I have several emails from support at coolest as well as their facebook page claiming they processed my refund via Amazon Payments almost a month ago. Amazon Payments has confirmed that is a lie. I have asked the company for proof they have processed a refund for nearly a week, company has stopped responding to me through both mediums.
I backed the Coolest Cooler Kickstarter like over 62,000+ others over a year ago.
Ryan Grepper has reported many alleged delays and setbacks with the product since then, and I was content to wait patiently. Several shipment deadlines came and went, but eventually the day came when we decided to move. I contacted Coolest support to change my shipping address but was told I could not. They said they were between pledge management software providers and I would have to wait until the end of August. I waited.
On August 25th I reached out to the company again as the end of the month was at hand and was scolded for not being more patient, again I was promised I would receive a link to a new system where I could change the address myself before the month was out.
That did not happen.
I waited another week or two into september and decided to visit the message board on kickstarter. I saw many vile comments left by die hard Coolest Cooler supporters directed at people who just wanted updates and answers. I also saw these abusive supporters make many mentions that the Coolest Coolers were so in demand that the company would happily refund any customer who asked, so I replied to coolest support and asked- I heard nothing.
Eventually I emailed Coolest Support from a different email address not connected to my pledge to confirm the rumor that they were indeed offering refunds to anyone who asked- (at this point the only Coolest Coolers that had gone out were picked up by a select group of customers in Oregon). I was told they would be more than happy to give anyone a refund as they were alreayd selling pre-sale units at a retail price almost 3 times the original backer buy in. I then forwarded my pledge information and asked for a refund.
I didn't hear back immediately, but I was eventually told by both Julie Mahon and whomever runs the Coolest facebook page that a refund was processed on September 16th, Julie added my refund would arrive, "within 5-10 business days. As soon as the refund is complete you will receive confirmation from Amazon Payments directly."
As you can imagine that deadline also came and went. Now we have entered October. By Ryan Grepper's own estimations less than 10% of orders have shipped, the first come / first serve fullfillment method has been completely abandoned, retail orders are being sent out as they come in, taking priority over campaign backers, and Coolest Coolers in Portland, Oregon (where Coolest is based) are popping up on Ebay.
I called Amazon payments who confirmed to me that Coolest never processed my refund. I wrote back to coolest several times since learning this and have received radio silence. I touched base with Amazon Payments today who again confirmed Coolest has not touched my order. They also let me know if Coolest doesn't know how to process a refund (since they haven't processed a single one) they can call Amazon payments by phone and they will process the refund on the spot.
I do understand that with any Kickstarter campaign you do take a risk, but this isn't a campaign that went bust. This is a campaign that paid out over $13 million dollars. This isn't a concept that couldn't get off the ground either, this is a product that is in production and is processing retail orders while they force their backers, the one's who took a chance and believed in Ryan Grepper's dream, to wait.
Just like there's no reason a company can't simply change a shipping address, there's no reason they can't refund an order when they are currently pushing units out the door marked up over 260% more.
If Ryan Grepper is relying on the funds coming in through the insanely marked up retail units to cover the pledged units owed to campaign backers, with 50-60 thousand pledge units outstanding, isn't that the definition of a ponzi scheme?
This company may someday fullfill all its backlogged pledge orders, but not in 2015. There will be alot of backers still holding the bag after Christmas and New Years have come and went.
I was an original backer of the Coolest Cooler campaign and gave them $185 for a cooler in 2014 - 4 years later i am still getting emails with their "sad story" and excuses as to why I still don't have my cooler. They are selling coolers for 2x the price.
They should not be allowed to conduct business after scamming the public? how is this still allowed? I am beyond disappointed in Kickstarter, the BBB and the DOJ. Apparently, no one can hold this company accountable?
Why is it that they are above the law? I WANT MY COOLER AND I WANT IT FOR THE PRICE I paid. It is an insult to my intelligence that if i give them more money i may get one sooner that is fraud! why would i trust a company that did not deliver the product as promised 4 years ago? but sells it for twice the price? how is Ryan Grepper not in jail?
I am a Very disappointed consumer both in the Coolest Cooler and all of the companies that are supposed to hold them accountable!
