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Post by batchoy on Oct 23, 2014 11:26:28 GMT
Step Two: Check every single loan in your loan book to ensure that the Manual Auto Investment (MAI) target is set where you want it to be. i.e. equal to your holding if you don't want to buy more, less than your holding if you want to sell, and greater than your holding if you want to buy more. You will need a calculator for this as any adjustments have to be entered as an adjustment not the end target. At the same time keep a tally of the increases and decreases so that you know whether you will need to add funds to your MLA and if so by how much. , I would have thought that, to absolutely guarantee that the cash transferred into the MLI account remains available to purchase the specific new loan you are targetting, you would need to make sure that none of your targets on the other loans are greater than your holding until you've made the purchase. , the process was written off the cuff, I have refined it here if you want to check it www.p2pindependentforum.com/post/26006 so that it can handle new and existing purchases.
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merlin
Minor shareholder in Assetz and many other companies.
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Post by merlin on Oct 23, 2014 11:41:31 GMT
I have been away for a couple of days so missed the launch. I have just spent about an hour browsing the new system and as I would have expected IMHO currently it is still a bit of a Curates Egg. No doubt it will improve as the obvious bugs are got out of the system and people (me included) get used to using it.
Many people hate change of any sort so there was always going to be some negative comments what ever the new platform was like. However as stated on many previous posts my current view is that the platform is far too complex for new users to handle. Maybe when a simple guide is produced I might change my view. If you want to do something as simple as buying loans and managing them in the way that you want as you could pre-upgrade it as become a horrendously complex and time consuming process: Step One: Turn of automatic reinvestment of income by setting the Manual Lending Account (MLA) to 'Withdraw repayments and interest'. Step Two: Check every single loan in your loan book to ensure that the Manual Auto Investment (MAI) target is set where you want it to be. i.e. equal to your holding if you don't want to buy more, less than your holding if you want to sell, and greater than your holding if you want to buy more. You will need a calculator for this as any adjustments have to be entered as an adjustment not the end target. At the same time keep a tally of the increases and decreases so that you know whether you will need to add funds to your MLA and if so by how much. Step Three: Go to the loan book and make the appropriate adjustments to the MAI targets for the loans that you wish to make first time purchases of. Again keep a tally and add it to the total from Step Two, if this total is positive then this is the amount of funds that will be need to be added to the MLA. Step Four: If there are insufficient funds in your Cash Account (CA) to cover the increased requirement in the MLA transfer go to Step Five, if there are sufficient funds transfer then from the CA to the MLA and wait for the process to happen. END Step Five: Initiate the transfer funds from your bank and wait (several days) for the funds to arrive in your CA. Step Six: Once the funds arrive go to Step Two. Each time you want to make a purchase or a sale start the process at Step Two. NB: Never undo Step One otherwise you could find yourself increasing your holding of loans that you don't want to increase your holds of. Note I have not fully tested the process but this is how I believe the simple purchase of parts in a new loan works from the work I have done so far. With my current loan book and assuming sufficient funds on my CA I estimate about an hour to an hour and half should see me put a request in to purchase parts in a new loan and that is on top of the time taken to do my DD and made the decision to lake part in the loan. Obviously as my loan book grows (if I stick with the platform) this time will increase. Thanks batchboy for your instructions on how to work the system,but why oh why does a user have to write them when it should have been done by AC staff long before launch. This smacks of the most appalling amateurism on the part of the developer to me. I for one wont be buying or selling anything with AC until the platform properly shakes down. If it does not shake down quickly I will just sell the lot and move on.
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jo
Member of DD Central
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Post by jo on Oct 23, 2014 11:42:50 GMT
I simply do not understand how people can say that this was anything but an atrocious upgrade, andrewholgate and his team have unilaterally, without notification, consultation or my express consent taken it upon themselves to reverse my instructions to the platform both implicit and explicit, with the result that the platform has purchased loan parts which I neither wanted nor instructed it to buy and which as of this point I have do not appear to have been able to sell. On top of this we have chris repeatedly claiming that there is no change in functionality when there blatantly is. I agree and have posted in another thread about a cognitive dissonance that seems to surround AC matters. That said, I still like them - I just won't be investing further until my pending goes sub-2 months and my account balance is clarified, or corrected (hint adam my reply to your request of 14th Oct and my chaser of 17th has not been answered or even acknowledged).
