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[Rolan7]

I could buy rubbing alcohol, but cleaning my injection site with the poison that's been killing me has a delightful sense of irony poetry.

But eugh, yeah.  I've used hand-me-down earphones from my dad several times, but only after wiping them down very carefully.  I prefer my muff-style bluetooth headset nowadays.  It's not as good as my (dead) noise-cancelling headset, but it still blocks out enough noise to listen to *my* music at the gym.

[None]

If Amazon ever says it's selling you something new, assume it's not, and then assume it's not the genuine article, and then try not to use Amazon whenever possible. Fuck 'em. I'm thrifty and would be happy with secondhand stuff under most circumstances, but for something that I put inside me? bitch pls

I only used amazon since someone else gave me a gift card.

On the bright side, they come with extra earcaps which appear still to be sealed, so we'll see if one of them fits while the company mails me actually new ones.

[pisskop]

I dont even like the smell of my own earwax.  Putting somebody else's inside my ear is a hard pass for me

[Frumple]

I'd douse them in rubbing alcohol, but then they probably wouldn't work, so why bother?
(Not the valuable drinking alcohol!)

Last time I did that to earbuds they came out fine, actually? Just don't let them, like, soak. You clean off with a rag or paper towel or whatever, then dip in rubbing alcohol a few times and wipe back down. Probably let sit for a bit to dry out good before trying to use them.

Iirc, there's not going to be something alcohol's going to mess with much in the part of a earbud that goes into you unless there's something pretty wrong with the things.

[Grim Portent]

amazon sold me previously-owned earplugs

Amazon policy is that if a returned item can pass as 'new' it gets processed for resale as new even if it has been used, as opposed to processed as something that needs the price knocked down. Certain exceptions apply, if something is going to be unhygenic to process, or just might be unhygenic*, it just gets flagged for disposal.

Sometimes this just means replacing tape and other seals, if the original seals were generics then the item gets sold as new with replaced seals. Often this just means someone opened the box, decided the item wasn't the right size and sent it back. If the seals were branded then it gets sold as second hand, or is supposed to at least.

Sometimes it means the item gets cleaned and then resealed. Had a pot come through when I was working for Amazon that had traces of liquid residue on it, oil I think, got told to clean it with the supplies at my desk, replace seals and mark it as something that could be sold as new. Technically fine, but still something I felt was dishonest.

Thing is that some items get through returns with poor quality control. Happens when people are rushed or a given item's dirt or damage isn't immediately obvious. People like small items like earbuds, jewelry and so on because you can inspect it fast, and the size of items doesn't really matter for your quota, but it means a lot get minimal inspection so people can plump their numbers.

Worst thing for it is costumes. A lot of costumes get returned after holidays like Halloween, and it takes ages to check them for damage, and it's not like Amazon has an in-house laundry service to clean them in, so costumes in all kinds of states just get shrugged at and passed along to the auditors, who in turn usually just shrug and pass them without checking them. Looking for a penny sized stain or small tear on a lion onesie or whatever is a pain in the ass and slows people down, so it just gets kind of ignored.

Returned or undelivered food items just get marked for disposal, which I think usually amounts to being sent to landfill. Always found that apalling, as it didn't matter if the item was something with an expiry date measured in years, it all got binned.


*Like a sex toy for example, if it's been delivered and returned it gets binned. Doesn't matter if it actually got used before it was sent back, it's just that it might have been and therefore poses a potential health risk.



Earwax is generally not harmful mind you, it's a protective substance with mild anti-microbial properties. So long as the person the earwax is from didn't have an ear infection it's perfectly safe, if a bit gross.

[Egan_BW]

A vivid description of a company which values making the maximum amount of money over even pretending to do its job properly.

[EuchreJack]

To be blunt, anything that takes about two weeks to arrive probably doesn't have much harmful still living on it. Virus and bacteria can starve to death also.

But yeah, correct decontamination policy is to soak anything you get in alcohol then light it on fire_{not responsible for destroying your house}

[King Zultan]

But yeah, correct decontamination policy is to soak anything you get in alcohol then light it on fire_{not responsible for destroying your house}

But at least the fire will decon your house!

[Grim Portent]

A vivid description of a company which values making the maximum amount of money over even pretending to do its job properly.

A lot of it is down to rushing things, more so in returns than other departments where mistakes are more likely to be compounded errors on the part of staff, but returns is considered the easy part of the warehouse work. You know how amazon packages often get shipped in ridiculously big boxes, or crammed into envelopes? That happens when people run out of appropriately sized boxes at their workstations and don't feel like they have the time to go find more at a supply point. Similar thing happens in returns with plastic bags for storing items that are missing their proper packaging, small items often wind up in huge bags because you're discouraged from going to a supply point for appropriate bags.

Of course I'd pin a lot of the issues with the returns department during my time there on the unpacking team being careless and rough with packages. Packages arrive in cages, the sort you see in a lot of retail environments, and get unloaded onto a conveyor belt that feeds them down a line of workstations. Unpacking team is supposed to open the packages so that the processing team can handle the item faster, but this usually just meant the unpackers would rip it open with a safety knife and hurl it onto the conveyor. Had jewelry returns come through where the packaging had been torn up so much that the actual jewelry had gone missing, likely fallen onto the floor beneath the machine, a foam mat that had been ripped where the safety knife was used to tear open the package and so on. Sometimes packages would be so damaged that they became seperated from their contents, which meant the item was no longer paired to it's return information and couldn't be processed.

I much preferred non-conveyor work, where you have a free standing workstation and get a cage of boxes to work on. No machinery breaking down, no ruined packages, no issues with all the good items being taken if you were at the back of the line and so on. Also less noise.

[I4uU4me]

I had to get a permission for my project from the city administration and I called there for about 5-6 times to settle a meeting but nobody answered! Tomorrow I'll have to visit them without a call and hope they'll be in place.

[Frumple]

Did... you have the right phone number?

[EuchreJack]

Were they actually open when you were calling?

But yeah, just visiting in person is usually the best way to sort these things out.  At least you'll know what is going on there, even if you can't resolve your issue immediately. 
Dress formal: They'll treat you nicer.
When in doubt, wear a suit.

[pisskop]

I dont know if anyone here follows the markets but the stocks and the futures just took some incredibly well coordinated pumps juuust before closing at 3:50p and 8:55p

[martinuzz]

Stock markets hacked?

[EuchreJack]

Stock markets hacked?

Aren't they always?