Grado de dificultad: 3 (Por el idioma)
Columnista: Roberto
A budget driven buying
TMN recently decided to build a new PC. This is always a bold decision, that means a tight budget study.
We knew what we wanted but not where to buy it.
Amazon happened to be the place where the best global price could be reached.
However, there is still this slow torture of buying in United States, then having the package delivered to an intermediate mailbox in Miami, from where your “contact” in Florida finally sends it to you in Colombia (hold your breath and be patient).
That is because we live in South America, the backyard. Some even say, in a s***hole.
Or at least so was it until recently, when Amazon started an International delivery service, that sends your items directly to your home.
Seen this way, it is a very good new.
It became a little bit surprising when we received our package. The order was placed on a Monday morning, it arrived on Thursday morning.
In fact. we were caught so “out-of-base” that we only knew on Friday morning, that our delivery was already there.
Fulfilled in only four days!
On one side, we felt happy to be able to work so soon on our new machine, on the other, we thought we would have to wait at least a full week and were perfectly OK with this schedule.
Actually, we only seldom achieve such a short delay with local deliveries.
We all have (like many here) Amazon accounts, and Robert even has an Amazon video subscription.
The common opinion among us was that, somehow, they knew it was our first international shipping, and that they wanted to impress us.
Well, they did, but in an awkward way. Then things got worse, not with our delivery, which was fine, but with the knowledge we have about the way Amazon treats its workers.
In an unexpected way, a brilliant nerd from HBO, John Oliver, made us feel very bad with one of his corrosives (and truthful) monologues:
A disturbing truth
We have absolutely no doubt that what John says in “Last Week Tonight” is entirely true.
Doing a little research on what is going on in Amazon warehouses, we (easily) found a few articles on this already known subject (there are widespread rumors).
https://news.avclub.com/experience-the-living-hell-of-working-in-an-amazon-ware-1832932412
There is even an ABC “sort of” game (not funny at all):
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/amazon-warehouse-workers-game-race/10803346
Of course, Amazon executives with go out claiming this is sensationalism. It is, but it doesn’t make it less true.
We are still Amazon customers
We live in a postmodern era where our tight resources are a powerful argument (we are not US wealthy citizens, nor have very deep pockets).
The variety and the prices proposed on Amazon are very attractive. Technologically speaking, there are even items that we would very hardly find in another place within our reach.
So, it is not our intention to trash them. It would, moreover, harm the Amazon worker rather than help them: our purchases are their (low) income.
We also know that Amazon is at the center of network used by many small companies that wouldn’t otherwise have such a visibility (and helps US Postal to survive).
There are, however, some questions we will stop making to ourselves:
- Is “Amazon Prime” service grade worth it? Nope! We now know it is only intended to torture people. We can harmlessly wait a few days more to get what we want.
- Would we buy an Alexa for our homes? Either! Not reinsuring (don’t worry, we think the same about your competitors).
- Will we keep our Washington Post subscription? Yes, it is mainly useful (not always, though), which looks like a great point, these days.
- Will Bob keep his Amazon Video subscription? Sure, because it’s fun (they need to be more careful with their content description).
In your Gilead-like country, it would be nice to know that Americans are treating each other in a human way, don’t you think?
Waiting a delivery a few days more is worth the waiting if respect is the additional charge.
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