Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Spin scooters, too good to be true

Gone from City College, Little Italy, Gaslamp by Dec. 16

Andrew got $18 an hour, plus $4 bonus per scooter above 20 each night.
Andrew got $18 an hour, plus $4 bonus per scooter above 20 each night.

On Christmas weekend, I looked for Spin motorized scooters to test drive; I hopped onto the Spin app, and noticed two were closeby at City College. I strolled and jogged around the campus, between the I-5 and Park and north of Broadway, and discovered E-Limes, Birds and Lyft scooters — but no orange and black scooters with the white colored SPIN-text wrapped around its handlebars. I even looked into the San Diego High School football field, which sits north of the campus, and no orange scooters were in plain sight.

No Spins at San Diego High School

On the app, there’s a bubble on the GPS map which I presumed indicates a scooter is within a 1-2 block vicinity. (I messaged the company directly, but as of press time, I didn’t receive a response.)

I then tried to find some in Little Italy and Gaslamp and couldn’t find any Spins. By Broadway, I saw a charger wearing a hoodie who was unloading scooters from a large white van, and at a glance, none were from Spin. I’ve heard of chargers that charge multiple brands, and just maybe: he had Spins in his van.

Spin fired all of its scooter chargers in San Diego.

“Hey, bro, can I talk to you real quick,” I yelled over the street noise, “I’m a reporter for the San Diego Reader and trying to find a …. ”

Sponsored
Sponsored

He glanced over, nodded, mashed his accelerator, and spun his wheels before I could mention the word “spin.”

I then shut off the Spin app, did a Google search, and found the Ride Into Cash YouTube and Facebook pages. They are scooter-charging fan pages ran by Andrew S., a North Park-based scooter charger. I wrote about Andrew last year when he charged 71 Bird scooters in one night, and made $445.58. This year, he started working for Spin when they first moved into San Diego in March.

(I reached out to Andrew via text, but he responded after I wrapped up this 2020 New Years Eve scooter-story.)

“Overall, Spin fired all of its scooter chargers in San Diego California [and] it happened December 16,” he said on a video posted days before Christmas.

“And all of a sudden I no longer work for Spin. The company Spin, which is Skinny Labs Inc., decided to change their business model and remove charger employees, and switch directly to operations employees only, where they don’t have people like myself go to pick up 30-40 scooters take ’em home, and charge them — it’s just the operations’ employees working with the warehouse.”

When I reached out to the dockless-scooter company based out of San Francisco, that was reportedly purchased by Ford, I noticed on their page, that they were no longer offering jobs in the San Diego area. The closest location for a job was in Long Beach as a scooter charger as Andrew before Christmas.

“Chargers are key to making sure that all Spin users have access to scooters,” says the scooter’s website. “The duty of chargers is to pick up scooters at night with their own vehicles, charge them at home, and then deploy them in the early morning hours. You will be required to pick up, charge, and deploy a minimum amount of scooters every night, and drive a large capacity vehicle (truck, SUV, van) that can carry at least 20 scooters safely without damaging them.

“Pay is hourly, and there is a maximum shift length per night, as well as a maximum number of shifts you can take per week. Mileage, electricity, and cell phone reimbursement available. Bonus pay available based on performance.”

This business model is different from the other scooter charger gigs I have covered in the past, where chargers are/were subcontracted.

“I basically worked about a year,” Andrew continued on his video, “maybe a little less than a year [and] not full time, and made over $25,000; 11 of that came from Spin actually in the 9 months I worked there.”

On Andrew’s Spin scooter-loading and charging-videos — that were made around the Gaslamp district during the summer — he’s wearing a neon orange safety vest and seen loading 40 scooters into the bed of his GMC Sierra truck that’s protected by self-adhesive rubber safety mat. He says he has loaded up to 60 Spin scooters in his bed, where he would leave them while they were charging in his driveway.

So recently, “that change came fairly sudden,” he said, “… I got an email asking me to call in on this phone conference, that morning I checked my bank balance and I was apparently paid (a couple of days earlier), which is clearly an indication that they are basically letting people go.

“Ten days before Christmas being terminated, that was a little rough. I knew that from day one, that working for this company was not going to last. Being an employee, getting paid like $18 an hour, and receiving $4 as a bonus per scooter above 20 each night — that model didn’t make sense.

