tmiw

I think it would have impacted contactless more, to be honest.

gooselee

For anyone interested, the Plastc LinkedIn page is still up (though who knows for how much longer).

There is also a FB group started with people discussing a possible class action lawsuit (IANAL so I'm not debating whether such a suit would be valid, I'm just saying someone started a FB page): https://www.facebook.com/plastccardlawsuit

Also discussion of Amex and Chase, at least, being generous with their time limitations on chargebacks. Offering investigations and refunds for folks going back as far as 2015 in some cases. Of course, there are also anecdotes of other banks/CCs rejecting the chargeback because it's so old.

gooselee

And to follow up in case anyone cares, I did have a pre-order in and called Amex to dispute it and request a chargeback. Preorder was placed last February (so about 14 months ago).

Amex rep was pretty useless. As soon as I said 2016, she stopped in her tracks and said she couldn't even see charges back that far. ...? I can log into my account on amex.com and pull up the charge myself, surely a CSR can see the same thing, no?

If anyone else has had success getting a chargeback from Amex, please let me know what magic words I need to use.

mikesyr18

Why not just do a charge back online, no?

Sintaku

Went to an Apple Authorized retailer in Melbourne as was told Amex incurs a 2% surcharge while visa and Mastercard won't.

gooselee

I can see the charge online, but charges from more then 6 statements ago do not have the "Open an inquiry" link.

I may just do it by mail. No rush on my end, obviously.

mikesyr18

I would be in a rush. There's only a matter of time before Plastc closes the account they took payments from, which is where AMEX would get the money back that you paid to them. Doesn't matter if they have money in their account or not, the ACH or wire would be forced to go through, putting them more in the red.

Plastc is nothing short of a scam, just like Coin. Another word of advice for everyone on here... If you want to sell your electronic devices, don't go through a company named ecyclebest... They're a scam too.

AllieKat

I meant in the UK. It is common in Australia. Tho one Australian chain, Typo (part of Cotton On) brought that dispicable practice to England with them. I hope it doesn't catch on!

phltraveler

They declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The lawsuit is a total waste of time, beating a dead horse, trying to squeeze blood from a stone, etc... best recourse is to try a chargeback.

Crowdfunding is frought with risk. It's not a pre-order of a properly developed product, it's chipping into the development of a product which may or may not come to fruition and may or may not be feasible.

Another note: Everyone gave Coin flak for the product they shipped but at least they did actually ship.

I think the physical card is going to die but NFC payments from gadgets will increase. I think smartwatches hold the most promise on this, I'm curious to see what Fitbit can do with a new smartwatch in this area after acquiring Coin in 2016.

XP1

Plastc was a pre-order, not a crowdfunding campaign.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Now taking $9 million in pre-orders for travel on my bridge to be built from Miami to Havana. It will be called the Plastc Bridge. We expect it to be operational in two years or so. Tell all your friends on social media and be sure to send your $100 in to reserve a trip on the new bridge to my prince of an uncle in Nigeria. He should be sending you an email to pre-order your trip any day now. He also needs your social security number and bank account number to set up your pre-order account.

phltraveler

It didn't take place on a specific crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter, but they sold "pre-orders" on the basis of the product eventually being made available by using the preorder funds to develop and make the product. The crowd's funds paid for R&D (which ultimately wasn't enough and they went bankrupt).

mikesyr18

Customers paid for an advertised product, not for research and development to get that product. Nowhere did it say the customer was investing.

I would Plastc owes a lot of people money, and the courts should force them to pay up somehow. I think the owner(s) should be imprisoned for fraud.

tmiw

There might not be any money to give back, though. Also, due to the company's bankruptcy, the customers are pretty far back in the order of who to pay back--if they can even get on that list in the first place.

mikesyr18

Agreed, they're pretty far back in the order.

The former owner(s) of the company have to somehow make a living wage in the future, though, perhaps we should see garnished wages to slowly pay back the customers who were screwed over.