# Amazon will pay 61.7 million to settle claims it withheld tips.



## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-n...e-claims-withheld-tips-delivery-worke-rcna244


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## Prawn Connery (Mar 26, 2020)

It was pretty obvious this was going on. How can you advertise a tip-based block as say "$38-$71" ($38+tips) and get exactly $33 tips totaling exactly $71, almost every single time?

That's said, I'm sure it benefited the driver from time to time, as I suspect some blocks that ended up with much fewer deliveries, deliveries to poor neighborhoods, etc still resulted in the same amount of tips as a high number of deliveries to affluent neighborhoods.


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## Lissetti (Dec 20, 2016)

Now how about those warehouse workers and that hazzard pay? 😁


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## Prawn Connery (Mar 26, 2020)

What hazard pay? They just watch the robots doing the hazardous work


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## Lissetti (Dec 20, 2016)

Prawn Connery said:


> What hazard pay? They just watch the robots doing the hazardous work


Oh well...they have been protesting since April of 2020 about the Covid petri dish at the Washington State fulfillment centers. Remember Washington was the first epicenter for the virus. The state shut down, and everyone shopped online, which meant the Amazon workers had to go to work.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/24/...protest-sick-out-tech-workers-climate-justice
https://fortune.com/2020/11/27/amazon-workers-protests-black-friday-covid19/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/...-to-jeff-bezos-beverly-hills-mansion/2438674/


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## Dr. Saw Bones (Feb 2, 2021)

Lissetti said:


> Now how about those warehouse workers and that hazzard pay? &#128513;


They should be so lucky to have a hero like Bezos employing them


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## nighthawk398 (Jul 21, 2015)

Dr. Saw Bones said:


> They should be so lucky to have a hero like Bezos employing them


he just stepped down


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## Dr. Saw Bones (Feb 2, 2021)

nighthawk398 said:


> he just stepped down


That means nothing. He is just giving up his CEO title. Still owner, still on board and still chairman.


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## nighthawk398 (Jul 21, 2015)

Dr. Saw Bones said:


> That means nothing. He is just giving up his CEO title. Still owner, still on board and still chairman.


about 11%


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

It is absolutely disgraceful that a multibillion dollar enterprise should steal drivers' tips.

_When drivers noticed that tips appeared to be missing, Amazon simply responded that it gave drivers "100% of customer tips," the FTC said in its complaint._

This response from Amazon is nonsense - Amazon had agreed to pay drivers their advertised pay plus their tips. If Amazon claims that 100% of customer tips were given to drivers then this means that Amazon did not pay the full advertised pay. And if they claim that they did pay the full advertised pay then they did not pay the tips. They don't get to have it both ways.

It's almost as if Amazon has hired Travis Kalanick to run its driver operations.


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## 💎reditthraway (Jan 6, 2021)

nighthawk398 said:


> about 11%


Of 1.696T market cap or $1,696,000,000,000.00.

Or $1,865,600,000.00 or one billion, eight hundred sixty million dollars even.


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## touberornottouber (Aug 12, 2016)

It is something that they really didn't need to do this but they did anyway. It appears it may have mainly been done to prevent drivers from earning "Too much". I've seen this in the past when I did affiliate marketing too. The owner would often decide that affiliates were earning too much and would then knock down the commission rate in order to keep affiliates within a certain window.

You see, if you make "too much" you might gain enough where you no longer have to work as long hours or you might be able to do something such as go back to school, etc. and not have to work for them again.



The Gift of Fish said:


> It is absolutely disgraceful that a multibillion dollar enterprise should steal drivers' tips.
> 
> _When drivers noticed that tips appeared to be missing, Amazon simply responded that it gave drivers "100% of customer tips," the FTC said in its complaint._
> 
> ...


I think this also shows that the people who claim that Uber and Lyft would never do such a thing because they would be sued or go to jail were wrong. These companies absolutely will do something like this and they are very unlikely to go to jail for fraud. Technically though it is fraud and the people responsible ought to be going to prison for it.


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## Bygosh (Oct 9, 2016)

touberornottouber said:


> You see, if you make "too much" you might gain enough where you no longer have to work as long hours or you might be able to do something such as go back to school, etc. and not have to work for them.


This is still going on. They cap the amount you are allowed to make by giving you fewer or untipped stops.


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

Surprised that @SHalester hasn't come rushing to their defence yet.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

I've read this thread. Had nothing to add. don't do amazon, so have no direct experience. If they were caught and fined; good.

Now on what happened to you. I have almost no reason to not believe it didn't happen as posted. but, very confused and wondering why not taking it up with Uber to complete the 'story'. You know, the other side of the coin response. It's kinda odd, right?

But yes, as I posted upstream and somewhere else Uber is down to the last 5 billion in cash or near cash account balances. So maybe in an alternative reality they decided to 'steal' tips to help balance the books and hope they can hide it from their outside auditors and the IRS.

Anyway, I look forward to your quest, once you update it with Uber's response and their side of the coin (so to speak). :whistling:


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## Driving With A Purpose (Jul 28, 2020)

Back when Amazon had Amazon Restaurants (similar to UberEats), I delivered an order to another Flex driver. He showed me his app and the tip amount. When it came time for the tip 27 hours later, I got a tip of zero. This guy and I talked a bit and I absolutely don't think he was doing anything sneaky like cancelling the tip after I left. So, after that delivery, I felt I had proof positive that Amazon was stealing tips.

I wrote them about it and my complaint fell on deaf ears. Needless to say I was disappointed. Now I feel somewhat vindicated, but we'll see how much I actually get. My understanding from what I've read so far is that it could be the fourth quarter before the money is actually paid.

I am also disappointed that the settlement amount is supposed to be actual damages. In other words, if you want to cheat and in the worst case you only give back what you stole and nothing more, that is a BIG INCENTIVE to keep cheating IMHO. Oftentimes courts award treble (another way of saying triple) damages. If that were the case, Amazon would be paying over $180 million, still a tiny amount for such a large company.


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## kdyrpr (Apr 23, 2016)

I can only go by my own experiences. Of the 20 or so blocks I have done in the last year or so about 75% have been over the estimated payout. Highest I received was $94


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