# So Frustrated



## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

I have not been doing Amazon since March of this year when the blocks starting getting few and far 
between. So I thought I would try again I asked for and received a 12 to 6 block on Sat.

I work out of UCA 1, so any way I get there at 11:45 and see the whole place and way of doing things has
changed. After asking around I received the answers of what was going on.

The block from 12 to 2 was great no problems. When I came back to continue the shift is was such drama
people were taking items off my cart saying that they belonged to them. I said wait I already scanned those. then they would put them back. As I am counting and scanning the empolyees are putting more items on my cart, so that only added to the frustration of getting everything together. Finally some guys said you have my items and I said no, they tryed to scan them and 1 item scanned. Then I was missing 7 items. The guy in charge said ok I will find the 7 missing items. He comes and takes them off someone cart and gives them to me, and
they scan. As I am leaving I get a pick up at Tonys Market. For me this has always been drama.

First I tell the guy in charge its now 2:30 I have been going through all this since 2. And I have 17 stops. He says call support and
tell them to cancel Tonys. I try this they say as usual just do the pick up they are never any help.

I get to Tonys Market the packages will not scan, and I once again call support no help they tell me take them anyway the guy says no. And all this as the clock is ticking, I try again they scan then the app says right after I scan do not pick up. Then the app freezes. I call no help, then they say go back to the warehouse. I do that they say try to scan again. They said do not worry just follow the list option, I said all the deliveries will be late, they say go anyway. After having to call support 5 more times, and as usual no help. They all were delivered. Except the 7 items they had been remove from my list. So I had to return them to the warehouse.

I continued to deliver, they gave me a few 1 hrs, now they used to call out I have a one hr. Now they put them on a shelf and you have to find yours.
At this point another problem arises, me and another person have the exact same order on our phones. I had already scanned them. So he goes in the back and erases my app orders, ok fine. I get another order scan it and someone says thats mine and they scan it. So I say ok. Scan 2 others and leave. After I had already signed off. 2 hrs later I get a call from a customer wanting to know where their package is I explained to them I did not have it and what happen. Then I called support and least this time, she said she would write an explanation. She also said write an email and explain everything. Which I did I am sure it will not be any help and I will still get a nasty letter. Is anyone else having these problems.
Sorry I know this is long


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## soupergloo (Jul 24, 2015)

I also work out of UCA1, but I worked 2-8 PM today.

Amazon assigns the routes to your phone from Seattle & the warehouse is only in charge of putting the bags on your cart, but often times, they put the wrong bags on the wrong cart, which is why you had so many people taking bags from your cart. Even if you scanned an incorrect bag that was on your cart, the app will not let you take the bag if it's not one of the stops that was pre-loaded into your phone.

*technically *we're supposed to wait until they're completely done loading the carts before we can scan anything -- that's why they kept bringing more bags to you.

if you have a Tony's Market pickup, Amazon support will never be able to remove that from your phone, it's part of your route, so calling support was worthless in your case.

Weekends are a shit show at that warehouse (especially Sunday nights), but the process is pretty simple: you sign into the app, wait for Amazon to load your route into your phone, look at the screen for your cart number, wait until they're done batching the routes, find your cart, scan your bags & go; no one can take bags from your route and visa versa.

good luck! i'm one of the only females at that warehouse and am usually the one running my mouth to everyone, so feel free to say hi next time


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## marsmaple (Apr 23, 2017)

Problems like this are bound to happen when the remote dispatchers are in another location and don't have the competency and visibility to make sound decisions. Communication at Amazon Flex is set up like a game of telephone and if the marching orders are given by a team behind the curtains who are horrible at their job, the performance of everyone down the supply chain from the employees at the warehouse to the drivers that deliver to the end customers is affected. The senior managers seriously need to take a close look at what is going on there and either replace or retrain that entire team.

I have had so many bad experiences because of the stupidity and inefficiency of the remote dispatch team and the overall way the system is run right now, some of which I'll mention below:

1. For restaurant deliveries, they assign pick ups that are often impossible to complete on time because either the deadline for the pick-up or delivery has already passed or will pass by the time we arrive, and they require us to drive to a totally different area from where we were initially assigned to wait and consume excess amounts of gas. Additionally, they don't seem to care whether the food is delivered late to the customer, and our chances of receiving a tip are significantly affected by this. Plus we have to deal with the disgruntled customer, apologize for the whole mess, and feel bad about delivering cold food. The remote team has free reign to make stupid decisions and assign inefficient routing, and they aren't being held accountable. How can this job be satisfying when we are threatened of being terminated from Amazon's automated emails because of dispatch's poor routing decisions?

2. There is a major disconnect between the remote team and the workers at the warehouse. I have seen multiple 1-hour packages on a cart and was assigned to deliver one of them. After delivering that package I was immediately asked to go back to the same warehouse and pick up another 1-hour package that had been sitting on the same cart while I had picked up the first 1-hour package, and its address was near my previous delivery! The remote dispatch team clearly missed that both 1-hour packages were ready for pick up; yet this could have been avoided if a warehouse employee with realtime visibility and an actual presence could be appointed to make these routing decisions.

