Kokoon, a technology design company that is trying to make sleeping headphones, are now claiming that their first shipment is 'almost sold out' on a FB sales pitch meant to persuade people to buy more headphones.
UPDATE 24 Oct 2018- A few headphones have now arrived with the KS crowd so at least they do exist. More on their way so hopefully for Crowdcube backers the chances of the company closing have diminished.
https://kokoon.io/product-buy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=retargetingIn fact Kokoon sold this first shipment (just a few hundred sets) over 3 years ago on Kickstarter, when it took in more than $1.9m in pre sales from almost 8,500 backers. Since then they have raised £1.65m on Crowdcube to cover the costs of making these pre sold sets. However as I write only a handful of samples have been despatched. Money put into the company now, generated by this new sales push, will go backwards to make up for the shortfall of capital required to make the product they have already sold. It's kicking the can gone mad. Losses (£1.1m for 2017) are mounting as the company waits to clear the backlog of pre paid orders.
And the product hasnt even passed muster yet. Watching this shanbles unfold. It seems obvious that there will be large teething problems with the first second and third batches and that the backlog will not be cleared in 2019. So their shipping estimate on FB is a joke.
This is a clear breach of any rules there might be for promoting your sales - you simply cannot lie to people.
It makes you worried for those Crowdcube investors stupid enough to put money into this company - even if it was only to get a set of headphones to help them sleep. Headphones seem hard to come by, as the 3000 plus comments on KS, will confirm. Refunds are being issued but are not being received; or so it would appear. Who is paying for those?
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