Walmart workers filmed playing iPad frisbee Four Walmart employees were said to have been sacked this week after filming themselves deliberately throwing what they claim are boxed iPads around one of the supermarket chain's stockrooms. The workers, from Walmart's Pikeville, Kentucky store, can be seen lobbing boxes carelessly around the room. “This is why you don’t buy …
When the first iPad came out, I pre-ordered it. On the day it was delivered by UPS and for some reason there were two men in the delivery van. I saw one of the guys throw my iPad box to the other one, who caught it fine. However on being given the box it had a sizable dent in the corner and on opening it the corner of the iPad was bent out of shape - so it must have been quite some impact that did it at an earlier time. I didn't see the delivery guys drop it so couldn't be sure it was them that did it, but having witnessed their careless attitude, there was a chance it was done when loading up the van. I was seething, especially as it was out of stock and the replacement took 3 weeks to arrive.
Glad that doesn't just happen to me. Can't count the number of times I've been sat downstairs waiting for a doorbell to ring so I can sign for my package, only to give up waiting, get ready to go to the corner store and find a "You weren't in to collect your delivery" slip sat in the letterbox.
Or the equally annoying. "Ding Dong" followed by watching the postman walk back to the van before the bell has even finished ringing.
The number of times I've had those "You weren't in.." cards slipped through my letterbox even though I was in, deliberately listening for the sodding door bell is enough to make a grown man cry. I'm self employed, working from home so I always keep an ear out if I know a package is coming and I'll have to sign. Going down to the sorting office is just a waste of my time. One time I heard the clank as the card came through the door (there was no knock or ring of the bell), I quickly got my shoes on and ran after him down the street with said card, only to be told he hadn't even bothered to bring the package with him on his walk...
"Can't count the number of times I've been sat downstairs waiting for a doorbell to ring so I can sign for my package, only to give up waiting, get ready to go to the corner store and find a "You weren't in to collect your delivery" slip sat in the letterbox."
If you need it right now;
But they've lost it somehow:
That's logistics.
When you go for a sh1t;
Is when they'll try to deliver it:
That's logistics.
Last Christmas there was a video which went viral of a FedEX driver heaving a 24" monitor over the fence of an estate type home somewhere in the US... The owner of the house has a video security system which showed the driver pull up, get out of the truck, and heave the box over the fence... Owner of the house complained to a regional manager at FedEx, and the manager himself delivered a new monitor to the owner of the house... and walked it to the front door. FedEx wouldn't name the employee, and wouldn't say what, if any, punishment he received. Since FedEx drivers are non-union, I would imagine that someone got their walking papers, and the cost of the broken monitor was taken from his final paycheck.
MAJOR fail for the driver...
Having spent a short stint working at UPS I can say this sort of thing is pretty much par for the course in logistics. Our sort and load staff threw, kicked, and deliberately dropped things all the time. Similarly, I've seen many warehouse employees and shipping/receiving drones engaged in such activities. These people are almost universally underpaid and made to work in conditions that are at the very least unpleasant (IE: conditions that create resentment). These folks also generally have very little opportunity for advancement in their company. Background checks are minimal at best, as companies have a hard time filling such positions. I don't think that justifies these sorts of actions by any stretch, but there is nothing surprising here. Well I guess I am surprised these guys were dumb enough to film themselves doing it, but that's about it.
Tips to avoid this:
-Don't put "Fragile" or any other such thing on a box EVER!!!
-Ship expensive things in a plain looking box (not one that says iPad, Dell, Cisco, etc.)
-Put at least 2 large and clear shipping labels on the box (no flipping to find it)
-Completely cover any old shipping lables
-Don't put arrows pointing to the correct orientation of the box
-Ship small heavy things in larger boxes
-Just assume they will be doing this and pack your shipment accordingly
-If bubble-wrap/packing peanuts are cheaper than replacing your shipment, use more. No, waaaaay more!
AC for obvious reasons.
Having once witnessed a young DHL-lad unload his truck in a "timely fashion" I wholeheartedly second ever word the AC uttered here. Corporate (and general) greed turned these people into modern slaves that "live" on wages you would not raise an eyelid for. It would be delusional idealism to expect any sort of decent work ethic. Pack stuff well and use insured shipping.
"Don't put "Fragile" or any other such thing on a box EVER!!!"
As a student in the 1960s I did Chritsmas Post casual work for the Royal Mail. In the sorting office some of the permanent staff would rugby kick any package marked "Fragile" high into the air towards a basket.
Ship small heavy things in larger boxes.
That jut makes me want to get a fairly large box, a load of lead weights, and to strategically place bits they can get a grip with on the box so I can weaken one edge. End result being a lead weight falling onto somebodies foot.
