GrowlerWerks LLC

As per our most recent KickStarter update outlined, as a start-up we have experienced delays and challenges though out the development of the uKeg.  These delays have impacted our fulfillment of rewards, for our KickStarter backers that pledged for the uKeg 128.  The uKeg 128 is not yet in...

full production, so there are not any product quality issues associated with product as described in this complaint.  We did have some early issues with the uKeg 64, but as we have explained on our How To page, Blog and KickStarter page, these issues were quickly addressed and corrected in production.  In addition, our service team has been servicing any issues with the uKeg 64 that we gotten by our inspections or from early production.  The challenges described above are not uncommon for any start-up to experience.
Per KickStarter, it is our goal to delivery rewards to all our backers.  The uKeg 128 will soon be in full production.  As we explained in our KickStarter update posted in April, we have been thrown a few more challenges (not related to production), that may slow our delivery to backers, but our goal is to deliver all rewards to our backers who pledged.
In regards to refunds, providing refunds to some backers undermines our ability to deliver rewards to other backers who are waiting to receive their rewards.  We apologize for any frustration or challenges this has caused backers.  We want to assure you that we are doing everything in our power to fulfill our obligations to you and all KickStarters.  This question was also addressed in our update posted on Dec 10th, 2015.
Thank you again for your patience and understanding.
GrowlerWerks

[redacted],
Once again, we are sorry for your frustration.
Our goal remains to deliver all rewards to all our KickStarters.  We agree we have some unexpected challenges and have had to make some tough decisions because of those challenges.  We do believe, the decisions we have made, even though not embraced by every backer equally, is the best path to ensure we deliver ALL rewards to ALL backers.     
Our goal is to have a long term relationship with our backers and be able to get this challenge behind us.  That is the commitment we made when we decided to participate as a project on KickStarter.  Their was no guarantee of success for the project.  As a team we wish we had other options at this time, but we simply don't and in order to ensure success in producing and delivery rewards for ALL our backers we have chosen the direction explained in the KickStarter update.
We hope we are successful in the direction that we have taken, so we can begin delivering uKeg 64 and uKeg 128 to ALL our backers.  All we can do, is best explain our situation and thank for your initial support and patience.  We do cherish our KickStarters and hope to be successful and have a long term relationship with them.
Sincerely,
GrowlerWerks

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Sincerely, [redacted]

Dear KickStarter Backer.
 
In regards to refunds, providing refunds to some backers undermines our ability to deliver rewards to other backers who are waiting to receive their rewards.  We apologize for any frustration or challenges this has caused backers.  We want to assure you that we are doing everything in our power to fulfill our obligations to you and all KickStarters.  This question was also addressed in our update posted on Dec 10th, 2015.
 
The KickStarter platform provides guidelines to projects participating on KickStarter and to any potential backer considering pledging and the relationship between backers, pledges and rewards.  As was mentioned above, although the journey has taken longer than we have anticipated, our goal is to fulfill our obligations to deliver rewards to all our backers.
 
 
Thank you again for your support, patience and understanding.
 
GrowlerWerks

After my original response through the Revdex.com website the business contacted me through email and resolved the issue. I have received confirmation that the products have been shipped and they should arrive in the next couple days. 
 
Thank you for all your help.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
You stated:
To give refunds would undermine the success and funding of the project for All backers.  We do apologize if we have not gotten back to you individually about a refund request.  It it is not uncommon that we provide policy updates to all our backers though our KickStarter updates.  The policy of no refunds for pledges on rewards is something we have communicated consistently over the past 6 months. 
 
My response:
 
That is correct, you do communicate your policy through KickStarter updates.  However, you are aware that for sometime KickStarter updates were sparse and contained limited information.  Yes, you have consistently communicated this more over the past 6 months but let me remind you that around that time is when you MADE THE BUSINESS DECISION to supply wholesale and retail customers before fulfilling KickStarter backers of the 64.  I know... I backed a 128 but that decision pushed us further back.  The second you MADE THE BUSINESS DECISION to do that your refund policy no longer means anything.  You are not fulfilling your commitment to the people, KickStarter backers, who gave you this opportunity.  Additionally, you did not, to my knowledge, share that policy at the point of purchase nor did you share your contractual or legal commitment to provide retail and wholesalers product by a certain date regardless of your ability to fulfill backers.  At the time of my backer purchase I was not made aware of your refund policy or your commitment to retail and wholesalers.  If I am wrong please point me in the direction where that was posted (with a date).  I apologize if I missed it.  It would not change my request for a refund if I am wrong.
 
