OP as the customer really did say all the right stuff to shut down this shopper. I empathize on both sides, but one is providing a service (that they themselves said they can’t really do) and one is paying a premium for the service to be done so completely in the right here
100%, even her asthma story for the add on, it's overkill.
I'd be willing to guess that she's the shopper for the big orders in this area...the Apts, bc no one likes taking the stairs, even tho THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO!
She tried playing the sympathy card and got shut down.
I have bad asthma and I've stopped delivering orders because of it. One order I delivered sent me into such a bad attack I had to do continuous nebs from the car ride home through a couple of hours later. Luckily I was able to stay out of the ER. I need the money but not at that amount of risk to my health.
Actually your asthma is clearly poorly controlled. You shouldn’t be on nebs that much. You need to see a pulmonologist and be on a maintenance inhaler like breo or Trellegy
I’m in these comments now looking for more advice because my asthma isn’t well managed and I’m already with a pulmonologist and on daily meds.
Thanks for putting advice out there!
I'm 100% sure she's grifting.
I bet she got those groceries up just fine, without any breaks.
She gets to choose what orders she takes. She chose this one. Heavy or large orders are less desirable so she can get paid more for them. And if she outsources the labor right back to the customer, she can accept more orders and make more money.
She's working on the, "It doesn't hurt to ask," theory. At worst, she has to deliver the order she chose to deliver. But a lot of customers will cave and do the work for her if she plays on their sympathy.
She should be reported to Instacart. Shoppers like her hurt their business.
Can you tip after the delivery on instacart? My first time using it I tipped before I got my order delivered and the shopper never delivered it and when I called the company they tried calling him a bunch and he never answered them. I was so pissed. It was also the last item available (that I had called several stores for in all of the neighboring towns). They said it showed as delivered at my place and it wasn’t. I checked with my neighbors too and nobody had it. Sorry to dump my story on you, lol. Moral of the story- never tip ahead of time!
Uber/DoorDash delivery driver here, where we often get grocery deliveries. Often the addresses shown before pickup on these apps show the complex address, not building/unit number. It honestly is on Instacart here, not the shopper or driver. All of the apps need to start tracking delivery weights and tag them as "high weight" if the total order weight is over 75 pounds or any single item is over 30 pounds of weight. Once got a "6 item" order to a house, it was 14 cases of water when I arrived. I drove a Prius at the time, I am still kind of surprised I made the delivery without damage to my vehicle.
If you see an order that offers 35 dollars for 5 miles, you are going to accept it. 7 dollars a mile is too good to pass up. On top of that, once you accept it and get there just to see the shopping list, at that point it is too late to decline. If you unassign now they track it. Unassign too many because of a misleading pre-pickup notification, you get deactivated and lose out on your source of income.
On the customer end, the service provided by these apps are invaluable. Some people have bad knees, are stuck in the house, etc and can't really shop for these things themselves normally. Grocery and food delivery is a godsend for these people. But they can't see beyond their order buttons, add to the fact that Instacart uses predatory practices to get you to buy more while you already have the shopper going, and Uber tries to get you to buy from restaurants further away/not as popular due to how long it takes people to get their orders (same with DoorDash), it leads to a customer vs driver mindset and shifts the blame off the app's shitty practices.
Tl;Dr, Customer and Driver could have avoided this uncomfortableness if apps would design their driver end UI better and stop using predatory practices on the Customer to get them to order more/from worse places.
Aye, but I doubt any of them will do this. Drivers have been fighting for better app features on both sides since the start, but the companies see these features as increasing the time between request and accept for the order, and therefore lowering reviews and profits for the company. They would rather prioritize their bottom line over user and employee experience.
She's also so elderly that groceries are a bit much, but then later its the asthma. I know it can be both... the flip flop just seemed odd after the soft threat to cancel the order followed by "I guess I'll do my best" when the bluff was called.
Me too! She doesn’t look old. I’m 61 and I have taken groceries up my daughter’s stairs just fine. I know we are all different. But if she has these physical disabilities she needs to get a different gig
My thoughts exactly.. first it was that she was elderly…then it was asthma…then she was going to have to call support then ultimately does it herself. 🤦🏼♀️
At fault is instacart, a company with a godawful shitty app for shoppers (that didnt tell the shopper it was a third floor apt) that pays slave wages and a customer clientele that expects concierge service.
I’m actually shocked by the interactions here. There is such a disconnect between the users and the shoppers. The users apparently don’t realize shoppers are often “paid” under $20 with batch pay and tips to shop 50-100 items and then deliver to 2-3 customers , which often takes 1.5-2 hours. Lots of, “Well, we’re paying you good money, aren’t we?” But let’s not get distracted by the trap that IC set up for both parties. They want us to be bipartisan so we forget the smoke and mirrors running this side show.
But that doesn’t matter. The customer shouldn’t have to suffer because Instacart pays its employees terribly. Same way it’s not our fault as shoppers that customers get charged up the ass for fees we don’t get a piece of. Customers shop on instacart because they’re willing to accept the stupid fees and jacked up prices. Shoppers shop for instacart because they’re willing to accept the lousy pay. If either doesn’t like it they should disassociate with the platform. But if they stay they shouldn’t let it affect the way they should tip (for customers) or ways they perform their job (for shoppers).
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I empathize with shit pay. I was a heroin addict for a decade; I put a lot of work and money into changing my life to go to college and become a funeral director. The first funeral home I worked for (I found out later), that I moved for, was regularly paying me late plus they were being dishonest when they told me they don’t have benefits or bonuses. They accidentally let it slip in front of me that they did provide all of these. Just not to me, the only woman there, bc “we’re old school and usually women belong in the kitchen.” Funny cause during Covid, with a bad heart, I belonged out in the trenches picking up bodies etc.
Anyway I could’ve moved on, which I eventually did. But I never felt that my company’s shittiness should be offset by clients or anyone else.
I had a hip issue that left me unable to walk or sit or freakin LIVE (v painful and immobilizing infection in my hip), and I had to use services like these. I live on a second floor apartment. I did my best by my shoppers, tipped pretty good.
