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With Fancy Hands, how do you deal with tasks (such as buying tickets) that require the use of your credit card, password, account info etc. If there is a solut

With Fancy Hands, how do you deal with tasks (such as buying tickets) that require the use of your credit card, password, account info etc. If there is a solution, they should mention it on their front page because I'm sure half the people who go there ask themselves: "Wouldn't I have to give my credit card info to complete strangers for this to be useful?" This seems to be the weak link with these services.

GrumpySimon 14y ago
From their website: "Fancy Hands can purchase things for you. Yep, if you ask us to buy toner cartridges, lunch, or tickets, we can handle it. First off, security is our number one priority with this feature and it's totally baked in from the start. At no point, does your assistant, or anybody else at Fancy Hands have access to your credit card number. Not bad, right? You don't have to worry about a rogue assistant using your credit card information, they'll never know it (plus, we don't have any rogue assistants)." http://www.fancyhands.com/help/payments http://www.fancyhands.com/help/payments
- bvdbijl 14y ago
  Although... "While we can make purchases for you, we cannot do certain things including reservations (at hotels, etc), and airplane tickets." So fancyhands couldn't have helped the writer of the blogpost with his airplane ticket problem
  - ivankirigin 14y ago
    They could set up the itinerary for him to purchase quickly.
  - eli 14y ago
    I've had corporate travel services place tickets on a 24 hour hold for me before (i.e. the itinerary is reserved, but not yet paid for). I assume that's still possible, at least for the legacy carriers.
    - beagle3 14y ago
      Continental used to have that, but dropped it shortly before the United merger. I think other companies did too. Instead, they let you cancel with no cancellation fee within 24 hours. (Although the funds may take up to two weeks to go back to your account). So essentially, FancyHands can book it for you with their card, and cancel it if they can't charge you within 24 hours - but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't want to go that route.
      - nowarninglabel 14y ago
        American Airlines still has this feature (or at least it did last night when I was making a booking) Edit: By this feature, I mean the ability to place a hold without the credit card.
      - saryant 14y ago
        United still has this feature. Choose "pay at the airport" and then just go back and pay online within 24 hours.
  - raverbashing 14y ago
    But they can certainly help find the best options for your travel so that you can go there and buy yourself. That's what takes the most time, once you have that, just go and buy. Sure, having someone that could do everything would be good. But you could do that with a travel agent.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- loevborg 14y ago
  As a potential customer, I for one would be scared off by the sloppy writing in the very paragraph that is supposed to inspire confidence (stray comma after "At no point"; awkward comma between the two clauses "You don't have to worry..." and "they'll never know it").
  - flyinRyan 14y ago
    Oh brother. This "they messed this one thing up so they must be idiots" is already a way for the simple minded to be able to feel superior about something useless, but in this case you're not even correct. Go read some Mark Twain. That guy must have been a moron, right?
    - loevborg 14y ago
      Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
andrewdavey 14y ago
They can't do anything that requires your credit card: http://www.fancyhands.com/not/good/for http://www.fancyhands.com/not/good/for
- tedroden 14y ago
  Hi! This is Ted Roden, Founder of Fancy Hands. So this can be confusing. We can definitely purchase things for you. Want us to order flowers? Have someone come install your air conditioner? No problem, we can even handle the payment for most things. However, we do this by billing you securely (just like iTunes, etc), and then letting the assistants use "the company card." So the assistant won't actually handle your credit card information, but we can still make these purchases for you. So users never have to expose their Credit Card information to their assistants. The assistant will never ask for it. If you need us to do something that actually requires knowing your entire credit card number for some reason, that's the type of thing we can't do. But making purchases doesn't fall under that umbrella.
  - samstave 14y ago
    You attach some markup to the cost of something? If so, what %?
    - tedroden 14y ago
      Nope, at this point, we don't take any percentage or fee. We even pass along any discounts we receive (we get up to 15% off flower some purchases for example and we pass that along to you).
    - michaelkscott 14y ago
      It looks like the HN bot killed tedroden's comment because it might have looked like a spammy promotion (e.g. we get up to 15% off flower purchases), though clearly it wasn't. Here's the whole comment: Nope, at this point, we don't take any percentage or fee. We even pass along any discounts we receive (we get up to 15% off flower some purchases for example and we pass that along to you).
spuz 14y ago
I would love to have a service like Fancy Hands. Is there an equivalent in the UK?

