There's a trend I'm seeing with a lot of these boutique companies. When they're looking for pre-order money, they're at every show chatting away, able to host parties with friends, and are easily accessible via any form of communication within minutes. But when an answer is needed on a delivery estimate, a refund, or removal of a promised feature, suddenly they act like they're stranded on a remote island unable to communicate with the world.

There are some brilliant minds in this industry when it comes to designing and building pinball machines. My suggestion for them when starting a company is to team up with a qualified business person who can professionally handle the business side while you create.

Everyone in this story looks bad.

I don't understand the personal liability talk. The company is incorporated (or at least being portrayed that way). I'm assuming they filled out that paperwork correctly and show what percent ownership each member has. Payments were made to that corporation.

Why would anyone be personally liable for that money? We don't take someone's personal assets away if the corporation they partially own fails (yes there are exceptions to that rule). And why would one partner be liable for the corporation's liabilities and the other two not?

Why though? They are incorporated. The first thing that should have been done following that is applying for a EIN so that no one is doing anything under their personal SSN.

Just seems like sloppy business practices which has led to internal strife. Most of the issues brought up have little to no relevance to customers. And no reputable company is going to sling mud with a disgruntled business partner about private business matters.

They could acquire a loan or bring in investors like just about every other business in the world does.

Funding your business with pre-orders is a recipe for disaster.

That is not good.

So the owners of the company don't have access to a chunk of the deposit money and are telling people that the funds are out of their control. Think about that for a minute.

The response to that should be that you don't care about the disputes between partners. As a customer, that is not your problem. You want a refund on your deposit and don't care where it comes from. DP should be refunding the money out of their other accounts and squaring things away with their former partner.

That is one of the most unprofessional responses I've ever seen in business.

Three guys in a basement with hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits.

You are correct. However Fidelity wouldn't send an e-mail stating they don't have access to your funds but will send an e-mail to one of their disgruntled ex-partners and hope he'll send it over.

My problem isn't with them telling customers that it'll take a few weeks to move money around, it's with telling customers the situation with their deposits is out of their control. That they'll send a request out and hope for the best.