
Wirecard’s Boon is shutting down - wlkr
https://www.beboon.com/uk/news/exclusive/boon-says-goodbye
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qwerty456127
> 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
Yes, 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.

~~~
wastedhours
I'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.

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sschueller
Notice their signature:

    
    
      boon. – a Wirecard brand
      Wirecard Card Solutions Limited
      boon. Service
      Postfach 31 05 44
      04136 Leipzig
      Germany

~~~
chdaniel
May 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
You 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.

~~~
avianlyric
Depends 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.

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jgrahamc
_we 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?

~~~
moron4hire
And 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
Boon 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.

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rvz
Who?

~~~
Manfred
I always find it kind of endearing when you find out about a product for the
first time when they close down.

~~~
qwerty456127
And it often happens these are awesome, unique products I'd love to use.

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prawn
Their 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
They got screwed in the Wirecard scandal. One day to the next nothing worked.

~~~
WJW
Given that they were part of Wirecard, it's more like they were screwing
around themselves instead of getting screwed.

~~~
sschueller
It 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.

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robbiemitchell
There's no money to be made in payments. The two-sided acquisition fees
(merchants + users) plus per-transaction fees just burn cash.

~~~
ahmedfromtunis
How is that different from any other form of marketplace?

~~~
robbiemitchell
For 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.

