[UPDATED!] Sandy Petersen, author of Call of Cthulhu, is suing PayPal. He claims that PayPal has withheld over $57,000 raised via Kickstarter for a (video game) project in 2013. You can read the full 8-page filing here. "To date, however, defendants wrongfully refuse to release the funds that plaintiff’s customers attempted to pay and/or pledge to plaintiff, despite the fact that plaintiff has already sent the purchased/requested productions to many of these customers. In fact, defendants have acknowledged in writing that the records plaintiff provided show the plaintiff has fulfilled purchase orders of PayPal customers in the amount of at least $22,675.00. Defendants still refuse, however, to release even these funds." The case was filed in Dallas, Texas.
This isn't Petersen's most successful Kickstarter campaign -- he recently raised over $1M for the Cthulhu Wars: Onslaught Two horror game, and The Gods War board game which raised well over half a million dollars.
As the filing mentions, the amount Petersen asserts is being withheld by PayPal is $57.702.66. Petersen says he has provided shipping records which prove that 22,765 of product has been already shipped to backers, and that PayPal has refused to release the funds for over six months now. Petersen is asserting his right to a trial by jury.
Petersen is currently the Vice President of the Board of Directors of Chaosium (he and Greg Stafford returned to Chaosium in 2015)as well as president and chief designer at Petersen Entertainment.
UPDATE! I've heard from Ian Starcher, Business Manager at Petersen Games, who says he'll send some more information after the holidays but as a quick answer: "PayPal (out of the blue) froze/took 57k of Petersen Games money from ALL sources of income. Kickstarter, our website, etc."
It's the New Year, and Ian has sent a slightly longer update:
"PayPal held $57,000 from Petersen Games unlawfully and without giving a reason other than "risk to PayPal”. We have zero history of issues previously with PayPal in any fashion. They withheld money from our Kickstarter, from our website sales, basically any place we allowed our customers to pay us via PayPal.
We jumped through all the hoops they asked us to so we could show we shipped, etc. so that they’d pay us our money. It cost us thousands of dollars in extra staff expense just to go through all the hoops they said we’d have to get paid.
They still won't give us any of our money, giving the same vague non-answer. So we've filed with the courts and are waiting for their response, to go to court, or get a default judgement against them. So far it's cost us thousands of dollars in legal fees.
PayPal has done this to a lot of game companies. I don't know if these unlawful acts by PayPal extend beyond the gaming industry.
We're all small businesses. None of us can take this sort of financial hit or the huge distraction this causes from our core business – making great games."
I asked him to clarify the difference between PayPal and Kickstarter funds, and he kindly did so -- "I should be more specific, the KS post campaign pledge manager as I recall."
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
This isn't Petersen's most successful Kickstarter campaign -- he recently raised over $1M for the Cthulhu Wars: Onslaught Two horror game, and The Gods War board game which raised well over half a million dollars.
As the filing mentions, the amount Petersen asserts is being withheld by PayPal is $57.702.66. Petersen says he has provided shipping records which prove that 22,765 of product has been already shipped to backers, and that PayPal has refused to release the funds for over six months now. Petersen is asserting his right to a trial by jury.
Petersen is currently the Vice President of the Board of Directors of Chaosium (he and Greg Stafford returned to Chaosium in 2015)as well as president and chief designer at Petersen Entertainment.
UPDATE! I've heard from Ian Starcher, Business Manager at Petersen Games, who says he'll send some more information after the holidays but as a quick answer: "PayPal (out of the blue) froze/took 57k of Petersen Games money from ALL sources of income. Kickstarter, our website, etc."
It's the New Year, and Ian has sent a slightly longer update:
"PayPal held $57,000 from Petersen Games unlawfully and without giving a reason other than "risk to PayPal”. We have zero history of issues previously with PayPal in any fashion. They withheld money from our Kickstarter, from our website sales, basically any place we allowed our customers to pay us via PayPal.
We jumped through all the hoops they asked us to so we could show we shipped, etc. so that they’d pay us our money. It cost us thousands of dollars in extra staff expense just to go through all the hoops they said we’d have to get paid.
They still won't give us any of our money, giving the same vague non-answer. So we've filed with the courts and are waiting for their response, to go to court, or get a default judgement against them. So far it's cost us thousands of dollars in legal fees.
PayPal has done this to a lot of game companies. I don't know if these unlawful acts by PayPal extend beyond the gaming industry.
We're all small businesses. None of us can take this sort of financial hit or the huge distraction this causes from our core business – making great games."
I asked him to clarify the difference between PayPal and Kickstarter funds, and he kindly did so -- "I should be more specific, the KS post campaign pledge manager as I recall."
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
