SAYING FRANK HAS violated its terms of use, crowdfunding platform Indiegogo has suspended the Canadian wannabe smartphone maker and refunded the cash contributed by its backers.
On Tuesday, this note was attached to the top of the campaign page by Indiegogo: “This campaign has been closed by Trust and Safety due to a violation of our Terms of Use. The campaign will no longer be accepting contributions, and the Campaign Owners no longer have access to the campaign.”
Frank’s co-owners say they are saddened but vow not to give up. “Many of you messaged us over the past 24-hours in shock of receiving a refund from frank.'s Indiegogo campaign,” reads an email sent to its backers. “We were also shocked to hear about the suspension of our Indiegogo account. We weren't expecting it.”
Since its crowdfunding campaign launched September 4th, online sleuths who know mobile handsets inside and out pointed out that some of Frank’s claims were exaggerated, at least. Frank’s leadership responded to Cartt.ca’s questions last week.
However, today’s message from Frank went on to acknowledge that errors were made. “Our team made a mistake in our choice of language and design presentation, leading to misconceptions and serious consequences that we tried to rectify by cleaning up our campaign and in interviews with the media. But we didn’t do enough,” it reads.
“Though our experience with Indiegogo started out on a positive foot with Indiegogo ‘poaching’ us from Kickstarter, using promises of free promotions and expert consultation, it ended with our campaign being abruptly discontinued without fair notice. We are currently in conversations with our legal counsel regarding Indiegogo’s claims, process, and damages.”
The message adds that Frank will press on, and its website is still active. “Throughout this journey, we've learned a tremendous amount and have found ways to better our process and lower our costs. We continued to seek out new manufacturers and test alternate moulds and OEMs with the aim of reducing costs and increasing savings… we aim to move forward with our commitment to getting you our product at cost-savings and in a shorter time period. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks and formulate our next steps. We'll give you an update with details as soon as possible.”
