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#clojure-uk
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2021-03-05
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jiriknesl06:03:10

Morning 🙂

dharrigan07:03:59

Good Morning!

dharrigan09:03:21

man! UPS really p**ed me off yesterday. I have a ring doorbell (suitably VLAN'ed off into an isolated network...) anyhooo, driver rocked up in his van, walked out with a "Sorry we missed you" card *already filled in, popped it through the letter box and drove off - all in the space of 10 seconds. I have dutifully rang UPS to lodge a formal complaint

bronsa11:03:11

standard UPS

dharrigan09:03:40

Driver wasn't even wearing the UPS uniform!

thomas09:03:54

install some sort of loudspeaker and tell him off...

dharrigan09:03:09

I'm wondering, if the same driver comes today for the second attempt, to give him an earful

dharrigan09:03:16

and say I have all this recorded

thomas09:03:12

quite weird though... making the effort and drive to your house... get out, leave the card and then leave again. leaving the package as well surely isn't that much more work and saves you from having to come back again.

danm12:03:31

From the PoV of the driver they have a quota of requests/day to make, most likely. And face disciplinary action if they don't make that, even though it is probably due to circumstances beyond their control (traffic, etc). Knocking on a door and waiting 30s for someone to come out of their home office, corral an excited dog (in my case), then open the door and accept the package (or waiting 30s to be reasonably sure noone is actually home), multiplied by potentially hundreds of deliveries a day, adds up. if they've had a lot like that their options are fake a few or face disciplinary/firing

thomas09:03:25

maybe they are payed by the hour though. :thinking_face:

alexlynham09:03:30

idk it's annoying but

dharrigan09:03:34

I suspect they were late in their rounds and have some strategy to ignore some and deliver others

bronsa11:03:09

yeah what usually happens is they need to pay a fine if they're late on deliveries, but if they avoid that by "attempting a delivery" and not finding you home

folcon15:03:47

They need to pay a fine? What kind of dystopia-megacorp BS is that?

bronsa15:03:48

UPS is liable for a refund if the delivery is late, and the drivers usually have a quote of deliveries per unit of time they need to make

danielneal16:03:14

I thought you liked ups @U060FKQPN

bronsa16:03:08

i mean it's not as bad as dpd

folcon17:03:53

Sure, but UPS control number of drivers per route, it seems that they're just "letting things reach the natural conclusion" as opposed to properly ensuring stuff can get delivered...

dharrigan09:03:44

to defer to another day

alexlynham09:03:55

yeah i think your real issue is with late stage capitalism

alexlynham09:03:06

and taking it out on a driver might not be productive

alexlynham09:03:15

they're just a visible avatar for frustration in this case

dharrigan09:03:57

I don't know. They have a choice to obey or ignore I suppose (this is assuming that they were indeed late, they could have just been lazy)

dharrigan09:03:07

The parcel required signing-for

dharrigan09:03:36

I don't think UPS are paid per hour, they are salaried workers, not gig workers

dharrigan09:03:43

so they get a wage no matter what they do per day

djm09:03:55

Presumably he has to take a picture of your door, or record the colour, or else has gps tracking

djm09:03:04

So he can't just not turn up

dharrigan09:03:16

I have video evidence of him doing precisely that

dharrigan09:03:30

Walking up, already filled in card, driving off

dharrigan09:03:57

I had a delivery from DHL the other day, very nice guy - took picture of him giving me the package

dharrigan09:03:11

to be clear, he took a picture of himself giving me the package

dharrigan09:03:25

I don't go taking pictures of people handing me packages 😉

mccraigmccraig10:03:51

you have a doorbell to do that for you @dharrigan !

dharrigan10:03:06

It's a brave new world

Conor11:03:39

Finally, living in a panopticon pays off

🎥 3
danm12:03:31

From the PoV of the driver they have a quota of requests/day to make, most likely. And face disciplinary action if they don't make that, even though it is probably due to circumstances beyond their control (traffic, etc). Knocking on a door and waiting 30s for someone to come out of their home office, corral an excited dog (in my case), then open the door and accept the package (or waiting 30s to be reasonably sure noone is actually home), multiplied by potentially hundreds of deliveries a day, adds up. if they've had a lot like that their options are fake a few or face disciplinary/firing

danm12:03:19

So i'm inclined to say the fault likes with the company for imposing such tight time/delivery requirements on their drivers, because they don't want to pay enough of them that there is potentially time for a bit of leeway/slacking off, especially when big contracts with suppliers like Amazon are probably volume-based and on razor thin per-package profit margins

💯 9
dharrigan12:03:17

So, update. UPS guy turned up again, got package. I challenged him why he did what he did yesterday and he denied everything and ultimately said he - to quote "doesn't give a monkeys"

dharrigan12:03:30

(also he said he was a sub contractor to UPS)

thomas13:03:18

and yes I agree... it is most likely due to the way the company sets targets/pays etc.

seancorfield16:03:32

@dharrigan Over here I've found UPS to be a lot more reliable about deliveries than FedEx -- they tell you the order is on its way to be delivered on a date, then they adjust the time of delivery to later in the day, then to "end of day", then "no expected delivery date available", and it turns up a day or two later. Over and over and over again.

dharrigan16:03:46

Yeah, delivery companies can be very hit and miss

dharrigan16:03:23

The worst offender, by far, here, in the UK, I believe is Yodel and Hermes

dharrigan16:03:44

Hermes, probably comes out top in terms of just utter uselessness.

☝️ 3
danm16:03:23

We're really quite lucky. Our regular Hermes guy is really good and we have a good rapport with him because we also take in stuff for next door when they don't answer