Third-Party
A few weeks ago I joined Afterpay to take advantage of a 15% discount offer on eBay if payment was made using Afterpay. I bought a couple of items around the $30 mark and received the full 15% discount.
However, yesterday I went on to eBay to see if a particular washing machine and dryer that I wanted to buy were Eligible Items under eBay's 15% off Afterpay Day, which both eBay and Afterpay had advertising for days. Fortunately both the washing machine and dryer I wanted were Eligible Items.
Thinking that I would therefore automatically receive a 15% discount on the advertised selling prices of both items, I entered them in my Cart and proceeded to go ahead and purchase them. However, to my surprise when I went to purchase the washing machine which, after the Afterpay 15% discount was applied in the Checkout phase, came to $709, I was informed that I could only spend a maximum $515 using Afterpay. The reasons provided for this were that I was a relatively new Afterpay customer and, essentially had not created a credit history with them.
I am now in my 60s and after a lifetime of working have established a Credit Score of 98%. I do not owe anything and pay everything off, including credit cards, on time. How, then, can Afterpay tell me that my credit history is not good enough to purchase the two items I wanted to buy? Surely, if they won't allow me to demonstrate that I am not a risk of defaulting on my payments by allowing me to purchase the items I wanted to buy, then how can I possibly demonstrate that I have a good credit history? Also, how can someone establish a good credit history on Afterpay that would allow them to buy more expensive items on eBay through the purchase of many inexpensive items using Afterpay as the payment method?
One of the criticisms directed at Afterpay when they first started was that they were not checking the ability of people to pay for their purchases, thereby resulting in such persons being slugged big time with hefty late payment penalty rates. My understanding was that this situation had changed, with Afterpay and other similar lenders now being required to check the credit history of potential customers before allowing them to buy via platforms such as Afterpay. Clearly this is not the case.
It would seem that Afterpay is really not that much different to the vulture-type pay day lenders. Clearly, Afterpay's market is vulnerable people who are not able to meet scheduled payments and, as a result, end up having to make huge penalty payments, which is how Afterpay obviously rakes in the huge profits they make. Obviously, Afterpay is not interested in having customers who can make payments in full and on time.
Please do not think I am having a go at people who might struggle to make payments on time. I was once one of them and it is only through a lifetime of hard work that I am in the fortunate position I'm now in.
The fact is both eBay and Afterpay's widespread advertising of the 15% Afterpay Day marketing campaign is tantamount to fraudulent misrepresentation by refusing genuine and eligible purchasers the right to purchase 'Eligible Items' at a 15% discounted rate. There was no mention in eBay and Afterpay's T&Cs that limits would be imposed on how much you could spend. Sure, the T&Cs refer you to Afterpay's T&Cs, but really who reads such convoluted T&Cs every time a purchase is made on eBay.
Lesson learned: just wait until The Good Guys, Bing Lee and other reputable major retailers have sales and just simply pay via Credit Card without having to put up with eBay/Afterpay's sneaky and deceptive marketing strategies.
sed -i 's/Afterpay/Plus/g' title.txt