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Post by batchoy on Oct 23, 2014 11:48:39 GMT
If you want to do something as simple as buying loans and managing them in the way that you want as you could pre-upgrade it as become a horrendously complex and time consuming process: <SNIP> Thanks batchboy for your instructions on how to work the system,but why oh why does a user have to write them when it should have been done by AC staff long before launch. This smacks of the most appalling amateurism on the part of the developer to me. I for one wont be buying or selling anything with AC until the platform properly shakes down. If it does not shake down quickly I will just sell the lot and move on. Check here for an up to date version of the instructions: www.p2pindependentforum.com/post/26006
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oldgrumpy
Member of DD Central
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Post by oldgrumpy on Oct 23, 2014 11:50:19 GMT
"I would have thought that, to absolutely guarantee that the cash transferred into the MLI account remains available to purchase the specific new loan you are targetting, you would need to make sure that none of your targets on the other loans are greater than your holding until you've made the purchase."
As I don't want to have to check that on every loan every time before putting money into MLIA for a specific purpose, I will only be giving AC an "OK" for the launch. When "disable MLIA" for individual loans is introduced, in one form or another, I will consider a "good". Can't be "very good" because of initial cockups in logging in and accrued interest, and the fact that the issue of individual loan control wasn't available in the first place. Much of the rest I like.
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Post by yorkshireman on Oct 23, 2014 12:54:02 GMT
I have spent a lot of time over the last 48 hours attempting to understand and learn how to operate the new AC site and have come to the conclusion that as it has become unnecessarily complicated and time consuming AC is no longer for me therefore we shall rundown all 3 family accounts. I’m not averse to change and continuous improvement (been there, done it during my career in manufacturing) but I cannot afford to waste time on relatively small investments.  |
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Oct 23, 2014 13:46:37 GMT
"...come to the conclusion that as it has become unnecessarily complicated and time consuming..."
yorkshireman The trouble with interactive website "improvements" is that the result is ALWAYS more complicated than it was, and we will ALWAYS be told it is better, and usually (but not particularly this time with AC) be told the changes are due "to customer demand" or some such babble. I am managing OK with learning what to do, though certain things don't suit me yet. Anyone can see on the forum what I (and others) have asked for, and some of that may well be installed in due course. Like my Vietnamese computer repair man, Ming says (and I often quote this) <poses with slit eyes and big grin>
"IT EASY YOU KNOW HOW!" 
No doubt we will be reading your observations on the various forums still. It's good to have a bit of rhubarb from Yorkshire in the crumble! 
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Oct 23, 2014 13:52:45 GMT
Design aside (just as well), the ability to split loan 'parts' up and the change of practise when it comes to tying up funds pre-drawdown are both steps forward.... I agree that the ability to buy and sell loan parts of any value is a positive change. I do not, however, consider the change in practice regarding the issue of tying up funds pre-drawdown to be a significant change -- simply because it was possible to do this easily with the old system. All you had to do was be patient, wait until a loan was drawn down, and then you could buy underwriters' parts on the Aftermarket. I stopped bidding for loans in the 'primary' market months ago, and others -- including some folks with shadow bidding privileges -- have reporting doing the same.
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merlin
Minor shareholder in Assetz and many other companies.
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Post by merlin on Oct 23, 2014 14:07:18 GMT
"...come to the conclusion that as it has become unnecessarily complicated and time consuming..."
yorkshireman The trouble with interactive website "improvements" is that the result is ALWAYS more complicated than it was, and we will ALWAYS be told it is better, and usually (but not particularly this time with AC) be told the changes are due "to customer demand" or some such babble. I am managing OK with learning what to do, though certain things don't suit me yet. Anyone can see on the forum what I (and others) have asked for, and some of that may well be installed in due course. Like my Vietnamese computer repair man, Ming says (and I often quote this) <poses with slit eyes and big grin>
"IT EASY YOU KNOW HOW!"
No doubt we will be reading your observations on the various forums still. It's good to have a bit of rhubarb from Yorkshire in the crumble!
I guess what you are intimating oldgrumpy is that that the more they "fix it" the more complex it will become and by implication the more difficult to understand. I sincerely hope I have misunderstood.
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mikes1531
Member of DD Central
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Post by mikes1531 on Oct 23, 2014 14:07:36 GMT
The reason I didn't tick "very good" is that it seems that the site could have done with a longer testing period, with dummy data. As the old system wasn't, as far as I can tell, "broken", there was no reason to rush the implementation of the new one. Of course there may have been a reason we're not aware of. That would be my only criticism. I am, however, confident that the gremlins can, and will, be squashed. The testing of the system -- or lack thereof -- seems to have been one of the poorest aspects of this release. And I don't think it was due to being rushed to meet deadlines, since we have been told by the man in charge of development that the work was done and ready to release long before it actually was turned loose. The subsequent delay, IIRC, was to allow the marketers to complete their campaign strategy and be ready to promote the new AC. (Has anyone seen any sign of that yet?) So the system could have been subject to more testing -- there were beta test volunteers who were never used -- and many of the issues that came up this week could have been addressed before release. And that's the reason -- along with a lack of any explanation of what was coming and guidance regarding how to prepare for the change -- I felt the launch went very poorly.