Four years ago I purchased a coolest cooler from the kick starter website I knew that there was going to be wait however after two years I contacted the company and was instructed to pay an additional amount to receive my cooler quicker that was two years ago I have been all over Twitter Facebook doing everything I possibly can to get in touch with somebody for a refund or cooler I have not heard a thing from anyone and feel helpless at this moment
I have paid over $500 for a Coolest Cooler. I am one of the lucky ones who did recieve thier cooler but I wish I didn't. I stored the battery properly and only used the product 3 times throughout the year. The cooler is extremely heavy and not very practical. I went to use it again at the beginning of summer and the battery will not charge. I emailed customer service and they responded one time. When they learned I was within my warranty and have a valid warranty claim they stopped responding. There is no phone number to contact them. So now I have a very large paperweight for over $500. I am so glad I waited 674 days for this product.
Pledged and paid on the kickstarter program almost 2 years ago. Still do not have my cooler. They are now selling them retail for alot more money. What response I get is that they are waiting to sell more but if I am willing to pay an additional fee or recommend a friend that buys on I will get my cooler. This is unethical and a ripoff
This is about this scam of a Kickstart campaign from years ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually/description
There are many complaints filed against the Coolest Cooler kickstart campaign. Mine is fairly unique though.
Coolest has not just been completely silent and opaque to Kickstarter backers, offering any sort of idea when our orders may be fulfilled. They've also been completely ignoring refund requests, but more importantly, they've dramatically exaggerated the amount of progress they have made.
With each backer update - we're lucky to get them a few times a year - they claim that they're working their way through backers and shipping the things as they can.
But the thing is, I'm backer number 5,774 out of 62,642. I haven't heard a single d**n thing. I've received absolutely nothing in terms of a ship date, shipping estimate, or anything else.
They say that they're working through backers in the order of people who backed the project. If they're not lying about that, then it means that they've gone through less than 9.2% of all backers so far.
Less than 10% of backers, more than two years after the estimated ship date, with no communication about refunds of any sort.
Meanwhile, they're happily selling their product on Amazon and elsehwere. Completely ignoring everyone who gave them money in the first place. It's a complete scam. They need to be sued to oblivion. Backers need to be compensated. Enough already.
I pre ordered a cooler from a company called coolest cooler over 2 years ago and have not received it. I paid for this up front and have yet to receive it. The original backers of this project have not received their coolers but they are already in stores. This project is a total ripoff and all they do is keep giving you excuses.
Ryan Grepper should be brought up on fraud charges. This fraud has certainly changed me of ever supporting a kickstarter again. The amount of money I sent for this may not seem like a lot to some but it is to me. The fact that they won't refund my money upon request is shameful. Wait until the ship of your cooler then instead of the cooler we'll send your money back um no you can't even tell me when I will get a ship date. You're holding my money hostage after having squandered it originally. How this man can sleep at night and wake up in the morning and look his kids in the eyes is beyond me, he is a scammer and silly me I got took.
I was an original backer on the popular crowd funding site kickstarter.com for the Coolest Cooler created by Ryan Grepper. After numerous delays Ryan Grepper officially announced on February 26, 2016 backers are not going to be receiving the Coolers originally backed back in Aug 2014. The letter is below:
"Hey Coolest Backers,
First, thank you all for your incredible patience and support as we continue our mission to get everyone their Coolest coolers. This is an update about timing and our process.
First, a thank you goes out to those who took the time to verify and update your addresses so we could complete our revised shipping schedule. I’m pleased to say this part of the process has come together and we now have everyone broken down by geography, color, and backer number into one of 78 batch shipments by zone.
I am Kickstarter backer #11,521 of this project. I paid $240 almost two years ago to receive one of these coolers. They claim to have made 35,000 of these at this point and have started fulfilling "retail" orders before their "backer" orders. They claim to have fulfilled 14,000 of their backer orders. How could that be when I'm backer #11,521? Well, they don't go in order........lol, ok. Because all logic is apparently gone from their business model. Like this complaint above says, you will get little, if any response from their support staff. I'm pretty sure it's just this grepper who's created an elaborate hoax and is lounging on some sunny beach with all of our money. But hey. I digress. This entire thing is a scam. Their Twitter account has pics from supposed people who have actually gotten their coolers, but not one of them are in the picture nor are they in any setting which leads one to believe these are actual customers. I'm convinced Ryan grepper had some of these coolers made with the money he got from the campaign. But I have no thoughts any longer of ever actually receiving one. I'm pretty sure he just had one or two made of each color and is using those to continue this hoax. Whatever the case is good job grepper, you milked people to the tune of $13 MILLION dollars.