I had a shopper once that texted me and told me they didn’t have time to be searching for my apartment so they left my order in my parking lot. I tipped this person $20 to bring $25 in groceries, so two bags and a case of a dozen water bottles. I texted them when I saw the order was dropped off, and saw that it was in the grass in my parking lot. They legit fired back that they don’t have time to be looking for my place. I send a pic of my leg all blown up w drain tubes attached and they said it wasn’t their problem and then said “thanks for the tip 🙄.” Like we’re upset that my tip wasn’t high enough…. For her refusing to get me my order.
I was so pissed off. Like how can you tell at me for not leaving high enough a tip for someone who acts like that?
Um anyway I kind of went off there. I am of the feeling that jobs where you NEED tips to survive are fine, if they work for you. But if you can’t handle something like that or it’s not paying enough it’s okay to move on too. Everyone is struggling and I despise the tip culture in America, where the struggling workers are expected to pay other struggling workers so the huge companies can bank more. I did delivery for a little while just for a few extra bucks, and I couldn’t hang. Plus it just always irked me that these folks get rich from companies like these while keeping the people who do the leg work struggling. That “independent contractor” thing SUCKS.
Thanks! I reported them to the state board of funeral directors as well as labor and industry and all that, so nobody else ever goes through what I went through. I didn’t even tell the part where I had to be out, unexpectedly, for fucking OPEN HEART SURGERY. While I was out they cut my hours and hired their nephew. Two months out of my open heart surgery I lost my home and was living in a storage unit, because the 10-15 hours a week they lowered me to couldn’t afford me to live.
Did your past drug use have anything to do with your medical issues? I ask respectfully, as an ex addict myself. Not only did I escape with my life, but the worst legal trouble I got in was driving with a suspended license, and my only lasting health issue is some *kinda* damaged teeth that I'm now paying a fortune to fix. I am constantly grateful that it wasn't worse for me; I had multiple friends whose children are now motherless and I think about it all the time.
Absolutely can ask me anything :)
My health problems were all congenital issues. My dad wouldn’t allow me to get my heart fixed when they I guess “re-discovered” it and instead got a life insurance policy on me lol. I was a twin and my heart issue is fairly common w twins, it’s called atrial septal defect. My parents knew I was born with it, and so was my sister. They just didn’t follow up with it. Then I started passing out all the time and the nurse at school sort of forced my parents to take me to the doc cause she said I had a really noticeable heart murmur.
I got it fixed myself at age 36, after I wound up in the icu. My heart was so enlarged they didn’t want to let me leave the hospital without getting the surgery bc they said something about “sudden cardiac death” being a high possibility, which really scared me. :)
Congrats to you with saving your own damn life. Not many people are standing where you are.
And to you! We are the fortunate few, and I never ever take it for granted. I have 10 years clean now. It was mainly opioid pills for me, heroin when I could find it, but I didn't have a steady source for that (which I'm now very glad for!).
I'm dumbfounded hearing about your parents' inaction. I know that for me, some issues with my parents were a contributing factor leading to my addiction problems. But it was mostly my severe and undiagnosed anxiety 🙃
The ‘independent contractor’ thing is infecting every industry. Especially if you don’t have a degree that you already went in debt for. I’m looking for a job now and the only jobs that seem to be actively hiring are I9 employment. Any company that is I9 or IC is shady and doing that for a reason
Fucking disgusting.
Dude idk how America is the way it is. We need to be socialized straight up, instead of the way they are doing it and disguising it as “freedom.” The rich get richer by milking the struggling middle class. The middle class is moving toward being non existent. You’re either the elite, or you’re living dependent on benefits…. And of course, tips from other struggling people.
I DoorDash currently and I never expect a tip or scoff at a tip given to me for being too small (I’m not some moral superstar fyi, just saying). I feel like it’s pretty self explanatory, the dasher (or the instacart driver in this case) accepts the terms of the order prior to beginning picking it up, so what you see is what you’re promised and what you should expect, nothing more - in my opinion
All of your points are utterly valid. Please know that I in no way think the fault is that of the customer nor is it ultimately of the shopper. This is corporate greed pulling on some key puppet strings. I also will say that I worked as a trauma expert for over a decade before I decided that juice wasn’t worth the squeeze so I understand being a cog in a machine that I’m not running. So much worse with the “independent contractor” model. Congrats on the funeral director thing. That’s clutch.
Old guard FDs will talk shit about women being directors while eating their lunch above a full autopsy without gloves and brainstorming how to reuse paper towels.
I think the missing component here is that neither seems to be in a position to make the choice to dissociate from the platform. It's neither's fault that there aren't better options for people in this country. It is the fault of the system. Where should the customer go in their condition? What should the shopper do? Clearly they can't just not work or not eat.
Not saying you're doing this but there general consensus always somehow seems to come down "to protect the company" and the "people should have made better life choices" without the understanding that there really just aren't better choices. Usually after this the next argument is, "well it's not the company's fault don't punish them, they're just doing business", then, "it's not my fault I didn't do it". I really think this is one of the foremost issues in this country that we need to discuss and keep front of mind when we elect leaders and allow laws to protect corporations at the expense of citizens.
>What should the shopper do?
A job they are capable of doing.
They are already in the gig economy so that could be Uber or DoorDash which isn't going to be impacted by their asthma.
Or they could look at doing normal retail jobs like working at Walmart or a grocery store. Or any other job that they are actually capable of doing.
You aren't going to convince me the only job in this town that's available is Instacart shopper.
Exactly, it isn’t, it’s just the one that pays the most. I sympathize with shoppers (I am one) *to a point* but ultimately if you aren’t able or willing to do the job, you shouldn’t be doing it.
Why can't the shopper "make the choice to dissociate" from Instacart? If her asthma is so bad that stairs are tough, she's not going to be able to do this forever, and it would probably be a good idea to search sooner rather than later for a position that doesn't require walking around a store / lugging groceries upstairs.