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Post by Ton ⓉⓞⓃ on Oct 23, 2014 14:51:10 GMT
I suggest AC specify which account to leave it in when they send out the request to settle the shadow bids chris ? And surely the cash account is the best place since there'd be no risk of it being used for something else unbeknownst to the lender. Although mikes1531 I like your first idea! Why can't AC take if from my Zopa a/c it's not doing nothing there? IN EDIT That's on fair on Zopa, I'll probably always have some money there.
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Post by Ton ⓉⓞⓃ on Oct 23, 2014 15:32:07 GMT
The reason I didn't tick "very good" is that it seems that the site could have done with a longer testing period, with dummy data. As the old system wasn't, as far as I can tell, "broken", there was no reason to rush the implementation of the new one. Of course there may have been a reason we're not aware of. That would be my only criticism. I am, however, confident that the gremlins can, and will, be squashed. The testing of the system -- or lack thereof -- seems to have been one of the poorest aspects of this release. And I don't think it was due to being rushed to meet deadlines, since we have been told by the man in charge of development that the work was done and ready to release long before it actually was turned loose. The subsequent delay, IIRC, was to allow the marketers to complete their campaign strategy and be ready to promote the new AC. (Has anyone seen any sign of that yet?) So the system could have been subject to more testing -- there were beta test volunteers who were never used -- and many of the issues that came up this week could have been addressed before release. And that's the reason -- along with a lack of any explanation of what was coming and guidance regarding how to prepare for the change -- I felt the launch went very poorly. I'm wondering if it was the goal post kept moving. OR Too much time was spend under the hood when they should've been painting the body work. But you're right the launch was half-cocked as a result.
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Post by johnny on Oct 23, 2014 15:54:11 GMT
Interesting results so far from the Poll of polls, a late swing to the No vote predicted. I voted Ok because I will give it time before comment. I will say that I think Assetz and myself owe a big thank you to the Forum Members who have posted help, solutions, advice, and humour over the last couple of days, without them this transition would have been far more difficult. Its great that the staff of Assetz and the Forum Members are working together to solve issues as one big team, just goes to prove that there is no I in Assetz Capatol  Thank you all |
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Post by yorkshireman on Oct 23, 2014 16:16:37 GMT
No doubt we will be reading your observations on the various forums still. It's good to have a bit of rhubarb from Yorkshire in the crumble!
Thanks for those kind words OG!
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unmadem
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Post by unmadem on Oct 23, 2014 16:46:01 GMT
I have intentionally not voted for a couple of days to give it some balanced consideration but have now. My vote was Bad.
My total invested changed from the old site to the new and there was (and still is) no way to reconcile the 2 figures from the screens on the site. This is a really bad introduction to any new site/migration. Further, on the first day my accrued interest moved up and down in some very strange ways. I also had the system buying small loan parts and then selling off even smaller bits of the same loan. Together confidence sapping!
There were also some basic functionality missing e.g. statement on MIA.
Overarching, I think there were 2 main issues
1) Communication As well as the high level email the week before we should all have had a FAQ on launch similar the one we have had to compile ourselves here. That would have allowed AC to explain many of the issues and take some of the heat out of the first day. And remember we forum users are, relatively speaking, information rich and could get some explanations relatively quickly. What about the 4000 other users.
2) Testing The testing was clearly not effective. Maybe it was focussed on the new system and not so much on the migration of existing users with live loans, some accepted bids, some AI instructions etc. I don't know but clearly most of the situation of over the last few days was avoidable including some of the missing functionality or usability issues. It can be very difficult to test when you know a system well. andrewholgate for any large implementations in the future I'd recommend employing external professional testers. (I'm not in anyway implying the IT team are not professional but there are people and firms who do only this for a living and bring a very different and independent perspective to the functional testing and usability. Just to be clear I am not one or them nor employed by one).
I cannot fault the speed with which issues have been addressed and the patience with which chris dealt with issues here but it is better to avoid the problem in the first place. Rather than being fixed at leisure behind the scenes they are being fixed under time pressure and that always increase the risk of further error.
I actually think that the system will work quite well in a few weeks and getting rid of the frustrations of waiting for drawdown (even when you have a shadow bid) will be great. But the poll was about the rollout and not the system functionality and the rollout could have been so much better.
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