I think it is realistic when they forgot a stack of backers and sent the rest of product to retail.

I think of it more like patronage.

That's why I reached out to them for clarification and they responded with "Thanks for writing in. Unfortunately I'm unable to comment further on our terms, as it is a standalone documentation of our policies." It's pretty clear they want you the backer to think that refund means full monetary refund when you glance over the TOS but when push comes to shove ehhhhh we'll just let that be whatever the creator wants it to be.

There's no ambiguity on who the contract is with. The TOS states the contract is between you and the creator.

In my specific situation I simply want clarification on what kickstarter intended when they wrote "refund any Backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill." Did they mean money, did they mean kittens? A response of thats a standalone document is not helpful however.

Can you email me at r3f32+5g4qx90yi1mzc@sharklasers.com

Given that I am filing a claim in small claims court I am not comfortable publicly stating the name of this company, though you could probably put 2 and 2 together to find them.

In my case I was trying to prepare documentation to go to small claims court. The creator has stated they don't believe they are required to give a full monetary refund. I interpret the kickstarter TOS as full monetary refund. I mean this is not a failed project, this is the creator saying we forgot to mail some pledges, the rights to the game are now in the hands of another company, but we will give you some money back as a gesture of good will. I've backed a couple projects that failed, I haven't even given them a second thought but this specific situation really ginds my gears. Given that the ToS says refund (that I interpret to be full monitory refund but it doesn't specifically state that) I reached out to kickstarter for clarification on what the spirit of the ToS regarding refunds was. Did kickstarter intend it to mean full monetary refund, I mean you know lawyers they can twist anything into anything so the more wordy the better.

I completely understand the terms state the agreement between the creator and the backer. However in this case the creator offered a partial refund so I reached out to kickstarter asking for clarification on "refund any Backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill." This creator stated they would not be fulfilling some backer rewards as they already sent the product to retail and it was now in the hands of another company. I wanted kickstarter to give some clarification as to they intended refund to mean full monetary reward, other product, etc.. Their response was pretty indicative that they want people to think there's some recourse with KS but really they just want to sit back and collect their 8%

All I was asking was clarification on "refund any Backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill." I had a creator that had stated on the record they would not be fulfilling backer rewards as they already sent the product to retail and it was now in the hands of another company. I reached out to kickstarter for clarification as to if reward meant full monetary reward, other product, etc.. Their response was pretty indicative that they want people to think there's some recourse but really they just want to sit back and collect their 8%

Well after the influx of money the scope of the project spiraled out of control. I think the Double Fine situation is indicative of how having your budget increased 10 fold doesn't negate the need for a quality project manager.

What kickstarter says and their actions are two different things. I'm having an issue where a company (a somwhat large board game company using kickstarter for preorderes) has not delivered the promised rewards or a refund. I reached out to kickstarter for clarification on these specific terms. After some back and forth where kickstarter kept dodging my questions they finally stated

Kickstarter Support (Kickstarter)
Aug 20 10:37
Alexander,
Thanks for writing in. Unfortunately I'm unable to comment further on our terms, as it is a standalone documentation of our policies.
Regards,
Alfie

I don't even know what that means. Short of it, kickstarter doesn't actually follow through with their terms and are unwilling to clarify any part of them.

My formatting! Why have you forsaken me Slashdot, I have Plain Old Text set. Can I blame this migration to newdot?

The Android vs. Apple thing is subjective, calling it the Apple Tax needlessly cheapens your argument. I don't hear anyone complaining about the Buick tax, the Enclave is essentially the same as an Arcadia, etc.... But that's neither here nor there, the reason Apple keeps swappable replacements on hand is 2-fold. a. Customer service, keep the customer happy and comping back. This would be the PR response. (the old why is milk at the back of the store argument, ask a grocer they will tell you its logistically easier to keep it cold in the back. Sure, but it doesn't hurt that you've got to walk through the whole store hungry to get to it) b. Limited variety. It's just not that hard to keep a matrix of a dozen or so refurbished phones on hand. Could you imagine the local ATT shop having even a fraction of currently sold phones on hand refurbished? It's a couple steps down from insanity. There's just so much variety. It just wouldn't be cost effective to operate like this. Not to mention many of these places are just third party shops, not company stores. Arguably a store could target this kind of service but I kind of expect the consumer that wants that level of service may have just bought an Apple device anyway (reference above I'm not saying Apple devices aren't necessarily more expensive, but you get what you pay for, in this case premium service). The margins are low on many of these devices if the service wasn't getting subsidized by the manufactures I cant see any store branching out to that kind of service on their own. I don't disagree with the authors sentiment I guess, though all our local places will give you a loaner of some sort while you're waiting on a repair or replacement. A DAY or two with out MY device isn't going to kill anyone, and overnighting a phone is more than most companies are willing to do (Ever RMA a hard drive). This seems like a perfect example of THE MARKET HAS HANDLED THIS. If there were people clamoring for this level of service that were also willing to pay for it I expect we'd already have some cellular store providing it. On a side note Apple is doing more repair on phones in store rather than just doing the swap and sending the phone to their repair depo (screen replacement etc...). Being the ACMT at my organization (with a VERY large deployment of iPhones) I'm not really looking forward to having to do the repairs here rather than just doing a mail in replacement.

This. When I used Kbox, Kace Konfrence was great. Now that I use Casper, JAMFNation is great. The vendor specific events seem to have a lot more meat to them.

I went to SIGUCCS once. I was pretty disappointed in the technical presentations. I went to one on dual boot Macs, which I was interested in as the organization I was with at the time we had deployed Dual Boot Macs to all our classrooms. Wanted to see what others had done. Ended up being a very vague overview, as the presenter had never done it in practice. I ended up getting roped into a bunch of discussion. Later that day I was approached by one of the organizers asking me to present the next year but I declined. SIGUCCS seemed really management/procedure focused. Not saying that's bad per se but it isn't what I look for in a tech event. The networking opportunities are undeniable though.

LabMan (more technical) SIGUCCS (more procedural) MacIT (if you have a lot of Macs) EDUCAUSE Might be some more regional stuff, there's some smaller things that go in the midwest. I generally prefer these sorts of gatherings, less pomp, less cost, more networking, more technical meat.