You stated:
 
Our goal is to have a long term relationship with our backers and be able to get this challenge behind us.  That is the commitment we made when we decided to participate as a project on KickStarter.  At that time and still today, there is no guarantee of the success our project or any KS project.  
My response:
 
You will fail at this goal.  I don't mean to sound crass but you should know this.  You have some people out there that are satisfied with you but have you looked at the comments page of your Kickstarter campaign, read your emails and browsed your Facebook comments?  How can you have a long term, even short term, relationship with backers when you MADE THE BUSINESS DECISION to allow retail and wholesale customers to receive their product before backers?  People who are this frustrated with a business will not have a short or long term relationship with you other than to continue to try to get their purchased product or a refund.
 
You stated:
 
In regards to your specific pledge and rewards, the uKeg 128, that product has not delivered to the marketplace yet commercially.  We have delivered the uKeg 64 to both backers and the commercial market place as we have explained in the updates.  The uKeg 128 commercially will be sold in the market at a MSRP of $199.00.  This varies differently from the pledge of a KickStarter for this same reward.   
My response:
 
You are correct about the difference between retail and what I purchased.  The difference is that people willing to pay that much actually have a product 2 weeks (or less) after they pay for it.  Where did it say that at the time of purchase at the price of $129 (or whatever it is) you might experience an 18 month wait (and counting) for your product with questionable communication, a no refund policy and an ability for retail and wholesalers to jump ahead of you in receiving product?  Did I miss that at the time of my purchase?  I know you cannot predict the future and manufacturing is a beast in and of itself.  But, your failure to recognize your backers complaints and honor their commitment to you has made this a transaction that I must terminate.  You MADE YOUR BUSINESS DECISION and now I am making mine.
Refund please.
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:they have chosen to not honor the kickstarter backers that paid 1 year and half ago.and are instead filling orders for people that can currently order one,at a higher price.Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  You have given no time frame or information that is reliable.   Every update to backers is as vague as possible and the backers that have managed to get a ukeg is completely random at best.   If you at least posted actual shipping backer numbers or met even one goal you set then maybe backers wouldn't feel like they have to fight for there money or product.   My credit card company is waiting on my go ahead for a refund.  Some backers have already been successful.  I would prefer my ukeg even if it's just stainless and not copper.  I like all other backers would prefer real communication.  I reached out to you via email and waited 5 weeks before contacting Revdex.com and like almost all other backers never even got a auto reply.  
Sincerely,[redacted]

Mr [redacted] product is currently back ordered and is schedule to arrive and be delivered during the month of May 2016.
Our records show that he contacted us through our customer service portal on April 12, 2016 and April 14, 2016.  We delayed responding since we getting our latest delivery...

information and are about to send a mass update to all our On Line Customers regarding delivery dates.  That communication is planned for early next week.  We will reply to Mr [redacted] independently today.

Hey [redacted],
Sorry that know has responded to your request.
I did find your ticket #[redacted] and one of our customer service team members will be getting back to you in the next couple days.  We can change your uKeg 128 copper plated reward to a uKeg 64 stainless steel.  I could not find...

your other ticket in my search, but it does not mean it does not exist.  I am just limited to the information I have available to me at this time.  In regards to refunds, due to the structure of how a KickStarter project and campaign is structured and our goal and determination to fulfill ALL rewards for ALL our Kickstarter backers, we can not offer a refund.  But we can address your request to change your reward.  
Please look for some to respond to you with more details in the next couple days.
Thanks for your support as a KickStarter.
GrowlerWerks

Dear [redacted],
 
Our goal remains to deliver all rewards to all our KickStarters.  We agree we have had some unexpected challenges and because of that, we have had to make some tough decisions.  We do believe, the decisions we have made, even though not embraced by every backer...

equally, is the best path to ensure we deliver ALL rewards to ALL backers.  
 
