posted 06-05-2019 03:43 AM               

Kickstarter's Terms of Use legally require creators to fulfil all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfil.

Money is transferred directly from backers' credit cards to the project creator's Amazon Payments account. It's up to the creator to issue a refund, which they can do through their Amazon Payments account. (Like PayPal, Amazon Payments allows refunds for 60 days from the date of charge. After 60 days, creators cannot reverse the same charge to backers' credit cards, so to issue refunds they'll need to initiate a new transaction to send money via Amazon Payments or PayPal, send backers a check, or use another method.

posted 06-17-2019 10:17 AM               

I truly hope you get some resolution. I'm sure they can sort this out, I just don't understand why they aren't!

Without anything to compare it to I'd say the quality was pretty good. The placement of the meatball is further away from the zip than I would like, and the pockets seem to be placed similarly further around the sides, away from the zip than I can see in photos, but overall its OK.

Clearly Jayhawk have a huge pile of jackets, they just need to reconcile them with their backers. I'm average height (5'11) and build, and ordered a medium, which fits well.

posted 06-18-2019 03:22 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Greggy_D:
My current theory: they are waiting to sell the jackets to secondary buyers in order to raise the funds to refund the original buyers.

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posted 06-18-2019 04:54 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by JohnSpaceUK:
Why aren't they trying to link the stock they have to the backers?

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posted 06-21-2019 01:38 PM               

If they're selling them for a fraction of they could have gotten originally, that could only mean some kind of deal had to be made for the original backers at that higher rate?

posted 07-31-2019 03:59 AM               

I took my jacket to my local embroidery business recently to have the meatball relocated. We had a long discussion about the jacket and they thought that it would be possible to make a jacket if they had the patterns.

I have reached out to Jayhawk to see if they can advise where to get patterns, but does anyone here know how to obtain a set?

posted 09-21-2019 02:26 AM               

However, when it arrived, I disliked the way it looked on me. I normally wear neutral colors, and the blue just "popped" too much. The jacket was well made, but just not my style. So I decided to sell it. By that point, my size had sold out at JMT, so I decided to sell it for $189 instead of the $120 or so I paid. It'd help cover eBay fees, and make me feel like it wasn't a complete waste of time.

A few weeks later, I was at SpaceFest and I saw the Luna Replicas jacket. I immediately realized why I disliked the JMT version, and it's because their color was off. These jackets are supposed to be a dull, industrial shade of blue. But the JMT version is more of a baby-blue. I ended up buying the Luna jacket, and I adore it. It really is a huge difference.

If you don't mind the vivid blue, the JMT jacket is actually really nice. Not as accurate, but a great alternative for the price. And one could probably remove the NASA patch, put it in some hot water with a bit of gray fabric dye, and dull the color down to a more neutral state.

Here are some photos for comparison:

I'm sorry if my eBay listing was insulting to anyone. I know that I'd be frustrated if I got ripped off, then saw someone else with a jacket I'd paid for. Had I known at the time, I wouldn't have given JMT the money.

It makes me wonder if this was an elaborate scam all along, exploiting the fact that Kickstarter legally allows sellers to keep money on failed campaigns. It's actually a shockingly easy thing to exploit:

1. Create a Kickstarter listing for an item, selling hundreds of copies.

2. Add a trivial inaccuracy to the design of the item (in this case, a zipper pull on the wrong side).

3. After receiving the items, declare the Kickstarter campaign a failure because of the inaccuracy. Even if the buyers still want the item, refuse to ship any, and instead make vague references to future refunds. Kickstarter will not actually require you to give these refunds, because the buyers accepted the risk. Legally, you can keep the money, and so you do.

4. Sell the items on your website, making a double profit.

posted 09-23-2019 12:32 PM               

With regards to the jacket, I have just received mine back from the embroidery shop with the meatball and Velcro patch relocated and a Gemini 7 patch added to the right shoulder. Along with my Lovell name tag I think it looks amazing, and it just hangs better. I had plenty of positive comments at a recent space event which was the first outing.

posted 09-23-2019 01:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by hbw60:
It's actually a shockingly easy thing to exploit...

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posted 09-23-2019 07:32 PM               

Of course, if a seller does something demonstrably fraudulent, it's possible to sue them. A few years ago, I saw an article about a man who raised almost a million dollars, used the money to pay off his debts and buy personal items, and never even attempted to produce the items. In that case, there was demonstrable fraud, and there were enough victims to pursue a lawsuit.

But in this case, the money clearly was used to produce jackets. So it'd be nearly impossible to legally prove it was fraudulent. And because they're now selling the jackets at a discount, they can legally claim that the jackets didn't meet the promised goals of the Kickstarter campaign.

And with only 55 backers, there's not much of a threat of a lawsuit anyway. I doubt anyone wants to get dragged into legal proceedings for a slim chance at a $200 refund.

That being said, I suppose it's possible that the seller really will make things right. Back in 2015, I paid $750 to help finish Orson Welles' final film. For that price, I was promised my name in the credits, plus the Blu-Ray, plus posters, plus a book and other items. A few months after the campaign, things fell apart with the copyright, and the backers refused to answer emails or provide refunds. It looked like we all lost. But years later, Netflix suddenly funded the film and bought the rights, gaining full copyright. A year later, the film was completed and my name was in the credits. A few weeks ago, my posters arrived. And even though Netflix doesn't make Blu-Rays of their films, they're making a small amount for the backers, to fulfill a promise that was made before they even got involved. It's supposedly going to be a while. And I still don't have the book or the other promised perks yet. But 5 years later, they're actually starting to make it happen.