TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I alone?

[Guartho]

In an unrelated thread someone referred to TrekUnited as a scam and someone else piped in that it wasn't. This reminded me that I had not received my promised refund of my admittedly small $10 donation. I posted that I hadn't and two other posters mentioned that they had received their refunds.

I went through my PayPal account history and sure-enough there's my $10 going out and it never did come back. Rather than drag that TrekXI thread off-topic I started this one.

So how about it? Anyone else donate to TrekUnited? Did you get your money back? (Minus the PayPal fees of course?) Was my donation perhaps too small to mess with or was I legitimately stiffed by TrekUnited? Anyone give a small amount like me but get it back like the posters in the other thread?

 

[MattJC]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I donated $300 and got most of it back.
They took $6 for PayPal fees.
I asked them for the money back after Paramount refused to make more Enterprise season, so I could show support for the show by buying the DVDs.

 

[Valar]

Please explain what this TrekUnited is- I've never heard of it and what was it that they were accepting money for?

 

[Cyrus]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I wasn't planning to give money to TrekUnited because I knew there was zero chance of Paramount taking their money. But there were a few posters here who tried to make TU supporters feel guilty by telling them to give their money to charity instead. The hypocrisy in that pissed me off, as people should be able to spend their entertainment dollars (whether to buy DVDs or support TU) without any guilt trips, and that is a separate thing from charitable contributions.

So I ended up giving $50 to TU. And I got all of it back, not even a Paypal charge was deducted.

 

[cultcross]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

Valar said:
Please explain what this TrekUnited is- I've never heard of it and what was it that they were accepting money for?

Trek United was a somewhat controversial fan set-up lobby group who pressured Paramount to make a 5th season of Enterprise, and accepted donations from fans with the intention of offering the money to Paramount as partial funding for the new season. They raised over $3 million total.
When Paramount refused to make the 5th season, the site promised to pay back the Paypal donations of the contributors.

The site was marred in controversy among fans from its inception, with arguments being made that it was a waste of the contributor's money, and that TrekUnited's unshakably positive view of all things Enterprise was naive and short sighted.

 

[Guartho]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

Cyrus said:
The hypocrisy in that pissed me off, as people should be able to spend their entertainment dollars (whether to buy DVDs or support TU) without any guilt trip, and that is a separate thing from charitable contributions.

I'm with you there. I gave them my $10 because that was all I was willing to risk, not expecting to get it back. The reason I gave them money anyway was that just in case it actually worked I wanted to be able to say I was part of it. I was born in '82, so naturally didn't participate in the letter writing campaign that was credited with TOS's renewal. I thought this just might be my generation's letter writing campaign.

Anyway, I remember those "You should give it to charity stupid tool" posts. By that standard there should have been no one to post those comments since no one should spend any non-charitable money on anything but necessities and no one "needs" internet access.

 

[Noname Given]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

It took a while, but I did get my $100.00 back (sans the fees which I knew about when I donated); so I can't claim that they cheated me in any way. I knew what I was getting into; and got back what was promised when it was called off.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I was a supporter of Trek United when it first came out and I was eagerly hoping it would succeed. I remember the whole controversy in the Enterprise forum (I would read the one thread that people were limited to when discussing it every day after classes). I was very disappointed when it didn't work out (although I learned more about the politics and economics of the television industry than I ever expected).

When they gave back their money, most people seemed to confirm that they did get it back. I know they had a place in their forum where you could post if you didn't. I'm sorry I don't know why you didn't get it back (minus fees). I honestly have no idea if there's anything that could be done about it, though.

 

[Tralah]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

On April 23rd 2005 I received an email from TU@trekunited.com which stated they refunded the money except for a few dollars for Paypal fees. I'm sorry if yours didn't go through. It's very strange that it didn't.

 

[Wowbagger]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I got mine back.

I was very excited by TU. Today, I'm a good deal more suspicious of the organization, and I know better than anyone the mistakes that we made (I was on the infamous Internet Liaison Team that did so much damage), but I'm still proud to say I was a part of it. There has simply been no more thrilling moment in the history of the fandom than watching the TrekUnited counter go up, ever so slowly, to its next ten-thousand-dollar marker. It was impossible, insane, and something that only Trekdom would do.

They also did an incredibly inspiring trailer, which, IMO, remains the best "fan tribute" out there. http://youtube.com/watch?v=A2swwR8gdN0

 

[Photoman15]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I got mine back too, pretty quick. They asked if I wanted it back or to be put to some other use, I said I wanted it back...viola, in 1 day it was back in my PayPal account.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

Those were mad, crazy times but I was proud to have been part of it. I'd do it all over again. I got refunded after some email chasing around, probably a few weeks after all hope was lost. Go to the site and send a PM to Tim Brazeal or his wife. I'm sure they keep records and can investigate whether your claim is geniune.

