08/31 - Laundry Saturday

May we have a fresh poll for today, with just two options, to see what the ratio is now?
Suggested choices:
1 "My account works, and I can turk."
0 "Jeff Bezos Ghost Dingo ate my Mturk Babies"

 

Just talked to Michael in the Amazon Pay department that said Mechanical Turk stopped using Amazon Payments awhile ago and told me to contact MTurk. Unfortunately, I have several emails from Mturk telling me they cannot fix it. So it looks like our Turk accounts are permanently broken.

 

I heard we can contact the Department of Labor and that would get the ball rolling. They are on twitter and answer to things like "my boss doesnt want to pay me" and stuff like that. I'm sure an "Amazon banned 100s of independent contractors without reason" would get them interested.

 

how is the money travelling from mturk into our bank accounts? my hunch is paypal but that's just a hunch.

 

People are still being paid.

 

I think this guy could get to the bottom of what's going on here.

 

Greetings from Amazon Mechanical Turk,

We have processed your request to transfer your MTurk funds to your bank account. You can view status of your transfer request by visiting the following link:

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/transferearnings

Sincerely,
Amazon Mechanical Turk
https://www.mturk.com

-----------------------------------------

you know what, that doesn't say Amazon Payments anywhere. it just says it's from Mturk. they could be using any payment processor I guess. I just think it might be paypal (venmo, hyperwallet).

 

for anyone who gets their mturk earnings sent to their Venmo, Hyperwallet, or Paypal account - can you still turk? I know at least 1 venmo person can.

 

Can anyone at Amazon explain why the payment accounts affect MTurk workers since they are no longer used?

Invite Michael to the forum.

 

I know I have seen reference to Amazon Payments being used by Mturk to verify worker's identities. beyond that...um confused.

 

I might fax them my butt

 

I'm using Venmo, and I'm still turking

 

I'm still able to turk, also been around for over 10 years. I signed up for Connect (I call it Connect, or CloudResearch, as someone commented their naming has gone through some evolutions) in mid 2022 and haven't had any issues with them. You've probably done a lot of studies through them on MTurk, they're the ones that took over managing a ton of academic postings in 2020. If you save emails you get through MTurk, search your account for "cloudresearch" I've gotten emails through them on MTurk since July 2020. They're the "accept this HIT to see the survey link" and "Enter your SECRET KEY not your Worker ID" HIT layout or whatever, I don't have one handy to look at right now.

edit: I don't know if they actually started in 2020, that seems too recent. But it's what my emails went back to for the name cloudresearch, at least. edit 2: TurkPrime emails going back to 2015.

 

Not much to add, but we've had little progress on the requester side either.

We have an actual human looking into it, so there's that, but so far even that person isn't getting answers.

 

Thanks for the info. I remember you from the other forum.

 

Indeed, I recognized your thumbnail, or same character, right away. And I used Jane Doe's mention of TurkPrime, I've got emails from them going back to 2015. That sounds a lot more accurate than my 2020 date.

 

Copying and pasting an email from Michael - he emailed me while I was on the phone with him, which confirms he works in the Amazon Payments department:

From: <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, August 31, 2024
Subject: Your Amazon Pay Inquiry


Hello,

I recommend that you contact Mechanical Turk for this issue. You can contact Mechanical Turk by visiting their website using the following link:

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/contactus

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Michael

Amazon Payments
https://payments.amazon.com
———————————————
Would love if someone contacted him and invited him to this forum

 

well, tell him we've could have an attorney on retainer for lost wages, pain and suffering and we've got a reporter or two ready to go.