Long story short for those who are missing it….

Refunds are being processed. If you are a backer, check out the last 2 updates and submit the form!!!

Closes on June 30th, 2019

I can only imagine the amount of shocked faces out there. My refund took a month, but I was part of the initial surge. Should be quicker now

After a year of complete silence, they come up with this drivel…….

Kickstarter Backers,

The purpose of this update is to inform you about on two main topics. First is an addition coming to WigWag’s business strategy, which will be prominently displayed on the website. Second is an update on the status of your Rewards. Rest assured, WigWag is still working on delivering the Kickstarter rewards. The good news is that we have contract guaranteed manufacturing resources to deliver those rewards, albeit the process has slowed down some.

In order to remain a viable business, which is a prerequisite for being able to deliver the Kickstarter rewards in the future, we must add a Business to Business (B2B) dynamic to our offering. This will be published to our website in the coming days. The WigWag consumer business will remain; hosted by WigWag.com, and WigWag devices will remain available on the WigWag website. It is yet to be determined if and when we will remove our lighting kit from Amazon.com and other retailers.

In the late fall of 2015, as many of you know, WigWag received investment from Foxconn, a world renowned contract manufacturer. In our negotiations, WigWag fought very hard to lock-in guaranteed manufacturing of these goods, regardless of anything else. Part of the deal enabled WigWag to ensure the manufacturing of the main KickStarter rewards in both KickStarter quantities and specifications. At one point in time, there were over 40 Foxconn people working on WigWag manufacturing. However, partly due to our performance on Amazon, and partly due to a few Kickstarter Backer’s posting negative feedback and misinformation on Amazon (among other sites), Foxconn lost interest in their investment, which substantially hurt re-investment opportunities. The pace and quantity of individuals working on WigWag manufacturing at Foxconn is now greatly reduced. Had all gone to plan, and our online Amazon debut performed as expected, the rewards would have most likely been shipped by now.

Foxconn’s attitude then resulted in a problem with other investors. This in turn forced the Company to find new funding, which included both founders reaching into their remaining savings to pull the Company through. We thank a couple of our angel investors for continuing to help us.

Relays are Manufactured

The Relays needed for the Kickstarter Backers are already manufactured and are now being shipped from Foxconn to Austin, Texas; barring some final paperwork. Sensor block work will start once those Relays clear customs. Rest assured, our contract ensures manufacturing of the Sensor Block. We will continue to produce and deliver Relay and Sensor Block with Foxconn. Should additional funds remain within Foxconn’s budget we will produce other rewards with the remaining Foxconn manufacturing credit.

We know it has been a bumpy ride, and we know at times communication has significantly lacked. Much of this was due to and continues to be as a result of confidentiality agreements, and we ask that you be as understanding of this as possible.

FAQ

Have you shipped or manufactured anything at all?

Yes. At one point we had shipped to nearly every american backer who had filled out the survey in the first three months after it was posted. We have shipped over 200 beta WigWag Relays. We still have some of these we can ship if you send us an email. Foxconn also has built 2000 Relays, but they are not in the US yet.

Will and if so when will I receive my reward?

Yes, but we cannot commit to a date. The Relay’s should arrive within a few months; however, there is no way to guarantee a date until the rewards are clear from customs. We believed that these relays were to be delivered in 2016. After the Relay is through customs we will have the green light for the sensor to be manufactured, which should also deliver in 2017.

What about Glowline, Dev Kit, Presence tags, etc?

We will determine what to do for backers that wanted these rewards at a latter time, most likely when the sensors are ready to ship. We may offer an exchange for sensors at that time. Or at that time, there may be a new path to get these rewards manufactured. We will let you know as soon as we have visibility on this.

Why did you not just ship something and not worry about investment and a company?