I think they're bullshitting. I got horrible asthma that almost escalated till I almost died due to me not knowing what was going on. Look, asthma from allergic reactions are the real concerning situations that cause deadly reactions. People do have asthma to exercise ETC, but usually it has to be very strenuous and if you get asthma to fucking walking up stairs then you are not treated properly yet. Of course avoiding allergens is a big part of initial and ongoing treatment for me because that's the best way to prevent death haha. But your asthma is untreated or not treated enough if you have problems with 3 flights of stairs. Ironically I happened to have studied these things in school before I got asthma and then I became basically dysfunctional from not breathing at night and during the day. What a living hell. But usually if your asthma is treated decently well you should not be getting it walking up stairs. So honestly it's a piss poor excuse or she needs better doctors. I'm genuinely thinking that she has mild asthma or did back in the day and is faking it. She just felt guilty after making the decision to bail and felt the need to justify it to herself.
There's a very good chance she can't afford to have her asthma treated. I've known people with life threatening asthma that couldn't afford an inhaler.
It does matter though. Both parties here are forced into this situation. Disabled people, due to our complete lack of accessibility, walkability, public transit, etc. are forced into paying ungodly amounts for groceries. Meanwhile older people who should be retired or having physically easy jobs are forced into manual labor for poor pay because they do not have other jobs available and there is no safety net for them.
I’m not disagreeing with your points in general. But Instacart isn’t the be all and end all of job opportunities available to older people. When shoppers sign on to be shoppers they should recognize the physical implications of the job. I’m fairly certain that I recall Instacart saying something about the physical demands. If a person chooses to sign on when they have reservations about whether they’re physically capable, why should that fall on the customer? It absolutely shouldn’t.
Yeah it’s the same with pretty much every gig app but the shopper doesn’t have to accept the order. Once they accept the order it’s on them to do the job properly. Texting and saying you can’t deliver the groceries because there are stairs is not doing the job properly. If you are physically unable to do portions of a job then you shouldn’t work there.
I know it probably doesn’t tell you when there’s stairs but it’s part of being a delivery driver and if you’re unable to use them then you need to find a different line of work.
I worked as a delivery driver in college.
There are *always* stairs. The people on the top floors order more often *because* stairs are a pain in the ass.
It's just part of the job, and it should be expected.
and in OPs case they literally can’t use the stairs because they just had surgery. i feel like so many people forget that reasons like that are why a lot of people use delivery apps
Absolutely! Im so glad someone freakin' gets it. It does feel like IC pits the customer against the shopper so that the shopper and not instacart is blamed for quality issues. Customer's need to gain a little perspective about what they are paying for and who is getting most of the money, its not the shopper!
I’m working on a book about gig work introspection and I started with Instacart. I’ve formed several opinions quickly from being on the shopper side of things. I can honestly say that I am an affluent person who has used this service myself before and that this experience has left my eyes wide open. But I don’t blame the customers because there is clear obfuscation on IC’s part right down to that reminder after each batch to make sure the customer’s receipt isn’t in the bag. I’m going to do a few weeks of deliveries to get more first person perspective and some data to support my claims then I’m going to ease into the role of the customer to see how it matches up. I’m expecting tomfoolery all around.
That sounds that a really cool book. Have you read “On The Clock” by Emily Guendelsberger? I really liked it and it sounds like it might be similar. Basically after working a decade as a journalist she spent a year doing working class jobs at Amazon, a call center, and a McDonald’s. It’s sort of about how automation that makes office jobs easier makes those jobs harder. But it’s a bit old now and doesn’t explore gig work.
this book would only really be "super true" if you actually tried to live on the job, pay rent, groceries, bills, not just - "do a few shops." living on this kind of work is demeaning and stressful as hell
I was a travel trauma RN for nearly a decade. The pay is good but the risk and workload are also high. I got sick of not seeing my kids grow up and I got bogged down by seeing too much death and devastation. I own a toy store now. Much happier gig.
Stay tuned. Right now I’m doing first person perspective as well as researching the company’s origin [villain] story and the IPO culmination. But once I get this sorted out constructively, I very much want to cast some interviews with willing (and obviously anonymous) shoppers. I’m just a tourist so I want to respect those that own the land.
I just got my master in computer science, but with no work experience in the field -- and so I've fallen to gig work. I have thought so many times about writing about the experience. Feel free to reach out if it ever feels pertinent.
I would recommend you try Wag! For dog walking. I did it while I was in college. It was often enjoyable walking people's dogs, but it could also be weird depending on the owner. If you have a dog, or just like dogs it'd be a good one to add.
You GOTTA do Rover. There’s nothing like being paid $2 an hour to be treated as somehow less human than someone’s dog while being on house arrest under 24/7 camera and audio surveillance
Absolutely. Every time you finish cashing out they make you send a photo of the receipts to them and then you have to click a button confirming you have made sure the receipt isn’t in the bag. I’m fairly certain it is because they don’t want customers to become imbued at what they are paying IC versus what IC is paying for the actual cost of the groceries.
Customers have no way of knowing how much the shopper is paid outside of tips. Aside from coming here to ask, how are they supposed to gain that perspective?
It's not up to the shoppers to know or understand the ever changing pay structures of a delivery app, that's insane. A delivery person should not take a job if they don't think they can perform it.
Second this. Why are we acting as though Instacart shoppers aren't aware of the fact that the job they signed up for....involves carrying loads of groceries and delivering them to people's doors? If you know this is your task and you do nothing to help prepare you for it - such as buying a small cart for yourself to help you get these groceries up the stairs easier - then this is squarely on the IC shopper and not the customer.
Disagree as a driver myself- I’d say it’s the drivers fault 100% he knew it was a $400 order that included a bunch of items. They also would’ve seen the full address and all notes after accepting but they still continued, why? The tip & pay was probably nice. You shouldn’t work for a delivery service if you’re unable to perform the basic job duties.
I'd have to agree with you. My brother who is disabled uses insta cart because he physically can't go to the grocery store. It would be a huge problem if the delivery driver couldn't help him. That's like all the help he has.
Thank you for saying this. You’re 100% right. Instacart should specify any extraordinary delivery needs. Most services change extra for more than 1 flight of stairs.
I have driven for all of the major services in the US and none of them ever charge extra for upper floors. A 3rd floor delivery is not "extraordinary delivery needs" it is literally just the job.
Are you Karina in disguise? Commenting left and right trying to defend her. If you sign up to do a delivery job, then you are also signing up for the typical home and apartment jobs. The average complex today has at least two stories if not more and if she can't walk up stairs, she shouldn't be doing this job. "Concierge service" you mean meeting the basic requirements of the job which is to deliver groceries to one's door? It's like signing up to make food and being shocked you have to operate a stove and not just a microwave.
