Tilt.com Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 27, 2015/09/28) */
On our Tilt/Open platform, Tilt does not have the ability to reopen or modify the comments section on hosted pages. This is because the organizer has full ownership and control of the software that powers the comments section. We cannot reopen...

the discussion on the HEX3 aclock campaign to allow contributors to communicate with each other or the organizer. We have disabled the "Back this Project" button on the HEX3 aclock campaign, and users are no longer able to make contributions.
At Tilt, we're deeply committed to protecting the interests of both campaign organizers and contributors - we believe this is the cornerstone of a healthy crowdfunding ecosystem. Tilt/Open is a platform that businesses can use to power projects and introduce new products to the market. Tilt does not guarantee projects on Tilt or Tilt/Open. We try our best to ensure a good experience for organizers and contributors, but ultimately, our users must independently evaluate the risks of contributing to a campaign. While in the majority of cases projects on Tilt/Open are executed as promised, it's important to keep in mind that some projects are not ultimately fulfilled as planned.
Tilt is not involved in the development of new products that are funded or sold on Tilt/Open. When users contribute to a Tilt/Open campaign, they enter into an agreement directly with the organizer. The organizer is legally obligated to fulfill their promises to contributors, and contributors have legal recourse against the organizer if the organizer doesn't do so. Although the agreement between the organizer and contributors is formed using Tilt's platform, Tilt is not a party to that agreement.
Even though a user must make their own final determination on whether they want to accept the risks associated with contributing to a campaign on Tilt/Open, Tilt still trys to prevent the most concerning campaigns from remaining active on Tilt/Open. We use a combination of manual and automated screening processes to evaluate organizers and proposed campaigns on Tilt/Open, and at the time the aclock campaign was active, we had no reason to suspect that the organizer would not deliver the promised product on time. Since the HEX3 aclock campaign, Tilt has improved the methods we use to screen for fraud and identify organizers who might not be able to fulfill their promises to contributors. While we can't comment on the specifics of our internal processes, we can say that we have prevented a number of campaigns that we believed might be fraudulent or not fulfilled as promised from appearing on Tilt and Tilt/Open since HEX3 aclock.
[redacted] - Thanks for your email. I am currently traveling and will be on East Coast hours the rest of this week. If you're free and willing, please let me know what day/time works for us to jump on a quick 15 minute phone call to discuss next steps of working together.
Thank you both and Happy Monday! :)
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 29, 2015/10/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
That Tilt have finally closed their link to the originators ecommerce site is somewhat late in the day now that the referenced page is no longer operational.
As a backer it is reasonable to expect that originators operate from one of the countries in which Tilt is available being:
1.United States
2.Canada
3.United Kingdom
4.Netherlands
Furthermore the Tilt terms of use for the originator state that:
`You agree to provide any information we may reasonably request and to answer truthfully and completely any questions we may reasonably ask you in order to verify your identity.
As a condition of using the Services, you authorize us to perform background checks and impose any controls or limitations on your use of Services we deem necessary or appropriate to prevent fraud or abuse of the platform. These controls provide important protections to you as well as Tilt, our partners, and other users. Tilt may suspend or decline transactions in our reasonable discretion. If you are using Tilt for business purposes, you authorize and instruct us to obtain a credit report relating to you at any time when you have an account with us or use the Services'
In this case the originator is located in Australia and their company hex3 is registered in Hong Kong. Tilt have been unwilling or unable to disclose any information that they may have regarding the originator and should provide this in order that a backer might make a fully informed decision.
I find the claim that Tilt are unable to re-open a blog (discussion forum) on their own domain somewhat disingenuous. This is not standard in the industry and this fact is not disclosed to potential backers.
In effect this allows fraudulent originators to silence complaints of backers and denies them a forum from which to organize in order to seek a remedy under the law. Thereby failing to provide a neutral platform.
By operating in this manner Tilt have created a platform well suited to fraudulent operators with no recourse whatsoever to their victims. Were this made apparent in advance no reasonable backer should contribute to any campaign on Tilt
Tilt while initially offering some placation in response to my complaints they in fact just ignore them. Despite this claim on the homepage of their site:
`Fast support from real people
Our Customer Happiness Team is ready to help you.'