Stay Classy Palladium

by | Jul 11, 2014

by CaulynDarr


The Admiral is not amused
Man, I sure know how to pick Kickstarters.  This one for Robotech Tactics has turned into a real cluster frak.  One of the implicit understandings of a Kickstarter is that backers get the product first.  We put down money months to years in advance for a product that may or may not live up to expectations.  All because we want to see a cool idea come to life and be part of it.  And, if the implicit promise isn't enough for you, there's also the times when the creators make it explicitly:
In the end, you, our Kickstarter supporters, will be the first to receive a wonderful product that we hope will make you grin and provide endless hours of enjoyment. Thank you for sharing our dream. You, your pledges of support and unbridled enthusiasm are very much appreciated.
Emphasis mine.  So of course what is Palladium doing?  They are planning on selling at Gencon before they ship to backers. 

Ok, technically they are going to start shipping just before traveling to Gencon.  As in, they are leaving 2 guys back at the warehouse to work on shipping 5K backer pledges.    In case you have not gone through a large Kickstarter fulfillment, these typically can take a much larger team a month or more to complete just domestic US shipping.  They might get  3-4 boxes out the door, so it's OK.  "See, we technically shipped to backers first!  We tried our best guys, really."

And not only that but:
Sorry, we can not possibly bring your order with us to Gen Con. This is a much bigger, bulkier product than books. To bring even 100 full orders would fill up several pallets worth of space we just don’t have at our booth.
Most companies that have a fulfillment intersect with a major Con, do allow you to arrange pickup at the convention.  They realize it's kind of a dick move that non-backers get a kickstarted product before the backers.  But hey, Palladium totally wants you to stop by the booth anyway to take a look at the miniatures that wouldn't have been made without you--that you can't have, sorry.

We're Sorrrrryyyy
Backers are pretty much nothing.  We don't get any guaranties or consumer protections, and we aren't technically investors either.  So we don't have any rights really.  But there is a universal rule to business.  If you piss off the people who give you money, they won't give you any more money.  I really hope that pissing of 5K backers is worth the immediate profits of selling to a few hundred people at Gen Con.  And you know a good chunk of those will just get posted to Ebay the next day.

It's not that I'm upset that someone else is getting their war dollies before me.  It's the principle.  I don't like companies that lie to me.  It's that Palladium has not kept a single promise to their backers--who gave them over 1.4 million to make this game happen. That they are generally condescending as all hell when they communicate to us.  Read all of that first link; they talk to us like we're five year olds.  And they love making it sound like they are doing us a favor for stuff out of their control like:
Only a few hundred people will get the product before our highly valued Kickstarter supporters at Gen Con. We will not be offering Kickstarter exclusives at Gen Con.
Emphasis original.  There will be no Kickstarter exclusives to sell, because they where all put into the second wave, that isn't getting manufactured yet, and no one will probably see any of for another 8 months(if ever).  Much smoke was blown up many asses.  

Then they try to hide behind how hard everything is.  We as the backers just don't realize how complicated and technical it all is.  The other dozen or so kickstarters that funded to that level and shipped successfully seemed to handle it without bitching about how haaaarrrd everything was. Maybe how hard it was going to be should have been something they thought about before taking nearly one and half million dollars from us.  I guess it's the backers fault really.  It was still the halcyon days of the early big gaming Kickstarters. Before we figured out that there is zero creator accountability built into the system.

They also refused refunds due to the lateness.  Something that is not guaranteed, but other late companies have done for their backers as a matter of basic customer service.  I'm glad that I kept my pledge on this one to a reasonable level.  I feel bad for all the guys that did throw $400 plus into this.    

This whole Kickstarter has been a train wreck since it funded.  It went from being 98% percent done, might start shipping early, to you get half your stuff 6 months late, then 8 months late, then finally after some random yahoos at Gencon.  And the quality has gotten questionable.  The seams and detail on the figures has fallen short of expectations.  And they can't blame PVC for this one, since they are doing injection molded ABS.   

The whole thing could be moot.  The timeline they have for getting the stuff from China is pretty optimistic, and Palladium has not been able to hit an estimated timeline since taking our money.   I'm actually wishing a customs hold up hits them with a nice 2-3 week delay so they miss Gencon altogether.  

And if people want to say, "Well it's Kickstarter, what did you expect."  My only recourse as a backer is to rant on a blog or sue.  Lawyers are expensive.  So, I rant 

I guess someone has to keep GW from being the worst company in the industry.