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Magic

getmagicnow.com

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Re: Magic

#471

Post by gosmart4u »

Anderkent wrote: post #453
gosmart4u wrote: post #446

I discovered this through a Facebook thread that has a ton of comments on it from non HN or techie peeps. Thought you might want to know what normal non-techies think. "I think it is a great idea that has potential but I personally wouldn't use them because I can't find anything about them on the website. Looks like a scam." "They need to re-design their website so it doesn't look like it was slapped together in 10 m…

>"Yay! Another useless service that creates more low wage service jobs that cater to the wealthy." ... What. This just doesn't compute. In what mindframe does this ever make sense as a complaint? If you're creating new jobs, even if they're low wage, you're just giving people more choice - they can now work at one more place than before, no one's forced into that, it literally can't do harm. And direct transfer of we…

I see both sides. Seems like there are way more low wage jobs out there though. Plenty to choose from.

Re: Magic

#472

Post by qu4z-2 »

ollysb wrote: post #418
nezumi wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I had a problem with ATT I had to make multiple calls and spent over an hour in total on hold. How would you charge for that? I'd have gladly paid for someone to take that pain away. There's probably a viable business model in there somewhere if someone can independently put a competent customer service layer in front of companies like ATT.

This would actually make a lot of sense if you could detect when a call came off hold. A small pool of operators could deal with calls as soon as the operator on the other end becomes available.

And if they're all busy, they could put ATT on hold. That I would love to do, even if they just immediately went on to the next call.

Re: Magic

#473

Post by dandanisaur »

darrelld wrote: post #22

Loving the simplicity of it all. I just need to text a number. No app to install and grant access to my phone, no website to go and sign up to with my facebook account. Nothing. Just text a number and get what I want. It solves my problems by giving a path of least resistance to getting what I want. A company doing a similar thing was handing out fliers over the summer and they had an app to install. I thought the id…

I feel like THIS is why Magic is interesting. Everyone (assuming) has SMS capabilities on their phone. I've seen this be used for banking, but nothing had the personal element? The ease of use is such a plus for this kind of thing.

Re: Magic

#474

Post by devonoel »

Its a neat idea, I'd love to try it. Unfortunately I'm Canadian, so I guess I'll have to wait for it to grow a bit first.

Re: Magic

#475

Post by jwatte »

gambiting wrote: post #454
gosmart4u wrote: post #446

I discovered this through a Facebook thread that has a ton of comments on it from non HN or techie peeps. Thought you might want to know what normal non-techies think. "I think it is a great idea that has potential but I personally wouldn't use them because I can't find anything about them on the website. Looks like a scam." "They need to re-design their website so it doesn't look like it was slapped together in 10 m…

>>"Yay! Another useless service that creates more low wage service jobs that cater to the wealthy." That sort of comment annoys me actually. Is it not great that "wealthy" people pay for all of those service jobs? Out of all things, I literally can't see any problems with this. Unless the wages are below living wage of course,but it looks like the commenter has a problem with service jobs in general?

In Mountain View, California minimum wage is below a living wage. I understand the sentiment: The scarcest resource for me is my time. Money is how we let people decide who gets to tell whom what to do with their time. A system where 0.1% tell 99.9% how to spend their precious time alive is not morally just. (I'm not saying we're quite that bad as a society -- at least not yet.)

Re: Magic

#476

Post by dandanisaur »

nzp wrote: post #405
cmikec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great question. We are still trying to figure this out right now. Our vision is to be a service that handles everything - and that means everything from ordering food, to ordering clothes, to booking a one week's vacation in St. Thomas. The fees obvioulsy vary. Any ideas you have about doing this in a more straightforward way would be welcome. For now what we are doing is thinking about what would be reason…

My bold suggestion would be to not do what other posters are suggesting about making pricing clear and itemized. As I've said in another comment, I think this service mainly fulfills an emotional need, not a rational one (and that's not bad for a business at all), so make your customers feel luxurious. Bean counting isn't luxurious. Do exactly what you do now, just handle the request and state the price. Getting peop…

Completely Agree with this. Your service is extremely easy to use and your customers will choose if the price is too much or not.