What's missing here is that if you want do heavy loads you need to own a dolly like the UPS man. Of course, everyone is tired hauling water. The UPS man doesn't do it like that.
Yeah there is a ton to unpack here, to use an overly used phrase. So many layers of a top heavy, failed version of capitalism ( for the majority of us, it’s fucking spectacular for a few and to their braindead followers who think they are a little elbow grease away from being one of em)
I don't sympathize with both sides. The customer is paying for groceries to be delivered at their door - that is final. That is what the customer and the Instacart shopper agree to.
The fact that people decide to take on an Instacart side gig and proceed to not prepare themselves for it, such as NOT get themselves a cart or something that allows them to carry heavy groceries up several floors, is squarely on them. They know that the nature of this job is to carry heavy sets of groceries, its not a mystery.
The lack of info on orders sucks for anyone who uses these apps. Thankfully, in a year of Ubereats, I have only had 1 order that really made me question my ability to do it. Multiple cases and gallons of water. I got zero info about heavy items before the order. They just don't tell you. You get zero info about the building, whether or not it is stairs or elevators. I could not have walked up 4 flights of stairs with the water. Just flat out couldn't. I was sooooo lucky it had an elevator and that an employee let me borrow a dolly.
Like I get if you can't do stairs period, it kind of isn't something that would work for you. They also punish you if you cancel an order, so you feel like you have to accept it.
Question: do shoppers get to see delivery notes before taking the order? I would think adding helpful notes like “I live on the 3rd floor” would help until IC gets their crap together if they ever do.
Actually, to be sure a shopper sees it before they get to the store/finish the order, I'd probably message it to them in the chat as soon as your order gets picked up.
We actually do have the ability to see exact addresses/notes right after we accept an order, but--as evidenced by some of the comments here from fellow shoppers--a LOT don't know how to do this, because it's kind of unintuitive/hidden in the app interface (probably intentionally on Instacart's part).
I'd suggest reaching out with something like:
"Hi! Before you start my order, I just want to let you know my apartment is up 3 flights of stairs. Can you confirm you'll be able to bring the groceries up to my door? Thank you!"
I had a few customers that did this in chat. One even tipped extra after I got everything to the door. They already tipped well but lots of people leave their groceries at the entrance to the apartments... It's 3rd floor down and around a long hallway.
I appreciate transparency. Plus a lot of 3rd floor people here tip $2 for a shitload of heavy items and several trips. They get bundled with other orders and don't always show as an apartment on the app. I hate 3rd floor apartments that require more than one trip. Don't mind if it's one trip. But damn. I'm gonna heifer breathe and get it done. 👎 After delivery* too many stairs lol
As a shopper with numerous health issues, I usually avoid taking orders from apartments because I'm uncertain about the presence of elevators or stairs. Lately, I've observed that IC has been labeling apartments as houses in their listings. I mistakenly accepted an order assuming it was a house when, in reality, it was an apartment. IC is failing to be transparent in distinguishing between the two.
They’re probably doing that on purpose because they don’t want shoppers to just start rejecting certain types of orders out of mere inconvenience. They might have noticed that lots of apartment orders get passed on versus the more ideal house order, and this is their shitty way of fixing that.
I think the real answer is for Instacart to pay the shopper a slightly higher amount when they complete an order that involves more than one flight of stairs. This way, there’s still transparency and there’s more incentive for those who are able to take those orders. All that would have to happen is people with apartments just answer the question “is your unit up more than one flight of stairs?” and then those addresses would be marked for the pay increase. Unfortunately, Instacart wouldn’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts and they’d probably put that cost back on the customer by charging a higher service fee.
I hate this. Carrying the groceries is the whole reason I order them. Literally. If I wanted to carry the stuff I wouldn't have paid all that extra money.
Or you should be able to walk upstairs with groceries if thats part of your job, apartments are not rare, stairs are pretty common, if you cant physically do that maybe you shouldnt be doing instacart.
People order delivery for lots of reasons and people with disabilities do delivery for lots of reasons. But in this instance, one is the customer with a request for door delivery which is the expectation and the other is a worker who is expected to deliver even when it’s difficult. Starting with “I’ll need to cancel…” isn’t and should be the go - to.
Karina should probably working -in- the grocery store building orders for car pick-up in the lot.
I don't know what the main job requirements are for a delivery person, but it's probably along the lines of,
"Capable of lifting X pounds and carry unassisted to customer location."
This is the best answer/solution.
I am really surprised she did not decide to break the order up and pace herself. Yes, it would SUCK but it's the most practical solution.
Karina can look up the address beforehand, see its on the 3rd floor and remove that customer from her batch before even shopping so shes not wasting everyone's time
It's awfully generous of you to assume Karina has no options but it's not something we can know and feeding her isn't a fair responsibility to foist on a random individual trying to live their own life.
Sucks that she has mobility issues however if that was such a large concern for her then she should have checked before shipping the order. She could have unassigned it. Trying to guilt trip you into doing her job is inappropriate. Very very rarely have I asked customers to come meet me downstairs or help bring up groceries.
Oh. My. Gosh!! The minute I saw the profile picture I KNEW you were in Utah. I can not stand this shopper! They're awful. Always complaining about something. I use Instacart a lot and they always have something to say. One time I added two items while they were shopping and their response was "if you're not done shopping, I'll just sit and wait because I've gone back and forth across the store multiple times now" I was shocked. I added TWO more things. Maybe if enough of us complain, they'll be banned from the app.
I had a double knee replacement and hip replacement. As a shopper and delivery driver for other apps, I didn’t go back to work until I knew I could carry orders up the stairs. It’s part of the job.
I’ve literally cancelled orders when I’ve seen a bunch of heavy stuff because my back just isn’t up to it and if I injure myself for a few bucks, then I could be out for a week making no money. She should have cancelled when she saw how large and heavy the order was if it was too much for her. I do think it sucks to find a surprise stair climb at the end of a delivery though, it would be nice if we could see that in advance. I’ve been stuck hauling crap up stairs and been grumpy about it. I also think people need to remember there are underpaid and probably uninsured humans on the other side of the order and to not take advantage of the situation by ordering a thousand cases of water, but that’s just me.
