Brixo - crowdfunding or "crowdscamming"
As I see no other easy place to express my frustrations, let me try to tell the story of a little outfit called BRIXO.
BRIXO defines three types of bricks: trigger blocks (e.g. sensors), connector blocks (conducting bricks) and action blocks (e.g. a light).
This can result into some cool stuff:
A time line, taken from their Kickstarter site shows the original plan:
During the spring of 2016, a crowdfunding campaign was launched on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Due to positive reviews on lots of tech sites, I decided to become a contributor (backer) on Indiegogo for 74 dollars in exchange for the Standard Kit. That was in September 2016.
The Kickstarter site still lists all the kits:
While on the Indiegogo site, some kits have been removed and new ones showed up:
As you can see, the Standard and Expert Kits were removed and the Inventor, Creator, Maker , Genius and Master Kits were added.
You see the same kits on their own website.
Then finally on May 25, 2017:
Then:
On January 8, 2018 I got the following e-mail:
Nothing got shipped and they did not reply to my e-mails.
So what happened here
< to be continued>
The beginning
According to their Kickstarter website it all started in the summer of 2015, when some people got a brilliant idea of making electrical circuits connected to Bluetooth with some kind of LEGO compatible bricks. Not like LEGO's offering in the form of Technic or Mindstorm, but bricks connected without wires, using Bluetooth (wireless) control or power via conducting bricks.BRIXO defines three types of bricks: trigger blocks (e.g. sensors), connector blocks (conducting bricks) and action blocks (e.g. a light).
This can result into some cool stuff:
A time line, taken from their Kickstarter site shows the original plan:
During the spring of 2016, a crowdfunding campaign was launched on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Due to positive reviews on lots of tech sites, I decided to become a contributor (backer) on Indiegogo for 74 dollars in exchange for the Standard Kit. That was in September 2016.
The Kickstarter site still lists all the kits:
While on the Indiegogo site, some kits have been removed and new ones showed up:
As you can see, the Standard and Expert Kits were removed and the Inventor, Creator, Maker , Genius and Master Kits were added.
You see the same kits on their own website.
Then finally on May 25, 2017:
I kind of had forgotten that I had contributed 74 dollars to a crownfunding campaign, but I started to get a little excited about this.**Shipping has begun**
Dear Backers,
It's been an exciting week! Kits have been sent to Chicago and are awaiting clearance from U.S. customs, then they're onto warehouse stocking and fulfillment.
Production is in full force and more kits will hit our Chicago hub in 2-3 week increments, all shipped via air as promised.
With the BackerKit system, you'll receive a tracking number and invoice once your kit has been shipped from Chicago to its final destination. Our customer support folks will be monitoring support@brixotoys.com and the KS message board to help with any questions that arise.
As an added bonus--beyond what we've given each of you already--each kit also includes a pair of crocodile clip cables for debugging purposes, and a small Philips head screwdriver to open and close the battery case. Each kit also contains a user manual with basic instructions, operating guidelines and model building suggestions.
Our next post (coming very soon) will share details on the two apps we've created: one for controlling and programming your BRIXO creations, and another to provide you with more model building instructions.
We can't wait to see what you'll create! Please share photos/videos with us and we'll post them on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram accounts so the whole BRIXO community can see them. Sharing is caring, and you deserve to bask in some glory!
Checkout this link to see a production line video taken in the factory before kits were packaged and sent. Seeing the production line is kinda cool. :)
https://youtu.be/qVlE_55hky4
Have a wonderful week,
Gil, Boaz, Amir and the BRIXO team
Then:
- On June 14, the same Gil reported a customs delay.
- On June 17, all was ok
- On July 5, they claimed thousands of Kickstarter backers received their orders. Indiegogo backers and the rest of the Kickstarter backers would be handled in a second wave. However, there were issues with a battery compartment lid.
- On August 21, they claimed all 1st and 2nd wave kits had been shipped. The decided to split up the logistics into parts. According to a spreadsheet on Google Docs, I should be in the 1st wave. My order number on Indiegogo is 1351.
- On August 29, there were issues with a Typhoon causing delays in the shipping.
- On September 20, they claimed 8000 kits had been shipped. I still did not receive anything, though I was supposed to be in the first wave.
- On October 20, they claimed 90% of the backers received their stuff and they were receiving the final production run.
- On November 20, they mentioned a final wave of shipments.
- On December 30, they all wished us happy holidays.
On January 8, 2018 I got the following e-mail:
Nothing got shipped and they did not reply to my e-mails.
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