A WARNING...and a sad story. Don't work with Crowdco.co...
Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:15 am
So, it may come as no surprise, but we are new to the crowdfunding game. We run a small charitable organization that operates out of Switzerland, providing development and support systems, tools and resources, for the global farming community.
We recently embarked on, what started as an exciting crowdfunding journey, only to be left in ruins by the deceit and malpractice of an individual by the name of Patrick E. Calderon-Dakin, and his marketing 'agency' Crowdco.co. Firstly, to clarify crowdco.co is NOT an agency, it is an individual, that does not provide the services contracted, and essentially takes your money and leaves you with nothing in return.
Prior to signing a contract. Patrick was extremely communicative, open with response and insights and very informative as to what his 'team' could provide. As soon as our $4200 (yes $4200) hit his bank account, then we started to notice the change.
Never on time for a meeting, consistent delays, excuses, and not one professional item of use was produced by Patrick in the ten weeks our campaign dragged out for. We have been left with no crowdfunding campaign, no contacts, no leads, no social media, no press, nothing but a $700+ fb ad bill 0 which after inspection we realized was not even managed - yup three weeks of ads with not one edit, optimization, or re-target - oh and FB pixel wasn't even set up...so money to the wind. Patrick failed to professionally manage not even one single contracted item, oh wait, sorry, there was a targeted media list he paid someone on fiverr to get for us...so don't know whether that counts!?
And despite confirming a refund, there is no surprises this hasn't materialized also.
As a result, our organization has been set back an entire 6 months. The business is on a knife edge, and we have to look at an emergency business loan to cover the delays and damage this con artist has created, which will take over a year to rectify.
I am only on here to tell the tale so that others do not make the same mistake. Please if you are looking at working with an agency to market your crowdfunding campaign. Do your research, get references, read the forums. Please do not make the same mistakes we made.
If anyone has had any further experiences with Patrick and Crowdco.co please let me know, I am interested in hearing about other incidents as we will be seeking legal counsel on the matter, and if there are more similar cases, which I am sure there are, then we may be able to front a class action to resolve other disputes at the same time, and hopefully stop this business from operating their false practice once and for all.
We recently embarked on, what started as an exciting crowdfunding journey, only to be left in ruins by the deceit and malpractice of an individual by the name of Patrick E. Calderon-Dakin, and his marketing 'agency' Crowdco.co. Firstly, to clarify crowdco.co is NOT an agency, it is an individual, that does not provide the services contracted, and essentially takes your money and leaves you with nothing in return.
Prior to signing a contract. Patrick was extremely communicative, open with response and insights and very informative as to what his 'team' could provide. As soon as our $4200 (yes $4200) hit his bank account, then we started to notice the change.
Never on time for a meeting, consistent delays, excuses, and not one professional item of use was produced by Patrick in the ten weeks our campaign dragged out for. We have been left with no crowdfunding campaign, no contacts, no leads, no social media, no press, nothing but a $700+ fb ad bill 0 which after inspection we realized was not even managed - yup three weeks of ads with not one edit, optimization, or re-target - oh and FB pixel wasn't even set up...so money to the wind. Patrick failed to professionally manage not even one single contracted item, oh wait, sorry, there was a targeted media list he paid someone on fiverr to get for us...so don't know whether that counts!?
And despite confirming a refund, there is no surprises this hasn't materialized also.
As a result, our organization has been set back an entire 6 months. The business is on a knife edge, and we have to look at an emergency business loan to cover the delays and damage this con artist has created, which will take over a year to rectify.
I am only on here to tell the tale so that others do not make the same mistake. Please if you are looking at working with an agency to market your crowdfunding campaign. Do your research, get references, read the forums. Please do not make the same mistakes we made.
If anyone has had any further experiences with Patrick and Crowdco.co please let me know, I am interested in hearing about other incidents as we will be seeking legal counsel on the matter, and if there are more similar cases, which I am sure there are, then we may be able to front a class action to resolve other disputes at the same time, and hopefully stop this business from operating their false practice once and for all.