

Ask HN: What is the percent of the Kickstarter  backer pledge cancellation? - hector_ka


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benwikler
Six days since the end of my project (tgf.fm/ks), 15 of my 1044 backers
haven't gone through. I think a bunch have fixed credit card errors over the
last week. Three of the nine biggest pledges had their cards declined, likely
because of the giant charge to an unfamiliar vendor—but those folks have been
in touch directly to resolve the issue.

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hellbanner
Wish they showed you here:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats](https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats)

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bjpirt
I only had about 2 of my roughly 500 pledges that didn't go through when it
came to the time to collect the cash.

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hector_ka
Did anybody cancelled before you finished your campaign?

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benwikler
Two out of 1044. Eight people also decreased their pledges after we hit our
goal, which took me aback for a moment—before it made me retroactively extra
grateful that people had given beyond their comfort zone just to help me cross
the finish line.

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hector_ka
That is not bad . But I am still wondering once you pledged for a campaign
what makes you cancel?

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ceejayoz
I'd imagine some of them are impulse followed by "that's not really in my
budget this month".

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wicker
I actually canceled a sizable ($1000) contribution early in a campaign. I got
excited, pledged, and then talked to a buddy who actually has subject area
knowledge in what the campaign was trying to do. He raised a bunch of good
questions and I never got any good answers back from the campaign, so I didn't
feel comfortable it wasn't vaporware and I withdrew the pledge. In retrospect,
they were focused on the gee-whiz signed photo and coffee mug level prizes
whereas I was interested in the actual end result hardware for science, and I
think whomever was running the campaign just didn't communicate well.

I would feel _very_ awkward waiting until the last minute and certainly if
they were on the edge of the goal, but in that campaign's case I canceled in
the first two weeks and they made their stretch goal anyway.

I'm a hardware engineer so I'm just incredibly suspicious when really cool
hardware pitches can't answer follow-up questions with sufficient details.
Lesson learned: I'm an impulse buyer so I'm not allowed to pledge money on
Kickstarter without waiting twenty-four hours and talking to a subject matter
expert.

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hector_ka
I suspect that some people back a project without knowing too much about how
the final product is supposed to work.

