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Magic+

getmagicnow.com

71–80 of 498 posts

Re: Magic+

#71
I use Magic and they provide incredible service. They've been able to accomplish pretty much everything I've asked, including some requests that I thought were borderline outlandish, such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise (friend's favorite restaurant).

If you value your time more than your money, then they're an excellent service that gives you a new suite of capabilities for making that tradeoff. They have been able to arrange everything I've asked them to do. What I like about them is that I can make a request without having any idea how to go about getting it fulfilled, and Magic will figure out how - they'll do the research and find a solution. They are familiar with service providers for all sorts of unusual tasks and will set them up for you: personal chefs, car servicing pickup, garbage pickup - for everything I've asked they've had an answer.

They are primarily limited however by their staff on the ground or lack thereof. Although they've been able to organize couriers in several cities to accomplish tasks, they have occasionally been unable to find couriers on the day of a request. Magic is a generalist service: they can do virtually anything, but not necessarily within the same hour you ask. They're worse than specialist services like Postmates at tasks like basic food pickup and delivery (mostly due to lower availability of couriers). Magic is most useful when your need is unusual and a typical service won't be able to get it done - or when you want a complex problem to be solved and don't want to have to think about or manage the solution. At such a task, they excel, and they've always come through for me in the end.

The Magic staff are very friendly and personable, as well. Their customer service is a tier above any other company I've interacted with. They handle requests with unusually high intellectual and emotional intelligence, and care. (Disclaimer: I haven't used Magic+, only the original Magic which has been surprisingly cheap for the value it adds.)

Re: Magic+

#72
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are all real requests that our users have actually used Magic+ for. We obviously cant divulge their identities, or show photographs, etc. (since these are personal things), but it's important to convey how people really use the service. I'd love ideas on how we can communicate this point better. Part of what our users love about Magic+ is that you truly can do some pretty amazing things with it.

Did you fulfil any of these requests?

They claim to have fulfilled 100% of requests. Seems like a lie, though.

Re: Magic+

#73

$100 an hour? Fuck that. I'm currently living abroad and don't speak the language very well. So I hired a virtual assistant who speaks the language and English. He charges $7.50 USD an hour. I only pay him for time it takes to complete my tasks. I rarely even pay $100 for the whole month.

From where did you hire?

Re: Magic+

#74

Episode 5 of Rick and Morty's first season is relevant (the Mister Meeseeks episode).

Magic- (Magic-ish)

Text this number to get a regular human assistant for $50/hr: xxxxx

Using Magic-, you have a regular power - highly trained Magicians can ask regular people for help with minor tasks. Send our very normal people a text message 24/7, and you can get help doing your very magical things.

Re: Magic+

#75
post #58
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

>Anything you want. As long as it’s not illegal. Seriously. I think murder falls under the illegal category of exception.

I wonder whether one could use Magic to hire a prostitute in Nevada, given that they're a California company presumably incorporated in Delaware.

Which is a more localized version of the question I really want to ask: if Magic ever expands outside of the US, could I use it to order Cuban cigars to be shipped to Canada from Cuba? The US would never have to import them—so no illegal/trade-sanctioned act is occurring—but an American company is still profiting from the exchange.

Re: Magic+

#76
It says it works from anywhere, but then only gives a number that works from within the US. How are you supposed to use this service while in another country and not having access to a US sim card?

Re: Magic+

#77

The example they're trying to use to show you that prices aren't crazy quotes a $30+ surcharge for having groceries delivered.

I really loved the $3,750 helicopter ride to the airport, like your average joe has that much money to blow so they don't have to sit in traffic. I guess I'm just not in their target demographic?

Re: Magic+

#78

Looks like the reception isn't doing too well. I remember when Magic launched here on HN and it BLEW up. I was one of the people who tried it out. I live in NYC and actually had a poor experience. The first two times, I said "hey I want a sandwich with [x]" and I got it but it took a lot longer than if I just clicked the necessary buttons on Seamless. Then I kept getting random calls from time to time from pizza deli…

I'm really sorry that your initial experience with Magic last year wasn't ideal. We have come a long way since those initial days. Believe it or not, we actually did not plan that original launch -- rather, we released the website and number to a few people and it went viral practically overnight. We set up a waitlist as quickly as we could, but there definitely were some people in the beginning who did not have a good user experience. I hope that if you asked for a refund back then because you were dissatisfied, that you got one. If you didn't, please feel free to text in now and claim it.

Some of the themes you're bringing up here actually point to why we created Magic+ in the first place. Magic+ was developed as a response to the needs of the most active and demanding users of our standard Magic service. In particular, a common demand was to hold a very high bar for quality and seamlessness of experience.

Right now, some of these user-requested experiences are more expensive to deliver than the original Magic pricing model accounted for. Our plan is to offer Magic+ at this price now, because there is good demand for it at this price, and drop the price over time to reach a larger and larger market. $100 dollars an hour is a lot, but our most active users tell us that for this level of elite service, it's a bargain.

Re: Magic+

#79
post #59

So this is just Amex Plat/Centurion concierge for people who prefer to text than call?

That's exactly the comparison I wanted to make as well. I thought of the original Magic service as "a Visa Black Card concierge-service automated and scaled enough to target the middle class"; this just returns it to the parent concept.

I don't think the middle class has $3,750 to spend on a helicopter ride to the airport...

Re: Magic+

#80
I just signed up to see if they could renegotiate my Comcast price for me. It turns out you have to buy either 10 hours at $100/hour or 40 hours at $75/hour to get started. That's way too steep to try something out.
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