowdfunding cases out there, take that small indy developer who raises $2000 for there first minatures sculpts, that seems reasonable, you helping them kick”start” that business or idea that they possibly couldn’t do without support.

That “large” company who raises $2-3,000,000 in crowdfuning for games they churn out every few months or quaters is basically operating a low risk pre-order system.

Now i dont have a huge issue with that pre-ordering funding coming from crowdfunding as such, but coming from a system where you are pledging rather ordering a product is all in that companies favour, removing your consumer rights and placing all the risk on you.

Sorry rant over 🙂