what happened to the no heat straight plates thread ckw and launch?

[Ogoma]

Just read both emails. I am sad for her. It is never easy trying to develop something from the ground up even when you have a ton of resources to do it.

I saw the email wish list of all the transaction codes she made to Amazon payments to refund the monies. I'm wondering why people are declaring this a scam. If she's returning the money what exactly is the scam?

I am a little shocked at the comments in this thread. Some of them are so hateful in their glee at someone else's misfortune. I hope I never become mistrustful of everyone and resentful of another person's opportunity for progression that I am gleeful when things don't work out for them.

I have invested in only one other kickstarter project, what I have done a lot of angel investing. This is been very very profitable for us and it would have only hurt me to never partake in them because I assume everybody's trying to scam me and I'm mistrustful of everything and everyone. Must be a terrible way to live.

 

[Nazaneen]

^^^Being gullible sucks too.

Saying you're going to return money and returning it aren't the same thing. After her past behavior id be very wary.

 

[Lilmama1011]

^^^Being gullible sucks too

Omg ......lol^^^^

 

[greenandchic]

I'm so glad I went with my gut instincts on this one! It started from the very beginning when I and others made simple requests. She couldn't fullfill them, that was red flag #1 for me. THe constant change of prototypes...red flag #2, it all keep building up. Nail in the coffin for me was Njoy's post about the original patent. Sometimes when you voice your opinions on this forum and they aren't particularly popular people want to ignore you or insinuate that you're a jealous hater could be the furthest thing from the truth. I'm all for the underdog and sistahs becoming productive and starting their own businesses, but sometimes it is our willingness to put up with just about anything that makes some of us victims (repeatedly). K-lechi was given plenty of solid business ideas to make her transition smooth yet it seemed as if they were mainly ignored. I'm still a positive person and I truely hope for the best and hope that the straight plaits come to fruition but it will not be coming out of my pocket.

For me, it was the fact that she didn't post a video covering an entire head of hair with the clips, she only did a few sections. I wanted to see the completed finished style from start to finish on 4a/b hair. She had a video that was incomplete and suddenly vanished, etc. I didn't think she was scamming, but just very disorganized.

 

[Ogoma]

^^^Being gullible sucks too. Saying you're going to return money and returning it aren't the same thing. After her past behavior id be very wary.

Bitterness and hatefulness sucks way more. My "gullibility" has made me a ton of money. I will keep it.

 

[girlonfire]

I have not read the entire thread so i apologize for my ignorance...

has anyone gotten them or was this all a scam? I saw the link and I don't think that asian thing is something I could use.

 

[prettybyrd]

I have not read the entire thread so i apologize for my ignorance...

has anyone gotten them or was this all a scam? I saw the link and I don't think that asian thing is something I could use.

None of us will be getting them. Apparently she could not secure a patent because someone challenged her and she says that she is in the process of refunding donations.

 

[lenu80]

She should have checked out the patent first before setting up the donations. Maybe she can go to shark tank. I still love the idea and will purchase.

 

[JudithO]

I just feel so sad... I know how it feels... work on someone for so long, and overnight someone just snatches that dream away from you. I don't believe this whole thing was a scam and feel very disappointed at the people that are eluding that she is a thief. She seems very inexperienced, yes, but certainly not a thief. I hope that when you guys try to start something, you'll have people to support you and cheer you on even when times get tough! People please start posting when you get your refunds... I didnt donate too much so can afford to let it slide...

 

[Nazaneen]

I just feel so sad... I know how it feels... work on someone for so long, and overnight someone just snatches that dream away from you. I don't believe this whole thing was a scam and feel very disappointed at the people that are eluding that she is a thief. She seems very inexperienced, yes, but certainly not a thief. I hope that when you guys try to start something, you'll have people to support you and cheer you on even when times get tough! People please start posting when you get your refunds... I didnt donate too much so can afford to let it slide...

Do you know her personally?
I don't but her behavior has not said honest to me. I first became suspicious months ago.

 

[JudithO]

Do you know her personally?
I don't but her behavior has not said honest to me. I first became suspicious months ago.

I don't know her - maybe I'm gullible or whatever, but she doesn't strike me as a thief... not in any sense... I agree she could have done MUCH better with communicating, but inventing/starting a business is not a joke... I choose to give her the benefit of the doubt.

 

[loved]

She should have checked out the patent first before setting up the donations. Maybe she can go to shark tank. I still love the idea and will purchase.

There's an entire industry of patent trolls & frivolous patent suits are common. Storefront businesses are set up just to obtain settlements from start up businesses because they know that start ups will not have the capital to fight a patent challenge. The issue has been in the news within the past year.

