After the disappearance of Pebble last week after being acquired by Fitbit, many of its fans have been deeply disappointed when it was confirmed that the company's wearables, Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core, will not finally reach the market.
Fortunately, when it comes to money, the sponsors of these products can be more or less calm because the company confirmed that it would proceed to refund the amounts contributed, something that has already begun to be done, although partially.
Indeed, on the Kickstarter crowdfounding platform, Pebble has started sending partial refunds to many of the backers, something that has been learned thanks to the comments posted by these, a mixture of anger and irony.
Ben Schoon, editor of 9to5Google, says that he himself is living this experience. Schoon sponsored the Pebble Time 2 for a total of $ 179 ($ 169 for the device and an additional $ 10 for shipping), but has not yet received a full refund:
If Pebble's ad is to be believed (and they haven't said anything to suggest otherwise), I should be getting that $ 179 back, but instead my refund is only a measly $ 70.
This is also the situation for many other sponsors on Kickstarter, many of whom are getting the same $ 70 refund than Ben Schoon, while others receive more or less high amounts based on their sponsorships.
Schoon points out that there are "some patterns to these refunds"In such a way that those who contributed $ 179 are receiving 70, those who contributed $ 249 receive 131, and so on. However, some customers are receiving even lower refunds.
It is not clear why this is being done; Schoon notes that "as far as we know, there is also no logical explanation" and that "it could just be a mistake." Maybe the Kickstarter fees have something to do with it, although this does not explain why Pebble is not delivering on promised refunds.
Schhon concludes that while "this is crowdfunding, and sponsors should not treat Kickstarter like a store, in this case Pebble has directly said that sponsors will get full refunds."