In many ways, it would have been easier to shut our doors and post an apology update, explaining where we went wrong and how every dollar was spent, similar to many other kickstarter projects. However we believed we owed it to our backers to do everything in our power in order to stay alive as a company and to deliver your rewards. It would be impossible for us to have delivered WigWag Relay and associated devices, which we could continue to support and have a cloud service for, without having a company. The WigWag Relay and related devices are every bit as complicated and sophisticated as Nest (now hemorrhaging cash in Alphabet), SmartThings (rescued by Samsung), Revolv (bought by Nest barely at valuation), or NinjaBlocks (RIP) or Wink (bankrupt and bought by Flextronics), and a multitude of other home hub companies which are gone. It would have been easier to make a new home router, or build a video game, which is why these home protocol hubs are such a challenge technically and from a company standpoint.

What about refunds?

WigWag is not able to offer any refunds at this time.

Are you guys kidding us?

No, and amazingly we are still around trying our hardest to get WigWag devices off the ground. A year and a half ago, we thought the absolute best path to get your rewards out was forging the investment and manufacturing relationship with Foxconn, and getting it in the contract that they would manufacture rewards. Clearly that backfired on us from a timing standpoint. The good news is they must deliver rewards, but the timeline is not something we can commit. For the rewards to be delivered at all WigWag must continue to be an on-going concern.

Will the WigWag Cloud service continue to run for consumers?

Yes. And the consumer WigWag Relay is not going away either, we will continue to improve the software and sell it. Our B2B Cloud services and consumer Cloud services share the same core software, so working on one, is the same as working on the other.

How can you both improve the consumer version and do this B2B thing?

Because they use the same underlying software: deviceOS / deviceJS. It would otherwise be impossible.

When will you release the source code to the Relay as promised?

Once we fix other more pressing problems, such as figuring out the delivery of rewards. However, while we desperately want to release it, we must make sure we have the man-power to support the community.

I am an experienced developer. Can I get the source to WigWag Relay?

Yes. Send us your github account and we will give you access. We have done this to a few folks already.

I would like a Filament light bulb in exchange for …

At this time, we are not able to offer Filament light bulbs. We do not have any in inventory.

“As always, we invite all of you to join us on WigWag Talk. We have a special badge just for our KS backers. Just let us know here: http://talk.wigwag.com/t/kickstarter-badge/379/28”

But at least you get a cool badge in their forum!

They recently claimed that beta units were being sent out, but we will see. Looks like it will be in 2016 that we get another excuse from this ‘team’

Hi Benji,

Thanks for your response and being active on this site.

Unfortunately, the WigWag team is nearly certainly aware that they have ways of providing a refund, including the “obvious” (i.e., via my method of payment which was through Amazon Payments, of course, for all domestic Backers). They are just being obtuse and evasive.

It would, however, be somewhat helpful if Kickstarter put the conditions for refunds and the methods of refund, in very clear terms on a distinct page … perhaps a “complaints link” on for each Project that tracks the number of Refund Requests!?! — rather than buried in the Terms of Service and unanswered complaint messages.

It is somewhat understandable that Creators cannot issue refunds because they are supposed to be spending all the funding on producing the Project (and its “Rewards”). This concept becomes BS, though, when the Project is funded far above the Goal amount (5x, 10x, 20x even…), and thus the DEVELOPMENT costs should be scaled downwards. Yes… such finances are complicated, and that’s why NO Project should ever be allowed to exceed the Funding Goal — it just leads to more problems, higher risk of failure, and greater impact of failure (more money lost and more Backers disappointed).

I consistently hold Kickstarter at fault here. While they cannot be responsible for solving all the problems involved in every late Project, they could implement much more stringent screening and followup procedures, and, even as this Topic implies, even provide tools to make requesting and granting refunds much easier. They could refund their 5% fee on Projects that have gone poorly (why should Kickstarter profit at the expense of the Backers?). They could figure out ways to hold money in Escrow for periodic release… consider again, that Projects which have reached the funding “Goal” should be able to be completed for this Goal, and all other funds received are bonus and should not be released until the 2nd Production run once all the initial Backers are satisfied with their Rewards.

Quite a concept … accountability!

Thanks,
…T.

Tell them that they are entirely mistaken that there isn’t a mechanism for refunds – it goes through the Amazon Payments system, and officially ends your Backer Status on the project. I have had to request this for two or three stalling projects. Hopefully they will honor your request for a refund then.