Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coin Card Teardown

bitsofcents.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 121 posts

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#11

Post by GauntletWizard »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

It wastes your time, it wastes the cashier's time. It wastes the time of the people in line behind you. Isn't wasting people's time embarrassing?

Another common cause of credit-card-swipes not working is card declines. It's fairly obvious to the user and cashier, but potentially embarrassing if the people in line behind you assume you've maxed out your credit card/drained your debit card.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#12

Post by markbnj »

joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

They probably didn't have the ability to test it on nearly enough readers, given that there are literally thousands. They may also be running into some timing issues based on how people swipe. Those are things you sometimes just can't work out barring wide scale testing and adoption.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#13

Post by wdages »

joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

This was my experience too. It simply has to work 100% of the time, and unfortunately doesn't. Actually wrote this up just yesterday:

Coin: The product that had to be perfect. http://willd.me/posts/coin-the-product-that-had-to-be-perfec...

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#14

Post by mildweed »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

The line behind me wondering why I'm not done yet. Also, by using a Coin, I'm positioning myself as somebody who uses great, new technology. When that fails, it reflects poorly on me. Now I'm the guy who spends money on something that doesn't work, but keeps brandishing it, perhaps for some ego reason.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#15

Post by function_seven »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

For me the big deal is that if my card doesn't work—my actual plastic card, that is—then it's the retailer's equipment that is faulty. They fumble around with it—using a plastic bag sometimes, or they move to another terminal—and it works eventually. But the issue is almost always on the reader side, not with the card itself.

On the flip side, that retailer has just seen 100 people in a row use their plastic just fine, then you come along with your whiz-bang phone or Coin card or whatever, and start failing. The embarrassment comes from everyone else waiting behind you thinking to themselves, "Why not just use a card like everyone else instead of your complicated technology?" Or, "HEY EVERYBODY! LOOK AT THIS GUY WHO THINKS HE'S TOO GOOD FOR REGULAR CARDS!"

To be clear I don't pooh-pooh these things. I totally understand why people would like to ditch a stack of cards for a phone or Coin replacement. Just explaining why it might be embarrassing to rely on these replacements, and then have them fail.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#16

Post by Globz »

This is the first time I am reading about this product but why mag stripe over smart cards? isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? it seems very useful but relying on mag stripe isn't the best move, no? Perhaps they couldn't "switch cards" while using smart cards so mag stripe was the only solution?

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#18

Post by ajkjk »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

It's definitely awkward to have to re-run a card, for a lot of reasons:

At least in the US, there's sort of a social phenomenon of de-emphasizing the payment process at restaurants. Checks are left on the table with a 'whenever you're ready' attitude, and often are not brought until requested. Cards are left on the check and taken away, often silently, to be processed. Checks are kept out-of-sight, for each payer to process individually without a lot of discussion, and tips are usually kept private. All of this amounts to awkwardness if something brings attention to the whole process.

Additionally, since cards are picked up and processed elsewhere, it's awkward for the payer if the waitstaff has to come back and explain that your card didn't work and wait for you to bring out another. Doubly so if they seem busy already, or if you already feel guilty for inconveniencing them by, say, splitting a check in a complex way - which is common for a large class of people, including me. Though I've noticed there's a different large class of people who find this guilt ridiculous.

On top of all this, there's a very real stigma around cards being declined for having insufficient funds. This doesn't really happen in the world of fairly well-off techies, but, running out of money (/ maxing out a credit card) is a very real problem for many people.

Not to mention the awkwardness of 'being the person using newfangled tech'.. and then having it not work on you.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#19

Post by azdle »

Globz wrote: post #16

This is the first time I am reading about this product but why mag stripe over smart cards? isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? it seems very useful but relying on mag stripe isn't the best move, no? Perhaps they couldn't "switch cards" while using smart cards so mag stripe was the only solution?

The security that a smart card provides would actually prevent a product like this from working because one of the primary purposes of the chip system in CCs is to prevent cloning, but this relies on simply being able to enter your CC number into it.

I can't remember what it was called, but I remember reading about something that does use a chip card and allows you to switch payment providers using a phone app, but they were actually acting as a payment processor and had agreements with the card providers that they support to redirect charges to whoever you had selected at the time.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#20

Post by Nursie »

Globz wrote: post #16

This is the first time I am reading about this product but why mag stripe over smart cards? isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? it seems very useful but relying on mag stripe isn't the best move, no? Perhaps they couldn't "switch cards" while using smart cards so mag stripe was the only solution?

It's not quite deprecated in the USA, yet. Just nearly everywhere else...
Post reply on HN