CarolannieOct 23
More Amazon horrors: try to not buy through Amazon if you can avoid it
#HumanRights #LaborAtAmazon
"The chickenized reverse centaur is a new circle of labor hell, a genuinely innovative way of making workers' lives worse in order to extract more billions for one of the most profitable companies in history."
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/23/traveling-salesman-solution/
Pluralistic: Checking in on the state of Amazon’s chickenized reverse-centaurs (23 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Victoria PleavinOct 23
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎

@carolannie The 10¢ or 50¢ per package they were paying for delivery really showed where I live. I’m 2 miles down a gravel road and if you stick to the 15mph speed limit, it’ll take about 15 minutes (1/4 hour) just to get to my place and back. At 50¢ a package, that’s $2/hour.

Last winter, before I stopped using Amazon, the delivery guy was leaving packages in the snow near our mailbox unit on a main road 2 miles away. Now I know why.

cc @pluralistic

Oct 23 at 8:19pmWeb
Show threadGarrett WollmanOct 23
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic That's way worse than AMZL leaving packages in front of the "NO DELIVERIES TO THIS ENTRANCE" sign on my back door.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@wollman @carolannie @pluralistic Yeah, that's bad.

In my case, the only reason I knew the packages were out by the mailbox in the snow is because they included a photograph and indicated that the packages were in "the mail room." Uh, no.

Show threadBen RosengartOct 24
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Someone in my neighborhood was expressing anger to me at couriers for this kind of behavior, and I was appalled. The real culprits are people you'll never set eyes on; couriers are just ordinary people trying to scrape by.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24
@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The way I looked at it is this: a job worth doing is worth doing right. If this courier company couldn't properly deliver the packages, they shouldn't be delivering them at all.
Show threadBen RosengartOct 24
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Do you think people are doing this job because they want to?
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Does anyone really WANT to do a job like that?

If someone offered you a job for two dollars an hour, would you take it? Of course not. It is a losing proposition. You could do better on unemployment. You could do better with a tin can and a sign on a street corner.

That's my point. What is the benefit of taking a job with the pay that low? There is no benefit.

Show threadBen RosengartOct 24

@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The world is complicated. People doing that work have probably found it to be the least worst of a bad set of options.

I urge you to save your scorn for the folks profiteering off it all. And to cancel Prime if you can and you haven't yet.

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk I canceled Prime years ago. I have purchased less than 10 things from Amazon in this whole year and that was only after I realize that I could not get it for anywhere near the same price elsewhere.

Don't lecture me.

I have no pity for people who take crappy jobs and then complain about them. There is ALWAYS a choice.

I can only assume that the company that was doing the deliveries last year got wise and quit. Good for them!

Show threadchristian mockOct 24
@mlanger @fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk The courier company's job is not to deliver packages, but to make money.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24

@cm @fivetonsflax @carolannie @pluralistic @bsdphk Yes! Then why the hell would they operate at a loss by deliver for Amazon?

Poor business decision.

Show threadJacob Christian Munch-AndersenOct 24
@mlanger @carolannie @pluralistic But then, if the app has decided that the correct parking place is at you mailbox, the driver wouldn't even be allowed to drive to you house. They could have walked I guess?
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎Oct 24
@NohatCoder @carolannie @pluralistic No, the app does not decide that the correct parking space is at my mailbox. Amazon is supposed to deliver to my doorstep and it normally does. Whatever company was doing it last year is no longer doing it. In fact, we are now getting Amazon vans coming down my street. Either that, or they deliver via the USPS and then, yes, it either goes to the mailboxes or, if it can't fit, I have to go to the post office and fetch it.