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I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

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Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#221

Post by hirako2000 »

MrDresden wrote: post #201
haritha-j wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to pay more money when you pay the total amount you owe? That's just evil.

In some locations banks are allowed to charge you for the interests they will loose out on when their clients pay more of the principal. In other locations this has been deemed illegal and/or only allowed above a certain amount (think 10-15% of total remaining principal). I do not agree with this being an ok practice (to charge).

Banks make money on interest. Perhaps the principle itself is the issue, if it's legal to earn money on loans, no surprise a bank incentive is to make you take loan, and have you keep them for as long as it can.

Typically a mortgage does not allow over repayments. Why? It would get people in the nasty habit (from the perspective of the bank) to pay back a little more every month with the spare they've got.

Of course you can pay a fee to overpay.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#222

Post by [deleted] »

huhkerrf wrote: post #147
nxtfari wrote: post #135

Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company, including mine. Inside it’s all sprint meetings, KPIs and terminology that are either intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people. It’s easy to convince a 25 year old whiz kid to optimize human assets, it’s just l…

> designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people Why do we think engineers are some special class of people who can't do bad things?

[deleted]

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#223

Post by mlrtime »

MrDresden wrote: post #201
haritha-j wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to pay more money when you pay the total amount you owe? That's just evil.

In some locations banks are allowed to charge you for the interests they will loose out on when their clients pay more of the principal. In other locations this has been deemed illegal and/or only allowed above a certain amount (think 10-15% of total remaining principal). I do not agree with this being an ok practice (to charge).

If we're talking normal credit cards in the US, you technically are getting a 30 day loan for free, no interest if paid in full every month.

I don't see a issue if credit cards charged 30d interest on balance, but if mine did that I would drop it instantly.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#224

Post by anovikov »

Isn't artificially delaying "normal" orders same thing as speeding up priority ones? I mean, it means executing priority ones out of queue.

Unless they just force the deliverymen sit and do nothing for extra 5-10 minutes, which would be a waste of time and money for the company way above $2.99 so i don't think they do that.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#225

Post by mlrtime »

hirako2000 wrote: post #221
MrDresden wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some locations banks are allowed to charge you for the interests they will loose out on when their clients pay more of the principal. In other locations this has been deemed illegal and/or only allowed above a certain amount (think 10-15% of total remaining principal). I do not agree with this being an ok practice (to charge).

Banks make money on interest. Perhaps the principle itself is the issue, if it's legal to earn money on loans, no surprise a bank incentive is to make you take loan, and have you keep them for as long as it can. Typically a mortgage does not allow over repayments. Why? It would get people in the nasty habit (from the perspective of the bank) to pay back a little more every month with the spare they've got. Of course…

Mortgages have amortization schedules, Banks love it when you pay more as it only reduces the tail end of your loan. You still pay the interest up front.

Not all banks are the same, some have other incentives to pay off early.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#226

Post by mlrtime »

Tostino wrote: post #212
AmbroseBierce wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are burn out your brain doesn't brain too well, reminds me of Luigi, that 3D printed his gun among other smart moves but made many silly mistakes that got him caught (like carrying the silencer, the magazine, and other incriminating evidence)

I am 95% convinced he was caught because we live in a surveillance panopticon. The McDonald's kiosks could very easily be sharing data with other private companies (e.g. Palantir) who the government contracts with. There are so many other companies jumping in on sharing data like this, why would a company like McDonald's care about selling out customer privacy in exchange for a better bottom line for investors?

>I am 95% convinced he was caught because we live in a surveillance panopticon.

I'm sure this is unpopular opinion but I'm glad we can catch murderers quickly which technology. The flip side is worse.

Note: This has nothing to do with the reasons for murdering which I'm not going to debate.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#227

Post by mlrtime »

anonzzzies wrote: post #98
whatever1 wrote: post #88

Lyft is also a scam for the drivers. In a ride from the airport to home during rush hour (1h and 15 minutes drive) I got charged ~$140. The company was paying, so whatever. During the ride I was chatting with the driver, and I was curious how much he was making from the ride. At the end of the ride he showed me. $48 (before my tip). WTF. From that he had to pay gas, maintenance and taxes. How is this legal? What is t…

I know plenty of Uber (and normal taxis) drivers around the airport here who pick up a someone, then ask if they mind taking someone else. Because it is usually vans and business customers, they don't care and actually kind of like talking with other business guys who probably went or are going to the same seminar/conference etc. The driver will then load up whatever fits who are waiting for taxis or drivers and only…

That would be a hard NO from me. Mostly because I don't want to talk to someone for 75 minutes.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#228

Post by mlrtime »

rich_sasha wrote: post #165
manuelmoreale wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In other words, I see this not a special greed of this particular company, but a logical conclusion of the economic system it operates in. (I'm not saying it is good either. Only that raging against the symptom is a bit misplaced, and instead you should focus attention at the causes). I think this is conceptually sound take but at the same time it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these…

> it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these decisions. So I guess, nicer taxi corporations existed, and got turfed out by Uber and Lyft who managed to reduce prices or increase convenience, and are reaping the fruit of their investment. Capitalism in motion. I guess my fundamental point is, you can't fix this by putting pressure on companies to be nicer, because the ones being less nice w…

Taxi's were never nicer. They were very unpredictable if you would ever get one.

Outside of NYC (in the US), you may never see a taxi driving with the light on indicating you can hail it.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#229

Post by mlrtime »

anal_reactor wrote: post #178
rich_sasha wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these decisions. So I guess, nicer taxi corporations existed, and got turfed out by Uber and Lyft who managed to reduce prices or increase convenience, and are reaping the fruit of their investment. Capitalism in motion. I guess my fundamental point is, you can't fix this by putting pressure on companies to be nicer, because the ones being less nice w…

I remember people welcoming Uber not because of the app, but because the idea "you'll know exactly how much the ride will cost you before you take it" was revolutionary at the time. Over here, what used to happen was that you order the taxi, the guy says "yeah I'll take you there it'll cost you $10" and then the bill was $20 and there was nothing you could do about it except pay. It was completely normal for taxis to…

Scam is too generic of a word... its information asymmetry. Also for the most part everyone is trying to get some service/product for the lowest price while at the same time trying to earn as much as possible for some labor.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#230

Post by mlrtime »

forinti wrote: post #211

There's very good restaurant in my neighbourhood that I order from regularly. I tried ordering directly from them after hearing about how nasty the delivery app company was. I thought they would appreciate it: they wouldn't have to pay the intermediary. But it turns out they prioritise the app and my orders took longer to arrive. So I'm back on the app...

I ask them what they prefer, sometimes they say call, sometimes they say app.
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