Tech
‘Postdates’ lets you pay someone to collect your belongings from an ex
Don't want to go through the awkwardness in person? There's now an app so you don't have to.
A new app is going viral on social media that uses on-demand couriers to... collect your stuff from your ex’s house. Called “Postdates,” a play on the food delivery service Postmates, the app is available in Los Angeles and New York and is already fulfilling orders. And its use could skyrocket now that it’s making the rounds on the likes of Vice and the Today Show.
Although the service is operational, its creators say that it probably won’t stick around for long. It’s really meant to be a comment on broader trends in society where people offload labor onto others rather than another way to exploit people for minimum wage.
The joke’s on us — Every day, people already run a calculation in their heads when using delivery apps — how much am I willing to pay to avoid going to the grocery store? Or to skip taking a long train ride home? Paying someone to deal with an awkward confrontation isn’t much different from services already out there, they argue, but do we need these services at all?
The team behind Postdates doesn’t think these services should be getting the billions in funding that they are today, and that the money could go to more meaningful uses. It’s supposed to make you consider the ridiculousness of paying someone else to do things you could easily do it yourself... but if they hadn’t told us, would we really have thought about it that way?
Vice tested out Postdates and found it’s a true imitation of Postmates, down to the user interface. Except for safety reasons, it requires a double opt-in, meaning if you want to retrieve some personals from your ex’s house, they need to accept your request and give their address to Postdates.
From there, the company will send out a (well paid, it says) courier to complete the request. For the benefit of avoiding an emotional confrontation, Postdates charges a $29.99 upfront fee, plus extra charges for “emotional labor,” and then the actual fee it costs the courier to complete the delivery.
Expensive — For anything small, like a toothbrush or even some AirPods, you might be best having a friend go to get your stuff. Or just eat the cost — Vice paid $70 to have some small items retrieved. And using Postdates requires you to take the easy way out of an awkward situation — not exactly the most mature behavior.
