Riders are warned not to support the crowd-funding campaign for RiderBuds earphones nor to buy them because of a suspected fraud.

The campaign launched in November 2018 but the earphones have still not been delivered to many customers.

We published an article that month ($US199, $A275, €175, £150) that said they were claimed to be the smallest, softest, toughest, quietest and most secure earphones for riders.

Like other previews of prospective motorcycle products, we included a warning to our readers that supporting a crowd-funding campaign for a product not yet manufactured is not without risk.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo do not offer refunds to supporters who pledge money for products that either fail to reach their goal or do reach their goal and then fail through fraud.

The latter was the case with the infamous Skully head-up display helmet where the founders blew $US2.4m in supporters’ money on fast cars and women!

Unless a crowd-funding campaign specifically mentions a refund, supporters are advised they will have to contact the campaigner to get their money back.

RiderBuds ‘fraud’ warning

In the case of RiderBuds, many customers have complained on the campaign page that the product has still not delivered despite the delivery deadline of May 2019.

They also claim Indiegogo and the founder are not responding to emails.

We contacted Indiegogo and RiderBuds founder Maurice Dziubinski for comment and but have also received no reply.

Maurice told us on the launch of the campaign he spent hundreds of hours testing the earphones, talked with more than 1000 riders around the world and had a few dozen Beta testers, including in Australia and New Zealand.

His crowd-funding campaign was fully subscribed in three hours, 200% in 12 hours and raised $A164,255 from 688 backers within a month.

The campaign page is still live and has now amassed $A213,415 from 885 backers.

Indiegogo has a duty to remove or at least suspend the page and stop taking money when they have been alerted to potential fraud by several backers until it can be resolved.

The comments on the crowd-funding page seem to suggest Maurice of Poland is now living in Vietnam.

A reader who tested the prototype said it’s “a great product so I really hope they come through”.

“There have been delays for sure which has been frustrating but I don’t think he has any intention of ripping people off,” the tester said.

“He said he moved to Vietnam because of the COVID-19 outbreak; he was living in Hong Kong while he was getting the production etc sorted out.

“I’m not vouching for him in any way, just giving you some more info. I haven’t had any direct communication from months, but I didn’t expect any either. I think he underestimated the challenges of bringing a product to market!”

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com