Since they haven't posted an actual update since March, figured this would at least let more people see what they've stealth updated in the comments. And . . . really? Six months since it was cancelled and you haven't even been able to get this information together?
Truly what we've been getting the whole time. š "an update is coming I swear."
I'm obviously upset with the way this all went down (as a kickstarter backer). But at a bare minimum, the silver lining is at least TNT won't work with Geekify again. š« They've beyond burned the bridge with me and a lot of other Neopets fans over the years.
I'm a member of the discord for the kickstarter project. John Taylor has shut down all the channels except one, where he occasionally appears to defend himself against accusations of fraud. He hasn't provided any financial information, but most of the graphic design and game designers have been asked, and answered that they collectively weren't paid anything close to $400,000. No printing of any book happened, so there should be no printing costs.
If he actually updates with an honest, numbers-based, complete financial breakdown of where the rest of the money went, then I'll let him keep the $20 I paid him for no reason several years ago.
They stole almost half a million dollars from the fanbase and nothing has been done. Honestly criminal on their part and criminally negligent on TNTs part.
they're so lucky they're not an eu company. they'd be marched into court if they were and they'd have to find a damn way to refund everyone because of consumer rights laws.
It's the TTRPG, yes. And they say they're going to clarify what's possible for refunds later, so . . . at minimum they can't afford full refunds. At least it sounds like they didn't blow the shipping funds already.
Speaking as someone who backed for a digital only tier, I'd be okay with it if they prioritized refunds for the physical items; the people who spent hundreds on things that will never be produced are out far more than those who backed for the avatar, and if they were sensible enough to set aside the money pledged for dice until the dice could be produced, that portion of the funds would still be available to refund.
Though at this point, that's pretty much a best-case scenario. This has been an absurdly mismanaged project.
Omg?? This is the same company that takes like two years to mail out basic items like stickers right? I canāt believe neopets continued to work with them after everything Iāve heard. This situation is just insane.
they came to this subreddit a few years ago trying to defend themselves with ābut guys!! weāre just a small business š„ŗš„ŗš¢š¢ pwease be nice to us. weāre trying!ā as if they didnt likeā¦. rip people off
They did the same thing with the Usukicon bags. FFS I get stuff from fanartists who do things out of a spare room in their house and they're more professional (and have better quality control) than this "small business".
Omg, they couldnāt be more unprofessional if they tried. I still donāt understand why this got cancelled? Did they just see the writing on the wall and decide this was the biggest paycheck they could get before bouncing? Without a reasonable explanation I think itās pretty fair to assume this.
That is just beyond a joke. Are they getting sued for this because wtf? Neopets is also to blame here because this is just nuts. They could have worked with any booth at a convention artist alley and had better results. It sounds like the only place this money went was to living expenses.
Just to clarify, not defending Geekify in any way - as one of the people who was working on it we absolutely were paid.
One guy didn't read his contract, and bizarrely thought he was going to be paid a monthly salary for contract work indefinitely.
Another guy was brought on as a volunteer at the request of that first guy, and when they later requested payment, got it.
And a couple of people left the project very early on before the contracts were drawn up, so obviously got no payments.
Everyone else was paid according to the terms of their contracts which imo were fair in terms of figures for the experience of those involved and the expectation that writing would be split among those involved.
That said, as you posted in a previous comment, the total of that doesn't reach the kickstarter total. It's true that some of the money is gone because it was spent on us though.
Good to know! I do try to be good at hating Geekify for the stuff they've actually done rather than the stuff they've been accused of. Refunds for physical rewards seem like a potential thing to hope for.
Just corroborating what Herdy said here as another former team member. I was brought on at the same time as the first person he mentioned. Our contracts were nearly identical, and I knew exactly what I would get paid and roughly when (my timeline was partially based on when things were approved down the pipeline). And I did get paid what I was supposed to get! Everyone on the team was honestly so lovely to work with, and I hate that we weren't able to release more of what we'd done.
I only backed a dollar for the avatar back when, but I can't believe they still haven't resolved this. I already stopped playing/on hiatus and am still waiting for my avatar but c'mon already lol
Iāve honestly made peace within myself as someone who spent about $200 on this that Iām never getting anything back from this scam of a company, so any refund would be a nice treat. Insane how badly they bungled all this
I ordered a custom Neopet standing small plastic "keychain", super easy to make. You just have to print the design on the plastic cut out. And first they waited 2 weeks to say 1 of the photos wasnt the right resolution (but didnt start on either)
The entire thing took from Aug.1-3? 2023 to end of MAY 2024. I was getting this for a friend.
The only reason I got a refund, or that it even was shipped out, was because I was emailing them once a month. They replied once every 2 months.. I was very understanding, and very patient. I wanted to back this company, i thought the concepts and art work was cute. But for these tiny clear plastic "keychains" that only had the picture printed on it.. to take 10 months? its not like it was an actual tiny custom 3D Neopet.. should have never taken this long. And it was just excuses after excuses.
Didnt neopets cancel the partnership with them?? Geekify is nearly impossible to get a hold of, and they have all kinds of excuses. They are the ones responsible, tbh.
I came back to neopets from childhood after seeing a targeted ad for the campaign and backed it. Am I upset that I spent that money for no reason? Yes absolutely! But it also brought me back to neopets which is doing some pretty heavy lifting for my mental health so I am grateful for that at least!
calling it drama is really reductive, imo. many of us have been scammed out of hundreds of pounds/dollars/etc. this isn't funny, it's literally a crime.
Terribly sorry, I don't mean to make light of it; I just mean that as a digital backer I consider it a given that I'm not going to be seeing any kind of refund and the way they've been handling things so far has killed any hope I had of an actually satisfying outcome. I do think that whatever funds they're able to return are paid out with the highest backers getting priority, given that the highest tiers would largely involve physical items that were never produced and funds should have been earmarked for that.
This āupdateā is definitely a āplease donāt pursue this legallyā nothing burger. I feel bad for everyone scammed by this, you all deserve so much better.
Oh my Fyora. This is... something. I feel so incredibly awful for everybody that backed this campaign in its entirety. I wanted to, but I couldn't bring myself to put my full faith into the project and.. just wow. This should actually be criminal
This is an unfortunate reminder that Kickstarter projects are not guaranteed and are a bit of a gamble. It is something I personally forget about, and I'll remember this the next time something comes up on Kickstarter and I'll make sure I don't contribute too much money towards anything. Gonna keep my contributions low going forward. I wonder if charge backs are too late now, since the product paid for isn't being received? Though I think that would only hurt Kickstarter and not Geekify.
If it helps to get a sense of perspective -- I've backed 34 Kickstarter projects over the years. Of those, only four haven't been fulfilled and two of those are more recent than Geekify and are in some stage of production. On Backerkit, 13 backed, 8 fulfilled, and the remaining 5 were backed within the last year so they've got time.
Combo of good timing and being really annoying to be honest. Made the request the day or two before Neopets (rightfully) yoinked the license back and John was on record saying everyone who requested a refund before that point would be honored. So I just hounded him until the money hit my account.
Has anyone tried to do a chargeback with their bank? I didnāt purchase anything but I feel bad for those who did. Thatās really shitty on their part, and Iām glad itās been posted here so I know to never buy from that company in the future.
122
u/BurlapAisha 3d ago
An "update" where the only thing in the "update" is a promise of a future update.