Placing orders during lockdown

[mtbkym01 4008]

17 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

ok, this is why I don't like Amazon and won't buy from them. For a seller they are great, Amazon will do a lot of the leg work for you. So for example you have 100 widgets to sell, you pre-package them and ship off to the nearest Amazon warehouse and when you get an order, they take care of fulling the order and sending it. You just have to make sure you keep Amazon stocked. Thats one of the reason they have such large warehouses, they are holding their own goods plus a great deal of their sellers. What it also means is that since the warehouses are so large, even with all their robots, they still employ a large number of people. So far, so good, and easy for small sellers too.

Now for the bit I don't like, they don't actually employ that many people, they are all contracted through a third company. In Australia, we tend to take our workers rights quite seriously, but this contract method sidesteps all that. Shifts are not guaranteed week to week (even though they are doing the same thing each week) and because they are contract, they miss out on holiday pay (Australia its 4 weeks a year for full time workers), sick leave (10 days a year), minimum wage, overtime etc. Now there have been lots of reports here about actual working conditions. They say workers have access to water, toilets etc, but  the workers are timed every second during the day. So they get and order and will be given a time limit to complete, then they get the next one and so on. If they fail too often to fill and order in the time given, they don't get sacked, they just don't get as many hours and there is nothing they can do. If they were employed, there are workers laws around having to notify of staff about issues, there is appeal system, etc. Now I understand the need for Amazon to turn a buck and to make sure the workers are efficient, but everything I have ever read about how they manage their workers just seems to be worst and nothing more than pure greed, just so we can get cheap stuff.

And additionally from what I’ve seen the cheap stuff isn’t cheap anyway.

[Klausen 1197]

6 hours ago, rwordenjr said:

I’m still waiting on my nova fox from @Tamico Admin  . I’m in the USA and the tracking has gone silent the last 5 days. It’s now been 2 weeks since order was placed 

I have gotten parcels from Tamico last week and having one coming monday again, so they are in business. I am in Denmark. Maybe going to the US is more difficult at the moment.

[Northern_Ben 27]

For me personally, as long as you manage your expectations then there's no problem. If I order something and it takes a few days extra, I don't get wound up about it. 

Heard stories of people going bat-**** at companies for not being able to offer usual quick delivery services. Seems a bit out of order to me... 

[Problemchild 2149]

@yogi-bear yeah zero hour contracts and production line approach to packaging.

we do have a bee in our bonnet about this at the moment but these hourly approach to contracts has been around for a long long time in many different industries - it’s linked to demand - hospitality/travel industry is built on this workforce approach but people still stay in hotels

and I used to work a production line - half hour lunch and that was it. Water bottle under the line. Cars are produced like this 24hrs a day. 

its because it’s high profile that it’s an easy target.

i now work in an office and exploitation of workers happens there. Sometimes I miss the structure of the factories. I now work through lunch most days, forget to drink and eat, work late and on the laptop at weekends all for no extra money

at least when I worked in the factory I’d get paid for every hour I work

if you are a good worker you get good work on zero hour contracts 

JJ

[moffman 5752]

1 hour ago, Problemchild said:

@yogi-bear yeah zero hour contracts and production line approach to packaging.

we do have a bee in our bonnet about this at the moment but these hourly approach to contracts has been around for a long long time in many different industries - it’s linked to demand - hospitality/travel industry is built on this workforce approach but people still stay in hotels

and I used to work a production line - half hour lunch and that was it. Water bottle under the line. Cars are produced like this 24hrs a day. 

its because it’s high profile that it’s an easy target.

i now work in an office and exploitation of workers happens there. Sometimes I miss the structure of the factories. I now work through lunch most days, forget to drink and eat, work late and on the laptop at weekends all for no extra money

at least when I worked in the factory I’d get paid for every hour I work

if you are a good worker you get good work on zero hour contracts 

JJ

Nah.......agree to disagree! any form of exploitation on any worker doesn't sit well with me Amazon can dress it up with fancy adverts (in the uk) as much as they like and I don't care if Donna bakes cake on a Wednesday and you can go on any amount of warehouse tours they will only show and tell you what they want you to hear! this is a light hearted hobby forum so don't get me started with the tax avoidance! 

