I grew up watching TV, too much if you ask my mom. As such, I have seen my share of TV infomercials. These are hour long ads that had some slick sales person who showed you some new awesome invention, but you could only get in on it if you called within the next 20 minutes. I got suckered into ordering a few times. I think the most useful item was this zip tie thing that you pull out as long of a zip tie as you needed, and then pressed a button and it'd chop it off at just the right length. The least useful was I think some magic leg hair removal thing that did a horrible job at not removing leg hair. Oh, and of course there was the Shamwow, which never did wow me, but at least that guy was funny.
These days, I don't watch much TV, and certainly would never consider buying anything from an infomerical. However, apparently there is a new scheme in play: crowdfunding!
Over the last 3 years, I've backed 9 projects on Kickstarter, and 7 on Indiegogo. A friend from work calls me the Serial-backer. I agree, it's a problem.
Where it was easy to make fun of the over the top salesman in the infomericals of the 90s, the slick sales video in the crowdfunding campaigns are much harder to resist. So many of them stir feelings of "changing the world" or "save the planet".
Unfortunately, just like the products from the infomercials, the reality is much bleaker. First of all, of the 16 projects I've funded, I've received 11 of them. One of them doesn't work at all. One of them is so finicky, that I'd certainly return it if I bought it from a store. One is a total overkill for my needs, again, would've returned it if it was from a store. Basically, only 3 of them are actually excellent products that I would buy again.
I think just about every single one of the projects were late on their delivery date. Some by months, others by years.
I think back in 2011/2012, when crowdfunding was just a new thing, projects at least tried to be semi-realistic as to their delivery time lines, and what features they promised. Then, just like any other industry, without regulation, things got crazy. Now you have projects asking for very little initial funding (so they'd succeed, and get highlighted by the funding platform), they promise many many features in steps of stretch goals (making the project appear even more successful each time a goal is hit), they post extremely tight time lines (since there is no punishment for missing them), etc. The end result is many many delays, and a terrible consumer (sponsor) experience.
If the creators actually cared about the experience they are delivering, they'd look at existing projects, learn from their mistakes, and offer a much better experience to their sponsors. But instead, project after project encounter the same damn issues, like how long it takes to get manufacturing set up in China, how long it takes to assemble and test products, how long certification or any interaction with governments take, etc.
The next time you see something tempting from a crowdfunding platform, think about this, at least with an infomercial, you _can_ return the product for a (sometimes partial) refund. With crowdfunded product, there is no chance of refund when you eventually receive your product.
So, are you willing to basically throw your money away because you are essentially buying from a late night infomercial with no return policy?
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