ArtiphonReviews of artiphon.com

I backed ORBA Kickstarter project in the end of 2019 with the promise that I will receive my device in April 2020. Long story short it is January 2021 and I still haven’t received anything. Tracking number I was sent months ago expired, week after week we get the same update that is obviously a lie and finally I found out that ORBA is available to buy from a number of online retailers and even on Amazon!!! So, I as an early backer was lied to and cheated out of my money. Artiphon don't answer their support emails and if they do, it is always the same no news copy-paste email. I requested I either get my money back or my ORBA - no answer. There are hundreds of comments with the same problem on Kickstarter.

Backed ORBA on kickstarter a year ago, in January 2020. Now, a year later, not a trace of the product I've paid for, and no money back either. Very disappointed in Artiphon, my lawyer is looking into the issue right now.

I'm backer number 4741 having pledged over 200 us dollars for 2 ORBAs waaaaay back over a year ago. Other than excuses and apologies I have received NOTHING !!! SADDENED AND DISAPPOINTED

Worst kickstarter ever. They send it to stores MONTHS before fullfulling all backers, they kept using the pandemic excuse when it was obvious that they wanted to serve stores and other customers before backers who funded their project and paid in advance. The worst thing is the lies and the fact that they did the same thing with their first campaign. They also tried to charge extra shipping to american backers so they use an air shipping, but then they used air shipping on everyone, so they had to refund that money, only AFTER multiple complains... In the campaign they also promised no extra fees for delivery, like custom taxes and so on, but guess what? They tried to charge custom fees for Indian and Switzerland to the backers... All that while the product was available in online retailers for a similar price than the backers paid, and without any customs extra cost. Also, the orba is not a finished product yet, multiple firmware errors and promised features that are not working yet. I hope this works when I recieve mine, whenever that is, but I feel insulted as a backer anyway.

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.

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.

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

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.