Scribble Pen beta program persists despite double-shutdown

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scribblebeta

If you’ve been following this blog, you already know all about the Scribble Pen project which has been ejected from two different crowd funding platforms for providing misleading information about their level of progress on their pen that can supposedly write in any color.

During their second funding attempt, the team opened a volunteer beta tester program.  The obvious question is how they could offer beta test units when they had no evidence of a working functional prototype in the first place, but that was far from the most confusing part of their campaign.

Now, months after shutting down and moving to “private investment“, the team has sprung back to life offering their beta testers access to test units for free! (with a $15 shipping fee).

Perhaps not surprisingly, they aren’t placing a cap on the number of people who can join the program. The links sent out are in no way protected, so if anyone is interested in giving away $15, they can join up here.

I volunteered to test it out myself and I can confirm that Scribble has charged me $15, but they never asked for my shipping address and sent me a simple email that said they will “Be in contact with [me] soon”.

scribblesoon

The payment processing is done through FormCrafts’ Stripe plugin, so at least they aren’t collecting sensitive information.

Now it’s just a matter of time to see if Scribble Pen really plans on delivering beta test units.  I’ll be sure to report on what happens next.

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{ 25 comments to read ... please submit one more! }

  1. Taking one for the team!

  2. Well, timme to finally flattre this thing to start maing good those 15$ I guess.

  3. Thanks for the sacrifice of $15 to bring a bit more clarity into the issue. And one thing is for me pretty clear by now: A lead wall is more transparent than these guys.

  4. I would tread lightly, Its possible that someone scraped emails from a list, or scribble pen sold a list of emails and this website is designed to simply take $15 from unsuspecting hopefuls.

  5. Just got this:

    “To our Selected Scribble Beta Testers

    Congratulations once again for having been selected as a Beta Tester!

    You will soon have a fabulous Scribble Ink Pen or Scribble Stylus in your hand to use and test!

    Shipping of the Beta Test Kit will start worldwide in December 2014.

    We will be eagerly awaiting your valuable feedback.

    If you have any questions or need any more information please contact us at beta@getscribblepen.com

    Best Regards
    The Scribble Beta Team”

  6. GOT THIS TODAY 10/13/2014

    To our Selected Scribble Beta Testers

    Congratulations once again for having been selected as a Beta Tester!

    You will soon have a fabulous Scribble Ink Pen or Scribble Stylus in your hand to use and test!

    Shipping of the Beta Test Kit will start worldwide in December 2014.

    We will be eagerly awaiting your valuable feedback.

    If you have any questions or need any more information please contact us at beta@getscribblepen.com

    Best Regards
    The Scribble Beta Team

  7. I got the same message, and I’m also taking one for the team YAY! Let’s see what happens next 😀

  8. Hi everybody !

    I just made the reservation, thinking I’ll lose my money if the project is just a scam.

    Do you think that in the worst case we lost 15$ ? Or is there a risk to be victim of credit card information theft ?

    I’m worried about that possibility since I just received the same confirmation as you, but no bill or billing number. I think I got too quick in my decision to make the payment.

    I worte a message to beta@getscribblepen.com to ask for information but I think I won’t get any answers. Did you do the same ? If I get any informations I’ll give you a feedback.

    Thank you !

    • Your credit card was processed through the Stripe payment processor, so even if the Scribble guys are scamming you, they don’t have access to your credit card information.

  9. I just got a beta email, but it did have a section to imput my shipping address. However, my email states the release date is March 2015. They are already pushing the release back four months in the span of just a few weeks of email? This is not good.

  10. I suppose the upside is that, in the end, you can always contact your credit card issuing bank for a refund and subsequent chargeback to that merchant.

  11. i got the same email and emailed Scribble about it. I am not going to send the $14.99, unless i get a response of some sort telling me it is legit.

  12. Yup, I got the same email. Started to fill in my details including mailing address and then saw the $15 fee for mailing. My immediate thought was scam. If they can get enough people to enter $15 they’ll make a nice chunk of money. They are most definitely not getting my cash. They know a vast majority of people won’t bother trying to claim the money back, and also if they push the release back too far, you will go over the date where you’re allowed to bring a dispute and try and claim back the cash.

    Dodgy as……

  13. The beta product turned out to be $14.99.

  14. I’m not even surprised…

    Dear Scribble Fan!

    We wish to announce that shipping of Beta Test Kits for the Scribble Pens and Scribble Styluses will be slightly delayed due to technical problems with some advanced electronics in the Pen.

    Please keep a lookout for further emails, we will be in contact with you soon with your tracking number as soon as the issues have been resolved by our team and your kit has been shipped.

    Thank you for your support and we look forward to having you as part of our testing team on this innovative project.

    If you have any questions or need any more information please contact us at beta@getscribblepen.com

    Best Regards
    The Scribble Beta Team

  15. Any updates on this on your end? I thought I would suss them out and see what happened, and now I keep getting hilarious emails saying “oops sorry, we have to push this back another two months!” it’s comical at this point! I always get someone emailing me back though if I question them. Most recent was “you have been refunded your 15 dollars” Surprise, didn’t happen. ha ha ha

  16. Just got this, 11am March 4:

    Dear Scribble Fan,

    We are super excited to announce that you will soon receive your Scribble Pen and Scribble Stylus Beta Test Kit!

    Shipping will start from 26 March 2015 and continue until 19 April 2015. The Beta Test Kits will be shipped directly from our Fulfillment Center in Asia and they should not take more than 6 weeks to arrive at your address.

    If your personalised Beta Test Kit has not arrived by 30 May 2015 at the latest, please contact us so that we can do the necessary investigation and find out where it is!

    If you prefer, at that stage, you may request a refund by clicking here.

    If your shipping address has changed, we need to know. Please click here and complete the small form. We don’t want the Test Kit to end up at the wrong location!

    Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to having you as part of our testing team and receiving your feedback on this innovative product.

    Please keep a lookout for further emails and news!

    Regards
    The Scribble Beta Team

    • I got this too. Went back, checked the original email. The link to “pre-order” or “reserve” or “get into the beta” or whatever they’re calling it is still active. You’d think they would have taken that link down by now.

  17. The latest….. I wonder how many $15 shipping charges they’ve collected. I think we’ll have nanobot technology to change the color of our ink before they ship these.

    Dear Scribble Fan

    As you are aware, we have been working full speed to bring you a top quality product with leading innovative technology, design and aesthetic appeal.

    Earlier this year, we started testing the Scribble Beta Units with specially appointed testers worldwide. These tests were extremely important in highlighting how well the long-term research, development and cutting edge technology would come together in a workable real-life system.

    The tests were very successful and we were excited to ramp up the process to full scale production.

    We have now become aware that certain unavoidable circumstances are preventing us from producing the top quality and perfect pen that we envisaged and intend to supply to you.

    After much soul searching we have decided to delay the shipments until August 1st, 2015, so as not to compromise the product in any way. We intend to deliver only the best and highest quality writing instrument to you.

    We apologize profusely for this delay and do understand your disappointment. The wait however, will be worth it!

    We will keep you informed of further developments and thank you once again for your support and patience in our ground-breaking Scribble product.

    Kind Regards
    The Scribble Team

  18. August 1st has come and gone.
    Has anyone received anything?

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