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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To say no to courier.

433 replies

anannoyinglylongusername · 08/01/2017 16:21

Amazon courier just asked to use the loo. I was alone in the house with a baby. I said no and immediately dropped a note to Amazon to say I wasn't impressed that it made me feel uncomfortable.

I feel a bit bad now...remind me that I did the right thing please?!

OP posts:
slithytove · 08/01/2017 22:51

Thing is, if this becomes normal practice, it will be a way for abusive individuals to get in. I could send myself an amazon parcel and fake a delivery to someone else's house, to get in and rob or hurt them.

Why take the risk.

C8H10N4O2 · 08/01/2017 22:52

What basis do you have for thinking otherwise? The kind of points systems run on these contracts don't care if a complaint is valid or not - simply receiving is enough because its hassle ie cost to deal with.

Amazon's track record on treating its 'valued' staff ie more senior people on senior contracts is infamous in the industry, with internal anonymous comments and no right of reply (very different from more standardised 360 degree feedback systems). People being downgraded for sickness, pregnancy and other supposedly protected issues.

Couriers are disposable cannon fodder by comparison with the 'valued' staff. One sniff and you are out.

Try reading some of the links supplied in this thread or the post by the partner of an Amazon courier or google for yourself for info about employment practices.

Onthecouchagain · 08/01/2017 22:55

Mary wouldn't of got a stable off the MN crew..

Scrumptiousbears · 08/01/2017 22:57

OP what if a say Sky engineer came to sort you TV and he needed the toilet? Would you even let him in as he is also a stranger. Could you let him use the toilet then?

user1478860582 · 08/01/2017 23:00

It's this kind of irrational fear that the bogeyman lurks round every corner that means kids don't play outside anymore.

slithytove · 08/01/2017 23:02

It's not irrational. There is no need for an unplanned stranger to enter a private home. Those of us who have been abused or worse may of course be more wary, but a vulnerable person alone has the right to refuse entry.

slithytove · 08/01/2017 23:03

In mine it would mean them going upstairs and out of sight which I'm just not comfortable with, plus I have 2 preschoolers.

slithytove · 08/01/2017 23:05

If a sky engineer came then presumably that's prearranged with sky, the date is known and they have ID. Still a risk but less so as they are very easy to identify.

Anyone invited into my house; midwife, builder, plumber, sky person, etc. Of course could use the facilities. Delivery person not quite on the same scale. Though I'd let the postie I've known him years.

showmetheminstrels · 08/01/2017 23:08

It's ok to let him in. It's ok to politely decline.

What's not ok is you and your neighbour going after him like some sort of neighbourhood watch crack team hellbent on losing him his job by nightfall.

Just let the poor fucking man do his crappily paid job.

ilovesooty · 08/01/2017 23:26

Exactly C8H

I suppose anyone can refuse to face facts if they don't read any links and stay in their own complacent little bubble.

MyNewUserNameIsSecret · 08/01/2017 23:32

Back to the insults are we Sooty Hmm

I've read the links etc and I still think you are wrong. It's too minor an issue to be a problem. Apart from the OP EVERYONE on this thread thinks it's a ridiculous thing to complain about, why would someone working for Amazon think any different.

slithytove · 08/01/2017 23:42

The reason I wouldn't complain, is because if dh was home, I'd say yes. So it's not always an inappropriate question.

ilovesooty · 08/01/2017 23:47

MyNewUserName I'm sure you can locate the report button if you feel I've broken the talk guidelines. Since none of my posts have been specifically directed at you and you are specifically complaining about and to me perhaps you'd like MNHQ to deal with the matter.

ilovesooty · 08/01/2017 23:48

And a couple of posters have said the OP was right to report to Amazon, by the way.

ArcheryAnnie · 08/01/2017 23:57

NewUserNameIsSecret there's nothing "entertaining" about Amazon working conditions. For instance, look at this article (apologies for Mail link) which talks about the disciplinary action taken against workers who take too long in the loo - one worker was given an official warning for taking 7 minutes in the loo. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3997864/Amazombies-Seven-seconds-item-filmed-blistering-12-hours-shifts-timed-toilet-breaks-Christmas-order-does-worker-elves.html

If you really think an Amazon worker's job is not under threat after three complaints from two people, then you are living a very sheltered life. It's not so much "faux outrage" here but sympathy for someone whose job is very likely on the line.

ArcheryAnnie · 09/01/2017 00:00

Oh, and just to be clear: nobody is saying the OP was out of order in refusing to let him in to use the loo - that's her choice. Some of us would have made the same choice, some of us would have done differently. That's not the issue. Complaining to his (notoriously nasty) employer about his temerity in merely asking to use the loo, is what many of us think is batshit and mean, and may very likely have got him sacked.

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 09/01/2017 00:02

Amazon are arseholes, I might boycott them after reading the links on this thread. I'd heard they were bad but godSad

C8H10N4O2 · 09/01/2017 00:05

MyNewUserNameIsSecret You have read the links describing the utter trivia people are scored out for, you have seen the post by a poster whose partner works for Amazon, you have googled for your own references etc and doubtless found more - its impossible not to. When staff are disposable it doesn't matter if the complaint is trivial - they become a problem staff member.

But it must be wrong because because you believe otherwise? Confused.

Are you perchance Iain Duncan Smith in disguise?

thisismadness77 · 09/01/2017 00:07

I let the B&Q delivery man use the loo when I was 9 months pregnant. He was gone 15 minutes and came our clutching his stomach and an empty loo roll. He had opened a pack of baby wipes in there too. I was very very upset and horrified. I may even have cried. :) you made the right choice!!

BigBadWolves · 09/01/2017 00:09

Geeze. I probably wouldn't have let them in either to be honest, but my view is tainted by my line of work.

Definitely wouldn't have complained though. Total overkill and probably cost him his job Sad

glitterazi · 09/01/2017 00:17

Not read all the replies, but I wouldn't have wanted to let him in either.
Wouldn't have gone so far as to message amazon though to complain.
Just not let him in.
Don't know why. Just the fact I think that if you're alone with a baby you can feel vulnerable.

glitterazi · 09/01/2017 00:17

Not read all the replies, but I wouldn't have wanted to let him in either.
Wouldn't have gone so far as to message amazon though to complain.
Just not let him in.
Don't know why. Just the fact I think that if you're alone with a baby you can feel vulnerable.

Rachel0Greep · 09/01/2017 00:18

I wouldn't have let him in, no. I would direct him to the nearest facilities that I could think of...probably about five minutes away - shopping centre.
But I would not have complained in the circumstances, as he asked civilly, and went on about his day, when refused.

glitterazi · 09/01/2017 00:19

Sorry, posted twice. Internet playing up.

MyNewUserNameIsSecret · 09/01/2017 00:32

I'm not sure I want to start looking at Daily Mail links for info but I'm fully aware of the poor reputation that Amazon has as an employer but I still think that the likelihood of whoever opens the email sent by the OP would think anything different to everyone in this thread in that it is a ridiculous thing to complain about. Why would Amazon go through the bother of processing such a silly thing. Its not in their interests.