Re: Magic

#477

Post by gosmart4u »

gambiting wrote: post #454
gosmart4u wrote: post #446

I discovered this through a Facebook thread that has a ton of comments on it from non HN or techie peeps. Thought you might want to know what normal non-techies think. "I think it is a great idea that has potential but I personally wouldn't use them because I can't find anything about them on the website. Looks like a scam." "They need to re-design their website so it doesn't look like it was slapped together in 10 m…

>>"Yay! Another useless service that creates more low wage service jobs that cater to the wealthy." That sort of comment annoys me actually. Is it not great that "wealthy" people pay for all of those service jobs? Out of all things, I literally can't see any problems with this. Unless the wages are below living wage of course,but it looks like the commenter has a problem with service jobs in general?

There are plenty of decent paying service jobs. Plumbers, Roofers, etc. There are also tons and tons of low paying, low skilled service jobs. I suppose this is an entire different topic of discussion but something that needs to be looked at for the future of our kids. We need more higher paying skilled jobs regardless if they are service jobs or not.

Re: Magic

#478

Post by acjohnson55 »

cpkpad wrote: post #327
cookiecaper wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't, but if you make CA mad and they decide to sue you, you'll be out much more than it would've cost to just copy and paste a boilerplate privacy policy. A great deal of legal mechanics work this way -- sure, someone can't technically make that kind of mandate, but since it costs a lot of money and time to have a court case where that kind of thing gets proven, you're better off just making sure no one even t…

Bad idea: Giving legal advice without a license. Worse idea: giving incorrect legal advice without a license. Jurisdiction is complex. With the Internet, you do not need to have a physical location somewhere to do business there.

It would be more worthwhile if you pinpointed what exactly the poster said that's incorrect. At least one place in their post, they suggested consulting a lawyer, so I'm pretty sure no one's construing that post as Official Legal Advice.

I'm not a lawyer, so I could just be talking out of my ass, but it annoys me to read uninformative "you are not a lawyer" comments, as though people who are not lawyers are wholly unqualified to even informally discuss law on a message board. Of course it's true that anybody who takes serious business action on account of dubious message board advice is a fool, whether that's legal, medical, financial, tax, or otherwise.

Re: Magic

#479

Post by acjohnson55 »

Anderkent wrote: post #453
gosmart4u wrote: post #446

I discovered this through a Facebook thread that has a ton of comments on it from non HN or techie peeps. Thought you might want to know what normal non-techies think. "I think it is a great idea that has potential but I personally wouldn't use them because I can't find anything about them on the website. Looks like a scam." "They need to re-design their website so it doesn't look like it was slapped together in 10 m…

>"Yay! Another useless service that creates more low wage service jobs that cater to the wealthy." ... What. This just doesn't compute. In what mindframe does this ever make sense as a complaint? If you're creating new jobs, even if they're low wage, you're just giving people more choice - they can now work at one more place than before, no one's forced into that, it literally can't do harm. And direct transfer of we…

I think that's a bit naive. In the micro, one new task economy startup might be a net gain, all other things being equal, but if it's part of a macro trend where skilled jobs are disappearing and being replaced with commodity task work, we might be sliding down a dangerous slope. Your final question sound kind of like the slightly more extreme argument that yacht factories enrich otherwise unemployed people. To me, that argument always rang hollow because how much wealth is really being transferred when demand for such things is fundamentally limited. I think ideally you want a broad base of jobs that can actually provide people with a middle class livelihood.

Re: Magic

#480

Post by acjohnson55 »

tylerlh wrote: post #456
gambiting wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>"Yay! Another useless service that creates more low wage service jobs that cater to the wealthy." That sort of comment annoys me actually. Is it not great that "wealthy" people pay for all of those service jobs? Out of all things, I literally can't see any problems with this. Unless the wages are below living wage of course,but it looks like the commenter has a problem with service jobs in general?

I think a common sentiment about on-demand service startups is that it can lead to a dangerous situation for the lower-level employee, who is typically working as a 1099. Relatively low pay, and they're responsible for their own benefits, taxes, etc. This is something I have a lot of interest in at the moment, so if anyone would like to chime in, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I've read some interesting writing on the topic:

- http://tomslee.net/2013/08/why-the-sharing-economy-isnt.html

- http://www.fastcompany.com/3042248/the-gig-economy-wont-last...

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