 

[Amarilles]

My issue lies in the way she makes it seem like us getting our money back is a privilege she's giving us from the kindness of her heart. Comments like "while Kickstarter does not mandate that lost funds be refunded, we however believe in doing what is right..." and "I know that the Kickstarter site is a "donation" site, but I feel that the right thing to do is to give the money back..." are so off-putting to me. That money not a donation, and her wording implies that keeping the money could be a viable option but as she's so kind, we'll get our money back. She really has zero option here, getting our money back should be expressed as automatic. Otherwise she's just a thief. There is no favor in us getting refunds.

The fact that they're still accepting pre-orders when (after the delays) she said that they would stop accepting them to instead focus on the Kickstarter orders makes me heavily distrust them. And one can still go pre-order now. I don't think I'll be purchasing these plates when or if they come to fruition.

 

[Stormy]

She should have checked out the patent first before setting up the donations. Maybe she can go to shark tank. I still love the idea and will purchase.

And the first things the Sharks are gonna ask are:

What makes this so different from what's already on the market?

Do you have this patented?

How much money has it made so far?

Then she'll have to get into the details of this catastrophe. Those sharks will eat her alive!

 

[bydebra]

Interesting. So glad I followed my gut instinct and backed out. The way she started being evasive towards this forum even though the ladies here were helping/ supporting her to promote her product. Logging in, reading the thread and not responding (looks like she didn't know about the lhcfbi).

I hope everyone gets their refund. That'll be the true test of how genuine she was to begin with.

Kelechi, if you ever want to start another business (or job), you better refund every single investor because then you can at least say that things didn't work out but everyone can testify to recieving every cent back. Google doesn't forget.

For me, it was the fact that she didn't post a video covering an entire head of hair with the clips, she only did a few sections. I wanted to see the completed finished style from start to finish on 4a/b hair. She had a video that was incomplete and suddenly vanished, etc. I didn't think she was scamming, but just very disorganized.

Yeah, something about the whole thing didn't sit right with me, going back to the original video. I made a specific recommendation for a very good videographer here in Houston, where I believe she said she lives, and she basically ignored my post and stuck with the thrown together video. It's not that hard to buy a Canon and put together your own high-quality video. It seemed odd to me that a person would spend thousands on lawyers and product development, but not a few hundred dollars on a better video to market the product.

I had posted about this on my old blog and I was all ready to donate, but then I changed my mind and deleted the post . My intuition has never failed me yet.

 

[lenu80]

And the first things the Sharks are gonna ask are:

What makes this so different from what's already on the market?

Do you have this patented?

How much money has it made so far?

Then she'll have to get into the details of this catastrophe. Those sharks will eat her alive!

Lol you have a point.

 

[OhTall1]

She should have checked out the patent first before setting up the donations. Maybe she can go to shark tank. I still love the idea and will purchase.

I think she said she was working with a patent lawyer and was told that there was no patent.

 

[faithVA]

I don't know her - maybe I'm gullible or whatever, but she doesn't strike me as a thief... not in any sense... I agree she could have done MUCH better with communicating, but inventing/starting a business is not a joke... I choose to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I agree. Starting a business is no joke. It is an invaluable but indescribable experience. Also it can be quite humbling. I understand investing in a start up, so I'm with you and feel its no big deal either way.

 

[Naveah2050]

Just read both emails. I am sad for her. It is never easy trying to develop something from the ground up even when you have a ton of resources to do it. I saw the email wish list of all the transaction codes she made to Amazon payments to refund the monies. I'm wondering why people are declaring this a scam. If she's returning the money what exactly is the scam? I am a little shocked at the comments in this thread. Some of them are so hateful in their glee at someone else's misfortune. I hope I never become mistrustful of everyone and resentful of another person's opportunity for progression that I am gleeful when things don't work out for them. I have invested in only one other kickstarter project, what I have done a lot of angel investing. This is been very very profitable for us and it would have only hurt me to never partake in them because I assume everybody's trying to scam me and I'm mistrustful of everything and everyone. Must be a terrible way to live.

It sounds like she stole someone else's idea right down to the verbiage she used in the video based on those posts. I was with her all along and was one of the posters asking for calm when others said this would end badly but I can't support that.

 

[Bunnyhaslonghair]

I'm sorry for you guys who were really looking forward to these. I was going to give them a try later after seeing some reviews. It's a good idea that I hope can come to pass. I still want to try.

 

[whit923]

It's funny because we haven't seen none of these companies products out yet. This is going to be hard to prove when none has hit the market yet

I work in the intellectual property field and this is actually quite common. Companies will patent things and you may never see the idea come to fruition on shelves for a myriad of reasons. Just because someone or a corporation successfully holds the patent for a product doesn't mean it will immediately go into production. They may be waiting for other patents to be approved or for further testing. You may receive a patent and not see the actually product for years. This is the case with a lot of gaming, tv, and cell phone companies.

