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Wirecard’s Boon is shutting down
- jgrahamc 6y agowe have to inform you that due to the events of the past weeks we will discontinue the service of boon. as of 3rd of October 2020. What "events of the past weeks" does this refer to?
- BlackFingolfin 6y agoBoon was/is part of Wirecard, which blew up last month as major fraud came to light; see e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-german-fintech-darling-wirecard-fell-from-grace/2020/06/23/6278e336-b564-11ea-9a1d-d3db1cbe07ce_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-german-fintech-d... or just google for "Wirecard"
- flanfly 6y agoThe end of Wirecard.
- moron4hire 6y agoAnd later: "Why is the boon.Program closing? Due to the current situation, we've taken the difficult decision to close the boon.Program." They could have just said "because reasons" and been equally informative. Why bother including the text at all?
- moooo99 6y agoBoon is part of Wirecard and its pretty well known what happened there and why their companies might stop their service. Based on that, I assume they use wording like this to not affect the current investigations regarding the wirecard situation.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rvz 6y agoWho?
- Manfred 6y agoI always find it kind of endearing when you find out about a product for the first time when they close down.
- 1123581321 6y agoIt’s not the company’s fault someone posted a customer communication on HN.
- qwerty456127 6y agoAnd it often happens these are awesome, unique products I'd love to use.
- robbiemitchell 6y agoThere's no money to be made in payments. The two-sided acquisition fees (merchants + users) plus per-transaction fees just burn cash.
- ahmedfromtunis 6y agoHow is that different from any other form of marketplace?
- robbiemitchell 6y agoFor payments alone, you can't charge enough to cover the credit card transaction fees because no one will pay it. They all try to make it up in volume via a loyalty program or sell the data to others. Other marketplaces can take a percentage off the top well in excess of the fees, or they'll even add the tx fee on top to fully pass it through.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cenal 6y agoThere is money to be made if user acquisition costs are non existent. Just a billionaire boys club game these days...
- prawn 6y agoTheir blog post prior to this one was about the world being shaped by crises. "So maybe this crisis will usher in a new Era where people will exclusively prefer to shop online? It will be interesting to see the direction in which the world progresses. In any case, boon. Customers are always well prepared for both Online-Shopping and shopping in stores with their boon.App. So whatever there will be: Enjoy Paying!"
- sschueller 6y agoThey got screwed in the Wirecard scandal. One day to the next nothing worked.
- WJW 6y agoGiven that they were part of Wirecard, it's more like they were screwing around themselves instead of getting screwed.
- sschueller 6y agoIt was probably a small department that ran this startup and quiet possible did not know what was going on at the top although there where always a lot of rumours.
- sschueller 6y agoNotice their signature: boon. – a Wirecard brand Wirecard Card Solutions Limited boon. Service Postfach 31 05 44 04136 Leipzig Germany
- chdaniel 6y agoMay not have to do with that. Other WireCard-powered companies are back on track. Most probably they'd be looking to switch, but I own a couple of Wirecard-cards and they're working
- zentiggr 6y agoYou still trust enough to use them? Not being snarky, just given the way the company has blown up in holiday fireworks fashion, I'd be looking to balance transfer and go to anything else.
- chdaniel 6y agoDon't stress, your question is very valid. I don't use them per se. I've just got a card from crypto.com — the other card I have that uses WC is Curve Curve is not my main card, but as for the crypto.com, Wirecard doesn't hold their funds.
- avianlyric 6y agoDepends what country you’re in. In the UK at least the rules and regs makes it very hard for you to steal customer funds. The money needs to be stored in a segregated account held at a real bank, who is then responsible for making sure that account isn’t abused. And if you’re bank offering these types of accounts, then you’ll have the regulator watching your every move to make sure you’re not misbehaving.
- Reason077 6y agoThey're not just Wirecard-powered, they are Wirecard.
- saos 6y ago
- qwerty456127 6y ago> Why is the boon.Program closing? - Due to the current situation, we've taken the difficult decision to close the boon.Program. What a bullshit answer. You should better ignore the question altogether than answer it this way.
- bloak 6y agoYes, it's even worse than the one that goes a bit like this (with "//" denoting a change of voice as audio samples from different recording sessions get combined): We apologise for the late departure of the // 11:44 // service for // London Kings Cross. // This is due to // the late arrival of an incoming service. I'm sure passengers appreciate the explanation. I expect the person who recorded "the late arrival of an incoming service" also recorded a few alternatives, such as "leaves on the line" or "alien abduction", but they never seem to use any of the alternatives.
- secondcoming 6y agoMaybe they don't do it for National Rail, but I've heard '... due to a person under a train' quite often on the Underground.
- avianlyric 6y agoMy favourite was always, “we apologise for the delay, because the driver is currently on a delayed train”. At some point the excuse just makes you look even more incompetent, and you’re better off staying silent.
- wastedhours 6y agoI've noticed airlines started doing this as well - I think there might be logic in it, especially from a terminus. I'd wager people would subconsciously assume the train just "appears" ready for their journey without thinking about knock on effects of the logistics, no matter how illogical it'd be. I've seen enough irate commuters getting agro with station staff that I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't A/B tested which messages result in the least complaints.
- rosswilson 6y ago
- schmorptron 6y agoaw man, i was using this to buy crap on aliexpress as i wouldn't trust them with my bank account. any good alternatives to this for that purpose?