I first mentioned the effort of Plastc to offer you one card to replace all the cards in your wallet (you’d load all your cards onto Plastc) back in 2014.
I covered the development further in 2015 when they promised chip and pin support, water resistant features, and capacity to hold 20 cards.
Plastc, like Coin, was delayed in production.
It’s 2017 and they never shipped. And now they’re calling it quits.
I think that mobile payments, also, passed the window of opportunity for something like this by. As a result of production delays they may have missed some of the window of interest, and investors took a pass on putting in additional money.
We Regret to Inform You…
For the past 3 years, our mission here at Plastc was to build and deliver the most technically ambitious smart card on the planet. After making enormous leaps in development, product innovation and progress towards our goal, Plastc has exhausted all of its options to raise the money it needs to continue.
Plastc, Inc. is exploring options to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and will cease operations on April 20, 2017.
While we have fallen short of our goal, we are proud of our team and the effort that went into developing a working Plastc Card. However, without the necessary capital to continue, all employees have been let go, which means that Customer Care and Social Media channels are unmanned or have been shut down.
How We Got Here:
We were expecting to close a $3.5 million Series A funding round on February 28, 2017. There are functioning Plastc Cards, which were demonstrated to our investors and our backers, and the capital was to be allocated for the mass production and shipping of Plastc Cards to pre-order customers. At first, the principal investment group postponed their investment and a couple of weeks later the round fell apart.
After the initial funding was unavailable, Plastc made progress with another investor who offered $6.75 million. This deal was scheduled to close last week and would propel development across the finish line, as well as allow for Plastc Card pre-orders to be shipped and for production to continue into a retail phase.
However, once again at the very last minute, our investor gave us notice that they have decided rescind their investment offer. The round was a signature away from closing and we were extremely caught off guard when they notified us yesterday they were backing out. Our existing investors kept us alive and functioning as long as they could during this fundraising process, but in the end, we needed new outside capital to get into production.
What This Means For Backers:
It’s been a long road with a lot of obstacles. The support of our amazing backers has been incredible, which makes this announcement even harder. We were so incredibly ready for production in order to hit our deadlines but without capital it is impossible for us to move forward and we will not be able to fulfill any pre-orders.
We are disappointed and emotionally distraught, and while we know this is extremely disappointing for you, we want our backers to know that we did everything we could to make Plastc Card a reality.
– Plastc Inc.
Don’t expect a return of any money if you pre-ordered.
FUXXING THIEVES
Ouch, received that email as well, I’ve actually pre-ordered it…
Great! They talk you into giving up the other card I had and give them money only to get screwed in the end. Another scam.
This was always a scam. They delayed the launch for so many years. Just about 2 months ago I remember I had this crap preodered and requested a refund. They gave me the refund in 2 days.
So happy I got my refund
Scam or not, most people see sites like kickstarter as a online shop where you preorder stuff and that’s not the case. Backing up a startup is risky. It will always be. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
There were a few projects like this, Coin and Plastc are the two I knew about early on. I genuinely thought they’d ship once they got off the kickstarter and opened up preorders to the masses.
Disappointed, but not surprised. When the delays continued, and continued, you knew something bad was bound to happen.
I think this still had a great opportunity in the marketplace, but it looks like poor management decisions let to poor financial decisions, and eventually the demise of the company and product.
My guess is that smartphone payment systems made this idea obsolete before they could even launch. Just my opinion on this issue as I don’t see the need if you can load your credit card to Apple Pay, Android, Masterpass, Mileagex, etc. etc.
start ups are just that, start ups. sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, yet we always assume they’ll succeed.
Except some of us didn’t order through Kickstarter… we pre-ordered DIRECTLY through plastc… A contract where we purchased a product in advance of release, with a GUARANTEE of delivery or refund.
I hope the trustees see it this way, and repay us first…
I agree with your sentiments Jordan. I did the same exact thing by pre-ordering directly through the Plastc website. I feel like an idiot now that I didn’t see the writing on the wall, so to speak. If Plastc doesn’t reimburse our pre-order payments through the bankruptcy process then I’m sure a lawsuit will materialize. However, it’ll probably be a really long time before we get our money back. Really disappointing since it was such a great concept. Hard lesson learned though… I definitely won’t be pre-ordering anything again where the “deposit” is the full estimated retail price of the product (minus a “pre-order” discount). Man… I haven’t been scammed in years, but I definitely feel like I was in this case.
Glad that I requested and got full refund two month ago.
Except at ExxonMobil try using a smartphone to pay at gas station pump, Costco, Target, Walmart or many other stores. That is why many ordered these things. And since Coin actually was a real product that launched, Plastc seemed viable too.
I understand backing these type of projects is always a risk but the fact that they closed all their social media accounts and left no line of communication open for their thousands of backers looks shady.
What happened to the tech, according to their email they were ready to release the product but didn’t have the finances to go into production.
The sale of the intellectual rights should be able to give us some money back and give the buyer a ready customer base.
Don’t forget, he still has something left. If it ever was ready.
Garbage product i knew it would never work.
@ Jordan & Matthew: You will be extraordinarily lucky if you get back 2 cents on the dollar via the bankruptcy process. The reason they are in bankruptcy is because they haven’t a nickel to their name and debts up the butt.
Where you could get your money back is via a credit card chargeback. There may or may not be time constraints involved, but from my last read of the Visa / MasterCard / AmEx chargeback manuals, I seem to recall time may not be a factor. A chargeback is your ONLY hope.
Don’t write ‘company’, ‘start-up’, ‘team’… write names, surnames, positions… there are people responsible for this situation…
they had great fun spending backers’ money for 3 years.
Seems kind of foolish to preorder from a company without a reliable track record for a product that was not even completed.
Im an idiot too. Now how can we get back the money. We are all working hard to earn our money man…
Now they take our money and run away…
@ Nate: Yes, you are an idiot. Try reading. File a credit card chargeback and you should get your money back.
Eric Cartman’s thoughts on pre-ordering apply not only to this situation, but to other situations involving pre-ordering and gift card purchasing as well (NSFW):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV69DyOuzbE
My apologies in advance if posting links to youtube are allowed.
There aren’t going to be any lawsuits if people don’t get their money back through bankruptcy. Bankruptcy automatically stays any current lawsuits and gives notice to debtors to come forward if they have a claim. The whole point is an ordered restructuring of debt or dissolution of a business. You can’t wait to see what you get out of it and then try to sue them afterward. Maybe if you could show a fraudulent conveyance, that claim might survive (not a bankruptcy attorney), but for all practical purposes, there are not going to be any post-bankruptcy lawsuits to get refunds for those that aren’t satisfied with what they got through the bankruptcy process.