Bicycle Excellence -- KS Complete

[rousselle]

I have only ever backed one project of theirs (Gold), and I recall reading at the time, in response to the fact that they had launched this project before fulfilling Gold, that they had a good reputation for delivering their products on time and as promised. Sure enough, I received my decks as described, and on time.

Your mileage may vary, and past performance is not a promise of future performance, but as far as I'm aware, they have a reputation for delivering the goods.

[Maddest Hammer]

I have only ever backed one project of theirs (Gold), and I recall reading at the time, in response to the fact that they had launched this project before fulfilling Gold, that they had a good reputation for delivering their products on time and as promised. Sure enough, I received my decks as described, and on time.

Your mileage may vary, and past performance is not a promise of future performance, but as far as I'm aware, they have a reputation for delivering the goods.

Having said that, though, I am still waiting for my Gold decks, along with the sample poker set. Elite doesn't seem to be the most communicative in the first place. And after a project completes, it seems like it's "radio silence" from them, until they announce their next deck.

[TLZ1979]

they don't normally send out the survey form for at least a month - "one million" finished on the 29h January and the survey didn't go out till the 27th Feb.

[Mike Ratledge]

they don't normally send out the survey form for at least a month - "one million" finished on the 29h January and the survey didn't go out till the 27th Feb.

Poor communications both during and after the KS campaign unfortunately is a historical marker of projects that end up in our KS "Hall of Shame". Hopefully that proves not to be true, but people we never expected to show up there including Circle City Cards / Russell Kercheval - the former owner of UC prior to Mike F's tenure with BMPokerWorld (and his partner in crime Adam, also 'owning' two failed/ripoff KS campaigns). The "Hall of Shame" is here: http://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=4317" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MonteCarloJoe keeps it up to date, and I'd hate to see them join the ranks of other unsavory characters and even a couple of mystery guests, like "Founders" playing cards which was run as a rip-off "from the word go" as some are fond of saying.

[snsdmonkey]

they don't normally send out the survey form for at least a month - "one million" finished on the 29h January and the survey didn't go out till the 27th Feb.

Okay thanks. And I assume they don't talk either until that happens.

No matter how great the cards end up being, never again on a KS from these guys if that's the case.

[Maddest Hammer]

I've pretty much written off my pledge for Gold. If it gets here, I will be pleasantly (?) surprised. I pledged for it before receiving the Evolution deck, and not only was that a real letdown, but they failed to send the clip I ordered, which was actually part of the pledge tier.
Needless to say, I won't pledge for them again

[DragonSoul]

I've said it on here before but, I'll say it again...I was disappointed with both the Platinum and Evolution decks (particularly the metal Ace of Spades that I pledged for on Evolution). I had already pledged for Gold before receiving Evolution but, was looking forward to it being an improvement for the simple fact that it wasn't a dark deck. However, when I contacted them about my disappointment with Evolution and my concern for the metal AoS which was part of my Gold pledge, they were extremely rude and said they would just cancel and refund my Gold pledge (which is not what I had asked for). They never sent the refund but, my Gold deck did show up a couple of weeks ago. The metal AoS is marginally better (although I will never understand why they aren't actual card size) and the deck is actually nice. Still, because of their attitude I won't pledge for another of their decks.

[Cbkimble]

I've said it on here before but, I'll say it again...I was disappointed with both the Platinum and Evolution decks (particularly the metal Ace of Spades that I pledged for on Evolution). I had already pledged for Gold before receiving Evolution but, was looking forward to it being an improvement for the simple fact that it wasn't a dark deck. However, when I contacted them about my disappointment with Evolution and my concern for the metal AoS which was part of my Gold pledge, they were extremely rude and said they would just cancel and refund my Gold pledge (which is not what I had asked for). They never sent the refund but, my Gold deck did show up a couple of weeks ago. The metal AoS is marginally better (although I will never understand why they aren't actual card size) and the deck is actually nice. Still, because of their attitude I won't pledge for another of their decks.

In there next campaign, posts comments about what happened. They'll be happy to refund you to keep you from "disrupting" their campaign.

[rousselle]

DragonSoul and Maddest Hammer bring up an important point. It's not just an issue of whether you receive what you thought you would receive; the attitude of the people behind the project genuinely matters. If the attitude is bad, then the faith isn't there. Without faith, without trust, the relationship is poisoned, and nobody feels good about backing a project where there's no trust.

I backed Gold, I started to have second thoughts when Excellence came up before Gold even closed, but I sat tight and eventually received my decks. I wasn't as happy with them as I'd hoped to be (I prefer my metallic inks to be shiny,) but sometimes that's just the way it goes. However, given how they have responded to constructive criticism (or even crabby criticism), I'm wary of backing future projects from them.

I had a minor challenge in the first project of Uusi's that I backed (my cards did not arrive, despite the USPS tracker saying that they had been delivered.) What did Uusi do? They sent me replacement decks with a smile and a kind word. Just with that, they told me everything I need to know about doing business with them. I have complete faith in them, and will recommend them to anybody who will listen. (It doesn't hurt that their art is absolutely fantastic.)

So. Hopefully, MH's decks will arrive before too long. If they don't, hopefully Elite will address his concerns professionally. But I share others' concerns here that project fulfillment is only part of a project creator's reputation, and I've heard enough to convince me to tread cautiously.

[MagikFingerz]

I think I've only backed the first one or two Elite decks that came out, the reason I stopped was merely because they became monotonous and boring after the 2nd one (and in retrospect, I should have realized that sooner). But yeah, it seems like they're only interested in getting people's money. They don't take suggestions to their designs (have they made any mid-project changes due to popular demand ever?) and once someone complains it's "Fine, here's a refund" and they move on to the next project without blinking. You'd think with so much of their focus being on the business and money, they'd realize at some point that friendly communication boosts sales

Like cosmic said, their decks are always available on the aftermarket (despite their use of the word "limited"), and often sooner than KS pledges are sent out. Like Aloys, Elite is just another deck producer that it's best to avoid direct business with.

[Cbkimble]

I backed the oNe million deck and was in for over $250 with extras and decks. After my comment that they felt was disrespectful and rude and i was kindly asked to cancel or be refunded when the excellence campaign ended. I kindly asked for a refund for the one million deck. They ignored me at first, then I started pointing out their lies in comments and they quickly refunded all my funds.

[SBurk49]

They've communicated with me very well so far. I just received the survey this week. I hope they ship all the add-on stuff I ordered as well. But so far, its all been gravy on my end.

I gotta slow down with my KS pledges anyway... Got too zealous and put myself a lot over budget. lol

[ecNate]

Finally got mine today, almost forgot about it. About 2.5-3 months late, but it came. Quite underwhelming to finally get it, but that's mostly because the bar has really been raised so high since March.

[snsdmonkey]

Finally got mine today, almost forgot about it. About 2.5-3 months late, but it came. Quite underwhelming to finally get it, but that's mostly because the bar has really been raised so high since March.

Oh no, I'm ready to be underwhelmed now

[SBurk49]

Yeah I'm ready just to have mine. We'll see.

[montecarlojoe]

I got mine too. I haven't opened them yet - but I just know when I do I'll feel like I've seen it all before. Elite do nice designs - but they are all basically the same...

[AceOfHearts]

Looking forward for a deck review, magicorthodoxy maybe?