Coolest Cooler Reviews
I have several emails from support at coolest as well as their facebook page claiming they processed my refund via Amazon Payments almost a month ago. Amazon Payments has confirmed that is a lie. I have asked the company for proof they have processed a refund for nearly a week, company has stopped responding to me through both mediums.
I backed the Coolest Cooler Kickstarter like over 62,000+ others over a year ago.
Ryan Grepper has reported many alleged delays and setbacks with the product since then, and I was content to wait patiently. Several shipment deadlines came and went, but eventually the day came when we decided to move. I contacted Coolest support to change my shipping address but was told I could not. They said they were between pledge management software providers and I would have to wait until the end of August. I waited.
On August 25th I reached out to the company again as the end of the month was at hand and was scolded for not being more patient, again I was promised I would receive a link to a new system where I could change the address myself before the month was out.
That did not happen.
I waited another week or two into september and decided to visit the message board on kickstarter. I saw many vile comments left by die hard Coolest Cooler supporters directed at people who just wanted updates and answers. I also saw these abusive supporters make many mentions that the Coolest Coolers were so in demand that the company would happily refund any customer who asked, so I replied to coolest support and asked- I heard nothing.
Eventually I emailed Coolest Support from a different email address not connected to my pledge to confirm the rumor that they were indeed offering refunds to anyone who asked- (at this point the only Coolest Coolers that had gone out were picked up by a select group of customers in Oregon). I was told they would be more than happy to give anyone a refund as they were alreayd selling pre-sale units at a retail price almost 3 times the original backer buy in. I then forwarded my pledge information and asked for a refund.
I didn't hear back immediately, but I was eventually told by both Julie Mahon and whomever runs the Coolest facebook page that a refund was processed on September 16th, Julie added my refund would arrive, "within 5-10 business days. As soon as the refund is complete you will receive confirmation from Amazon Payments directly."
As you can imagine that deadline also came and went. Now we have entered October. By Ryan Grepper's own estimations less than 10% of orders have shipped, the first come / first serve fullfillment method has been completely abandoned, retail orders are being sent out as they come in, taking priority over campaign backers, and Coolest Coolers in Portland, Oregon (where Coolest is based) are popping up on Ebay.
I called Amazon payments who confirmed to me that Coolest never processed my refund. I wrote back to coolest several times since learning this and have received radio silence. I touched base with Amazon Payments today who again confirmed Coolest has not touched my order. They also let me know if Coolest doesn't know how to process a refund (since they haven't processed a single one) they can call Amazon payments by phone and they will process the refund on the spot.
I do understand that with any Kickstarter campaign you do take a risk, but this isn't a campaign that went bust. This is a campaign that paid out over $13 million dollars. This isn't a concept that couldn't get off the ground either, this is a product that is in production and is processing retail orders while they force their backers, the one's who took a chance and believed in Ryan Grepper's dream, to wait.
Just like there's no reason a company can't simply change a shipping address, there's no reason they can't refund an order when they are currently pushing units out the door marked up over 260% more.
If Ryan Grepper is relying on the funds coming in through the insanely marked up retail units to cover the pledged units owed to campaign backers, with 50-60 thousand pledge units outstanding, isn't that the definition of a ponzi scheme?
This company may someday fullfill all its backlogged pledge orders, but not in 2015. There will be alot of backers still holding the bag after Christmas and New Years have come and went.
I was an original backer of the Coolest Cooler campaign and gave them $185 for a cooler in 2014 - 4 years later i am still getting emails with their "sad story" and excuses as to why I still don't have my cooler. They are selling coolers for 2x the price.
They should not be allowed to conduct business after scamming the public? how is this still allowed? I am beyond disappointed in Kickstarter, the BBB and the DOJ. Apparently, no one can hold this company accountable?
Why is it that they are above the law? I WANT MY COOLER AND I WANT IT FOR THE PRICE I paid. It is an insult to my intelligence that if i give them more money i may get one sooner that is fraud! why would i trust a company that did not deliver the product as promised 4 years ago? but sells it for twice the price? how is Ryan Grepper not in jail?
I am a Very disappointed consumer both in the Coolest Cooler and all of the companies that are supposed to hold them accountable!
