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Amazon Home Services

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Re: Amazon Home Services

#201

Post by MCRed »

dkyc wrote: post #5
MCRed wrote: post #2

Remember Amazon Menus? (Scanned menus of local restaurants) Remember Amazon Movie Listings? Remember the "drone delivery"? (It makes no sense on the face of it, and will never happen. But it was a big press release.) Remember Amazon scanned catalogs (eg: Mail order catalogs selling things in competition with Amazon, that you could search) Remember A9? (Amazon's answer to google, biggest mainstream mention was being u…

I'm surprised to see this framed so negative. What they do is essentially being the lean huge startup . They launch a product, gather initial feedback, and if it turns out promising (like AWS) they double-down. If it doesn't work, they kill it. I think it's actually nice to see such a rapid-iteration product development done by a company with that many resources and talent.

One of the Amazing things about Amazon, compared to, say Microsoft, and which has since become a huge red flag for me is the culture is very cult like.

Amazon management is very adept and focosed on blowing smoke up the skirt of employees. "Today is day one!" Even the use of "door desks"-- that cost the company more money than actual desks would-- is done to perpetuate the "we're just a startup, rah rah rah" BS "Culture".

Its' gross manipulation but it also results in people who buy into it being REALLY dedicated to their beliefs-- because deep down people want to believe and Amazon gives them that (even though it then turns around and abuses them.)

They do this for a reason-- by having these mantras and these beliefs about the company, it makes people not believe the negatives or think the negatives don't represent the whole company.

Re: Amazon Home Services

#202

Post by MichaelApproved »

bentcorner wrote: post #168
MichaelApproved wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that so crazy? Depending on the service cost, my time could be worth more than having to deal with the headaches of finding and dealing with a trustworthy vender. Consider we're talking about $150 installation for something in my house, like a TV. That could mean knocking holes in the wall. Searching Yelp reviews and interviewing contractors can be time consuming. Then, if something goes wrong, my wall could b…

Even Geek Squad's rate is too high. Mounting a TV onto your wall is not a hard thing to do. Find studs, attach mount to wall, attach mount to TV, put on wall. I've done it several times. Granted, it's not fun, but it's not I'd-rather-pay-$150-to-not-do-this non-fun. Even if you're a high-paid professional it's likely cheaper to do it yourself (assuming opportunity cost for this time was work, and not, you know, enjoy…

> Even if you're a high-paid professional it's likely cheaper to do it yourself

A lot of people aren't looking for the cheapest option, they just want it done right, without hassle.

Re: Amazon Home Services

#203

Post by nknighthb »

jasonsync wrote: post #176
nknighthb wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Amazon will co-ordinate the retrofitting of these roofs to allow safe and easy access? Easy roof access is typically the default. Landlords sometimes cut off access and a shitstorm ensues. Lawyers sometimes get involved, since it's legally hairy to cut off access to previously-accessible common areas. > Have you ever been up to a typical apartment or condo roof top? Several, and you can examine thousands more f…

Ahh I guess you don't live in an area with RAIN and WINTER where anything not bolted down to the roof generally gets blown right off. The costs are significant if there isn't a prebuilt common area (rooftop patio). Because of safety, accessibility and liability concerns. Sure it's a big flat space, and it may be accessible in case of emergency, but it wasn't designed for regular use. These surfaces are designed for H…

> Ahh I guess you don't live in an area with RAIN

I grew up in Washington and Oregon, west of the Cascades. And if you're ever in Taipei's Songshan or Xinyi districts during the monsoon and see a crazy white guy not using an umbrella, you've probably caught me on yet another foolishly-agreed-to business trip.

As an expert on being heavily peed on by the sky, I can assure you that rain does not easily or quickly penetrate things like the hard plastic containers Amazon Prime Air will be delivering items in. (I guess you never watched the video?)

> and WINTER where anything not bolted down to the roof generally gets blown right off

I'm in eastern Washington now, where our regular 60+mph storms are more of an autumn thing.