We are relying on a mysterious remote team to decide where we drive, how many stops we will have in our route, and whether we can deliver everything on time within our assigned block, and everyone suffers if they do a horrible job. Amazon is too paranoid to delegate some of this work to the workers at the warehouse or may not have the capacity to train the right people at each warehouse, and the system is failing because of this. I often see carts full of packages being untouched for long periods of time while there's a handful of drivers waiting and ready to work. None of these drivers who've checked in have been assigned anything to pick up while the carts full of packages are there and the employees have finished sorting through everything. The remote dispatch team can't see this inactivity and time is wasted.

3. Now that they've released 1.5-hour blocks, we have 30 minutes to drive back to the station *unpaid* for back-to-back assigned blocks, and the routing they assign often makes it impossible to arrive on time for the next scheduled block. And because they are releasing more 1.5-hour blocks than 2-hour blocks, we'll often end up working only 7 hours or 7.5 hours if we are lucky. More importantly they don't mind having us work beyond the 1.5-hr block, unpaid, and this forces us to be late for our next assigned block and miss the 10-minute window during which multi-stop routes are assigned.

I've heard from Amazon employees that the block assignment and route selection for the drivers are totally random and fully automated, but that's not true. There is an actual person in a remote area who has the ability to see where we are, decide our routes, and notify us on our phones to pick up food or packages. If we are on their shitlist for any reason, they have the ability to make our jobs horrible by assigning us restaurant pick ups that are already late or asking us to pick up something far away and then make it disappear from our itinerary once we arrive. They also decide when to offer us back-to-back blocks and from which warehouse location. The Fresh and restaurant blocks from other areas and hiding the location of blocks later in the day are simply added to deter bot usage, but it also inconveniences other drivers.


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## UberPasco (Oct 18, 2015)

marsmaple said:


> Problems like this are bound to happen when the remote dispatchers are in another location and don't have the competency and visibility to make sound decisions. Communication at Amazon Flex is set up like a game of telephone and if the marching orders are given by a team behind the curtains who are horrible at their job, the performance of everyone down the supply chain from the employees at the warehouse to the drivers that deliver to the end customers is affected. The senior managers seriously need to take a close look at what is going on there and either replace or retrain that entire team.
> 
> I have had so many bad experiences because of the stupidity and inefficiency of the remote dispatch team and the overall way the system is run right now, some of which I'll mention below:
> 
> ...


You forgot that the WH cannot drop blocks anymore. So it is up to 'remote' to stay on top of things, but they aren't closest to the shitshows that occur. Sun, we had 8 people scheduled for 3-4P. Also, continuation blocks are now supposed to be offered if you are able to complete your drops before 30 min left OR GPS says you can make the start of the block. Less than :30, you may get the block (if close enough) or be offered the next 1/2 hr start block.


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## Poolepit (May 17, 2016)

Welcome back to the shit show that is the gig economy these days!


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## jester121 (Sep 6, 2016)

This thread should eventually answer the question about whether or not people get deactivated for excessive calls to support.... I predict "yes".


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## soupergloo (Jul 24, 2015)

marsmaple said:


> I've heard from Amazon employees that the block assignment and route selection for the drivers are totally random and fully automated, but that's not true. There is an actual person in a remote area who has the ability to see where we are, decide our routes, and notify us on our phones to pick up food or packages. If we are on their shitlist for any reason, they have the ability to make our jobs horrible by assigning us restaurant pick ups that are already late or asking us to pick up something far away and then make it disappear from our itinerary once we arrive. They also decide when to offer us back-to-back blocks and from which warehouse location. The Fresh and restaurant blocks from other areas and hiding the location of blocks later in the day are simply added to deter bot usage, but it also inconveniences other drivers.


you need to learn how to play the game.

first -- drivers at my warehouse have started refusing to take the 1.5 hour blocks so they just sit there, and if one does happen to be desperate enough to pick-up a 1.5 hour block, they refuse to take a route that cannot be completed in the time left in their block (which is usually less than an hour and a half at this point), so multiple routes will just sit there the entire block never being sent out, which costs Amazon money.

second -- whenever I'm on a route, I purposely don't hit 'I've arrived' at my last stop, I simply just take a picture of the barcode(s), deliver the package(s) as normal and on time, and then wait until the very last minute to either scan (if you have a second phone to take the picture of the barcode), or manually enter the barcode(s) to mark it delivered in the app. I do this so I don't get screwed over by taking 1-hours instead of routes for finishing my route too early, and also to somewhat prevent getting bad route after bad route by waiting until all of the bad routes are assigned before swiping my last delivery.

third -- the "bad" routes in the bay area are the Financial District and going to the Peninsula (suburbs of SF, which is bad if it's during rush hour, and it also puts a lot of miles on our cars). if drivers are consistently sent to the Peninsula and have the next block, they'll do their deliveries as slow as possible (but still on time) and simply stay out there for their next block, which again, costs Amazon money because that driver is being paid for doing no work (but they're too far for the dispatcher to send them another route) and they have to post more blocks to fill that drivers place. Personally, I don't do this because I want to take routes no matter where I go.

