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How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

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Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#41

Post by pavel_lishin »

chrisbennet wrote: post #39
pavel_lishin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there is another side to the story, whats taking so long to tell it? To play devil's advocate, they need to be able to respond to the accusation well. They can't just jot something down and fire it off, right? They're starting off in a defensive position, and need to address the accusation in away that paints them as the good guys (which they might be).

They had months to form a response. Instead they cut off communication.

To form a response to Upstart, yes - but not to form a response to this blog post. (Which, to be fair, as a PR company they should have known was coming, and should have had contingency planning to deal with this.)

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#42

Post by zdragnar »

valuearb wrote: post #24
soared wrote: post #16

I don't buy this story. The entire post is one sided - am I really supposed to believe some pr agency straight up stole your money? And now 7 months later you are "doing what we can on a legal front"? This is a perfect example of why we should all follow the "innocent until proven guilty" idea. There is no proof, no chance for the agency to refute claims, etc. Convenient that they are also asking for more financing.

The culprits have chosen to block people who ask them about it on twitter, and so far haven't told "their side".

If there's pending legal action, it would be foolish to respond publicly. That in and of itself tells us nothing of right and wrong.

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#44

Post by joshuaheard »

You violated my number one rule of business: never, ever, give a contractor your money unless and until they have earned it. I learned this the hard way as well. I own several rental properties, and I don't let the property managers collect the rent; I collect it myself (using ViewPost email invoicing).

You don't explain, but I don't understand why you couldn't open a bank account. Citizenship is not required. There are online agencies as well, such as Paypal. Was the problem on Kickstarter's side? It seems to me they would have provisions for international clients.

I wish you luck, and am glad you are able to warn people. Out of state lawsuits against out of business corporations (I assume they are out of business, or are about to be) are difficult to collect, but hiring a lawyer is a necessary first step.

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#45

Post by ineedasername »

tjpaudio wrote: post #40

I find it absolutely amazing that they would let someone else handle the money that represents the life of their business. Hard to feel sorry for them. No doubt the correct thing to do would have been to delay the campaign until the banking issues were resolved. This was an amateur mistake. Yea it would be nice if we lived in a world where we could be naive and let strangers handle our money without fear but we all k…

I don't think blaming the victim is a useful criticism. Trusting a vendor to perform the tasks for which they've been hired is hardly a fault. Woodshed represented this as a service they had offered clients in the past, and the client had a contractual addendum. In the world or raising money, it is extremely common, even required at times, for a fundraising partner to control some or all aspects of the financial arrangement. Indeed, many times it is this logistical coverage that is a primary service sought by the client. You protect yourself by having the appropriate contractual agreements in place, which the client did here. That is the way modern business works: Not without trust, else all business would be impossible. But with limited trust, and recourse to a legal system when the trust is betrayed. Again, this is the path taken by the client.

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#46

Post by kbenson »

kjrose wrote: post #28
valuearb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culprits have chosen to block people who ask them about it on twitter, and so far haven't told "their side".

I have a feeling this may be a crossed wires problem where someone spent the money raised before they sent it because of bad accounting or whatever. Regardless, if the statement “we received none of the money” is true. There is definitely something bad going on here.

If it's been 7 months, that should be plenty of time to replace the money. If the money was too much to replace in that period of time, I'm not sure how I can believe it was of an amount that could be accidentally spent in this way.

If I had an extra $1,000 in my account, I might accidentally spend it, but I could replace it eventually. If I had an extra $50,000 in my account, that would be much harder to replace, but I'm not sure how I could with a straight face say I spent it accidentally.

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#47

Post by scoggs »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #36
nimos wrote: post #6

I don't know why but it kind of rubs me the wrong way PR agencies for Kickstarter/crowd-funding even exist. I'd rather back something that had someone passionate with a shitty cell phone video over the generic sterile PR videos that everything seems to have now. https://twitter.com/Woodshedagency The hashtags on their twitter description almost seem like satire.

The hashtags are also all in all caps, which gives me pause as to their fundamental competence as PR people. All caps lettering is hard to read. It is also viewed by most people online as yelling at people. Neither is a smooth public relations move.

Unless we are all terribly mistaken about Woodshed Agencies' goals. Maybe they have been really successful because we aren't looking their goals in the correct light? Is it to operate smoothly by ruining and preventing all public relations moving forward?

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#49

Post by true_religion »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #41
chrisbennet wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had months to form a response. Instead they cut off communication.

To form a response to Upstart, yes - but not to form a response to this blog post. (Which, to be fair, as a PR company they should have known was coming, and should have had contingency planning to deal with this.)

If you have no response, it's acceptable to write "We are deeply concerned about this situation regarding our former client, and will prepare a more comprehensive response to be publicized later".

Re: How a PR Agency Stole Our Kickstarter Money

#50

Post by [deleted] »

scoggs wrote: post #47
DoreenMichele wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hashtags are also all in all caps, which gives me pause as to their fundamental competence as PR people. All caps lettering is hard to read. It is also viewed by most people online as yelling at people. Neither is a smooth public relations move.

Unless we are all terribly mistaken about Woodshed Agencies' goals. Maybe they have been really successful because we aren't looking their goals in the correct light? Is it to operate smoothly by ruining and preventing all public relations moving forward?

[deleted]
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