Some Amazon Ring Customers Demand Drivers Dance, Then Post Videos Online (nytimes.com) 58
From the New York Times:
As Gita Jackson reported recently in Vice News, some Amazon customers are now explicitly asking the company's drivers to deliver a performance along with the package. They are posting signs to their front doors or tapping unusual delivery instructions into the Amazon app in the hopes of capturing a spectacle on their surveillance feeds.... [T]hese customers proceed to shamelessly post the evidence to social media. Sometimes the videos are spun into an online sleuthing opportunity, as the TikToker asks viewers to hunt for the dancing driver's identity. And they represent just a slice of the "Amazon driver approaches the door" genre of internet video... But whether the video is pitched as heartwarming or sadistic, the customer is enlisting the driver into a nonconsensual pageant that doubles as a performance review. As Jackson reported, Amazon drivers who fail to fulfill customer requests risk demerits....
Amazon encourages customers to publicize their Ring videos on its safety-minded social network, Neighbors, and makes it easy to share them more widely, too. One of Ring's marketing lines is "A lot happens at your front door," and this is meant as both a warning and an invitation — though it suggests it is too dangerous to venture outside, it also implies that a whole world of entertainment is to be found through eyeing your surveillance feed.... The official Ring YouTube channel is filled with user-generated videos that help inject its growing spy network with warmth and surprise, as the cameras catch spontaneous footage of good Samaritans, grazing cows and, of course, the company's drivers caught in kooky scenarios, like in this entry from December: "Even a Giant Bear Will Not Stop This Amazon Driver From Making His Delivery."
Amazon obsessively surveils its workers through dashcams, smartphone monitors and machine-generated report cards, and these videos implicate the customer in that exercise, making the violation of driver privacy into a kind of internet-wide contest. The caption for Amazon's bear video focuses on the heroic actions of a Ring user named Josh, who supposedly aided the delivery driver's safety by "watching his exit the whole time" on the security camera.... Its routes are often serviced by precarious gig workers, its quotas are too punishing to allow for socializing, and all potential human interactions have been replaced by one-way surveillance. In many of these TikTok videos, Amazon workers literally run in and out of the frame. If delivery drivers were once lightly teased or frequently ogled, now they are simply dehumanized, plugged into machine-run networks and expected to move product with robotic efficiency. The compulsory dance trend on TikTok suggests that customers, too, have come to see drivers as programmable....
On an even more depressing corner of Amazon TikTok, customers post videos not to backwardly celebrate drivers but just to shame them for delivering the package with less than the customer's expected level of service.
Amazon encourages customers to publicize their Ring videos on its safety-minded social network, Neighbors, and makes it easy to share them more widely, too. One of Ring's marketing lines is "A lot happens at your front door," and this is meant as both a warning and an invitation — though it suggests it is too dangerous to venture outside, it also implies that a whole world of entertainment is to be found through eyeing your surveillance feed.... The official Ring YouTube channel is filled with user-generated videos that help inject its growing spy network with warmth and surprise, as the cameras catch spontaneous footage of good Samaritans, grazing cows and, of course, the company's drivers caught in kooky scenarios, like in this entry from December: "Even a Giant Bear Will Not Stop This Amazon Driver From Making His Delivery."
Amazon obsessively surveils its workers through dashcams, smartphone monitors and machine-generated report cards, and these videos implicate the customer in that exercise, making the violation of driver privacy into a kind of internet-wide contest. The caption for Amazon's bear video focuses on the heroic actions of a Ring user named Josh, who supposedly aided the delivery driver's safety by "watching his exit the whole time" on the security camera.... Its routes are often serviced by precarious gig workers, its quotas are too punishing to allow for socializing, and all potential human interactions have been replaced by one-way surveillance. In many of these TikTok videos, Amazon workers literally run in and out of the frame. If delivery drivers were once lightly teased or frequently ogled, now they are simply dehumanized, plugged into machine-run networks and expected to move product with robotic efficiency. The compulsory dance trend on TikTok suggests that customers, too, have come to see drivers as programmable....
On an even more depressing corner of Amazon TikTok, customers post videos not to backwardly celebrate drivers but just to shame them for delivering the package with less than the customer's expected level of service.
Ok (Score:3)
Re:Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Something along that. It must be mutually business-ethics framed behavior with the respect due, instead of the "playful" abuse.