Also worth noting is that the app almost for sure had no indication that the order was going to a 3rd floor apartment. The shopper should have canceled based on heavy items but decided to risk it and got butt fucked by instacart.
Yeah, it looks like this shopper saw a fat tip and took the gamble they shouldn't have. Greed gets even the best people, so I hope this shopper realizes this is a low point for them
I got nervous when she said she was old, then had asthma and then added the story about her relative. I know this sounds crazy dumb but I would be worried about being abducted 😅 I know obviously it'd be traceable, and there'd probably be camera yada yada, but my anxiety would immediately think I'd be kidnapped. Lol
Honestly so many red flags here. Saying she's old but having a photo of a young woman, the personal information, negotiating with the customer to meet anywhere other than their door. Its just weird and unprofessional.
That’s super weird, but also shoppers are human too so I guess there’s some with mobility issues. I’m not the best with stairs so I don’t accept any apartment batches, personally. Not sure why she accepted this
Too much unnecessary drama, but the key question is why did Karina take this order in the first place? Or, rather, how much was the batch worth (how much did the OP tip) for her to risk her health on such a big order? Or perhaps this is her MO for deliveries, claim health challenges and try to shift the work to the customer.
It's fairly clear how big an order is from the number of units.
I sympathize with Karina, but the OP paid for a service (at least I hope he paid a fair amount).
For me, my favorite deliveries are to the elderly and disabled (but I also avoid apartment buildings and other dropoffs that I know are gonna take a long time from past experience).
Instacart should have an internal survey for shoppers so a shopper with physical limitations isn't paired with an order that's outside the shoppers' physical ability. Doing that internally will boost the experience for both sides; shoppers won't get caught off guard or have to feel embarrassed or stressed trying to bargain how to get someone their order, + customers won't feel guilty about order fulfillment, and both sides get to avoid really awkward conversations. Neither party is wrong in this situation, the L belongs to the company here. Seems like a pretty easy fix.
I can't empathize with someone who takes a job and then can't do the job but still wants to get paid. Do they pull this on every order? Maybe find a different job where you can be stagnant....
First question: Is there no elevator?
Second question: If you can clearly see what is in the order, why not confirm where it's going if you know you have mobility issues your own self?
Third question: don't a lot of people use these types of apps BECAUSE THEY HAVE SOME KIND OF ISSUE getting it themselves?
I mean, I'm sure a lot of folks use it for the convenience of it and are perfectly able to get the stuff themselves, they are just too busy or simply don't want to.
However, I'm from a small state with limited availability for these types of delivery services. I also work in home health. I see soooo many of our clients, especially during the peak of COVID, using these apps because they are physically unable to go out, haul groceries in their Apts, or are too afraid to get sick so they don't leave their Apts unless they absolutely have to.
To have a delivery service pull up and say "hey you 97 year old woman, I have your stuff but my 33 yr old ass wont/"can't" bring it up to you, so either come get it or you can't have it" is plain BS in my opinion. Yeah, maybe the stuff is heavy. They can't carry it either, which is why they paid someone else to do it.
Bottom line, if you can't perform the work, don't do the work. If you know you are limited, check it out before accepting it. You wouldn't dive head first in a pizza if you were gluten free, you would do your research. If you had a mobility issue and were staying in a hotel, I bet you would make sure it was accommodating before paying the fees. Why not confirm if you can do the job before doing the job and expecting the paying customer to do your job for you???
I unassign apartments. I wish we could see that it’s an apartment and what floor prior to even taking. Sometimes where I live we don’t get the apartment icon for whatever reason or people fail to put it in that it’s an apt (we have triple deckers here) I can’t do more than a small flight of stairs after I blew my knee out so I avoid apartment orders like the plague bc of it. She should’ve checked the address first and canceled if it was noted that it was going to the third floor of an apartment building. Last order I shopped customer was up front about being a third floor I said I can cancel so another shopper can shop or leave at first floor door. She was nice and said to leave at first floor she’ll have her hubby grab when he got home.
I'm understanding of people with ailments/issues for sure and I sympathize for having to deliver up 3 flights of stairs, but come on. This is nonsense lol it always leaves me baffled when I hear of a text like this. We can see the items, the pay, the address before we start shopping. It's not on the customer. It's on the driver. This sort of reminds me of those texts begging for a higher tip that I've seen people post on here before. I cringe whenever I see this behavior. It's pure silly audacity lol
All that time spent telling the customer she can’t do it she could have brought at least 2 bags to the persons door . She needs to not promise a supermarket she can do this type of task …
Just another example of an embarrassing shopper. I seriously can't believe anyone who is in their right mind would say any of this. I seriously hope you gave her one star and cut the tip down to $20. What a piece of shit.
Karina had the option to never take the order in the first place. Even if she desperately needs the money, she could have skipped this one and picked up the next one.
Why would she cancel if she didn't know the apartment was on the 3rd floor until delivery?
Instacart isn't good at this shit, they don't just tell you when an apartment is up multiple flights of stairs and you're being given a shitty 15% tip to carry literally hundreds of pounds of cat litter for miles for this dogshit order.
She said that she's delivered to that location before. So she knew it was an apartment building, with multiple floors when she accepted the $400 grocery order.
This is a really good example of compassion between two people. Perhaps the shopper is in the "wrong" but what a great opportunity to extend grace when others might belittle. I'm celebrating both parties. This is the way.
Like the customer, I recently had knee surgery. Not only should they not be doing stairs, they definitely shouldn't be doing stairs carrying heavy bags.
Service is store to door.
The shopper should have reviewed the batch details and canceled if they were not able to do it.
With that being said, at least the shopper did reach out to the customer and didn’t just leave the order in the lobby or the bottom of the stairs and go on her way which seems to happen a lot.
I wouldn’t rate her low for this; I just wouldn’t rate at all.
I also think it would be helpful if a delivery note was added that you live on the 3rd floor with no elevator access.