There's an entire industry of patent trolls & frivolous patent suits are common. Storefront businesses are set up just to obtain settlements from start up businesses because they know that start ups will not have the capital to fight a patent challenge. The issue has been in the news within the past year.

This is very true. Patent trolling is a business in and of itself. Individuals and companies buy patents just to prevent or hold ideas "hostage", thus forcing the hand of those with genuine use of the patent to buy them out or abandon the product/idea. I don't think this was the case in this instance but its something to keep in mind.

I think she said she was working with a patent lawyer and was told that there was no patent.

This seems sketchy to me if its true. Patents are published and available to the public. A patent lawyer should easily be able to ascertain the "state of the art" and find what's out there, and what patents may read on her idea. I mean, that is their JOB, so this seems highly unlikely that her attorney would give her the go ahead given how crowded of an idea this is (i.e. general idea has been around, lots of variations, etc).

All that being said, I don't take any pleasure in seeing someone fail, unless they sought out to scam, lie and cheat investors from the jump.

 

[Ogoma]

^^^ in the email, she stated it could take a year for a patent to be listed and it hasn't been a year since the person challenging her patent stated they filed theirs. This something I have heard before.

 

[Keen]

I don't think Kelechi intended to defraud anyone. I think she genuinely wanted to bring this product to market. However I didn't invest for the same reasons some stated. I did intend on buying the product after other members have tried it. But after the 4a/b video, I was convinced it would not work on my hair type. I've followed this thread from the beginning and I never felt this product would deliver any time soon.

 

[DivaDee62]

My issue lies in the way she makes it seem like us getting our money back is a privilege she's giving us from the kindness of her heart. Comments like "while Kickstarter does not mandate that lost funds be refunded, we however believe in doing what is right..." and "I know that the Kickstarter site is a "donation" site, but I feel that the right thing to do is to give the money back..." are so off-putting to me. That money not a donation, and her wording implies that keeping the money could be a viable option but as she's so kind, we'll get our money back. She really has zero option here, getting our money back should be expressed as automatic. Otherwise she's just a thief. There is no favor in us getting refunds.

The fact that they're still accepting pre-orders when (after the delays) she said that they would stop accepting them to instead focus on the Kickstarter orders makes me heavily distrust them. And one can still go pre-order now. I don't think I'll be purchasing these plates when or if they come to fruition.

She is setting allllll this up for when the money "Runs out" and she can't finish the refunds. Then she can point back to how she "tried to do the right thing" but cannot continue because the money is gone. That's why she keeps vocalizing herself as this Angel Do-Gooder...so it will be just that much easier to explain away why only a portion of customers received their funds back.

And I pointed out yesterday that she is STILL taking money and orders on her website which is the DEFINITION OF SCAM and also against FTC rules...

 

[SunRai Naturals]

I requested a refund after the email about delayed production & her still testing the product. After that email I didnt feel like we would see the product anytime soon due to all of the changes. I dont like that it kept changing because it was presented as complete. I said I would purchase on the 2nd run to give the benefit of the doubt but now I have no interest in these plates anymore.

It took longer than I expected but she did refund my money. I did have to send requests to all of her accounts & also message through Amazon multiple times. New production & starting a business although I'm sure is challenging, is no excuse for being unorganized, having bad customer service, & acting clueless about simple things.

 

[whit923]

^^^ in the email, she stated it could take a year for a patent to be listed and it hasn't been a year since the person challenging her patent stated they filed theirs. This something I have heard before.

If that's the case then its possible she nor her attorney would have know about the other pending application. All patent application are published 18 months after the filing date (there are a few exceptions to this) so its possible that during that time frame CWK ladie filed and new nothing of the other previous filing.

 

[Keen]

She is setting allllll this up for when the money "Runs out" and she can't finish the refunds. Then she can point back to how she "tried to do the right thing" but cannot continue because the money is gone. That's why she keeps vocalizing herself as this Angel Do-Gooder...so it will be just that much easier to explain away why only a portion of customers received their funds back.

And I pointed out yesterday that she is STILL taking money and orders on her website which is the DEFINITION OF SCAM and also against FTC rules...

I don't know how she plan on refunding everything with all the expenses she should have incurred

 

[Napp]

I don't know how she plan on refunding everything with all the expenses she should have incurred

The money is as good as gone

 

[Naveah2050]

I don't know how she plan on refunding everything with all the expenses she should have incurred

If the other person hasnt proven their copyright of the patent why does she have to stop?

 

[Misseyl]

Welll, well, well, this will never happend to me again. I was hoping to use those plates sometime down in the future but I guess that will never happend now. I would like to thank Kickstarter for opening up my eyes. I've just become an informed customer.