a PM from Elijah

[eric_cartman]

my blimp questions:

1) In order to get the blimp to Boston by Dec. 16th, how much money needs to be donated by what date?

2) If there is not enough money ever donated to get the blimp off the ground, will you give a full refund of people's money? If it never gets off the ground... will the blimp staff still be paid?

Elijah's PM back to me:

1) "We need to raise $200,000 by wednesday and the remainder by the 10th."

2) "We will get the blimp off the ground!! Watch the graph! The owner is very accommodating!

If by chance we can't get it off the ground, I will do my best to satisfy everyone as to not get death threats which people are darn near doing already.

We just had the first $5,000 customer! (I say this for legal reasons)"

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my comments:

my concern remains that if not enough money is raised, a lot of the donation money will have been spent on salaries and administrative costs and a full refund will not be possible. Also, with the costs so high (28K a month just in blimp staff salaries) if the money isn't raised in time for the tea party, they will never raise enough to get the blimp off the ground.

I am very skeptical that they will reach $200,000 by wednesday or the $350,000 + by the 10th... so i can only encourage the blimp staff to spend very little of the money that has come in, so that a nearly full refund can be awarded if the project fails.

[cien750hp]

this should satisfy many. lets get donating now! :)

[rrroae]

Elijah's PM back to me:

1) "We need to raise $200,000 by wednesday and the remainder by the 10th."

2) "We will get the blimp off the ground!! Watch the graph! The owner is very accommodating!

If by chance we can't get it off the ground, I will do my best to satisfy everyone as to not get death threats which people are darn near doing already.

We just had the first $5,000 customer! (I say this for legal reasons)"

.


Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Let's get this blimp up in the air.

[Mental Dribble]

I agree, Lets get this thing moving and slam it in the face of those foul mouth haters on that wonkette site.

[Hook]

my blimp questions:


If by chance we can't get it off the ground, I will do my best to satisfy everyone as to not get death threats which people are darn near doing already.



Now, if he would just replace that sentence with specifics like "I will refund everyones money proportional to what they invested, minus all expenses incurred so far".

If it was something like that, the money would start rolling in.

Cartman, will you PM Elijah to send something specific like this out to everyone. I mean specifics. Tell him if he does this, he will get much more people fulfilling their pledges.

[kutibah]

This Blimp WILL fly!

[michael.byrne]

Read my lips: "NO REFUND"

btw, PM means "Private message". Elijah didn't want to start a riot by publicly post an answer in the forum.


Now, if he would just replace that sentence with specifics like "I will refund everyones money proportional to what they invested, minus all expenses incurred so far".

[Hook]

Read my lips: "NO REFUND"

I think I'll take it from them not you.
If that is really the case, they are really going to loose most of the donations.

[hillertexas]

Now, if he would just replace that sentence with specifics like "I will refund everyones money proportional to what they invested, minus all expenses incurred so far".

If it was something like that, the money would start rolling in.

Cartman, will you PM Elijah to send something specific like this out to everyone. I mean specifics. Tell him if he does this, he will get much more people fulfilling their pledges.

I concur

[rrroae]

I think I'll take it from them not you.
If that is really the case, they are really going to loose most of the donations.

Oh, ignore him.

I agree with you Hook(as usual) that they need to specifically point out what the return policy will be if they don't reach the goal.

I'd hazard to say tomorrow would be a lot brighter for everyone if they did this.

[eric_cartman]

Now, if he would just replace that sentence with specifics like "I will refund everyones money proportional to what they invested, minus all expenses incurred so far".

If it was something like that, the money would start rolling in.

Cartman, will you PM Elijah to send something specific like this out to everyone. I mean specifics. Tell him if he does this, he will get much more people fulfilling their pledges.

you can send him a PM yourself... he got back to me pretty quickly. he started a thread on this page a little ways down where you can find his message to PM him.

He answered my question, i'm not going to tell him what he should or shouldn't do. But i wouldn't expect to get much of a response on the refund %... i'm sure if the project fails he'll give back what hasn't already been spent... i just hope that they don't go blowing money on flight suits, lawyers, and all the other expenses.

but certainly the refund policy should be explained in the event that not enough money is raised. 200K in a few days is a lot to expect.

[eric_cartman]

ok... i just PMed him this:

can you explain the refund policy? under what conditions will a refund be awarded and what percentage of the donation can people expect back?

will you refund if you can't raise 200K by wednesday? how much will people get back?

some people feel that you will get more donations if people have assurances of a refund if the blimp doesn't get off the ground.

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i will post his response when he responds

[Hook]

I PMd him as well.
That is the major sticking issue right now, so I hope he comes up with something reasonable.

[hillertexas]

Elijah,

How about instead of a refund you make it clear that if the blimp does not fly, the money will be contributed to ________ (Operation Live Free or Die, Granny Warriors, etc).

I think this would make people as comfortable as a refund promise would. And you could avoid the problems with promising a refund.

WIN-WIN