If there was such a thing as justice, ENT fans should've been let down gently rather than that stab in the back "finale". A few specials spread out over the ensuing years would've gone along way to making it appear as though Star Trek was still out there. Filmed back to back before the sets were pulled down and released gradually as little TV events. Heck, they might've done that anyway seeing as most of Season 4 was mini-movie material. Stargate SG-1 trumps with this business strategy. Loyality to anykind of fanbase has never been Hollywood's strong suit... productions made in Canada are however, seemingly a different matter.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

Oh when will these people just get the fuck over it? Enterprise sucked. They wasted their money on a fool-hardy "enterprise" to get their suckfest back on the air. It was a moronic idea then, and it still is. It was never going to work, they couldn't accept that.

To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think someone famous once said that.

 

[MattJC]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

OmahaStar said:
Oh when will these people just get the fuck over it? Enterprise sucked. They wasted their money on a fool-hardy "enterprise" to get their suckfest back on the air. It was a moronic idea then, and it still is. It was never going to work, they couldn't accept that.

To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think someone famous once said that.

This fool would proudly pay his money to bring back Enterprise, If I had to do it all over again.
I don't need people like you to decide what I should do with my money.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

ENT was getting a lot better in S4. But knowing how corporations think, I knew Paramount would never give TU the time of day. Even wildly mis-managed, Star Trek is a valuable brand name and no corporation is going to let outsiders get a chunk of it or even a sliver. They'd do what they're doing now, building it back up from scratch and keeping outsiders at arm's length. They don't want outsiders having any legal claim on future profits. Even if you say you won't make a claim, that means nothing to Paramount's lawyers.

From Paramount's point of view, by far the single more valuable aspect of Star Trek is that millions of people recognize the name. Everything else is trivia. The specifics of ENT - premise, characters, actors - are unimportant.

 

[EnsignRicky]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

OmahaStar said:
Oh when will these people just get the fuck over it? Enterprise sucked. They wasted their money on a fool-hardy "enterprise" to get their suckfest back on the air. It was a moronic idea then, and it still is. It was never going to work, they couldn't accept that.

To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think someone famous once said that.

Why don't you tell everyone how you really feel. Only next time try throwing in a few more vulgar words; not only does it help people to take your argument seriously, but it'll also make you look like a real class act; Especially to all the younger readers who may frequent the boards.

 

[Rarewolf]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

OmahaStar said:
To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

Wasn't the three million from one of the Private Space launch companies?

 

[Navaros]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

OmahaStar said:


To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think someone famous once said that.

They didn't raise anywhere near three million, that is just misrepresentative PR semantics, and a distortion of history. They just got promises from a few wealthy donors that they would donate 3 million dollars if normal fans first donated the other 33 million or whatnot that they were estimating the season would cost. Big difference between that and actually having collected 3 million, which they didn't. I believe the amount they actually collected was very, very low.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

I was very excited by TU. Today, I'm a good deal more suspicious of the organization, and I know better than anyone the mistakes that we made (I was on the infamous Internet Liaison Team that did so much damage)

That's because TU very quickly isolated themselves from reality and the opinions of pretty much everyone who wasn't a hardcore Brazeal/TU supporter.

To think they somehow raised three million dollars is pretty amazing. That's roughly a thousand dollars from each "fan".

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think someone famous once said that.

They supposedly raised 140K dollars.

The "three million" was an alleged pledge made in the impossible event that they would raise the remaining 30M+ dollars.

TU was a joke.

It was impossible, insane, and something that only Trekdom would do.

You're almost right.

The antics of TU are something only a very small segment of Trekdom would do.

In the minds of those in that odd segment, things like depicting Moonves (the very man TU were trying to convince to bring back ENT) as a demon and depicting TU supporters as sheep behind their leader Tim Brazeal, sending Tom Freston a sextant, sending empty boxes, getting behind the absurd "Al Vinci", sending TU money to raise funds for a fifth season of ENT when Paramount had made it crystal clear that the cancellation was final and that NO money from fans would be accepted, and so on forth, all seemed like REALLY good ideas.

 

[Frontier]

Re: TrekUnited-Who did/didn't get there money back? Am I al

Don't get my started on TU...

From what I've heard from some very reliable sources, the reason TU really stopped campaigning was because Paramount theatened the Hollywood ambitions of anyone involved with them should they not stop raising such a fuss. So they sold out fandom and shut up in order to pursue their own careers...