9 reasons Kickstarter projects ship late

The cost and logistics of shipping items to overseas backers can be a nightmare.

Kickstarter's system doesn't record donors' geographic locations, so projects generally ask backers to self-identify by adding extra money to cover international shipping. Getting the cash is tricky if people forget to include it. Once a Kickstarter campaign has closed, creators can't use Kickstarter's payment system to collect extra payments from their backers. (Kickstarter recently updated its shipping tools to make it clearer when international backers need to increase their pledge.)

"About 50% of our buyers were international," said Jay Silver, creator of the MaKey MaKey invention kit. He set up a separate payment system on his own site to collect international shipping fees from those who forgot to pay them, but months later, some laggards still haven't paid up.

Getting parts and supplies shipped in from global manufacturers can also cause delays. The creators of PocketTV needed to import all of their finished devices from China to their main headquarters in Dubai. The timeline for clearing customs could be unpredictable, they warned their backers.

Other projects run into problems getting deliveries through to buyers in some countries.

The engineers behind RadioBlock, a wireless modem, put out a blunt warning for their international backers: "We are not shipping or certification experts!" they wrote. "There may be other fees, forms or legalities we are unaware of that could block these shipments or cause them to be delayed or returned." -Stacy Cowley

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