I love Amazon Prime! (Score:3, Funny)
Wow. I thought I was just getting next day delivery (or sometimes even same day) by signing up for Amazon Prime, but apparently I can request the Amazon drivers do other things too? This is sick!
How long until I can request specific drivers and have them give me a strip tease, lap-dance (or more) with my Amazon Prime delivery?
"Ooh yeah, twerk it, Amazon, twerk it!"
Handled With Care. Followed Instructions. Above and Beyond.
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Or banning accounts entirely, including for the current delivery.
And if Amazon doesn't do that, the customer isn't the real problem, Amazon's management is.
And we've know who the real problem is for years.
Re:Ok (Score:5, Funny)
The only reason Amazon would cancel a customer for abusing their employees is that they don't want the competition.
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The only reason Amazon would cancel a customer for abusing their employees is that they don't want the competition.
Yeah, but having your drivers wasting time instead of delivering packages is bad for business.
Re: (Score:2)
They'll solve that by firing the drivers for being slow, not fixing the problem. They can always find another desperate person to drive for them. Doing anything to prevent this might risk removing a reason for more sick fuckers to buy a Ring.
Re:Ok (Score:4)
I have another idea. Amazon should start canceling Prime accounts for abusing their employees. These sorts of people would probably not appreciate that at all.
FTS: "As Jackson reported, Amazon drivers who fail to fulfill customer requests risk demerits..." and "its quotas are too punishing to allow for socializing, and all potential human interactions have been replaced by one-way surveillance. In many of these TikTok videos, Amazon workers literally run in and out of the frame."
Does this sound like a company that gives enough of a rat's ass about its employees' welfare to risk pissing off customers in aid of fairness and decency?
The only thing that will stop this decadent, late-Roman-empire level of classist abuse in the short term is properly crafted, punishingly harsh, strictly enforced legislation. In the long term, a huge percentage of the population needs to grow up, get their heads out of their asses, and get in touch with whatever sympathy and empathy they possess. I was physically, viscerally disgusted by what I read in the summary; if I ever witness anything like that I will go after the perpetrator with (figuratively) guns blazing and tear a carcass-wide strip off their hide.
Dam right (Score:2)
I( need not disclose the company, but at the beginning of the Pandemic, a big company-wide 'town hall' sort of online meeting focused on how to proceed through the (unknown then) new complications. And a big focus was on customer service, specifically muting the frustrations as front-line workers were being forced to work from home, unexpectedly, and with no real preparation. Lots of discussion on this. About 3/4 of the way through that give-and-take, a rep came on and asked what to do about customers who w
Re: (Score:3)
These are modern day self absorbed aristocrats. Drivers are their servants who dance for their lord's amusement lest they go without food. It's repulsive.
Go. Outside. Buy your own damn food you morons! And stop using Amazon, you're only enabling them.
Re: (Score:2)
0%, and not just a rounding error. of stuff is, for me, needed to get on AMZN.
I buy more expensive, perhaps by a lot, from my local Wegmans.
Or JC Penny for clothes
Or even Exxon for gas.
What editors like this should do is not complain about spelling when words are capitalized.
Even ones that allow editing don't do that.
A sign is not a demand (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a sign posted at my door asking drivers to leave packages in the bin I hid behind the bushes next to the door so the packages aren't easily visible from the street. About 25% do it -- UPS is the best at compliance.
I don't have a sign requesting a dance, but I'd expect far fewer drivers to comply.
Re: (Score:2)
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aren't easily visible from the street
so, one will not frequent this yard to check if the bin is empty, or not
Re:A sign is not a demand (Score:4, Insightful)
If you have a sign posted, won't the baddies know where to look too?
The porch pirates won't go to the door unless they see a package from the street. They don't go to empty porches to look for notes on the door.
Re: (Score:3)
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Probably depends on whether the neighbours porch has visible packages. Thieves often seem to take the easiest course.
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RTFA (Score:2)
And it would be trival for a jerky Karen to post a complaint on drivers who don't dance and make something up, as Karen's are wont to do.
Re:Another hit-piece against Amazon (Score:4, Insightful)
One wonders, if someone like Walmart — unable to compete with Amazon on merits — is paying for such "journalism"...
Unlikely. Nobody is going to stop using Amazon because of this story.
If anything, it will likely lead to additional Ring camera sales from aspiring petty tyrants eager to make drivers dance.
Re: (Score:3)
make it easier to pass anti-Amazon laws and regulations
So there's something good in this after all?
