Complaint Review: Coolest Cooler - Internet

I have several emails from support at coolest as well as their facebook page claiming they processed my refund via Amazon Payments almost a month ago. Amazon Payments has confirmed that is a lie. I have asked the company for proof they have processed a refund for nearly a week, company has stopped responding to me through both mediums.

I backed the Coolest Cooler Kickstarter like over 62,000+ others over a year ago.

Ryan Grepper has reported many alleged delays and setbacks with the product since then, and I was content to wait patiently. Several shipment deadlines came and went, but eventually the day came when we decided to move. I contacted Coolest support to change my shipping address but was told I could not. They said they were between pledge management software providers and I would have to wait until the end of August. I waited.

On August 25th I reached out to the company again as the end of the month was at hand and was scolded for not being more patient, again I was promised I would receive a link to a new system where I could change the address myself before the month was out. That did not happen.

I waited another week or two into september and decided to visit the message board on kickstarter. I saw many vile comments left by die hard Coolest Cooler supporters directed at people who just wanted updates and answers. I also saw these abusive supporters make many mentions that the Coolest Coolers were so in demand that the company would happily refund any customer who asked, so I replied to coolest support and asked- I heard nothing. 

Eventually I emailed Coolest Support from a different email address not connected to my pledge to confirm the rumor that they were indeed offering refunds to anyone who asked- (at this point the only Coolest Coolers that had gone out were picked up by a select group of customers in Oregon). I was told they would be more than happy to give anyone a refund as they were alreayd selling pre-sale units at a retail price almost 3 times the original backer buy in. I then forwarded my pledge information and asked for a refund.

I didn't hear back immediately, but I was eventually told by both Julie Mahon and whomever runs the Coolest facebook page that a refund was processed on September 16th, Julie added my refund would arrive, "within 5-10 business days. As soon as the refund is complete you will receive confirmation from Amazon Payments directly."

As you can imagine that deadline also came and went. Now we have entered October. By Ryan Grepper's own estimations less than 10% of orders have shipped, the first come / first serve fullfillment method has been completely abandoned, retail orders are being sent out as they come in, taking priority over campaign backers, and Coolest Coolers in Portland, Oregon (where Coolest is based) are popping up on Ebay.

I called Amazon payments who confirmed to me that Coolest never processed my refund. I wrote back to coolest several times since learning this and have received radio silence. I touched base with Amazon Payments today who again confirmed Coolest has not touched my order. They also let me know if Coolest doesn't know how to process a refund (since they haven't processed a single one) they can call Amazon payments by phone and they will process the refund on the spot.

I do understand that with any Kickstarter campaign you do take a risk, but this isn't a campaign that went bust. This is a campaign that paid out over $13 million dollars. This isn't a concept that couldn't get off the ground either, this is a product that is in production and is processing retail orders while they force their backers, the one's who took a chance and believed in Ryan Grepper's dream, to wait.

Just like there's no reason a company can't simply change a shipping address, there's no reason they can't refund an order when they are currently pushing units out the door marked up over 260% more. 

If Ryan Grepper is relying on the funds coming in through the insanely marked up retail units to cover the pledged units owed to campaign backers, with 50-60 thousand pledge units outstanding, isn't that the definition of a ponzi scheme? 

This company may someday fullfill all its backlogged pledge orders, but not in 2015. There will be alot of backers still holding the bag after Christmas and New Years have come and went.