But the developers got all their tickets closed this sprint. Because at the end of the day, ticking boxes is what matters, not actually providing business value. Just ask your scrum "master".
Why I'll never use Affirm again
71–80 of 298 posts
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#72I feel like all these online "buy now pay later" services are just there to prey on poor people
IMHO they are the title/payday loan operators of the web, like their real world counterparts they prey on the poor.
Unlike those real-world counterparts, they don't make money. Also unlike the real-world ones, they're making loans so risky that they're apparently having issues selling even the highest-rated ABS tranches right now.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#73There's a misconception that when you initiate a chargeback through your credit card, then you're good, you have your money and the merchant just has to eat it.
But the chargeback doesn't erase your debt with the merchant, so they are free to collect that debt by other means, including sending it to a debt collector.
Adding a third party like Affirm makes this messier - Affirm (presumably) fulfilled their service, they let you finance the debt and they paid the money to the merchant
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#74This is so strange. If Affirm is the creditor why does he not ask Affirm to initiate a chargeback against the merchant? Is this one way Affirm can compete against credit cards, that they do not need to handle this kind of situation?
Affirm does allow people to open a chargeback dispute, but personally I was always taught to go through your credit card/bank. Also, after reading this account I would be very hesitant to go through Affirm for anything. Chase seems responsive on the other hand.
>personally I was always taught to go through your credit card/bank.
For direct merchant/service provider purchases. Different beast than an installment loan, legally speaking. Regardless of Affirm botching things after the loan was paid, I suspect that the party reversing and withholding payment on the loan was taking a contractually and legally indefensible position.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#75> tldr: I'll never use Affirm again because when there are issues with their payment system that could severely impact your credit score for years, their customer support is unequipped to help and their underlying support infrastructure is poorly designed.
The story of pretty much EVERY startup. What will it take to get these clowns to focus on customer service and properly build out infrastructure? How much is enough fintech recklessness?
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's nice that they cared, but they were under no obligation to respond. To me, this is an issue. We should have systems in place where people are guaranteed to have their issues remedied.
> We should have systems in place where people are guaranteed to have their issues remedied. That's basically what a lawsuit is--you sue someone and if they don't respond, you generally win by default, but if they do, you have the burden of proving your facts.
You don't just have to prove your facts. You also need to be acquainted with the current law and literally centuries of case-law. The burden is immense for an individual.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they were under no obligation to respond Mileage varies by state. The New York AG tends to make not responding very costly, sometimes debilitatingly so, for companies. A letter copying e.g. the Alabama AG is likely to be ignored.
Do you have experience with the Alabama AG office not responding to a consumer complaint? A quick google indicates both an online form and a phone number specifically for contacting Alabama AG Office Consumer Specialists: https://www.alabamaag.gov/consumercomplaint
> Do you have experience with the Alabama AG office not responding to a consumer complaint?
No, but it was a specific example cited by a prior corporate counsel. (We had an irate customer from New Jersey copy their AG. We were informed that Trenton is no Montgomery, the message being that if we didn’t promptly and properly respond their AG’s office would get involved.)
I live in Wyoming, by the way—our AG is likely also easy to contact but hard to get to follow up from. One of the trade-offs of living in a small-budget state.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#78As someone that never goes in debt and would never use Affirm, I still realize these types of services will impact me.
Just like with high cashback credit cards, they have large merchant comissions, that in the end have to be covered from the other customers to show only a single price.
I end up subsidizing other customers by a tiny amount, and just wish for regulation to stop this micro-theft.
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#79I feel like all these online "buy now pay later" services are just there to prey on poor people
I've never (in my experience) seen credit-poor customers get approved by Affirm (or any other BNPL). I have, however, seen Affirm's other scummy side -- they have a special 'workflow' with a partnership with Katapult, a lease-to-own provider, where the merchant can take an Affirm denial and push it to Katapult for an even more predatory rent-to-own loan at higher rates.
They definitely do: https://i.imgur.com/ZFiHz3s.png
Re: Why I'll never use Affirm again
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can understand the value prop to the consumer - but I have a harder time understanding why it's an actual business, and why existing credit card companies or other lenders can't eat their lunch with the flip of a switch.
Hi! Affirms scores (evaluates the risk) of each transaction in real time, which allows then to have reasonably low bad rates. Very few lenders can do it.
Until there's a credit crunch or a recession, in which case all that "real-time" risk management will be moot and losses will be massive.