Tornadoes are fairly rare throughout Washington, but when they do happen, they are, of course, concentrated in spring and summer, like the one we suspect touched down on our property in western Washington in the 90s.

But regardless of the time of year, if the weather is that bad, the drone probably won't be flying.

> Sure it's a big flat space, and it may be accessible in case of emergency, but it wasn't designed for regular use.

They get regular use anyway.

> You're going to have to retrofit the roof to meet spec.

Any particular spec, or just a fuzzy concept that I'm to assume must exist somewhere to forbid this de minimis usage?

Re: Amazon Home Services

#204

Post by MichaelApproved »

ghaff wrote: post #165
MichaelApproved wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that so crazy? Depending on the service cost, my time could be worth more than having to deal with the headaches of finding and dealing with a trustworthy vender. Consider we're talking about $150 installation for something in my house, like a TV. That could mean knocking holes in the wall. Searching Yelp reviews and interviewing contractors can be time consuming. Then, if something goes wrong, my wall could b…

You have a higher opinion of the value of Amazon's guarantee and brand in this space than I do. You're talking independent contractors here (just like Home Depot and many others use today) and you can expect lots of outcomes between didn't show up or didn't do the promised task and did a perfect job. Even with contractors I know and trust, things don't always work out perfectly when you're dealing with unexpected pro…

> ou have a higher opinion of the value of Amazon's guarantee and brand in this space than I do.

In my personal experience, they're one of the highest rated companies I've dealt with, in terms of customer service. They've earned that credit with me over the years that I've purchased items from them.

Re: Amazon Home Services

#205

Post by MCRed »

jasonlotito wrote: post #104
MCRed wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a negative because Amazon doesn't have that many resources or talent. They are short on engineers. The people building things like amazon movies are being taken off of key things like product search. Bugs I fixed there were regressed in later years and are still broken-- this is key product sales bugs that are still there. The team I was on that wrote the code got dissipated away. Here's a key thing that people…

> I know on HN you're not allowed(?) to say negative things about big "tech" companies. I may be shadowbanned for ti, I despise this meme. You are allowed to say negative things about big "tech" companies, especially here on HN. What you aren't allowed to do is act childish about it. Which is exactly what you do when you say things like this. And I tend to down vote when I see commentary like this, because regardless…

I'm wrong about the culture of HN?

I've been on this site since 2006 or 2007. I've earned 5,000+ karma on most of my previous accounts. Everyone of them was shadowbanned at one point or another.

In one case I linked to a scientific paper about global warming that does not agree with global warming hysterics. That was the only post in several months at the time and the only commentary I added was "these guys disagree!"..... shadowbanned. For linking to a peer reviewed paper!

Another time, the last comment was talking about how I had met Grace Hopper. Nothing negative in it, Nothing "childish". Just relating how she gave me a "nanosecond". Shadowbanned.

I stopped putting effort into this site for several years because of that-- why try to discuss things with an extremely ideological and narrow minded group (which HN really is) if you're going to get banned for disagreeing?

I only created this account because I don't care. I do expect to get shadowboxed because the moderators of this site, in my experience, are unethical.

But of course, those who believe in rigid narrow minded censorship are incentivized to believe that all those who were shadowbanned were being "childish".

Because of course you want to believe you're broad minded and that criticizing Amazon is allowed, and the like. (Hey maybe it is, so far I've been allowed to.... but that's the thing about arbitrary shadow bans, you can't know what's verboten and what's allowed.)

Re: Amazon Home Services

#206

Post by MCRed »

jeffmorrisjr wrote: post #166
MCRed wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a negative because Amazon doesn't have that many resources or talent. They are short on engineers. The people building things like amazon movies are being taken off of key things like product search. Bugs I fixed there were regressed in later years and are still broken-- this is key product sales bugs that are still there. The team I was on that wrote the code got dissipated away. Here's a key thing that people…

You sound like a bitter ex-employee. Why would you ever waste your energy on trashing a former employer? Go build something else - it's a much better use of your time.

