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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

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 delivery men saying they were downstairs. They were very apologetic and nice about it, but really it just wasn't worth it for me. The CTO (I think) reached out to me some months later asking why I stopped and well it's the same answer: very little utility for someone like myself. If I were rich, hey sure why not boss someone around for random things (though I don't know why I wouldn't just hire someone I can trust). However, if you're middle income or even a little higher, what's the point really? Everything else is basically on-demand in this new uber-fied world.

cdata 11y ago
I had a very similar outcome with Magic after trying really hard to rely on it. One of their suggested usages is to order flowers for someone, so I tried that on two different occasions. The first time around, I asked for flowers, and got a picture of some flowers that they could send to my recipient. I didn't like the flowers in the picture, and so they picked another set of flowers per some feedback from me. The flowers arrived, and the recipient was touched, but my lingering feeling was that I would have spent the same amount of time ordering online, and it would have been easier to find the right kind of flowers if I had done so. The second time I tried to order flowers was a complete disaster. I was ordering them for a special occasion, and Magic had told me they would be delivered within an acceptable time frame. However, the flowers never showed up. I was not notified that they had not showed up - instead I learned that they had not showed up after one of the more embarasing birthday calls of my life. Magic was very nice about it, refunded me and delivered the flowers late for free. The error may not even have been their fault. However, the extra layer of abstraction between me and the flower delivery person in this case seemed to make the whole situation worse. I use a lot of different do-things-for-you services these days. In theory Magic is a service I should be totally hooked on, but these bad experiences killed it for me. What's the point of a service that does everything for you if it makes things more complicated or harder to get done?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- cmikec 11y ago
  Thanks for bringing this up. I've addressed similar comments elsewhere in this thread so I'll try not to repeat myself much. - We really feel terrible that some early Magic users had a less-than-magical experience after our initial, spontaneous launch. I'm really sorry about that. I'm glad that you got your refund. If you're interested, reach out to us and we can probably track down exactly what happened and what broke down in the chain of operations. - This is part of the reason that we created Magic+. We wanted to be able to hold a very high bar for top-tier service and guarantee that you would have it at all times, no matter what. - We'd love for you to give Magic+ a try and compare it to your experiences with Magic. I'm highly confident that you will feel a major difference, however I understand if you don't feel inclined to do so after your past experience.
  - allanmacgregor 11y ago
    > - This is part of the reason that we created Magic+. We wanted to be able to hold a very high bar for top-tier service and guarantee that you would have it at all times, no matter what. This is really not addressing the issue in my opinion, it would go a long way if you offered more details on what steps has been taken to improve the service, the process, the monitoring and the reliability of the service. Saying "Well we know we dropped the ball so we are going to make it more expensive in hopes less people use it is really not an strategy that inspires confidence"
  - spyder 11y ago
    This doesn't sound right: You are suggesting to use your more expensive service when even your basic service wasn't working well for him. Why aren't you saying him to try the basic Magic service again, is it because it's still not "fixed"?
- nl 11y ago
  If it's any consolation, I once had a flower company deliver an empty box to someone's office. That was pretty embarrassing!
Mahn 11y ago
> If I were rich, hey sure why not boss someone around for random things (though I don't know why I wouldn't just hire someone I can trust). However, if you're middle income or even a little higher, what's the point really? Everything else is basically on-demand in this new uber-fied world. Judging by the price and the copy in the page, I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually targeted at rich people.
- joslin01 11y ago
  Yes - plus appears to be targeted at rich people ("I need to have 6 convertibles by tomorrow"). But remove that trailing `/plus` at the end of the URL and you have their base product Magic, which isn't.
cmikec 11y ago
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.
- joslin01 11y ago
  Hey it's no worries -- just sharing my experience and conclusion upon the product. Poor experiences aside, the product isn't for me because I think it's equally as easy to just use the specialized service (e.g., food delivery website for food delivery). Nevertheless, I can see a use-case for the wealthy and hope the best for you guys.
- sycren 11y ago
  This looks really interesting. Just wondering, in your FAQ you have: Q: Where is Magic+ available? Anywhere you need it. Magic+ is there to make your every desire and need happen, wherever you are. # Does this mean that we can actually use it in other countries like the UK? Do we need to use an area code?
  - cmikec 11y ago
    Yes, you can use the service from other countries. Magic+ is actually really convenient when you're traveling. We have phone numbers that work internationally.
exadeci 11y ago
You don't even need to be that rich to have an assistant 24/7: Personal Assistant™ Offers MasterCard® Black cardholders the convenience of a personal assistant, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Going beyond the service of a concierge, Personal Assistant is available to free up time for busy cardholders, with services such as: Child care services (such as pick-up and drop-off at school). Pet care. Personal shopper (domestic and international). Location and purchase of rare gifts. The MasterCard® Black Personal Assistant service will answer virtually any request that money and ethics can buy. For free.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Crap, this could have really saved me over the last month - what's the catch? Have you used something like this? I think my last card had it (calling it "Concierge") but my current bank doesn't mention it anywhere.
  - corin_ 11y ago
    Typically cards with extra features either (at the low end) charge a monthly fee or (at the higher end) have minimum requirements such as a minimum net worth for the holder or a minimum monthly or annual spend through it. Lower end would normally be a small fee and fairly basic bonus features (travel insurance, gadget insurance, airport lounges) while I'd expect any half-decent concierge service to be aimed at attracting richer customers. The minimum worth/spend requirements basically mean the extra services offered are there to attract people who will give the card creators more % by spending more money, giving them enough profit to offer free services.

