Hell trials its own buy now, pay later scheme – except you don’t have to pay until you’re dead

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If you can’t afford to pay for your pizza now, Hell suggests you pay for it when you’re dead.

Rebekah Parsons-King/Stuff

If you can’t afford to pay for your pizza now, Hell suggests you pay for it when you’re dead.

Hell plans to let some customers pay for their pizza when they die.

The pizza chain, which has stores in both New Zealand and Australia, is trialling AfterLife Pay, in which customers don’t have to pay for their pizza until they’re dead, with no late fees or penalties.

Customers chosen to be part of the scheme sign a real amendment to their wills, allowing the cost of their pizza to be collected upon their death. The agreement is legally binding.

Hell chief executive Ben Cumming said the idea came about after he was approached by buy now pay later (BNPL) providers who wanted Hell to offer their service to its customers.

“We’re seeing a growing number of people using the schemes to buy essential items like food, and we think it’s taking it a step too far when you’ve got quick-service restaurants like ours being asked to offer BNPL for what is considered a treat.”

Hell chief executive Ben Cumming.

SUPPLIED

Hell chief executive Ben Cumming.

Anyone interested in AfterLife Pay can apply from Thursday. Then 666 people in New Zealand will be selected to sign an online legally binding agreement, amending their will.

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Nicola Patterson, partner at Nicholsons Lawyers, said the proposal, if executed correctly, was probably legally valid but it would require the codicil maker to file the signed document with their will, which was usually held at their lawyer’s office.

“If it got lost then no one would ever know it existed. Unless Hell were to keep a registry of the records and keep an eye on obituary notices I don’t really see it being a guaranteed way of Hell being paid,” she said.

If the codicil was executed correctly and kept safely with the original will the administration costs for the estate of the deceased to make the payment to Hell would far outweigh the cost of the pizza, she said.

And if Hell happened to close down before the death of the customer? The payment would likely be void.

It wasn’t the first time Hell had done something unusual.

Its 2006 campaign for its Lust pizza involved sending out condoms in the promotion material, which sparked a total of 685 written complaints. It also raised eyebrows with a George Bush billboard that said “Hell. Too good for some evil bastards”.

The Hell blood bag on a vegetarian pizza caused concern last year.

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The Hell blood bag on a vegetarian pizza caused concern last year.

In 2014, a billboard made of about 550 rabbit pelt to advertise its new rabbit pizza in the Auckland suburb of Parnell caused outrage.

The Commerce Commision warned the pizza company after it made false or misleading representations about the contents of its burger pizza, which secretly used plant-based Beyond Meat patties instead of real meat.

And last year a marketing stunt in which a vegetarian pizza was sold with an optional bag of tomato sauce infused with beef stock, and capsules of deer blood left some customers “grossed out”.

Hell said the blood sauce was included to ensure “meat-loving customers” did not get annoyed at another vegetarian pizza being added to the menu.

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