GrumpySimon 14y ago

From their website: "Fancy Hands can purchase things for you. Yep, if you ask us to buy toner cartridges, lunch, or tickets, we can handle it. First off, security is our number one priority with this feature and it's totally baked in from the start. At no point, does your assistant, or anybody else at Fancy Hands have access to your credit card number. Not bad, right? You don't have to worry about a rogue assistant using your credit card information, they'll never know it (plus, we don't have any rogue assistants)." http://www.fancyhands.com/help/payments http://www.fancyhands.com/help/payments

bvdbijl 14y ago
Although... "While we can make purchases for you, we cannot do certain things including reservations (at hotels, etc), and airplane tickets." So fancyhands couldn't have helped the writer of the blogpost with his airplane ticket problem
- ivankirigin 14y ago
  They could set up the itinerary for him to purchase quickly.
- eli 14y ago
  I've had corporate travel services place tickets on a 24 hour hold for me before (i.e. the itinerary is reserved, but not yet paid for). I assume that's still possible, at least for the legacy carriers.
  - beagle3 14y ago
    Continental used to have that, but dropped it shortly before the United merger. I think other companies did too. Instead, they let you cancel with no cancellation fee within 24 hours. (Although the funds may take up to two weeks to go back to your account). So essentially, FancyHands can book it for you with their card, and cancel it if they can't charge you within 24 hours - but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't want to go that route.
    - nowarninglabel 14y ago
      American Airlines still has this feature (or at least it did last night when I was making a booking) Edit: By this feature, I mean the ability to place a hold without the credit card.
    - saryant 14y ago
      United still has this feature. Choose "pay at the airport" and then just go back and pay online within 24 hours.
- raverbashing 14y ago
  But they can certainly help find the best options for your travel so that you can go there and buy yourself. That's what takes the most time, once you have that, just go and buy. Sure, having someone that could do everything would be good. But you could do that with a travel agent.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
loevborg 14y ago
As a potential customer, I for one would be scared off by the sloppy writing in the very paragraph that is supposed to inspire confidence (stray comma after "At no point"; awkward comma between the two clauses "You don't have to worry..." and "they'll never know it").
- flyinRyan 14y ago
  Oh brother. This "they messed this one thing up so they must be idiots" is already a way for the simple minded to be able to feel superior about something useless, but in this case you're not even correct. Go read some Mark Twain. That guy must have been a moron, right?
  - loevborg 14y ago
    Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

andrewdavey 14y ago

They can't do anything that requires your credit card: http://www.fancyhands.com/not/good/for http://www.fancyhands.com/not/good/for

tedroden 14y ago
Hi! This is Ted Roden, Founder of Fancy Hands. So this can be confusing. We can definitely purchase things for you. Want us to order flowers? Have someone come install your air conditioner? No problem, we can even handle the payment for most things. However, we do this by billing you securely (just like iTunes, etc), and then letting the assistants use "the company card." So the assistant won't actually handle your credit card information, but we can still make these purchases for you. So users never have to expose their Credit Card information to their assistants. The assistant will never ask for it. If you need us to do something that actually requires knowing your entire credit card number for some reason, that's the type of thing we can't do. But making purchases doesn't fall under that umbrella.
- samstave 14y ago
  You attach some markup to the cost of something? If so, what %?
  - tedroden 14y ago
    Nope, at this point, we don't take any percentage or fee. We even pass along any discounts we receive (we get up to 15% off flower some purchases for example and we pass that along to you).
  - michaelkscott 14y ago
    It looks like the HN bot killed tedroden's comment because it might have looked like a spammy promotion (e.g. we get up to 15% off flower purchases), though clearly it wasn't. Here's the whole comment: Nope, at this point, we don't take any percentage or fee. We even pass along any discounts we receive (we get up to 15% off flower some purchases for example and we pass that along to you).

spuz 14y ago

I would love to have a service like Fancy Hands. Is there an equivalent in the UK?