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Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

plastc.com

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Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#71

Post by richev »

reubensutton wrote: post #41
xiaodown wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, for reference, I'm a guy who has multiple cards. I have two debit cards and a credit card. The credit card is a credit card (and I mostly use it for company purchases that get reimbursed). The two debit cards correspond to two different checking accounts. I have a "main" checking account that my check gets deposited into, and another account that I use for, mainly, online purchases or recurring subscriptions like…

On the London transport network you've been able to pay at the barriers with a contactless credit card in the same way as you would use an Oyster card for a couple of years now. It's weird that other transport networks haven't adopted it yet

It's being trialed in Sydney http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-new-opal-commuters-to-trial-sw...

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#72

Post by thaumasiotes »

tacostakohashi wrote: post #20
xiaodown wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't going to be so much that, as a card that you could put multiple credit cards on, but that still functioned entirely like a credit card - meaning it could be swiped in vending machines, by waitresses, and everywhere that accepts cards, without the need for an apple pay or google pay or whatever NFC payment hardware. It's for people that keep multiple cards in their wallet.

I was always bemused about this idea that putting multiple credit cards on a single physical card is some great feature that a lot of people want and would pay money for. In my experience, having many credit cards is a complete pain to manage, because for each card you need to monitor the statement, set up the automatic payment (or do it manually), change the address when you move, etc, etc, and no sane person is goi…

> having many credit cards is a complete pain to manage, because for each card you need to [...] change the address when you move

Why? I did that once, and it was a huge pain. But the cards work just as well no matter what they think your address of record is. Now I just don't change it.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#73

Post by thaumasiotes »

srssays wrote: post #62
jahnu wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a system has been in use in Singapore for more than 15 years. Vienna does away with all of this fuss by simply doing random checks, issuing on the spot fines for fare evaders, and not having to manage the expense of turnstiles etc.

How do you pay for tickets in Vienna then? I kind of like the barriers, if you are on the station platform, then you have definitely paid. For me, the stations that don't have barriers are more stressful, as you run the risk of forgetting to tap your card (or the tap not registering) and incurring a maximum fare.

Maximum fare?? The fine for fare evasion should be well above the maximum fare.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#74

Post by sjtgraham »

abalone wrote: post #16
xiaodown wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't going to be so much that, as a card that you could put multiple credit cards on, but that still functioned entirely like a credit card - meaning it could be swiped in vending machines, by waitresses, and everywhere that accepts cards, without the need for an apple pay or google pay or whatever NFC payment hardware. It's for people that keep multiple cards in their wallet.

> everywhere that accepts cards Given the shift to chip-and-PIN, which can't be emulated like this -- Plastc claimed they could but never demonstrated it (because it's impossible) -- they were way too late to market with this idea even 3 years ago. And if merchants are going to roll out new POS hardware they might as well jump to NFC as it leapfrogs cards on convenience. And security, if your device implements tokeni…

I think emulation could be possible with SDA cards. SDA is part of the EMV spec but I'm not sure how many cards these days support SDA applications.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#76

Post by slavik81 »

xiaodown wrote: post #35
tacostakohashi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was always bemused about this idea that putting multiple credit cards on a single physical card is some great feature that a lot of people want and would pay money for. In my experience, having many credit cards is a complete pain to manage, because for each card you need to monitor the statement, set up the automatic payment (or do it manually), change the address when you move, etc, etc, and no sane person is goi…

So, for reference, I'm a guy who has multiple cards. I have two debit cards and a credit card. The credit card is a credit card (and I mostly use it for company purchases that get reimbursed). The two debit cards correspond to two different checking accounts. I have a "main" checking account that my check gets deposited into, and another account that I use for, mainly, online purchases or recurring subscriptions like…

It's a good idea to carry a couple cards.

About a decade ago, I took a sudden flight to a small airport in Colorado due to an emergency at work. When I arrived, I had nothing but a Visa, and a few dollars Canadian.

I was frustrated to find that I couldn't get food or call my work, because Visa wasn't accepted anywhere. The highlight was trying to make a call on a payphone and talking to the operator. When I asked if I could use my credit card to make a call, she listed off MasterCard and a half-dozen credit cards I'd never heard of. "How about Visa?" "No, sorry."

I will forever remember the janitor for lending me his cell phone and getting me out of that mess. After that, I made sure I carried multiple cards.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#77

Post by thaumasiotes »

Cpoll wrote: post #34
tacostakohashi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was always bemused about this idea that putting multiple credit cards on a single physical card is some great feature that a lot of people want and would pay money for. In my experience, having many credit cards is a complete pain to manage, because for each card you need to monitor the statement, set up the automatic payment (or do it manually), change the address when you move, etc, etc, and no sane person is goi…

> It's nice to have one card as a backup, and some hardcore churners / points collectors are going to want 5 or 6 cards and use different cards for different categories... but they're real niches, it's not something that a mainstream, mass market consumer is going to want to manage. I don't think this is the case. I think the average person has several credit cards (and is probably in the red on all of them). On the…

> one that waives the foreign currency conversion fee

I have a credit card for precisely this purpose (it's also general-purpose cash back). It's not as useful as you might expect -- most places in China that accept foreign credit cards do so only through an agreement with a chinese bank that imposes a ridiculously disadvantageous exchange rate. (But there's no "conversion fee" -- the bank generously bills you in USD. How nice of them.) They don't seem to be able to bill your card in yuan directly even though the card supports it.

On the other hand, my debit card from the same bank that also has no foreign currency conversion fee works perfectly to get cash from ATMs.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#78

Post by mindingdata »

coffeemug wrote: post #66
vkou wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In their non-defense, they also promised accountability and transparency. If you are one signature away from bankruptcy, you may want to be transparent about that, before taking un-refundable preorders. Or you could do the responsible thing and keep preorder money in escrow. Madoff was also only a few signatures from having his Ponzi scheme staying afloat.

Don't judge them until you walk a mile in their shoes. When you worked on something for years, you still maintain hope, and you're wrestling with doubt every day being "transparent" isn't so easy. You literally can't say "hey, we might go out of business" and then walk into a VC office and make a pitch. Having to wrestle with this was the hardest part of my job at RethinkDB, and any time I hear of someone who had to…

Do you really need to burn people and go bankrupt before you can call out other people for doing so?

I get what you are saying, but not taking pre-orders while they are teetering on the edge of going bust seems like the "decent" thing to do.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#79

Post by zik »

jedberg wrote: post #29
robbiep wrote: post #25

It's borderline criminal how these guys were advertising their gear on instagram up until very recently, as though they were literally just about to ship. And they're not the only ones who have been advertising vapourware on instagram as though they are a day away from shipping

In their defense, until today they thought they were going to get funded and actually be able to deliver.

Given the several month long lead times on hardware fabrication they must have known a long time ago that they couldn't deliver any time soon.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#80

Post by tacomonstrous »

reubensutton wrote: post #41
xiaodown wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, for reference, I'm a guy who has multiple cards. I have two debit cards and a credit card. The credit card is a credit card (and I mostly use it for company purchases that get reimbursed). The two debit cards correspond to two different checking accounts. I have a "main" checking account that my check gets deposited into, and another account that I use for, mainly, online purchases or recurring subscriptions like…

On the London transport network you've been able to pay at the barriers with a contactless credit card in the same way as you would use an Oyster card for a couple of years now. It's weird that other transport networks haven't adopted it yet

That's how it works in Chicago.
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