Amazon is sacrificing money to have more power, so more power to them.


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## kmatt (Apr 25, 2016)

Drivers don't hit "I've arrived" until :04 if they need to be there by :05 so they won't be assigned just a one hour delivery with no cart. Drivers are getting screwed for checking in early or hustling to get back for the next block.


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## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

soupergloo said:


> I also work out of UCA1, but I worked 2-8 PM today.
> 
> Amazon assigns the routes to your phone from Seattle & the warehouse is only in charge of putting the bags on your cart, but often times, they put the wrong bags on the wrong cart, which is why you had so many people taking bags from your cart. Even if you scanned an incorrect bag that was on your cart, the app will not let you take the bag if it's not one of the stops that was pre-loaded into your phone.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the advice, I do not see many women there besides myself when I work.


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## soupergloo (Jul 24, 2015)

kmatt said:


> Drivers don't hit "I've arrived" until :04 if they need to be there by :05 so they won't be assigned just a one hour delivery with no cart. Drivers are getting screwed for checking in early or hustling to get back for the next block.


that only works for me when the warehouse is busy. otherwise, they start assigning routes 10 minutes before the hour and if you wait until :04 to sign in, it's likely that all of the routes will already be assigned.


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## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

So t
Thank you for providing more details about this issue.

I'm sorry to hear about the situation you have described in your email and understand this was beyond your control.

We have reviewed the information you provided, and as a result, this instance will no longer be reflected in your delivery history.

Best regards,
Nasrullah K
*The Amazon Flex Team*
Wanted to keep everyone up to date. I wrote an email explaining the above situation and to my surprise, I received the following reply: see above.
Then tonight I received a deactivation letter asking me to explain why I was late with all my deliveries on the 19th.

Also I am still able to get on to the app.

Any feedback from anyone


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## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

So last night they sent me a deactivated letter, said I could appeal so I sent them my email and there response. Saying It was not my fault. Let's see what happens now.


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## Cynergie (Apr 10, 2017)

Dakota2009 said:


> _I have not been doing Amazon since March of this year when the blocks starting getting few and far between. So I thought I would try again I asked for and received a 12 to 6 block on Sat.
> 
> I work out of UCA 1, so any way I get there at 11:45 and see the whole place and way of doing things has
> changed. After asking around I received the answers of what was going on._
> ...


Why did you bother calling support after the first time???  You're not learning from your mistakes you knuckle head pup. 

Hell, just about everything you've complained about your experience indicates just that. Based on your experience, Fresh appears to be way more unpredictable and dynamic than Flex. Perhaps doing Fresh isn't for you? But you sound committed to punishing yourself. So try delivering Flex as this has longer block times? My advice:

1. Based on the failures of your last run, reflect on tactics and strategies in which you think you can make your delivery process more time efficient.

2. Exactly HTF can another driver take packages you've already scanned? Unless of course, you handed them over to a drone so they could be reassigned to someone else---aka you literally GAVE THEM AWAY? Regardless, there has to be a modicum of protocol across the board in all warehouses IMO. If no such etiquette exists at your WH, create and enforce them. So if ppl are stealing from you, be more assertive/aggressive in the future. BITE THEM. This will quickly teach them NOT to mess with an Alpha....

3. Play politics when necessary. It can be beneficial in the long run. Get to know at least 1 blue shirt by name. And a couple of the lowly floor drones who make it past their probationary period. If they like you enough, you can get the more cushy routes reserved for you. Or special orders. Like the timed one package AC unit I had to deliver to a customer in San Jose several weeks back. Think I'd shown up for a 3 hr shift and one of the drones (who I'd managed to become friendly with by taking extra packages off his hands) gifted me this single, large AC unit. I delivered the package on time to a very grateful customer. And made some $120/hr for only 30 mins work. Ubered the remaining 3.5 hrs while on the clock. 

btw: I didn't realize that WH was such a [email protected] Sounds like WAAAY too many ant peasantry over farming the commons. That and the Amazon drones are almost all n00bs. So these n00bs are continuously having to learn their job because it sounds the turn over on the Amazon end is very high....


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## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

Good Evening,
So after receiving the deactivation letter. I received 2 more emails 1 this morning saying you will hear from us in 2 weeks,
The next one said thank you for the additional information, you will hear from us in 3 days. Now I just sit and wait.


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## Dakota2009 (Oct 19, 2016)

So I received my termination letter and I am still pissed, they are really unfair when they tell you one thing and do another. I am trying to get them
to see what they did but I am sure, its a done deal.


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

Don't worry. Just sign up again using your mom's info and you're up and running.


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