I have built something else. Several other else.

I do think it's unfortunate that Software Engineers are held in such low regard.

Calling me "bitter" is just blaming the victim.

I'm here so that other engineers can be forewarned about a bad actor in our midst.

I think that's a good use of my time because I hate how engineers are disrespected, and increasingly so.

Re: Amazon Home Services

#207

Post by retardedelk »

kardos wrote: post #124
jbb555 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I heard that some kid once got hit by a bicycle, that's why those have been banned for years. Oh, and right, I once bumped into someone in the street, I guess that's why they closed down the streets. But yeah, things might possibly go wrong from time to time so best not to try. Giving up is always they best thing.

Are you OK with your kid taking a copter blade to the face for the team? Wait, I mean, for Amazon?

Are you OK with your kid taking a FedEx bumper to the face for the team?

Re: Amazon Home Services

#208

Post by kardos »

cweiss wrote: post #179
kardos wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Safety: drones - multirotors, specifically - are very safe devices, inherently. The first or second time the blades on one of those drones hits a kid, drone delivery will be as dead as the Segway.

I'm pretty sure delivery vehicles have been involved in injury accidents since the horse-drawn carriage days.

I'm pretty sure we have a century of training people/kids to stay off the roads because roads are dangerous. Flying drones /everywhere/, including your fenced in yard, makes /everywhere/ dangerous.

Re: Amazon Home Services

#209

Post by MCRed »

markpundmann wrote: post #174
MCRed wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a negative because Amazon doesn't have that many resources or talent. They are short on engineers. The people building things like amazon movies are being taken off of key things like product search. Bugs I fixed there were regressed in later years and are still broken-- this is key product sales bugs that are still there. The team I was on that wrote the code got dissipated away. Here's a key thing that people…

It's kind of ironic how condescending you are towards amazon stemming from what seems primarily based upon them not being a "tech company". In school, you probably had the jock type people looking down on you, and now that you are in your own subculture of tech oriented people, you've taken their place at the top of the arrogance pyramid. I think you need to reevaluate your outlook on giving advice. You seem to have…

The person who warned me about Amazon -- before I ever applied there-- was not an engineer. She was a receptionist. She'd worked in the main office in a low level office job. She told me the company had no respect for employees.

I was foolish (and a little desperate) when I applied at Amazon. Because I had been told.

This has nothing to do with them not being a tech company-- I just don't like tech people misclassifying them.

This is all about them disrespecting their employees. Not having competent managers for engineers is a form of disrespect. But all the sexist, obnoxious and rude things done to my friend who was non-technical are also disrespectful.

This isn't about me being "arrogant" at all.

This is me just warning you about a terrible experience I had!

Re: Amazon Home Services

#210

Post by MCRed »

flyinglizard wrote: post #59
MCRed wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an idea that is DOA. It will never work because it will never be economical, nor safe. If you think about it for a few minutes, you'll realize it's a joke-- like an April Fools joke.

I'll address some points here. 1. Safety: drones - multirotors, specifically - are very safe devices, inherently. They are incredibly simple (4-8 motors and no other moving parts). If they are dangerous, it's only because of lack of investment by the manufacturers to make mission critical hardware/software. That's the next step in the drone ecosystem though, as commercial use is gaining traction (multirotors are bare…

Yeah, my comment wasn't bashing drones. I think drones are great (outside government use) .... I just know Amazon well enough, and amazons business well enough to know this is a joke.

When I say it's a joke I'm not being pejorative.

Amazon regularly releases press releases and propaganda designed to make the company look good but that have nothing to do with its products or that aren't real initiatives. This is one of them. IT's purely propaganda.

you're making a lot of assumptions about the economics and quality advancements of control software in your response-- - you're assuming pie in the sky comes true.

I'm note.

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