To give refunds would undermine the success and funding of the project for All backers.  We do apologize if we have not gotten back to you individually about a refund request.  It it is not uncommon that we provide policy updates to all our backers though our KickStarter updates.  The policy of no refunds for pledges on rewards is something we have communicated consistently over the past 6 months. 
 
Our goal is to have a long term relationship with our backers and be able to get this challenge behind us.  That is the commitment we made when we decided to participate as a project on KickStarter.  At that time and still today, there is no guarantee of the success our project or any KS project.  
 
But our goal is to make it succeed.  
We just posted a new KS update today, July 11, 2016.
 
In regards to your specific pledge and rewards, the uKeg 128, that product has not delivered to the marketplace yet commercially.  We have delivered the uKeg 64 to both backers and the commercial market place as we have explained in the updates.  The uKeg 128 commercially will be sold in the market at a MSRP of $199.00.  This varies differently from the pledge of a KickStarter for this same reward.   
 
We hope we are successful in the direction that we have taken, so we can begin delivering uKeg 64 and uKeg 128 to ALL our backers.  
 
All we can do, is best explain our situation and thank for your initial support and patience.  We do cherish our KickStarters and hope to be successful and have a long term relationship with them.
 
Sincerely,
 
GrowlerWerks

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
GrowlerWerks reselling products already purchased by backers is not acceptable.  GrowlerWerks should use their own private fund or take out business loans for a second round of funding for this product.  Their mismanagement does not grant them the right to violate their agreement with the Kickstarter backers.
The products being sold to retail companies have already been fully paid for by backers of the kickstarter project.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Dear GrowlerWerks Customer,
 
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We were gathering the most up to date information for an update we just sent out this past weekend to all our GrowlerWerk Online Customers.  Hopefully you received the update.  
 
I am not sure which...

uKeg 64 you may have purchased (stainless or copper plated), but the status on delivery are both addressed below.  If you had a uKeg 64 stainless steel on order, and not received it, their is a chance it may have not shipped because it was a partial order.  Please contact us via our Contact Page with your order number:  www.growlerwerks.com/pages/contact
 
We do apologize for the long delay it took getting these products to market and we appreciated your patience.  I hope the information below provides you the information you needed.  If not, please reach us through our website.  We have put some systems in place to improve our response times to your questions and to better serve you.   We do receive a higher volume of inquires after we post these updates, but we are working hard to get back to you.
 
[redacted] from recent Update:
 
We appreciate your patience as we’ve been working hard to build and ship your uKeg orders.  We wanted to update you on uKeg production and shipping:
We have shipped almost all uKeg 64 Stainless Steel pre-orders.  We expect to ship uKeg 64 Copper units in May and June.  The world’s first uKeg 128’s are production ready.  Please find more details below:
 
uKeg 64 Pre-Orders
We have shipped stainless steel uKeg 64 pressurized growlers to our pre-order customers for all orders received prior to January 2016.  If you pre-ordered a stainless steel uKeg 64 prior to that date, and you have not received it, please contact us via our Contact Page with your order number:  www.growlerwerks.com/pages/contact
 
 
uKeg 64 Copper
Our current shipment of the first copper-plated uKeg 64 is expected to arrive by the end of April.  In the month of May, we will be shipping copper-plated units to all customers who placed orders prior to December 2015.  For orders that were placed during or after Dec’15, we expect to ship your copper-plated uKeg in June.
 
uKeg 128’s
The world’s first pressurized one-gallon growlers are ready for production.  We recently received and approved production uKeg 128’s.  Check out the video below.  These beauties look and work great, and hold 8x pints of your favorite beer.  With twice the volume of a uKeg 64, the uKeg 128 is twice the fun to share or keep beer fresh, cold and carbonated.  We expect to ship all uKeg 128 stainless steel orders in July and August.  We expect to receive and ship all uKeg 128 Copper

