Consumer reports | building block tide play brand keeppley crowdfunding has caused controversy, and regulators have stepped in

Reporter | Cheng Yue

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Keeppley is one of the many books and hand-made projects that have recently begun to receive start-up funding through crowdfunding.

Keeppley is a domestic brick tide play brand, focusing on small particles of bricks, its Tmall flagship store has 170,000 fans, and has launched joint building block products with the Forbidden City, HelloKitty, Pokémon and so on.

At the end of December last year, Keeppley launched a crowdfunding campaign on the crowdfunding platform Modian, where consumers can pay 699 yuan to book Keeppley's New Year limited brick product "Lucky Luck Workshop", with a target fundraising amount of 100,000 yuan. If the target value is reached, the "Lucky Luck Workshop" product will be put into production, and all those involved in the crowdfunding will also receive a set of Fortune Cat bricks for free, and if the crowdfunding amount exceeds 950,000, the acrylic display box, motor module, manuscript drawing coloring set and other giveaways will be unlocked.

According to the information of the Modian platform, the project achieved the crowdfunding goal of 100,000 yuan in half an hour after it was launched, and as of the end of the crowdfunding on December 20, 2021, the total crowdfunding amount of the product was as high as 1958744.84 yuan, with a total of 2617 consumer support.

Screenshot of the project

When launching the crowdfunding, Keeppley had promised to go public at a price of 699 yuan, and the future sale did not include giveaways and did not participate in the platform offer. However, on January 2, some consumers found that the "Lucky Luck Workshop" was sold at a toy chain store for 499 yuan, and those who bought it in the toy store could get the stock earlier.

Gao Yu, who participated in the crowdfunding project, said, "In fact, there is a problem with one part of this product, Keeppley customer service replied in the group that the product production cost is high, and it may be a bit troublesome to change, but they did not expect that they would sell it at a reduced price of 200."

Due to multiple consumer complaints on the Modian platform, on the evening of January 4, Keeppley published a version of the compensation announcement in the official group, providing three solutions:

Unconditionally accept the return refund and compensate for a 40% off mall member coupon.

Refund the difference of 200 yuan in cash, keep the gift acrylic display box, but other unlocked crowdfunding giveaways will not be given away.

Refund the difference of 200 yuan (100 yuan of member mall shopping funds and 100 yuan of cash), and keep a full set of crowdfunded giveaways.

Wang Shuai, another consumer who participated in crowdfunding, told the interface news reporter that because it was different from the promise given when launching crowdfunding, the customer service handling attitude was not good, and everyone was unwilling to accept this plan. Another 210 consumers launched a collective complaint on the black cat complaint platform, accusing Keeppley of false publicity and demanding that the company "refund one and pay three" and compensate for three times the sales price.

The third-party crowdfunding platform Modian has also become a channel for consumer complaints. On January 6, Modian issued an announcement that because it and Keeppley could not reach a consensus, the platform will take mandatory measures and the official compensation plan process, and will collect feedback from multiple parties for evidence retention. In the afternoon of the same day, Keeppley released the "Compensation Plan for Crowdfunding Supporters of the Lucky Luck Workshop And Related Apologies" on the Modian platform, including a refund of the difference of 250 yuan for crowdfunding users, the retention of the Zhao Cai Cat bricks that were given away under the order, and the five crowdfunding giveaways previously promised.

In this regard, Keeppley's marketing director responded to the interface news reporter that the batch of consumer complaints caused by this incident has been intervened by the relevant government departments, and the market supervision and management department has investigated the incident according to law, but has not yet notified the result of the processing. Before the results are announced, the company is not prepared to respond to the collective complaints of the black cat platform for the time being. At the same time, Keeppley is trying to contact consumers by phone, WeChat group posting, Modian message, etc. as much as possible to obtain their opinions on the choice of compensation plan.

At present, consumers participating in crowdfunding have not yet received the returned cash, Wang Shuai said, "because the goods and gifts are shipped separately, you have to wait until all the people involved in the crowdfunding confirm and sign before you can apply." Keeppley's latest announcement shows that Keeppley has paid the full price difference compensation to the bank account designated by Modian on time, and the first batch of refunds will begin on January 27, and will be completed by February 15 at the latest.