In the course of 2016 thingCHARGER had a series of financial challenges and as a result ceased operations in Q4 2016.
In the final week of 2016 founder Seymour Segnit wrote to all supporters and invited them to watch the video above, which explains in detail what happened.
He also invited everyone to complete a survey – asking whether they should take the lessons of thingCHARGER and start over – or not.
The results are published below.
In summary a large majority of backers – 84.5% – voted to start over with a new company, using all the lessons of the past 3 years to make a second attempt at creating a great charging company.
As a result Amy & Seymour have formed a new company and are working on a new project.
Backer Survey Results
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Q&A
How many thingCHARGERs did you ship?
Over 1/4 million chargers to over 70,000 individuals.
But you didn't ship me?
thingCHARGER's Indiegogo campaign was one of the largest ever at the time, and went on to many times the size after Indiegogo. Most folks were shipped, but when a project/company of that size fails the number of unshipped folks was considerable. By far the majority were shipped, or refunded... Most everyone who wasn't shipped or refunded was invited to collect their perks but did not respond to the invitation before the company failed.
Can I get a refund?
Sorry. Previously yes, but not any more. thingCHARGER Inc ultimately failed and closed because it ran out of money. In good measure that was because of trying to do the right thing and offer refunds to backers who became impatient waiting for the product to ship. Over $1million was sent in refunds in this way and each refund wiped out the benefit of 4 or 5 other supporters. (That last part is important. Around 1 in 10 folks insisted on a refund, wiping out the benefit to thingCHARGER of 4 or 5 out of 10. Around half of all support was spoilt like this).
What about putting my $ towards the new product?
thingCHARGER Inc closed down and with it so did its obligations. The new company is completely separate so cannot assume thingCHARGERs debts and obligations.
However
Generous discounts, in most cases of greater $ value than old thingCHARGER contributions have been offered to all backers of the new project. Please check your email for 'Seymour' if you haven't seen any of the dozens of emails sent to backers since November 2016.