Hi,
I am Shawn H[redacted], one of founders of GrolwerWerks. We ran a Kickstartercampaign to crowdfund a project to bring a new, never before made product to the market.
We have been working diligently since our project was funded on Dec 7, however,...

we experienced unexpected production delays.  Developing the manufacturing process with our contract factories and suppliers took much longer than we expected or planned.  As we proceeded, we also discovered quality problems that needed to be resolved to produce working products.  Unfortunately, this resulted in delays from the original schedule we presented during our campaign
Schedule delays are an unforeseen risk and challenge, and we explained this was a possibility during our Kickstartercampaign.  We wanted to stick to our originalschedule and we've worked with that goal in mind, but, as we have learned, production of a new product can take much longer than planned.
We apologize this timeline has exceeded our original goal.  We realize that many backers are as frustrated as we have been with the delays.  We remain committed to delivering the rewards that our backers selected when they pledged, and honoring Kickstarter's terms and conditions (https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use).  We have striven to keep our backers updated with updates on progress and production status every four to six weeks.
We are currently delivering rewards to the backers of our campaign.  We are not currently offering refunds of pledges because we are still in the process of delivering rewards.  Providing refunds would reduce the available funding for the project, and thus could undermine the success of the overall project for the other backers who pledged. Upon request, we are offering backers the ability to change their rewards selection to rewards of similar value to receive them sooner (example uKeg 64 from uKeg 128).
We appreciate your understanding as we remain committed and we are working diligently.  If you have questions about the status of your rewards you can always contact us by email at [email protected] and we'll respond as quickly as we can.  Our current response time is about 2-3 days.
Regards,
Shawn

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because this company has failed to honor their contract under which money was paid. Sincerely,[redacted]

Dear [redacted],
We agree. All those avenues have been pursued, continued to be pursed and we are doing everything to ensure the success of fulfilling uKeg rewards for ALL our backers.  Our goal is to not just fulfill a handful of rewards, or just fulfill backers who pledged for uKeg 64, but to fulfill ALL rewards for ALL our backers.  That includes over 5000 backers who ordered uKeg 128's.  Because of the production challenges we faced as a start-up and some other unexpected challenges, we have had to make a tough decision to sell more product at retail to partially fund the project.  Because we are partially funding the project through retail partners, the more successful we are at retail, then the more rewards we will be able to fulfill for backers. 
The other alternative would have been to deliver a partial amount of uKegs to backers and then have production end do to lack funding and then would have left the remaining portion of backers unfulfilled.  We did not want that to happen.  We understand the frustration of some of our backers, but I can ensure you, all avenues are being pursued.  For us, this is about the 10500 plus backers.  We are asking some of our backers to be a little more patient for a while longer with receiving their pledge, so we can ensure we produce and fulfill uKegs to ALL our backers.  All our backers are appreciated and will be for as long as we are creating product.
GrowlerWerks

Dear GrowlerWerks Customer,
We apologize for any inconvenience due to our production delays.  
Our uKeg 64 copper plated uKegs just startered arriving in May 2016.  I did find your order and you have uKeg 64 Copper plated, a bag and Co2 on order.  We are currently fulfilling back...

orders in our system and are continuing to do that through June and July.  We have more uKeg 64 copper plated arriving in July which allow us to fulfill all remaining Online back orders.  Worse case scenario your order will be filled in the second batch by mid July, but it also may be filled sooner and in the next week or two.  It is hard for my to know how many orders are ahead of yours that have uKeg 64 copper plated on their orders.
To provide some clarity regarding retail, the product we are placing at retail are uKeg 64 stainless steel, not copper plated, as in your order.  The only exception was 48 units of copper plated, that were delivered to accounts that book as far back a Fall and Holiday of 2015 and were recently delivered in May. 
I wish I could give you a more precise delivery date, but to be clear, we are fulfilling  uKeg 64 copper plated backorders at this time.  
I hope this helps with any of your questions.
GrowlerWerk's Customer Service