Four years ago I purchased a coolest cooler from the kick starter website I knew that there was going to be wait however after two years I contacted the company and was instructed to pay an additional amount to receive my cooler quicker that was two years ago I have been all over Twitter Facebook doing everything I possibly can to get in touch with somebody for a refund or cooler I have not heard a thing from anyone and feel helpless at this moment
I have paid over $500 for a Coolest Cooler. I am one of the lucky ones who did recieve thier cooler but I wish I didn't. I stored the battery properly and only used the product 3 times throughout the year. The cooler is extremely heavy and not very practical. I went to use it again at the beginning of summer and the battery will not charge. I emailed customer service and they responded one time. When they learned I was within my warranty and have a valid warranty claim they stopped responding. There is no phone number to contact them. So now I have a very large paperweight for over $500. I am so glad I waited 674 days for this product.
Pledged and paid on the kickstarter program almost 2 years ago. Still do not have my cooler. They are now selling them retail for alot more money. What response I get is that they are waiting to sell more but if I am willing to pay an additional fee or recommend a friend that buys on I will get my cooler. This is unethical and a ripoff
This is about this scam of a Kickstart campaign from years ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually/description
There are many complaints filed against the Coolest Cooler kickstart campaign. Mine is fairly unique though.
Coolest has not just been completely silent and opaque to Kickstarter backers, offering any sort of idea when our orders may be fulfilled. They've also been completely ignoring refund requests, but more importantly, they've dramatically exaggerated the amount of progress they have made.
With each backer update - we're lucky to get them a few times a year - they claim that they're working their way through backers and shipping the things as they can.
But the thing is, I'm backer number 5,774 out of 62,642. I haven't heard a single d**n thing. I've received absolutely nothing in terms of a ship date, shipping estimate, or anything else.
They say that they're working through backers in the order of people who backed the project. If they're not lying about that, then it means that they've gone through less than 9.2% of all backers so far.
Less than 10% of backers, more than two years after the estimated ship date, with no communication about refunds of any sort.
Meanwhile, they're happily selling their product on Amazon and elsehwere. Completely ignoring everyone who gave them money in the first place. It's a complete scam. They need to be sued to oblivion. Backers need to be compensated. Enough already.
I pre ordered a cooler from a company called coolest cooler over 2 years ago and have not received it. I paid for this up front and have yet to receive it. The original backers of this project have not received their coolers but they are already in stores. This project is a total ripoff and all they do is keep giving you excuses.
scam sham
Ryan Grepper should be brought up on fraud charges. This fraud has certainly changed me of ever supporting a kickstarter again. The amount of money I sent for this may not seem like a lot to some but it is to me. The fact that they won't refund my money upon request is shameful. Wait until the ship of your cooler then instead of the cooler we'll send your money back um no you can't even tell me when I will get a ship date. You're holding my money hostage after having squandered it originally. How this man can sleep at night and wake up in the morning and look his kids in the eyes is beyond me, he is a scammer and silly me I got took.
I was an original backer on the popular crowd funding site kickstarter.com for the Coolest Cooler created by Ryan Grepper. After numerous delays Ryan Grepper officially announced on February 26, 2016 backers are not going to be receiving the Coolers originally backed back in Aug 2014. The letter is below:
"Hey Coolest Backers,
First, thank you all for your incredible patience and support as we continue our mission to get everyone their Coolest coolers. This is an update about timing and our process.
First, a thank you goes out to those who took the time to verify and update your addresses so we could complete our revised shipping schedule. I’m pleased to say this part of the process has come together and we now have everyone broken down by geography, color, and backer number into one of 78 batch shipments by zone.
It's a unicorn
I am Kickstarter backer #11,521 of this project. I paid $240 almost two years ago to receive one of these coolers. They claim to have made 35,000 of these at this point and have started fulfilling "retail" orders before their "backer" orders. They claim to have fulfilled 14,000 of their backer orders. How could that be when I'm backer #11,521? Well, they don't go in order........lol, ok. Because all logic is apparently gone from their business model. Like this complaint above says, you will get little, if any response from their support staff. I'm pretty sure it's just this grepper who's created an elaborate hoax and is lounging on some sunny beach with all of our money. But hey. I digress. This entire thing is a scam. Their Twitter account has pics from supposed people who have actually gotten their coolers, but not one of them are in the picture nor are they in any setting which leads one to believe these are actual customers. I'm convinced Ryan grepper had some of these coolers made with the money he got from the campaign. But I have no thoughts any longer of ever actually receiving one. I'm pretty sure he just had one or two made of each color and is using those to continue this hoax. Whatever the case is good job grepper, you milked people to the tune of $13 MILLION dollars.