Did you look at the comments for that post?
Everyone's pissed, which is understandable and those comments are all over the map, but it's getting ugly. Funding a Kickstarter project is low-level angel funding of an idea/company/project/etc. and like any investment, there is no guarantee of a return on an investment. This is, of course not at all related to a group buy. More below vvv
I pretty much always agree with you but In this case i have to disagree, this is not how you handle a deal that unravels. He (Erik Chevalier) is not guaranteeing he is going to return the money he is mostly saying he "hopes" he can return the money--the guy doesn't even know. If you see the comments on KS people are blowing up. All the guy did was write a nice letter telling people what he hoped they wanted to hear.
I'm still waiting for 2 bills worth of switches so im not happy like everyone else but i just don't think you can relate a KS situation to this.
I know the two are not related and I have not been tracking the full story either. The only reason I linked it was due to the fact that their is a similarity in that both projects were apparently mis-handled.
In the Kickstarter example, the lead listed his plans to rectify the situation. Is it a guarantee that all money will be refunded? Absolutely not, but it's at least and accounting of what the next steps are and that has value. The comments, much like several that we've had here, are going to be out pouring of angst and Erik is clearly being raked over the coals in the court of public opinion. However, it is something public and something that shows accountability.
Compare that to this group buy. Some people have received their goods, others (such as yourself) have not and there has been no mention of refunds of money. All transactions have to take place via PM, which then forces us all to then chime in on the main thread here to try and aggregate what's actually happening. Zero transparency. Zero accountability.
Regardless of wether you agree that Erik (Kickstarter guy) handled the situation correctly, it's a far sight better than what's been done with this GroupBuy. I, for one, would much prefer public actions and accountability over death by a thousand PMs.