Re: (Score:1)
See, the onslaught of the propaganda works... At least, it worked on you...
Re: (Score:2)
No, the crap that Amazon does has worked on me. They don't need any help discrediting them.
Re: (Score:2)
What crap? Specifically, what unique to Amazon crap?
If it's not unique to Amazon then laws and regulations against it can't be "anti-Amazon". If this behavior isn't limited to Amazon then that's all the more reason to have laws in place to protect workers.
And you know very well what crap [forbes.com] Amazon [theverge.com] has [theguardian.com] done [cbsnews.com].
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Well there are people like me who don't use Amazon but once a year or less. the story just encourages us to believe we made the right decision not to join the cultists.
Re: (Score:3)
Tales of inhuman working conditions have definitely made me want to use Amazon less though. If I have some kind of thing I buy regularly, like certain kinds of tools, I have found alternative sources that are sometimes a bit cheaper and are certainly more reliable in terms what you get. If I need something fast, I try to get it locally first. I still use Amazon fairly regularly, but I've made a conscious decision to step away from using it by default.
Typo (Score:1)
Nobody is going to stop using Amazon because of this story.
Nobody is going to stop suing Amazon because of this story. You swapped your U/S.
Re: (Score:2)
This seems to be about the lowest-effort method of generating Tik-Tok content, second only to every day recording of Wal-Mart shoppers.
Oh, wait...
A point for paid(or unpaid) actors (Score:3)
In my experience, catching an amazon driver long enough to ask them to do anything would be a tedious affair. They don't bother ringing doorbells, it's dump the package and leave.
A good chance any demands to "dance" will end up with you getting reported for griefing the drivers, and find yourself unable to make more amazon orders, or maybe just have your complaints ignored. Or the driver just ignoring you and leaving the package anyways.
Especially if they're paranoid enough to be recording on their cellph
Re: (Score:2)
Note, that the articles don't offer numbers, and the quoted Amazon-drivers are not named. It is impossible to verify the claims
That's just how "journalism" works anymore.
Awful (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The last(*) time I bought something from Amazon, it was to order a hardback of Neal Stephenson's new novel Cryptonomicon (it wasn't yet available in Australia at the time) and a few other books.
Shortly after that, Amazon perpetrated their 1-click patent bullshit. They went on my personal permanent boycott list for that - I haven't bought a thing from them since and I never will. I have a long memory and do not forgive corporate crimes.
(*) it might ha
Pro-tip: Don't take orders from signs (Score:5, Interesting)
If someone posts video of you without a model release, claim the ad revenue.
voyeurs and prisoners (Score:4, Insightful)
These people are prisoners of their own minds. Voyeurs trapped in their own security cell. So much of social media is unhealthy.
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Drivers don’t have time to dance (Score:2)
Two drivers arrive at same destination, same time (Score:4, Funny)
Driver 1: "Those customers get lazier everyday. Why couldn't they have just send one order for both products?"
Driver 2: "This might be a cause for concern..."
Customer through speaker: "Round one...FIGHT!!!!"
Ever since slavery... (Score:5, Insightful)
These people are sick fuckers (Score:2)
These people who are doing this are sick fuckers and are nothing more than the lowest form of attention seeking whores. They won't even do the fucking work themselves, but use threats to force overworked employees providing them a completely unrelated service in an attempt to make themselves famous. "Dance for me so I get social media likes or I will complain that you aren't doing your job" is twisted and evil. These people should be outed and banned from all social media forever. Fuck them and their tactic
Re: (Score:3)
You want a dance? (Score:3)
Fine. This is the war dance of my people.
I checked out the TikTok video link (Score:1)
This guy is complaining about his "packages" being thrown -- which in this case is a highly padded thin lightweight envelope, virtually impossible to harm by tossing it onto his porch.
What a whiny little baby. Somebody ought to leave him a flaming bag of dog do to give him something to really complain about.
Technology (Score:1)
Pornography and the need to humiliate/bully people over data lines is what seems to drive technology.
Enjoy your real doll and your monthly "box of bullshit".
It has been a pleasure working with you.
Suggestion for amazon drivers (Score:2)
They also bully them into "vocal acting" (Score:1)
Some people just love to humiliate other people
How to make it stop, fast: (Score:3)
Lose/Lose Situation (Score:2)
If you dance, that's time wasted and you fail to meet the number of deliveries per timeframe, and you get fired.