“The reality is: when you join these companies and it sounds like its too good to be true, it’s because it is, but it doesn’t mean you cannot milk it while you can.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Andrew got $18 an hour, plus $4 bonus per scooter above 20 each night.
Andrew got $18 an hour, plus $4 bonus per scooter above 20 each night.

On Christmas weekend, I looked for Spin motorized scooters to test drive; I hopped onto the Spin app, and noticed two were closeby at City College. I strolled and jogged around the campus, between the I-5 and Park and north of Broadway, and discovered E-Limes, Birds and Lyft scooters — but no orange and black scooters with the white colored SPIN-text wrapped around its handlebars. I even looked into the San Diego High School football field, which sits north of the campus, and no orange scooters were in plain sight.

No Spins at San Diego High School

On the app, there’s a bubble on the GPS map which I presumed indicates a scooter is within a 1-2 block vicinity. (I messaged the company directly, but as of press time, I didn’t receive a response.)

I then tried to find some in Little Italy and Gaslamp and couldn’t find any Spins. By Broadway, I saw a charger wearing a hoodie who was unloading scooters from a large white van, and at a glance, none were from Spin. I’ve heard of chargers that charge multiple brands, and just maybe: he had Spins in his van.

Spin fired all of its scooter chargers in San Diego.

“Hey, bro, can I talk to you real quick,” I yelled over the street noise, “I’m a reporter for the San Diego Reader and trying to find a …. ”

Sponsored
Sponsored

He glanced over, nodded, mashed his accelerator, and spun his wheels before I could mention the word “spin.”

I then shut off the Spin app, did a Google search, and found the Ride Into Cash YouTube and Facebook pages. They are scooter-charging fan pages ran by Andrew S., a North Park-based scooter charger. I wrote about Andrew last year when he charged 71 Bird scooters in one night, and made $445.58. This year, he started working for Spin when they first moved into San Diego in March.

(I reached out to Andrew via text, but he responded after I wrapped up this 2020 New Years Eve scooter-story.)

“Overall, Spin fired all of its scooter chargers in San Diego California [and] it happened December 16,” he said on a video posted days before Christmas.

“And all of a sudden I no longer work for Spin. The company Spin, which is Skinny Labs Inc., decided to change their business model and remove charger employees, and switch directly to operations employees only, where they don’t have people like myself go to pick up 30-40 scooters take ’em home, and charge them — it’s just the operations’ employees working with the warehouse.”

When I reached out to the dockless-scooter company based out of San Francisco, that was reportedly purchased by Ford, I noticed on their page, that they were no longer offering jobs in the San Diego area. The closest location for a job was in Long Beach as a scooter charger as Andrew before Christmas.

“Chargers are key to making sure that all Spin users have access to scooters,” says the scooter’s website. “The duty of chargers is to pick up scooters at night with their own vehicles, charge them at home, and then deploy them in the early morning hours. You will be required to pick up, charge, and deploy a minimum amount of scooters every night, and drive a large capacity vehicle (truck, SUV, van) that can carry at least 20 scooters safely without damaging them.

“Pay is hourly, and there is a maximum shift length per night, as well as a maximum number of shifts you can take per week. Mileage, electricity, and cell phone reimbursement available. Bonus pay available based on performance.”

This business model is different from the other scooter charger gigs I have covered in the past, where chargers are/were subcontracted.

“I basically worked about a year,” Andrew continued on his video, “maybe a little less than a year [and] not full time, and made over $25,000; 11 of that came from Spin actually in the 9 months I worked there.”

On Andrew’s Spin scooter-loading and charging-videos — that were made around the Gaslamp district during the summer — he’s wearing a neon orange safety vest and seen loading 40 scooters into the bed of his GMC Sierra truck that’s protected by self-adhesive rubber safety mat. He says he has loaded up to 60 Spin scooters in his bed, where he would leave them while they were charging in his driveway.

So recently, “that change came fairly sudden,” he said, “… I got an email asking me to call in on this phone conference, that morning I checked my bank balance and I was apparently paid (a couple of days earlier), which is clearly an indication that they are basically letting people go.

“Ten days before Christmas being terminated, that was a little rough. I knew that from day one, that working for this company was not going to last. Being an employee, getting paid like $18 an hour, and receiving $4 as a bonus per scooter above 20 each night — that model didn’t make sense.

“The reality is: when you join these companies and it sounds like its too good to be true, it’s because it is, but it doesn’t mean you cannot milk it while you can.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Comments
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
March 7, 2020
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.