Kickstarter project Coolest Cooler asks for another $97 from backers to ship product, while Amazon buyers get it immediately
Well, this sucks. Remember the Coolest Cooler? Cool name. It was a cooler. And it kept your drinks cool. But it was also cool because it had stuff like an integrated bluetooth speaker, a blender, a chopping board, and USB ports for keeping your devices charged.
It was a pretty great success on Kickstarter with $13 million in funds pledged by the end of its campaign. So, where is it today? Well, not in a 2/3rds of the original backers’ possession, that’s for sure. Apparently the company burned through most of the funds they collected to manufacture and ship these things.
Coolest Cooler had to announce that they’ve been severely delayed. The backers who still haven’t received their cooler are being given the option of paying an extra $97 to expedite their shipment.
With the original $185 backer price, that’s still cheaper than the $399 this thing goes for on Amazon (which ships immediately, by the way), but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. For what it’s worth, though, CEO of Coolest Cooler Ryan Grepper says they’re going to do everything in their power to get a cooler to every backer, even if they don’t opt for the expedited shipping.
They’ll go as far as using the profit they make from sales fulfilled through Amazon. I wish I could give some sick brownie points and a round of applause for that, but that’s what they’re supposed to do.
It sucks for those who believed in this product so much to back it early on that they can’t get their cooler at the originally promised price, but that is the risk of backing a crowd-funded project. Let’s hope those Amazon sales continue to ramp up so you folks can get your coolers without having to pay more than you already have.
[via Motherboard]