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[Mtnchick]

http://www.insidecrm.com/features/20-worst-vc-investments-111907/

[ira01]

Well, the writeup for the first company certainly has features in common with Prosper:

Amp'd Mobile: Amp'd Mobile takes the crown for money-burning, with $360 million that ended in bankruptcy. The company's major problem was its customers' ability to pay. While other mobile providers check for an ability to pay bills within 30 days, Amp'd let it go to 90 days and marketed to these risky customers. It has been reported that 80,000 of the company's 175,000 customers were unable to pay their bills.

[HollowOak]

That list is funny, very funny. Especially funny is the website for the final home for the pets.com sock-puppet, barnone, Inc. It is (very like Prosper) a place for online car loans, it seems. However, if you click on the site, it won't let you navigate away. First off, it pops up a little message box offering to put you in touch with a live chat agent, if only you will click "cancel" on the next screen.

Couldn't they at least, since they program the damn buttons, have come up with a better title for the button to allow the chat than "cancel?"

While you're reading the pop-up message and figuring out that yes, if you click "cancel" you will indeed be connecting to a live agent, behind you, on the real web page, the agent is already busily chatting away.

Fortunately, clicking on the "Yes" button puts all that to a stop and you can finally navigate away from the madness.

[caliostro]

HO: I would just close the pop-up window. Alt-F4 should do the trick.

As an aside, I'm suprised Red Gorilla hasn't made the cut. It should have.

[HollowOak]

HO: I would just close the pop-up window. Alt-F4 should do the trick.

As an aside, I'm suprised Red Gorilla hasn't made the cut. It should have.

It really is a message-box, you have to click the buttons. I've not tried Alt-F4, it was funny in a desperate, stupid sort of way more than anything else.

[Erasmus_Darwin]

Couldn't they at least, since they program the damn buttons, have come up with a better title for the button to allow the chat than "cancel?"

Actually, I think the button title is outside of their control.  They're using what's traditionally a dialog box that would normally say something like, "Are you sure you want to leave?  If you exit this site without submitting, your data will be lost."  If you click "OK", the result never gets back to their code -- it goes to your web browser, which then moves on to the next page.  I'm not really a web guy, and I'm sure someone else could do a better job of explaining it.

[HollowOak]

Couldn't they at least, since they program the damn buttons, have come up with a better title for the button to allow the chat than "cancel?"

Actually, I think the button title is outside of their control.  They're using what's traditionally a dialog box that would normally say something like, "Are you sure you want to leave?  If you exit this site without submitting, your data will be lost."  If you click "OK", the result never gets back to their code -- it goes to your web browser, which then moves on to the next page.  I'm not really a web guy, and I'm sure someone else could do a better job of explaining it.

Actually I made my comments based on a little web programming I did. As with all things where my memory is concerned, my recollections come with a caveat as to accuracy and integrity, but I'm pretty certain one can change the text on the buttons.

[SGriff]

While you're reading the pop-up message and figuring out that yes, if you click "cancel" you will indeed be connecting to a live agent, behind you, on the real web page, the agent is already busily chatting away.

That's not a live agent. It's a bot. I had a brief conversation with one a while back just to see. I cursed it up one wall and down the other, and it just kept right on throwing its pitch.

[sequaltwo]

  ok I don't feel so bad cuz I did the exact same thing as you did on one of those "live chat" bots just to see what would happen.......and of course the bot just kept giving the pitch.....