>.>
I have put fragile on packages many times; almost always when fragile items are not in it. It is usually because I have another package that does have fragile items in it. This way, they see the fragile package and take their angst out on it while keeping the other package safe.
Very appropriate except for one thing... when shipping with USPS, only place the address on one side... The reason is that if the clerk sorting the parcel doesn't see the postage next to the address label, they may treat it as unpaid, and charge the recipient...
WINE glass please...
Anything I ship via any postal system or courier I make sure the product is wrapped enough to pass the "Drop Kick Test". If I am happy to boot my own box across the driveway, then I know it is wrapped well. Bubble wrap is cheap. Use it by the ton.
My neighbour once witnessed a courier attempt to deliver a box to my door. I was not home, so courier threw the box back into his van. It bounced off of at least three walls before landing on the floor. In the small box? A hard disk!!
I guess if they didn't pay them in Food Stamps their employees would have more pride in the work ..
I deeply regret that I can only upvote this once.
I'd also like to widen the debate a little and plant another thought...
The people looking after you aging and/or infirm relatives in care homes? For the most part they're on minimum wage and have crappy dehumanising terms of employment (zero hours contracts, rock bottom minimum holiday and sick leave entitlements shift pattern which vary at little or no notice and make no allowances for the needs of the employee and/or their own families, minimal job security, that sort of thing...).
The people looking after your kids in privately run nurseries and pre-schools? Pretty much the same for the most part...
The people on the ground in the private companies who are tendering to take over public services currently provided by government and local authorities? Guess...
Pay minimum wage, offer lousy standards of job security, and give demumanising working conditions: Get minimal effort, low levels of commitment, and a bad attitude.
Now imagine that rather than working in Walmart's stock room moving consumer goodies from one place to another these guys are in a care home feeding, cleaning, and providing for the basic day to day needs of your parents and grandparents, or doing the same for your pre-school children in a creche, or maybe they're collecting your rubbish, or perhaps dealing with disposal of hazardous waste. That's your future that is. Or maybe it's your present...
How many Walmart shoppers are on food stamps? The answer is quite a few.
"At the stroke of midnight, a growing number of Americans are lining up at Walmart not to cash in on a holiday sale, but because they’re hungry.
The increasing number of Americans relying on food stamps to survive the sluggish economic recovery has changed the way the largest retailer in the United States does business.
Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each month.
“We’ll bring in more staff to stock. We’ll also make sure all of our registers…are open…Some people may think at 12:01, Walmart’s very quiet, but in a lot of our areas of the country, 12:01 is a big day or a big night for us, actually,” Johnston said.
Becca Reeder and her husband, T.J. Fowler, are one of the families shopping before the sun rises.
When NBC News visited their home six days before the first of the month, they had no milk in their refrigerator. Among the few things left were water, bacon grease for the dog’s food, a little bit of apple juice, cheese and tortillas."
The clientèle that Walmart attracts are the same demographic as the people who work there.
Is it just laziness filming stuff in a "standing letterbox" ratio, or do the manual feature an order that the new owner should use the iPhone that way when filming. It's a grandiose waste of space and unnatural in every sense of the word. Stop it!
I doubt it and there is nothing new under the sun.
I once worked in the warehouse for a certain high-street electrical retailer before graduating to the dizzy heights of having my own truck[1] and delivering their shit. When I first started and before they came over all security conscious, all the electronic gear lay around the warehouse in small heaps.
Picking a component Hi-Fi system consisted of one bloke with a sack barrow standing in the aisle while another wandered off into the stacks and slung boxes. Bloke #1 would catch (mostly) and stack the boxes on the barrow.
You'd be amazed just how much punishment this stuff would take and still be OK when unpacked on delivery. That was back in the days when styrofoam packing was de rigeur, I'm not sure this eco-fiddling cardboard crap offers the same shock-absorbing capabilities.
When we weren't throwing things around the warehouse we'd make a tape ball and, er, throw it around the warehouse.
[1] London traffic is so much more enjoyable when you have the intimidation factor of a battle-scarred, unmarked, white 3-ton truck and the self-righteous invincibility of youth going for you. Especially in the days before traffic cameras were invented......
to every other stock person in every other Walmart store for the crap those 4 pulled. My husband works maintenance for WM, and he has to ask management to unlock the doors to the trash dumpster every time he wants to empty his trash cart because once, several years ago, ONE maintenance worker was throwing good merchandise in the dumpsters for his buddies to come pick up so they could pawn it. Now ALL maintenance personnel have to have management unlock the doors to the dumpsters and then lock them up to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Not all WM employees are morons, some of them are working there because they can't get hired anywhere else because of age or disability (my husband is a 56 year old retired, disabled Navy veteran, and no one will hire him at his age, even though he's a coded welder and has a boiler's license).
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