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Lost a $1500 grant because a scoring algorithm flagged my application as 'low priority'
I spent weeks on a small business grant application for my shop. The form was long, I gave them all the numbers they asked for, even got letters from my bank. Got a denial email yesterday that just said my score was too low for the next round. No human looked at it. I called and they said the algorithm looks at zip code and business age first. My shop is in a good area now, but the zip code covers some rough spots a few blocks over. The business is only 18 months old, so it got marked as 'high risk' automatically. That $1500 was for a new refrigeration unit I really need. How is that fair? It feels like the system is built to help people who don't need it as much. Has anyone else been knocked out by a zip code filter?
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john_fisher17d ago
Yeah, that "big circle" thing Susan mentioned... I read about a loan company that did the same. They had a map and just shaded whole neighborhoods red. A guy who lived on the edge, his backyard literally touched a "green" zone, but his application was dead on arrival. It's not smart, it's just lazy. They save time by not looking at real people, just a bunch of data points that don't tell the whole story. Makes you feel like a number on a spreadsheet, not someone trying to make things work.
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shanef3417d ago
That "dead on arrival" thing is harsh, but maybe the system is just trying to be fair to everyone by using the same rules. @susansingh, if they made exceptions for every edge case, wouldn't that just make things slower and less even for people in truly good areas?
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susansingh17d ago
That zip code filter thing is everywhere now. My cousin got turned down for car insurance because his address was near a high crime area, even though his street is totally safe. These systems just draw a big circle and punish everyone inside it. They call it smart but it feels pretty dumb and unfair. Makes you wonder who really benefits from setting the rules that way?
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