Dear Mycrofters,
I was one of many people who backed this project on Kickstarter. I patiently waited as all deadlines were left in the dust, because I understand that it’s worth waiting for a quality product. I followed your progress with interest. What I did not expect was a demand for considerably more money for shipping.
When filling out the Backerkit survey, I was told that I’d have to pay another $26. No advance warning, no ‘we’re very sorry, but we have to ask for $26 extra to cover shipping’ (which would have satisfied me). Just a demand for more money, as if it was somehow my fault that you’d undercharged to begin with.
When this was questioned on your Kickstarter page, you replied with the following rather unhelpful comment.
From the project page, "We ship Mycroft units anywhere in the world. Any costs associated with international shipments over $20 will be billed to the supporter before shipment."
We always knew the $20 would not cover international shipping and said so from the start.
Now, putting aside the fact that this communication sounds unnecessarily curt and borderline rude, the line you quoted from the project page does not say that shipping will be more than $20. It says that, in the event that costs are higher, then you will be billed for them. A standard human would assume that this means that if you live in the Himalayas, or you are part of a remote nomadic tribe crossing the Sahara, you may have to pay more.
I mean, if you knew it would be more, why not charge more to begin with? Why ask for less than half what it would actually cost? The simple conclusion is that you did it on purpose from the start, to get more backers on board.
Since then, many people have asked questions on the Kickstarter page and have been completely ignored. Private messages have also been ignored.
I’m really disappointed. This all makes you sound as though you don’t care about your paying customers. What’s really stupid is that all it ever needed was a bit of polite and helpful communication from you guys, which would have cleared all of this up days ago. Instead, you stick your heads in the sand, delete comments and ignore emails. Would you like to respond now, or will you just delete this post too? Enquiring minds want to know.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t post this here if the situation were unfixable. It’s not. Just a bit of communication can easily sort this out. I just don’t want to give any more money to people that don’t have any concept of how to communicate with their customers or accept responsibility for blunders.
John Watson
221b Baker St.