'Veronica Mars' download difficulties; Warner Bros., Rob Thomas respond

The same passion that drove Veronica Mars fans to contribute over $5.7 million to help a movie version of the beloved television show come to life fed some vitriol after a number of Kickstarter backers were unable to download the film digitally. Backers who contributed $35 or more to the campaign were promised "a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movie's theatrical debut."

But, as of Friday night, some were experiencing difficulties downloading the film via Flixster/Ultraviolet. One backer wrote: "Tried to get the movie streamed/downloaded on several devices and ended up wasting 5 hours and still didn't get to watch the movie on release day. This has really tainted what had been until now a really positive experience."

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas responded to his backers immediately, offering a step by step process to get help. "I genuinely want today to be perfect for all of you…I want you to be able to watch it on whatever platform or device works best for your needs," Thomas wrote. "Please know that Warner Bros. have given Customer Support a lot of freedom to help make things right, so if you're having issues, please let them know: they'll do their best to either help get Flixster working to your satisfaction, or, if you prefer, to provide an alternate solution."

Those who reached out to customer support were given three options: work through the Flixster issues with customer support to try to resolve; purchase it on iTunes or Amazon and email the receipt which will be refunded to the purchaser in full; or, take a $10 refund, which, they say is the amount of the Kickstarter pledge that was used for the digital download.

Warner Bros. also issed a statement, Saturday:

Since Thomas' note went live there have been many success stories in the Kickstarter comments, while some seem to still be experiencing technical difficulties. Still, many others seem to have experienced no problems at all.