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My friend's sole trading business has an 0845 number which goes straight to voicemail. On day, he started to receive truly heartbreaking messages of financial

by ladon86 16y ago

My friend's sole trading business has an 0845 number which goes straight to voicemail. On day, he started to receive truly heartbreaking messages of financial hardship, people unable to pay medical bills for their parents, that kind of thing. People were literally crying on his voicemail. It turned out that his number was just a few digits different from the new Wonga customer service line, and he had to change the number.

mootothemax 16y ago
people unable to pay medical bills for their parents Are you sure about that? I don't want to move the conversation anywhere near healthcare controversy, but the joy of the NHS is that "I can't pay medical bills!" problems never exist :)
- ladon86 16y ago
  Sort of, but there is a grey area between what people think they need and what the NHS thinks is necessary. My mum is a head nurse and has to fill out a 10+ page assessment of the patient's needs which determines what level of at-home care the NHS will provide. Often, the family will fight this ardently because it might mean they have to pay for a care home or a private carer. These things aren't always provided by the NHS if certain conditions aren't met, and with the recent cuts, or threat of cuts, the bar for care is being set higher. In this instance, perhaps someone foolishly took out a Wonga loan to pay for their parent's care, or perhaps it was just a sob story all along.
wladimir 16y ago
... not only because they’re accurate but because taking humans out of the equation nixes the risk of manipulation by borrowers Computers are objective, obviously. But that doesn't mean the input cannot be manipulated to achieve a better output. In a way, computers are much more naive than humans. In my opinion it is irresponsible to remove the humans from the loop, in this case. A human would have an easier time rejecting applications that simply are sob stories waiting to happen, not by looking at the numbers but by listening. Then again, the reason for this set up in the first place could be to avoid responsibility. If there is no human that took the decision, there is no accountability, no recourse. Which means that they can exploit the cases that are normally ethically off-limits to even the most sociopathic loan sharks.

by ladon86 16y ago

mootothemax 16y ago

people unable to pay medical bills for their parents Are you sure about that? I don't want to move the conversation anywhere near healthcare controversy, but the joy of the NHS is that "I can't pay medical bills!" problems never exist :)

ladon86 16y ago
Sort of, but there is a grey area between what people think they need and what the NHS thinks is necessary. My mum is a head nurse and has to fill out a 10+ page assessment of the patient's needs which determines what level of at-home care the NHS will provide. Often, the family will fight this ardently because it might mean they have to pay for a care home or a private carer. These things aren't always provided by the NHS if certain conditions aren't met, and with the recent cuts, or threat of cuts, the bar for care is being set higher. In this instance, perhaps someone foolishly took out a Wonga loan to pay for their parent's care, or perhaps it was just a sob story all along.

wladimir 16y ago

... not only because they’re accurate but because taking humans out of the equation nixes the risk of manipulation by borrowers Computers are objective, obviously. But that doesn't mean the input cannot be manipulated to achieve a better output. In a way, computers are much more naive than humans. In my opinion it is irresponsible to remove the humans from the loop, in this case. A human would have an easier time rejecting applications that simply are sob stories waiting to happen, not by looking at the numbers but by listening. Then again, the reason for this set up in the first place could be to avoid responsibility. If there is no human that took the decision, there is no accountability, no recourse. Which means that they can exploit the cases that are normally ethically off-limits to even the most sociopathic loan sharks.