Wow. I’m late finding this post (esp. since Fundable has since closed shop), but it was a very enlightening read, nonetheless. I’d thought about using Fundable on several occasions, and now I’m so very glad I didn’t, just on principal. We’ve all encountered the inadequate and downright rude customer service like this, and it’s great that you’ve brought your nightmare to people’s attention so that they could avoid this kind of crapola. Anyway, the real reason I’m posting is to put the final punctuation mark on the Pratt experience, namely this tasty little post in which he offers his POV on the business tanking and his new business venture at the time of writing http://groups.google.com/group/barcampla/browse_thread/thread/4b4091eaf6fb6743 His truest colors show in his own words and he even gets into some mudslinging with the responders calling him out as a Grade A douchebag. I almost feel bad for the guy. Almost. Hope your friends and family have recouped their losses by now.

-EN

Mary, sorry you had to go through this. Thanks for blogging it.

Dierdre: Small world! How’s everything? Still working for the Famous Company in Cupertino?

-jcr

I currently have a Fundable page up to help raise money for a friends dog surgery. Well, a couple of days ago someone went into the pake to make a pledge and the Fundable page had disappeared!!!! Not one that but there was a message stating there was some inter-company issue with the owners and that they had to shut down!!! It’s horrible!!! We were almost done with out collection to! So now the page is back up but it doesn’t let you click on “make a pledge” I’ve emailed the company several times and no one gets back to me! I will try calling again tomorrow. I also noticed that you were in contact with the owner himself! Is there any way you can give me his email address!!! This is horrible how this company is scamming poor innocent people that just want to help others!!!!

Thanks!

SF

Healthiest Blessings
Suzanne Andrews

Thank you for your helpful post. Have you seen the fundable site today? I am very disappointed- I was really excited about the possibilities of such a service. I must admit that I did no background check on the company because I had heard about them on NPR.

All best,

Marie

I don’t know of any place that works the same, really. There’s places that are sorted out for loans (Prosper and LendingClub), but I don’t know of any for outright gifts.

As for other place? I’ve seen some other fundraisers out there but don’t have any personal experience with any of them so wouldn’t feel comfortable making recommendations at this point.

No doubt there were criminals that tryed to scam them, but Fundable scamed a lot of people too. They did not send payments (however they were saying that payment was sent), they did not refund payments, they did not reply to emails/calls. They were sending SOME payments, however. So overal, they were in profit. Someone scamed them, and they scamed someone too.

Anyway, the idea was really cool and useful, but they weren’t able to make it work. So, is there any other site that works in the same way? Where usual people can ask for help and RECEIVE it?

One other quick point. They take 10% off the top as their revenue source, and then they send the money to paypal where an additional 3-4% will be taken off for processing. 13% is way too steep for processing donations and makes it a high-cost solution, on top of a risky one as you point out.

Much appreciated for the public service!

Hopefully other disappointed users have as visible a way to get the company’s attention because it sure appears that their standard channels are just a way to appear to be paying attention and/or a tactic to delay any need to address them.

There is a certain mindset in many companies that customer complaints must be mistakes.

I’m glad that you and your friends/family are getting refunds, finally, but no credit to Pratt and Fundable for doing the absolute minimally correct thing.

Thanks for letting me know. I’m very glad to hear that because your solar oven for street vendors looks like an awesome idea. Best of luck with the project.

I raised over $2,000 this year for 2 separate projects using Fundable. The second one , the payment came almost immediately. I had zero problems with them.

Not defending them or attacking you, just an report on my experiences.

Everyone else, please don’t bait George S. by responding to him.

But it’s good that you let everyone else know your opinion of the whole thing. I know you have to tell them, for their own good, and I certainly appreciate your time and effort in coming here from BB so you could pass your judgment on what Mary is doing, and criticize her for it. That took a lot of … something.

BTW I have no control over what icon gets posted….

