Backing an Indiegogo campaign can be a risky proposal. Really backing any crowdfunded campaign is risky. But when a campaign gets fully funded, actually 382% funded, then you expect that things are going well. We covered the Indiegogo campaign from ThinCharge back in August of 2015 and at that time they were 220% funded with 31 days left to go. Now thanks to some tips from some of our readers we’re finding out that backers of the campaign have yet to receive their promised product in the timeline promised. The company behind ThinCharge, ChargeTech, has not responded to concerned backers attempts at contact. We’ve also emailed them for comment with no response as of yet.
UPDATE: 01/18/2016 – ChargeTech/ThinCharge has posted a video apology and explanation on Indiegogo.
https://youtu.be/PKXLBp6ONIQ
UPDATE: 01/14/2016 – We have a new update on this story from an official ChargeTech spokesperson. The company reached out to us to shed some light on the situation. Due to manufacturing and supply delays, as well as several quality control issues, the company wasn’t able to get the units they needed for Indiegogo fulfillment. To compound the situation, ChargeTech signed an agreement with a third party re-seller for a set release date. This is why backers began seeing ThinCharge for sale at other outlets. ChargeTech acknowledged that even some of the third party sales may have some quality control issues and promises those will be replaced.
ChargeTech did take full responsibility for not communicating with their backers from day one when they knew the obstacles and challenges the team was facing. The ChargeTech spokesperson assured us that there will be a communication attempt in the next day or so to personally explain the situation to their backers. When that happens we will be sure to update this article. In the meantime, ChargeTech wanted to be clear on a few points.
- They are working hard to fix all quality control issues
- They are working with the manufacturer on getting production done more quickly
- They want to ship a final product (especially to their Indiegogo backers) that is defect free
- They deeply regret the manner in which they handled the situation
- They will be following up in a day or so from this update with a personal response to all backers
UPDATE: 01/13/2016 – ThinCharge has updated their Indiegogo page with the following statement:
Dear Backers,
We’re truly sorry for the constant delays and lack of communication. I want to introduce myself, my name is Michelle Smith, project manager of ThinCharge. I want to personally guarantee that the delay is going to be worth it. There’s been several bad batches that are subpar and aren’t passing the ThinCharge QC team inspection. Please allow for another 6-7 weeks for final production and delivery. We will follow up with another update in 4 weeks and post pictures of the progress.
– Thank You
The ThinCharge Team. Live from CES 2016.
This update still has not calmed the community and many are still angry and believe the company may be taking their money and running. We’ll keep updating as we get more.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The most interesting part of this story isn’t so much that the backers haven’t received their product as it is that ChargeTech is selling the ThinCharge on Stacksocial, Amazon and its own website. The Amazon link was provided by one of the backers and seems to be a re-branded version. If you read through the comments on the Indiegogo page you’ll find dozens and dozens of angry backers who all have tried to communicate with the company with zero results. We’ve captured just a few for you to read through below.
As you can see most people have not had success contacting ChargeTech and Indiegogo’s response seems just as vague and not very helpful. It’s completely understandable why these backers are upset and understandable that they would reach out to the media to amplify the situation. We’ve contacted both ChargeTech and Indiegogo in hopes to get an official statement from both and we will update this story as we can.
In the meantime, were you a backer of ThinCharge? Did you receive your product? Let us know your experiences in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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