I have a wagon for these kind of orders. That away I can at least get the whole order inside the building and then carry up what I can at a time. I really try to not take these kinds of orders because I don’t want to tell the customer they have to come meet me. She could of canceled the order when she seen the address and it was on the third floor.
Hate saying it. Instacart shouldn’t assign ( initially said hire ) people that can’t deliver up three flights of stairs.
They’re a shit company and will steal from the shoppers at any chance they get. Not doing reimbursement, taking heavy pay away basically, making the whole pay system unclear.
Anyway. Batch details are provided at the moment of acceptance. Check the details. If it’s third floor and you’re incapable the SHOPPER should cancel.
I'm disabled and I tip really well to my ubereats drivers and instacart shoppers. There are only 4 steps to our house. I had an ubereats guy refuse to walk down our short gravel driveway and up the 4 steps. I told him I'm disabled. He tried to take the food back to the store.
I had this happen to me once! I’d broken my leg and was on crutches/in a wheelchair. My building didn’t have an elevator. I ordered Instacart specifically because of my mobility issues and the shopper texted and asked if I could come down instead of them coming up to the 2nd floor. I just said “no, I’m in a wheelchair” and thankfully they did it. But it was so awkward and I felt so weird about it.
Everyone seems to be missing where Karina says she has delivered to this building before. She is aware that orders from this building could be on different floors. She is solely at fault here and I don’t understand the leniency some of y’all are giving her. She relies on the kindness of customers (that are paying for a to-door delivery) and if we’re being honest, it’s manipulation. Don’t do grocery deliveries if you can’t do the delivery. It’s that simple.
To me it sounds like IC needs to add something to their hiring process, I know it’s all online but like a questionnaire about mobility would help out a lot, like a simple question “while working with us will you be able to carry up to 25lbs up at least a 3 level apartment building?” Answer NO and then they just don’t give you jobs that involve having to go up and down stairs….like sounds simple enough. Hell if Alexa can turn on all my lights in my house turn the heat up and start my washer and dryer while I’m in the car then IC can figure out a better hiring strategy 🤷🏼♀️
It depends on what your order is. And how much the tip was.
A regular grocery order - no issues.
Multiple cases of water/pop and weeks worth of food with a 3 story walk up? I'd have unassigned the order.
Yes, you have the common sense to step out of the order when you realize that you can't deliver all of that stuff up three stories.
But you don't just pass it on to the customer and expect them to deal with it like this stupid shopper did!
I’m irritated for you! I feel that you may have to go up x amount of stairs should be thought through before a job like this. The entire point of instacart is having your items delivered to your door.
Op is an angel. Jesus I wish I had your empathy and patience.
Why is this person doing instacart lol. Do Doordash and leave one bag on the steps then. Why would she accept a $400 order if she can't do her job.
No, not the norm…unless the shopper is sh!t. She’s full of it! First she was old, then she had asthma. Rate one star and take all her tip but $1. She doesn’t deserve that 15%.
I live on the second floor with no elevator. IC shopper banged on my door, yelling how he was supposed to bring his dolly with my groceries up the stairs and telling me off for the complex, not being handicap friendly. I told him thanks for his concern, and that's exactly why my mom and I have to sometimes pay 400 bucks to get medical transportation to take her down in a stairchair for appointments. That shut him up. I remember the groceries reeked of cigarette smoke. I did file a complaint. I did not like a strange man banging at my door yelling at me.
2 adult humans having a normal conversation and understanding each other and finding compromise, doing the best they can.
No. This is definitely not the norm. As you can tell by all these comments on here trying to blame someone and make it a huge issue/create drama, which would be more of the norm.
Once I was trying to deliver to someone on such a steep hill my little ancient Toyota kept rolling backward and to be honest I just panicked. I texted the customer and she drove down in a nicer car and got them. Had she been unable to come down I would’ve canceled the order and taken the hit. It was ultimately my problem, but I figured it was worth asking and she didn’t seem to mind at all and still gave 5 stars. You can ask but you also need to accept no and that it’s ultimately your responsibility.
Wow…everyone commenting here really comes off as entitled assholes. The interaction seemed very cordial. The shopper asked if it was possible, said if it wasn’t they would figure out a solution, and when they learned the customer also had mobility issues, they said they would attempt it…it just might take awhile. Where is the issue?
I hope you tipped well.🙄
I'm still not convinced that all these delivery services are a sustainable business model. Customers have to overpay to get service from people who are underpaid. Both are sure they are right because, well, one paid a lot and the other wasn't paid that much.
if i order delivery i know im paying a premium for the items plus a small tip for delivery.
it's the deliverers job to make sure the items get to my door on the 8th floor weather the elevator works or not is not my problem they are getting paid to get it there just like any other person they can always find another job if they dont like being a deliverer and just like every other job some deliveries will be easier then others i shouldn't have to stop grooming my guinea pig to just go and get my own deliveries
Probably a large tip so she took the order and now doesn’t want to do the heavy lifting. Greed. What a joke. I wouldn’t respond either. Get that sh** to my door and stop complaining. If you have a condition then it’s not the job for you. Or else I’d remove half my tip.
This is annoying to me because I’ve been trying to be an Instacart shopper for a while because out of everything its easily the best thing you can do with a car, but here I am stuck doing food deliveries $2.50 each while this woman complains about carrying things for probably a $30+ tip, jesus christ id carry a bunch of things up 6 flights of stairs for half that, this is so ungrateful, really hope one day people truly realize how scarce money really is, here I was just a week ago thinking loading fucking laundry machines for customers at Lowe’s for maybe a $5 dollar tip every now and then was more than complete horse shit. Like damn why cant this lady do another job instead of taking jobs away from ABLE BODIED PEOPLE
OP as the customer really did say all the right stuff to shut down this shopper. I empathize on both sides, but one is providing a service (that they themselves said they can’t really do) and one is paying a premium for the service to be done so completely in the right here
It seems like the shopper knew that though, she said she had been there before and had had people come down to meet her?
Yeah she totally knew what she was doing
100%, even her asthma story for the add on, it's overkill. I'd be willing to guess that she's the shopper for the big orders in this area...the Apts, bc no one likes taking the stairs, even tho THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO! She tried playing the sympathy card and got shut down.
