5 ms·

Paribus (YC S15) Gets You Money Back When Stuff You've Bought Goes on Sale

17 points by justin 11y ago

karimatiyeh 11y ago
Hey HN! Karim here (cofounder/CTO at Paribus). Happy to discuss any questions you might have about how it works or why we're building this
zck 11y ago
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty reluctant to let any company "View, manage, and permanently delete your mail in Gmail". Yes, I could create a new email address that I only use for purchasing stuff, but that's a big change. This product looks cool, but I'm not seeing past the privacy issues right now.
- karimatiyeh 11y ago
  Fair point. That's why we make our business model extremely clear. We're out there to help users claim the money they're owed and keep 25% in the process. We're not out there to sell user data. Also, you can set up a secondary account and auto-forward emails relatively quickly to a forwarding address linked to Paribus. On Gmail: 1- Go to filters and start creating a new filter: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters 2- In the from field, type: amazon.com OR bestbuy.com OR staples.com OR macys.com etc. with all the retailers for which you want to track receipts 3- Click "create a filter with this search" 4- Click "Forward it to" and add your forwarding address. You should be all set after that (although you will have to change your filter if you want to add the new retailers as we add more) Hope this helps. We'll add to the FAQ :)
  - eli 11y ago
    Maybe a way to start by simply forwarding emails you want the system to process to a special email address. Kinda like how TripIt works -- I'm not even sure they ask for access to your email box until you've used the service by manually forwarding confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com for a bit.
  - zck 11y ago
    >Also, you can set up a secondary account and auto-forward emails relatively quickly to a forwarding address linked to Paribus. Oh, this is interesting, and should get around most of the privacy concerns. One question: how do you get the money back from the retailer? I had assumed that Paribus sent an email from the account, but that won't actually work if my email is zck@example.com and I give you access to zck-shopping@example.com. If you email Amazon from zck-shopping@example.com, would they refund zck@example.com? Or do you send me an email saying something like "Amazon dropped prices on $PRODUCT_X, contact them here<link> to get a refund"?
    - karimatiyeh 11y ago
      Hah ;) I love that you caught on on this quickly. Shoot me an email and I can go into more detail on how we do this. We handle all the communication on your behalf and have a couple of tricks up our sleeves.
      - zck 11y ago
        Cool, I'd love to chat. Unfortunately, the "email" field in HN profiles is private, and you don't have an "about" filled out. My email is zkanfer@gmail.com.
mfkp 11y ago
I tried out Paribus when it launched on ProductHunt a while back. I was very uneasy about granting email access, but I did anyway. Turns out that they have trouble scanning my emails for Amazon receipts, so they recommend giving them my Amazon username and password. No way I would ever do that. I can revoke gmail oauth access (which I did), but giving you my Amazon password also grants you access to my AWS account (not really because of 2-factor, but still). Why would I trust them to correctly store & encrypt such sensitive data, just to save a few bucks on Amazon purchases. Not worth it for me.
gleb 11y ago
I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, would be happy to get some money back. My concern is that if I take margin away from Amazon, and a take up a bunch of their CS time using Paribus, Amazon will classify me as a customer they would rather not have. And then, say, cancel my account if I end up returning bunch of stuff later, as they are rumored to do. So for Amazon, are price drop claims Amazon's official policy, or something that their CS allowed to do to appease customers? What kind of Amazon price drops qualify for refund? Also, if setting up a separate account to forward receipts to, the email will be different than one Amazon has for me. Is this a problem for your automated emails going from that account?

17 points by justin 11y ago

Hey HN! Karim here (cofounder/CTO at Paribus). Happy to discuss any questions you might have about how it works or why we're building this

zck 11y ago

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty reluctant to let any company "View, manage, and permanently delete your mail in Gmail". Yes, I could create a new email address that I only use for purchasing stuff, but that's a big change. This product looks cool, but I'm not seeing past the privacy issues right now.

karimatiyeh 11y ago
Fair point. That's why we make our business model extremely clear. We're out there to help users claim the money they're owed and keep 25% in the process. We're not out there to sell user data. Also, you can set up a secondary account and auto-forward emails relatively quickly to a forwarding address linked to Paribus. On Gmail: 1- Go to filters and start creating a new filter: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters 2- In the from field, type: amazon.com OR bestbuy.com OR staples.com OR macys.com etc. with all the retailers for which you want to track receipts 3- Click "create a filter with this search" 4- Click "Forward it to" and add your forwarding address. You should be all set after that (although you will have to change your filter if you want to add the new retailers as we add more) Hope this helps. We'll add to the FAQ :)
- eli 11y ago
  Maybe a way to start by simply forwarding emails you want the system to process to a special email address. Kinda like how TripIt works -- I'm not even sure they ask for access to your email box until you've used the service by manually forwarding confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com for a bit.
- zck 11y ago
  >Also, you can set up a secondary account and auto-forward emails relatively quickly to a forwarding address linked to Paribus. Oh, this is interesting, and should get around most of the privacy concerns. One question: how do you get the money back from the retailer? I had assumed that Paribus sent an email from the account, but that won't actually work if my email is zck@example.com and I give you access to zck-shopping@example.com. If you email Amazon from zck-shopping@example.com, would they refund zck@example.com? Or do you send me an email saying something like "Amazon dropped prices on $PRODUCT_X, contact them here<link> to get a refund"?
  - karimatiyeh 11y ago
    Hah ;) I love that you caught on on this quickly. Shoot me an email and I can go into more detail on how we do this. We handle all the communication on your behalf and have a couple of tricks up our sleeves.
    - zck 11y ago
      Cool, I'd love to chat. Unfortunately, the "email" field in HN profiles is private, and you don't have an "about" filled out. My email is zkanfer@gmail.com.

mfkp 11y ago

I tried out Paribus when it launched on ProductHunt a while back. I was very uneasy about granting email access, but I did anyway. Turns out that they have trouble scanning my emails for Amazon receipts, so they recommend giving them my Amazon username and password. No way I would ever do that. I can revoke gmail oauth access (which I did), but giving you my Amazon password also grants you access to my AWS account (not really because of 2-factor, but still). Why would I trust them to correctly store & encrypt such sensitive data, just to save a few bucks on Amazon purchases. Not worth it for me.

gleb 11y ago

I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, would be happy to get some money back. My concern is that if I take margin away from Amazon, and a take up a bunch of their CS time using Paribus, Amazon will classify me as a customer they would rather not have. And then, say, cancel my account if I end up returning bunch of stuff later, as they are rumored to do. So for Amazon, are price drop claims Amazon's official policy, or something that their CS allowed to do to appease customers? What kind of Amazon price drops qualify for refund? Also, if setting up a separate account to forward receipts to, the email will be different than one Amazon has for me. Is this a problem for your automated emails going from that account?