Creator: Ephiphany Labs (Tommy Joseph), Tazewell, Virginia
Date funded: 4/6/2013
# backers: 1175
Amount: $132,739
Absolute scam.
Project started over 1 year ago with the promise of a working USB charger powered by a stirling engine powered solely by heat disparities.
Since then:
Not one meaningful update
Not one photo
Not one progress report about the actual project.
They took in over $133,000 with 1,175 backers.
19 Comments
Coming up on the 2 year anniversary of their last update (July 31st, 2015.) Here is the pathetic part…
“During the coming months …. you can expect more communication from us, including direct, personal responses to everyone who has raised a concern about our company or our intentions over the past two years. We will also be releasing a series of technical documents explaining the technology behind the onE Puckand where it is going from here.”
24 months have gone by and not shred of decency from the scam artists.
Also an interesting fact….
Project launched February 2013 – In that time frame since, the next freshman class to start high school in the US has just graduated.
Half of the Updates were posted during the actual campaign (First 2 months)
5 Updates happened in 2013 after the campaign.
The last 2 updates happened in 2014 and 2015.
@Johnny Maxwell , July 15, 2017
Even though I received a refund because the project is fraudulent, there are scores of others who have not and have been left in the dark.
The most frustrating part is that they used a military officers name-in-vain to support this project.
Retired 3 Star General Gus Pagonis, Epiphany Chairman…
WHAT A COWARD!!! I AM MILITARY AND WANT TO KICK THIS COWARDS REAREND!!
Maybe by posting General Gus Pagonis’ name we can get some answers! I mean, if this loser and coward steps forward!
Bring it Gus! Pansy.
@Johnny Maxwell , June 25, 2016
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2015/08/13/Crowdfunders-such-as-those-for-Epiphany-s-onE-Puck-grow-impatient/stories/201508130045
āIām not in the business of ripping people off,ā Mr. Joseph said. – He should be, business would be good!
Mr. Joseph said he will be reaching out to backers who have raised concerns, and will provide more timely updates on the onE Puck project. – When does this start? No updates since then and he never talked to me before refunding me.
@Johnny Maxwell , October 23, 2015
Whoa. I wasn’t expecting the fraudsters to give in so soon…..
“You received a refund of $99.00 from Epiphany Laboratories on Aug 25, 2015.”
I did not ask for one, but was given it and kicked out of the project. Thanks I guess!
@Johnny Maxwell , August 25, 2015
The claim that backers might receive a refund due to the possibility of a deal with a large company was just aother lie. There was never any intent to build this product, and certainly no intention of offering a refund.
@hunsford , March 29, 2015
Even though this website is now totally screwed up and worthless, this project is still a $100k scam.
@AgentAnderson , July 6, 2014
I just contacted KS yet again since it has been 3 months since their last “forced” update. We will see if they stop by and give us more run around.
@AgentAnderson , June 12, 2014
Also got ripped off by these guys. Ripped the t-shirt into cleaning rags, trying to make that $115 bucks back.
@dchessin09 , June 5, 2014
I got ripped off Also
@Taylor4034 , May 29, 2014
Thanks for the updates everyone. I’ll be adding this project’s creator to the knowledge base. Let’s make sure they never scam anyone ever again.
by Support Staff , May 6, 2014
My experience with Epiphany has been as described above. Also a backer at the $99 + $15 international shipping level (I live in Montreal, Canada).
Didn’t get my t-shirt and stickers until after I had mentioned it on the forum.
I asked several times via comments to the (rather small number of) updates for pictures of a “productive mess” or any kind of non-secret-disclosing progress report that doesn’t take a long time to do (since of course everyone is very very busy, right?). And nothing.
There has been absolutely no meaningful communication from Tom Jospeh / Epiphany since he got his money. I would certainly go through the pain of mailing out 1100 t-shirts and stickers if there was a $130k payday at the end.
Of course, for $130k, I would also spend my every waking moment working on a stirling engine, but that bit seems to have escaped mister Joseph.
I feel like an old X-Files poster… “I want to believe”
/Jason
@jtaylor , May 5, 2014
Hi
I was a backer too of the $113, and did have the worlds expensive t shirt with sticker pack, could be around somewhere. It was too good or bad to be true. I doubt I’ll ever see my money back as I am in the uk and the banking system is different.
It’s starting to make me wary of funding others. Also waiting on the expander rucksack and the windy up battery.
@powerslave , April 30, 2014
well this is definitely a scam, would love to hear if anybody can help us.
@lordvan , April 29, 2014
And some people never received their $99/115/135 T-shirt and sticker!
@AgentAnderson , April 28, 2014
I’m also a onE Puck backer, and agree that there have been no evidence of any project progress in over 12 months.
@threadbear , April 26, 2014
Also very disalusioned – it was my first ever kickstarter, a present for someone and at the time $130 was a lot of money for me.
Sent this message to the project creator, no reply:
Hello Tommy, I’m one of your Kickstarter investors, and I have to write – even though you already know all of what I’m going to say, that being that your handling of this whole thing is completely unacceptable. My and the other investors money helped you get to where you are now with the product, so to not honour that because big business might now be interested in the product is despicable. Thinking that we could be placated by offering us a refund is either misguided or delusional, as that equals using us for a 0% loan that we did not agree to.
All throughout this process, delivering the onepuck to us on time should have been your first priority – we could have signed confidentiality agreements to not give away any design features of the product before it went to market, or you could have included us in a plan which told us what was going on with a predicted date of the soonest you could get the product to us. You could have celebrated the point we had helped you get to. That’s the right thing to do. Instead you left it until the deadline before confirming what most of us were beginning to suspect, that you don’t care about us and have no intention of fulfilling the contract we agreed on.
Please realise that what you are engaging in is incredibly bad business practice, and the resulting noise we would make should things not change will damage yours and your company’s reputation. We are not the 2% that you mentioned in your update, we are the 100% of people whose good faith and trust you are threatening to break.
Sincerely,
Lee Lester
@LeePL , April 17, 2014
I am also a backer of this project that never took off. The previous statements made by others here are true. No information whatsoever has been released about their puck.
@AgentAnderson , April 17, 2014
Same here – the technology was a longshot to begin with- Stirling engines are notoriously finicky to design and build, but there is absolutely zero evidence that Epiphany Labs actually had any intent on even trying to make it work.
The project updates read like a fairytale – or delusion. I did, however, get my tee-shirt – which seems to be more than most! š
@JDriggers , April 17, 2014
Thanks for reporting this. I hadn’t heard of this one. I’d love to hear from a few more backers and I’ll merge the creator into the knowledge base of blacklisted individuals and companies.
by Support Staff , April 16, 2014
Comments are closed.