In a surprising move, Atheer Labs has informed everyone who supported the IndieGoGo campaign at the beginning of the year that their money will be refunded and they will not receive their augmented reality glasses, which were scheduled to be delivered in December this year. This is a regrettable gesture on the part of Atheer Labs, since it has been speculating for months with the money of those who supported the campaign, and they are not going to receive anything in return.
The letter that Atheer Labs has sent to those who supported the IndieGoGo campaign has been a whole jug of cold water. They claim that they have had considerable demand from business clients, and given their limited resources, they have decided to leave aside those who supported the campaign, in order to focus on meeting the needs of large companies. We do not doubt that this is a beneficial decision for them from the strictly financial and commercial point of view, but they have certainly left the 445 followers of the campaign with two nostrils. As if this were not enough, it seems that they have dedicated themselves to deleting comments from disgruntled users.
It’s time to ask yourself if the rules of crowdfunding campaigns should be stricter to avoid this type of situation. We do not see any inconvenience in canceling a campaign before the deadline, if the creators see it appropriate for any reason. But six months later, and after doubling the initial collection target… it honestly seems to us an abuse and a nonsense. Atheer Labs has set a very negative precedent that is going to seriously damage the image of crowdfunding.
