Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns can be risky and companies do themselves no favors when they abruptly cancel a campaign and jump to another. Such is the case for Unico smartbrush which we covered recently in another article. The Unico smartbrush had raised over $1 million USD in Kickstarter funding and seemed to be cruising along just fine. Thanks to one of our readers, we were alerted that the company abruptly canceled their Kickstarter and set up shop on Indiegogo. Unico said the Kickstarter campaign would be canceled and backers would not be charged, that doesn’t seem to be the case for some and others are questioning Unico’s jump to Indiegogo.
You said they wouldn’t charge my credit card but they did.. so now what do I do?
@Nicola Stop playing the victim, you’re pathetic… it’s unlikely that KS asked you to stop the campaign. In fact, I just can’t believe it. IMO you dropped it simply because the amount in question was too big not to expose yourself too much and become liable. The App excuse doesn’t make any sense at all, you cant ask us to eat that. I’m going to find out the truth here but I know that I will just find more lies from you.
Ok canceled, but when money back?
Unico did address some of the concern in a statement to its backers on Kickstarter.
@ALL We are honest, unfortunately, we had a problem with Kickstarter, a few days before the end of the campaign they asked us to show the functionality of the app and we replied that it has not yet fully developed so according to them the project does not respect their guidelines. We are very sorry for the incident since:
1) They have had almost 60 days to ask for such information and more opportunities to do so and we do not understand why this was asked just a few hours from the end
2) Most of the Kickstarter campaigns that have an app have not developed it yet, especially when the app is not a critical part of the project, perhaps they did not understand that crowdfunding also serves to complete the projects
3) The Kickstarter guidelines tell us to present a working prototype, and we presented it. What a toothbrush has to do is have rotating brushes, the last thing you need to brush your teeth is an app. We emphasize that the Unico app only serves to set the parameters the first time you use it, then no one should use it anymore, otherwise, the product would lose the reason why it was created: brush your teeth perfectly in the shortest possible time. Certainly, the app was the less important part of the product and it is still something that is easily achievable and that we would have done in a short time (if only we had been asked before and not a few days before the end).
we are sorry for all our supporters, however, do not worry, Unico is available at this link on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/unico-smartbrush–3#/
Thanks to all our backers for understanding.
Another Kickstarter backer has their doubts about the campaign and presented their thoughts on the matter in the Kickstarter comments section.
We’ve covered our fair share of crowdfunding campaigns in the past and there have been times we were alerted to scams or failed projects after the fact. This one is interesting as the project has simply jumped from one platform to the other. It will be interesting to see if it makes it through into an actual product. We’re seeking a way to get ahold of Unico for an official press statement and will update this story should we get one.
What do you think of the Unico smartbrush? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