[Problemchild 2149]

@moffman  yeah agree - every company is the same. Even small businesses.

the U.K. govt are paying small businesses 80% of their taxable income and people are moaning as they only take £12,500 as income the rest is dividends. My missus did it too. But it’s tax avoidance. Pay income tax on min taxable then pay 20% on dividends instead of 40% PAYE. 

now they are only getting 80% of £12,500 instead of the £60k they were taking home.

all businesses are the same but why pick out amazon? 

JJ

[yogi-bear 2321]

9 hours ago, Problemchild said:

@moffman  yeah agree - every company is the same. Even small businesses.

well, I don't think all businesses are the same, big or small. I have certainly worked with and for businesses the value employees, which is probably my biggest personal gripe with Amazon. My daughter works at McDonalds, and she is certainly treated a lot better than what I have read for Amazon warehouse workers.

9 hours ago, Problemchild said:

the U.K. govt are paying small businesses 80% of their taxable income and people are moaning as they only take £12,500 as income the rest is dividends. My missus did it too. But it’s tax avoidance. Pay income tax on min taxable then pay 20% on dividends instead of 40% PAYE. 

now they are only getting 80% of £12,500 instead of the £60k they were taking home.

That is scary. I have been caught before where financial advice has been great until you come across something unexpected and then you find out the disadvantages.

9 hours ago, Problemchild said:

all businesses are the same but why pick out amazon? 

JJ

I picked on Amazon here as they were mentioned, but yeah, there are others. Amazon is certainly not the only one, but it was front of mind as they have been in the news recently about how they run things here in Australia and overseas. However, there are also plenty of other multi-nationals here that instead of employing people through a 3rd party contractor, they put them on as casual or permanent. Sure they are still cheap labour, but they have more rights as a casual than as a contractor (well here in Australia anyway). Few businesses are perfect, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't call them out.

[Problemchild 2149]

That’s what I mean, amazon are an easy target and with so many people employed you are always gonna get many many bad stories.

i left the factory production line I worked at because I was employed as a temp through an agency. I was there for 6months when they changed the hours to a seasonal schedule. (Longer hours winter, shorter hours summer). If you were permanent your salary stayed the same but as a temp, I would only be paid the hours I worked - and now summer I’d have a 40% drop in wage. I asked them if they’d make me perm and because i was just out of uni I was told I was over qualified and wouldn’t. I told them I was going to be around for the next 6 months but they didn’t care. I could no longer pay my bills so when I went home on the Friday I just never turned up and instead went to the job centre and got a new job starting on the Monday making bird tables.

the world is what you make of it and I’m sure there are amazon warehouse staff and drivers who love it

JJ

[Finnsllc 917]

The irony, from my perspective, here in the US is that the mail service and shipping companies are one of the things NOT shut down. If we are all stuck at home, outta work, not supposed to be out then the delivery services are crucial. However, i have about ten orders including servos, paint, motors, esc and misc. parts out there in the world somewhere. Tracking is useless. Looking at 20-30 days for things to arrive. So we may be stuck and want to occupy ourselves but we cant. We have time, but no material. Obviously i am not complaining that the services are slow here due to the fact they are prioritizing shipments. But it does stink to not be able to move forward with projects. My kids have been home for two weeks home schooling due to the virus. Now they are on spring break for a wekk. Been waiting as of now almost 3 weeks for his supershot to show up. Still have no idea when it will be here. Just saying.

[A-Baum 352]

On 4/3/2020 at 8:25 PM, rwordenjr said:

I’m still waiting on my nova fox from @Tamico Admin  . I’m in the USA and the tracking has gone silent the last 5 days. It’s now been 2 weeks since order was placed 

Did you order online?  I just tried an order and the USA is not an available country in their shipping pull down.  Wonder what’s going on there.

[rwordenjr 1890]

4 minutes ago, A-Baum said:

Did you order online?  I just tried an order and the USA is not an available country in their shipping pull down.  Wonder what’s going on there.

My tracking finally updated 2 days ago, it’s in the USA now. And you have to email tamico direct to process USA orders at the moment due to shipping restrictions 

[A-Baum 352]

Ok thanks for the info.  Will shoot them an email and hope I hear back Monday.