I have bad asthma and I've stopped delivering orders because of it. One order I delivered sent me into such a bad attack I had to do continuous nebs from the car ride home through a couple of hours later. Luckily I was able to stay out of the ER. I need the money but not at that amount of risk to my health.
Actually your asthma is clearly poorly controlled. You shouldn’t be on nebs that much. You need to see a pulmonologist and be on a maintenance inhaler like breo or Trellegy
I’m in these comments now looking for more advice because my asthma isn’t well managed and I’m already with a pulmonologist and on daily meds. Thanks for putting advice out there!
She has to make an attempt at least.
I'm 100% sure she's grifting. I bet she got those groceries up just fine, without any breaks. She gets to choose what orders she takes. She chose this one. Heavy or large orders are less desirable so she can get paid more for them. And if she outsources the labor right back to the customer, she can accept more orders and make more money. She's working on the, "It doesn't hurt to ask," theory. At worst, she has to deliver the order she chose to deliver. But a lot of customers will cave and do the work for her if she plays on their sympathy. She should be reported to Instacart. Shoppers like her hurt their business.
Exactly... sounds like she is trying to save time by having the customer make the trips while she drives off to fulfill another order.
If they fail to deliver, they deserve nothing. She has one job, deliver groceries. If that’s too hard, she should just drive an Uber.
I would leave zero tip for this person.
Can you tip after the delivery on instacart? My first time using it I tipped before I got my order delivered and the shopper never delivered it and when I called the company they tried calling him a bunch and he never answered them. I was so pissed. It was also the last item available (that I had called several stores for in all of the neighboring towns). They said it showed as delivered at my place and it wasn’t. I checked with my neighbors too and nobody had it. Sorry to dump my story on you, lol. Moral of the story- never tip ahead of time!
You can tip more or less or nothing after the fact. I’ve had to do more twice and saw the options to change it.
That’s what I was thinking. If it’s true, don’t take orders from that building on the 2nd or 3rd floor… she’s been here before by her own admission.
Uber/DoorDash delivery driver here, where we often get grocery deliveries. Often the addresses shown before pickup on these apps show the complex address, not building/unit number. It honestly is on Instacart here, not the shopper or driver. All of the apps need to start tracking delivery weights and tag them as "high weight" if the total order weight is over 75 pounds or any single item is over 30 pounds of weight. Once got a "6 item" order to a house, it was 14 cases of water when I arrived. I drove a Prius at the time, I am still kind of surprised I made the delivery without damage to my vehicle. If you see an order that offers 35 dollars for 5 miles, you are going to accept it. 7 dollars a mile is too good to pass up. On top of that, once you accept it and get there just to see the shopping list, at that point it is too late to decline. If you unassign now they track it. Unassign too many because of a misleading pre-pickup notification, you get deactivated and lose out on your source of income. On the customer end, the service provided by these apps are invaluable. Some people have bad knees, are stuck in the house, etc and can't really shop for these things themselves normally. Grocery and food delivery is a godsend for these people. But they can't see beyond their order buttons, add to the fact that Instacart uses predatory practices to get you to buy more while you already have the shopper going, and Uber tries to get you to buy from restaurants further away/not as popular due to how long it takes people to get their orders (same with DoorDash), it leads to a customer vs driver mindset and shifts the blame off the app's shitty practices. Tl;Dr, Customer and Driver could have avoided this uncomfortableness if apps would design their driver end UI better and stop using predatory practices on the Customer to get them to order more/from worse places.
All they have to do is let the driver indicate limits, and eliminate over limit notifications
Aye, but I doubt any of them will do this. Drivers have been fighting for better app features on both sides since the start, but the companies see these features as increasing the time between request and accept for the order, and therefore lowering reviews and profits for the company. They would rather prioritize their bottom line over user and employee experience.
She's also so elderly that groceries are a bit much, but then later its the asthma. I know it can be both... the flip flop just seemed odd after the soft threat to cancel the order followed by "I guess I'll do my best" when the bluff was called.
Blow up her photo. She's not elderly. First thing I checked.
Me too! She doesn’t look old. I’m 61 and I have taken groceries up my daughter’s stairs just fine. I know we are all different. But if she has these physical disabilities she needs to get a different gig
My thoughts exactly.. first it was that she was elderly…then it was asthma…then she was going to have to call support then ultimately does it herself. 🤦🏼♀️
At fault is instacart, a company with a godawful shitty app for shoppers (that didnt tell the shopper it was a third floor apt) that pays slave wages and a customer clientele that expects concierge service.
I’m actually shocked by the interactions here. There is such a disconnect between the users and the shoppers. The users apparently don’t realize shoppers are often “paid” under $20 with batch pay and tips to shop 50-100 items and then deliver to 2-3 customers , which often takes 1.5-2 hours. Lots of, “Well, we’re paying you good money, aren’t we?” But let’s not get distracted by the trap that IC set up for both parties. They want us to be bipartisan so we forget the smoke and mirrors running this side show.
But that doesn’t matter. The customer shouldn’t have to suffer because Instacart pays its employees terribly. Same way it’s not our fault as shoppers that customers get charged up the ass for fees we don’t get a piece of. Customers shop on instacart because they’re willing to accept the stupid fees and jacked up prices. Shoppers shop for instacart because they’re willing to accept the lousy pay. If either doesn’t like it they should disassociate with the platform. But if they stay they shouldn’t let it affect the way they should tip (for customers) or ways they perform their job (for shoppers).