cdata 11y ago

I had a very similar outcome with Magic after trying really hard to rely on it. One of their suggested usages is to order flowers for someone, so I tried that on two different occasions. The first time around, I asked for flowers, and got a picture of some flowers that they could send to my recipient. I didn't like the flowers in the picture, and so they picked another set of flowers per some feedback from me. The flowers arrived, and the recipient was touched, but my lingering feeling was that I would have spent the same amount of time ordering online, and it would have been easier to find the right kind of flowers if I had done so. The second time I tried to order flowers was a complete disaster. I was ordering them for a special occasion, and Magic had told me they would be delivered within an acceptable time frame. However, the flowers never showed up. I was not notified that they had not showed up - instead I learned that they had not showed up after one of the more embarasing birthday calls of my life. Magic was very nice about it, refunded me and delivered the flowers late for free. The error may not even have been their fault. However, the extra layer of abstraction between me and the flower delivery person in this case seemed to make the whole situation worse. I use a lot of different do-things-for-you services these days. In theory Magic is a service I should be totally hooked on, but these bad experiences killed it for me. What's the point of a service that does everything for you if it makes things more complicated or harder to get done?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
cmikec 11y ago
Thanks for bringing this up. I've addressed similar comments elsewhere in this thread so I'll try not to repeat myself much. - We really feel terrible that some early Magic users had a less-than-magical experience after our initial, spontaneous launch. I'm really sorry about that. I'm glad that you got your refund. If you're interested, reach out to us and we can probably track down exactly what happened and what broke down in the chain of operations. - This is part of the reason that we created Magic+. We wanted to be able to hold a very high bar for top-tier service and guarantee that you would have it at all times, no matter what. - We'd love for you to give Magic+ a try and compare it to your experiences with Magic. I'm highly confident that you will feel a major difference, however I understand if you don't feel inclined to do so after your past experience.
- allanmacgregor 11y ago
  > - This is part of the reason that we created Magic+. We wanted to be able to hold a very high bar for top-tier service and guarantee that you would have it at all times, no matter what. This is really not addressing the issue in my opinion, it would go a long way if you offered more details on what steps has been taken to improve the service, the process, the monitoring and the reliability of the service. Saying "Well we know we dropped the ball so we are going to make it more expensive in hopes less people use it is really not an strategy that inspires confidence"
- spyder 11y ago
  This doesn't sound right: You are suggesting to use your more expensive service when even your basic service wasn't working well for him. Why aren't you saying him to try the basic Magic service again, is it because it's still not "fixed"?
nl 11y ago
If it's any consolation, I once had a flower company deliver an empty box to someone's office. That was pretty embarrassing!

Mahn 11y ago

> If I were rich, hey sure why not boss someone around for random things (though I don't know why I wouldn't just hire someone I can trust). However, if you're middle income or even a little higher, what's the point really? Everything else is basically on-demand in this new uber-fied world. Judging by the price and the copy in the page, I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually targeted at rich people.

joslin01 11y ago
Yes - plus appears to be targeted at rich people ("I need to have 6 convertibles by tomorrow"). But remove that trailing `/plus` at the end of the URL and you have their base product Magic, which isn't.

cmikec 11y ago

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.

joslin01 11y ago
Hey it's no worries -- just sharing my experience and conclusion upon the product. Poor experiences aside, the product isn't for me because I think it's equally as easy to just use the specialized service (e.g., food delivery website for food delivery). Nevertheless, I can see a use-case for the wealthy and hope the best for you guys.
sycren 11y ago
This looks really interesting. Just wondering, in your FAQ you have: Q: Where is Magic+ available? Anywhere you need it. Magic+ is there to make your every desire and need happen, wherever you are. # Does this mean that we can actually use it in other countries like the UK? Do we need to use an area code?
- cmikec 11y ago
  Yes, you can use the service from other countries. Magic+ is actually really convenient when you're traveling. We have phone numbers that work internationally.

exadeci 11y ago

You don't even need to be that rich to have an assistant 24/7: Personal Assistant™ Offers MasterCard® Black cardholders the convenience of a personal assistant, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Going beyond the service of a concierge, Personal Assistant is available to free up time for busy cardholders, with services such as: Child care services (such as pick-up and drop-off at school). Pet care. Personal shopper (domestic and international). Location and purchase of rare gifts. The MasterCard® Black Personal Assistant service will answer virtually any request that money and ethics can buy. For free.

voltagex_ 11y ago
Crap, this could have really saved me over the last month - what's the catch? Have you used something like this? I think my last card had it (calling it "Concierge") but my current bank doesn't mention it anywhere.
- corin_ 11y ago
  Typically cards with extra features either (at the low end) charge a monthly fee or (at the higher end) have minimum requirements such as a minimum net worth for the holder or a minimum monthly or annual spend through it. Lower end would normally be a small fee and fairly basic bonus features (travel insurance, gadget insurance, airport lounges) while I'd expect any half-decent concierge service to be aimed at attracting richer customers. The minimum worth/spend requirements basically mean the extra services offered are there to attract people who will give the card creators more % by spending more money, giving them enough profit to offer free services.