Benjamin J.
Particula-rly poor customer service
Edit: Particula has responded below, drawing a distinction between its customer service and the nature of a crowdfunding project. I don’t really accept that distinction. As backers, we are customers who were willing to fund the R&D process, and the quality of communication is the best indication we have of the service Particula provides. Multiple requests have gone unanswered, including a simple request to update my address sent 16 days ago. Delays are understandable; poor communication isn’t. I’m one of nearly 5,500 backers of Particula’s robotic chessboard, a project now around 2.5 years behind schedule. What concerns me most is not the delay itself, as delays happen with crowdfunding campaigns, but the company’s approach to communication and customer support. Backers’ repeated requests for meaningful progress updates are routinely ignored or met with responses that come across as gaslighting and unnecessarily snarky. If this is how communication is handled during development, I’m genuinely concerned about how Particula will cope with customer support once thousands of complex robotic products are actually in customers’ hands. Based on my experience as a backer, I’d urge prospective buyers to proceed with caution.
Response from Particula TechAug 16, 2026
Thank you for the update. We agree on one important point: regardless of whether this is a crowdfunding campaign or a regular purchase, a support request such as an address change should not remain unanswered for 16 days, and we apologize for that. Please contact us again with your pledge number and reference this review so we can locate the request and handle it. https://support.particula-tech.com/contact Regarding the broader characterization of our communication, however, we believe some context is important. Throughout the project we have published monthly updates, often going into considerable detail about each stage of development, the engineering challenges we encountered, beta testing, manufacturing, and changing timelines. Not every comment received an immediate individual response, but our team has responded to thousands of backer comments, messages, and support requests throughout the project. There were also periods when external circumstances, including the war and other operational disruptions, affected our team's normal office activity. We don't present that as an excuse, but it was part of the reality our team was operating under. We fully accept that we haven't always communicated perfectly, and the project has taken far longer than anyone expected. But we have continued communicating with our backers throughout the journey. Most importantly, after extensive real-world testing with more than 150 beta testers, the core hardware has now received the green light for mass production. We know that ultimately the best way to rebuild confidence is not through another comment, but by delivering GoChess XR.