I ordered my Artiphon as a contributor via Kickstarter over a year ago and seem to still being messed around with no product received. Despite the pandemic this is just too long.
I can actually order the same product directly via their retail partner in the UK and receive it tomorrow.
Their communications seemed honest but now I'm beginning to wonder as the keep messing me about.
SS
Stefan S.
NEGATIV: Einzelhandel wird gegenüber Kickstarter Zahlern bevorzugt!
Ende Dezember 2019 auf kickstarter den Artiphone Orba mitfinanziert - die Risiken die Kickstarter birgt sind mir bewusst.
Das ursprüngliche Ziel April 2020 wurde immer wieder verschoben, kann man aber durch die weltweite Corona Situation noch verstehen.
Was man aber nicht verstehen kann ist, dass das Teil Ende Oktober 2020 in den regulären Einzelhandel kommt und die Kickstarter Zahler der ersten Stunde NOCH IMMER NICHTS bekommen haben.
Erst Ende November 2020 wurde eine Tracking Nummer übermittelt, die aber bis Stand jetzt (08.01.2021) NOCH IMMER NICHT ausgeliefert wurde.
BP
Bruno P.
A dishonest business
In short, at first a very disorganised business, until I realised its actually a dishonest one.
Orba, their first product I believe, was fueled by Kickstarter. I was one of its backers and made a pledge for the product in 12 January 2020 while the payment was processed much later in July 31st. So far this delay was mostly my fault as i didnt see the emails asking for a shipping address (emails getting filtered out as not important + me forgetting it). July 31st is when I provided the details and the order could finally move forward.
Nevertheless, right now it is January 7th 2021. And I did not receive the product yet. Yes, its been one year since the initial pledge and 5 months since it could have been delivered. And meanwhile you can buy the product from regular retail shops apparently. Can you imagine the feeling?
I tried entering in contact with them, but I essentially was getting no responses. Visiting their forum and the kickstarter forum is when I discovered this is a widespread issue, with many backers complaining they never got the product. It was only when I started commenting on every single marketing post they have on facebook that they entered in contact with me. They were very apologetic in it and mentioned how they had logistic issues and lost track of my order. They confirmed my order would be shipped ASAP. This was December 16th, and they estimated it could take 1 or 2 weeks to receive it.
So far so good and I was happy again. I understand those issues can happen and things can fall through the cracks.
Well, then comes another deception. We are on week 3 going to week 4 and I still have not received it nor got a shipment code. When I asked what is going on, now the answer was much colder and vague, mentioning how they are trying to fix the problem for all backers, but now I have no estimate of when I will receive it. Supposedly there will be a backer update “by the end of this week” about it on kickstarter (so tomorrow I believe). I am not hopeful there will be anything there besides another excuse how they are trying to fix the issue but no solid estimates. I honestly believe I will still be waiting indefinitely.
Now my suspicions, which I cannot prove but just guess thats the probable reality. I understand I can be wrong and I would like to be proven otherwise
I highly suspect that they used the money coming from backers to bootstrap production and, instead of sending those units to the backers that paid for it, they instead sold the units to retail shops. This would be efffectivelly selling the same unit to 2 different parties, which I am pretty sure is classified as fraud. Because regulations did not catch up well to crowd funding projects yet, this kind of stuff flies apparently.
Lets see how my case goes. I plan to amend this review if my situation changes, for better or for worst. Hopefully the company will answer something meaningful here, but my trust level is so low right now that I am not sure it will make a meaningful difference. What will make a difference though is receiving the product that I paid for.
I am honestly trying to be fair on my review here and I dont feel great writing it. I am not a fan of bashing companies and I find abhorrent who does that for sport. Unfortunately though, apart from my suspicions, what I wrote above are facts of how my experience has been going and I want that to change.
Hope this was useful for you to understand which kind of business you may be dealing with
MA
MarkC
Disgraceful disregard for Kickstarter backers
I was a day-1 backer of Orba on Kickstarter and I am still waiting on it to be delivered, more than 5 months after Artiphon started shipping. They had shipped most Orbas by the end of October but broke Kickstarter rules by diverting hundreds of backer units to retail stores. Then they blatantly lied to backers on Kickstarter claiming delays were caused by logistics or that the warehouse or fulfillment partner made some mistake. Next they issued tracking numbers to many backers in late November, but they expired 1 month later. Many other backers have not received tracking information yet Artiphon refuse to address these concerns on Kickstarter.
PA
Pablo
Don't trust Artiphon
Don't trust Artiphon
Been more than a year since I trust and backed them with the project and so far nothing received. The logistics are a disaster, the items are already available in stores and cheaper than when we backed them. I wouldn't trust them with any other campaign, Kickstarter or any other platform. Misleading information, not reliable and still waiting for the product so I can not say it's a scam yet.
They provided a tracking number but it's not working and look like it's happening to a lot of backers too.
Be careful with this company.
Backer #1782
JK
Jk
Been a year since I backed them on…
Been a year since I backed them on Kickstarter and they don't reply on email they don't send tracking numbers and I see that the product is available to purchase outside it is really pissing off how bad their service is no matter how good the product seems
MV
Maurice van T.
Artiphon Orba, fun device but a lot of struggles in delivery.
Kickstarter product the orba is a fun device, got delayed a lot for backers so there's a lot of frustration among them but I do believe all these delays are mainly due to the pandemic.
The orba itself is a fun little instrument, both a standalone and as midi controller. Bare in mind that both software and firmware are still in development so improvements will still come.
KS
Kris S.
untrustworthy
untrustworthy, excuse making company that will go out of their way not to talk to you personally. Pathetic platitudes and false promises for almost 2 years now.