One of the most challenging aspects of rewards based crowdfunding are the all too frequent delays in product deliver. There is a blurry line where backers, frustrated by extended delays and potentially lost funds, assume fraud versus a struggling young company attempting to hit unrealistic goals.
vrAse, an Edinburgh, Scotland based startup, ventured into the crowdfunding well last year. In October of 2013, the company raised just over £66,000 on Kickstarter from 782 backers for their “smartphone virtual reality case”. The product was scheduled to ship earlier in 2014 but that deadline has come and gone. Backers are quite understandably unhappy by delays and most certainly the reason that Action Fraud, the United Kingdom’s national fraud and internet crime unit were called in to investigate. In a report from BBC, the company called Eyedak behind the vrAse goggles, was investigated by the fraud unit before it was turned over to Scotland Police.
The CEO of Eyedak, Miguel Schiaffino, was quoted in the report stating;
“The reason for this investigation was a claim from some of our backers due to the delay in the delivering of the units they have to receive after supporting the campaign.
“We are a really small start up with limited resources, so we are not able to speed up the project as much as we would like.”
“Fortunately, we’re about to start industrial production and our supporters will start enjoying their devices soon.”
The authorities state that Eyedak is cooperating fully and things remain under investigation. The Police state that Eyedak is “fully cooperating”. Meanwhile the most recent update on the Kickstarter campaign was from September 19, 2014.
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