Keep digging your business’s grave. What kind of legitimate business uses a mailbox at a UPS Store (the favorite maildrop of ‘net scammers for over a decade), conveniently about a mile down the road from your partner’s apartment, as its primary contact? How many “suspected fraudulent” contributions that your company kept went into building your new house (so new Google Maps shows a vacant lot)? Madoff got 140 years for his scheming. You aren’t operating to that scale, but it still smells, walks, looks, and quacks like a scam.

Finding the above information has been a trivial exercise — a few keystrokes and mouse clicks of readily-accessible (and free) services (Google, whois, NetworkSolutions, AnyWho, WhitePages, ZoomInfo). I’m still trying to figure out how the house in Portland, Oregon, is connected to your business, but I’m sure it’s an interesting story.

Yes, it’s good that the contributors to Mary’s attempt to use your service are getting refunded *8 months* after the fact. I’d hazard a guess that the amount of ire raised here about your lack of response — and your “policy” of keeping the money of “fradulent” fundraisers instead of refunding it to the contributors immediately — may just have had something to do with this. It’s clear from your own words that your record-keeping is appallingly lax.

And while you have issued refunds in this individual case, keep in mind that your inaction and shoddy record-keeping has cost these people 8 months of credit card finance charges, at the least.

And what of the others who have not raised a *public* ruckus about their poor experience with your company? Will you continue to hold their money until they raise enough of a stink (or until the Texas AG’s office sends a few Rangers over for a chat)?

You might just want to rethink your business model with a much greater emphasis on legitimacy. You can start with ethical behavior.

The amount of money you recovered is the issue here though. I’m wondering if people have walked away from trying to gain any sort of refund for smaller amounts. While I won’t make any accusations regarding Fundable, there are internet scams that depend on that mentality. It still took how many hours, emails, blogs and internet posts to finally gain some attention? Yeah, I’m betting people have walked away resigned that they would never see their money again.

No where in the replies by Mr. Pratt does he try to make me feel better about the company. Having a lack of customer service, having a lack of people trained to spot fraudulent transactions, over-reacting to legitimate customers, (or having no reaction at all) does not a happy business make.

Fundable.com shouldn’t have been in the business of taking people’s money, especially in this economy without multiple people to field questions and concerns. Every business has loss, Mr. Pratt. Some business more than others. Loss prevention is usually a top priority along with reassuring your customers that all is under control. This was a poor show of both. While I won’t go as far as to yell, “Scam” at the top of my lungs…I will not be using Fundable.

Thank you, Mary, for putting this out there.

Maybe mr pratt can rethink the anti-fraud measures, but depending on his agreements he may have unusual terms with the financial end – i.e everything goes OK then there is no problem, something goes wrong however and the next level up has to get their own procedures involved (paypal)?

It’s very bad and this incident will stick in my mind for an org not to recommend if ever asked (quite likely), but I do have some sympathy for them. They are probably big enough to break even and no doubt have good intentions, just are overwhelmed.

Bottom line – customer should not have to be troubled by the suppliers problems – why couldn’t the money be paid immediately by mr pratt – why couldn’t the payments be just cancelled? – seemingly it was out of mr pratts hands to sort this out, unless he paid out his own pocket and took the risk.

Mary, I hope your friends and family get all their money back soon. Thanks for posting this.

Then, check out thepoint.com for your fundraiser needs. I learned of them via Groupon.com, which is a cool service. They are nice, responsive and seem to have it together. The owner is on twitter every day and will answer you if you need anything. @groupon

I hope that they make right with you soon and actually refund everyone their money. (Of course, they should have given you the money back in January so that you could buy your computer, but that ship has clearly sailed.)

You strike me as the sort who says “you shouldn’t have worn that dress” to a woman who was assaulted. For future reference, blaming the victim isn’t the brilliant strategy you appear to think it is. Likewise, Ms. Kowal gives every appearance of having done due diligence before engaging Fundable’s services to make it easier for friends/family to send money to her, so castigating her regarding her “awareness” is making you look like you’re not actually paying attention, and instead simply trying to lecture in an arrogant and unpleasant fashion.

As for your “nanny state” stupidity, please note that Ms. Kowal seems to be well on her way to resolving her issues with Fundable by properly embarrassing them online concerning their poor customer service. No government intervention required.