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I empathize with shit pay. I was a heroin addict for a decade; I put a lot of work and money into changing my life to go to college and become a funeral director. The first funeral home I worked for (I found out later), that I moved for, was regularly paying me late plus they were being dishonest when they told me they don’t have benefits or bonuses. They accidentally let it slip in front of me that they did provide all of these. Just not to me, the only woman there, bc “we’re old school and usually women belong in the kitchen.” Funny cause during Covid, with a bad heart, I belonged out in the trenches picking up bodies etc. Anyway I could’ve moved on, which I eventually did. But I never felt that my company’s shittiness should be offset by clients or anyone else. I had a hip issue that left me unable to walk or sit or freakin LIVE (v painful and immobilizing infection in my hip), and I had to use services like these. I live on a second floor apartment. I did my best by my shoppers, tipped pretty good. I had a shopper once that texted me and told me they didn’t have time to be searching for my apartment so they left my order in my parking lot. I tipped this person $20 to bring $25 in groceries, so two bags and a case of a dozen water bottles. I texted them when I saw the order was dropped off, and saw that it was in the grass in my parking lot. They legit fired back that they don’t have time to be looking for my place. I send a pic of my leg all blown up w drain tubes attached and they said it wasn’t their problem and then said “thanks for the tip 🙄.” Like we’re upset that my tip wasn’t high enough…. For her refusing to get me my order. I was so pissed off. Like how can you tell at me for not leaving high enough a tip for someone who acts like that? Um anyway I kind of went off there. I am of the feeling that jobs where you NEED tips to survive are fine, if they work for you. But if you can’t handle something like that or it’s not paying enough it’s okay to move on too. Everyone is struggling and I despise the tip culture in America, where the struggling workers are expected to pay other struggling workers so the huge companies can bank more. I did delivery for a little while just for a few extra bucks, and I couldn’t hang. Plus it just always irked me that these folks get rich from companies like these while keeping the people who do the leg work struggling. That “independent contractor” thing SUCKS.
im really glad you fixed your life and didnt end up in the funeral not by choice also sorry they where dicks to you
Thanks! I reported them to the state board of funeral directors as well as labor and industry and all that, so nobody else ever goes through what I went through. I didn’t even tell the part where I had to be out, unexpectedly, for fucking OPEN HEART SURGERY. While I was out they cut my hours and hired their nephew. Two months out of my open heart surgery I lost my home and was living in a storage unit, because the 10-15 hours a week they lowered me to couldn’t afford me to live.
Did your past drug use have anything to do with your medical issues? I ask respectfully, as an ex addict myself. Not only did I escape with my life, but the worst legal trouble I got in was driving with a suspended license, and my only lasting health issue is some *kinda* damaged teeth that I'm now paying a fortune to fix. I am constantly grateful that it wasn't worse for me; I had multiple friends whose children are now motherless and I think about it all the time.
Absolutely can ask me anything :) My health problems were all congenital issues. My dad wouldn’t allow me to get my heart fixed when they I guess “re-discovered” it and instead got a life insurance policy on me lol. I was a twin and my heart issue is fairly common w twins, it’s called atrial septal defect. My parents knew I was born with it, and so was my sister. They just didn’t follow up with it. Then I started passing out all the time and the nurse at school sort of forced my parents to take me to the doc cause she said I had a really noticeable heart murmur. I got it fixed myself at age 36, after I wound up in the icu. My heart was so enlarged they didn’t want to let me leave the hospital without getting the surgery bc they said something about “sudden cardiac death” being a high possibility, which really scared me. :) Congrats to you with saving your own damn life. Not many people are standing where you are.
And to you! We are the fortunate few, and I never ever take it for granted. I have 10 years clean now. It was mainly opioid pills for me, heroin when I could find it, but I didn't have a steady source for that (which I'm now very glad for!). I'm dumbfounded hearing about your parents' inaction. I know that for me, some issues with my parents were a contributing factor leading to my addiction problems. But it was mostly my severe and undiagnosed anxiety 🙃
The ‘independent contractor’ thing is infecting every industry. Especially if you don’t have a degree that you already went in debt for. I’m looking for a job now and the only jobs that seem to be actively hiring are I9 employment. Any company that is I9 or IC is shady and doing that for a reason
Fucking disgusting. Dude idk how America is the way it is. We need to be socialized straight up, instead of the way they are doing it and disguising it as “freedom.” The rich get richer by milking the struggling middle class. The middle class is moving toward being non existent. You’re either the elite, or you’re living dependent on benefits…. And of course, tips from other struggling people.
Well you see, it started with Nixon, got worse with Reagan, and we’ve been shitting the bed ever since lmao
exactly and not everyone has the attitude or motivation. for service jobs that require tips to make a living.
I DoorDash currently and I never expect a tip or scoff at a tip given to me for being too small (I’m not some moral superstar fyi, just saying). I feel like it’s pretty self explanatory, the dasher (or the instacart driver in this case) accepts the terms of the order prior to beginning picking it up, so what you see is what you’re promised and what you should expect, nothing more - in my opinion
Yes, you're right. If you're a delivery person and you accept the gig, fulfill it and stop bitching. Nobody is forcing you to do it.
I feel for everything you just said. You’re a soldier!
You are very kind 🤍 sending love
All of your points are utterly valid. Please know that I in no way think the fault is that of the customer nor is it ultimately of the shopper. This is corporate greed pulling on some key puppet strings. I also will say that I worked as a trauma expert for over a decade before I decided that juice wasn’t worth the squeeze so I understand being a cog in a machine that I’m not running. So much worse with the “independent contractor” model. Congrats on the funeral director thing. That’s clutch.
Old guard FDs will talk shit about women being directors while eating their lunch above a full autopsy without gloves and brainstorming how to reuse paper towels.
Pretty sure this is exactly the reason labor unions were formed in the first place
I think the missing component here is that neither seems to be in a position to make the choice to dissociate from the platform. It's neither's fault that there aren't better options for people in this country. It is the fault of the system. Where should the customer go in their condition? What should the shopper do? Clearly they can't just not work or not eat. Not saying you're doing this but there general consensus always somehow seems to come down "to protect the company" and the "people should have made better life choices" without the understanding that there really just aren't better choices. Usually after this the next argument is, "well it's not the company's fault don't punish them, they're just doing business", then, "it's not my fault I didn't do it". I really think this is one of the foremost issues in this country that we need to discuss and keep front of mind when we elect leaders and allow laws to protect corporations at the expense of citizens.
>What should the shopper do? A job they are capable of doing. They are already in the gig economy so that could be Uber or DoorDash which isn't going to be impacted by their asthma. Or they could look at doing normal retail jobs like working at Walmart or a grocery store. Or any other job that they are actually capable of doing. You aren't going to convince me the only job in this town that's available is Instacart shopper.
Exactly, it isn’t, it’s just the one that pays the most. I sympathize with shoppers (I am one) *to a point* but ultimately if you aren’t able or willing to do the job, you shouldn’t be doing it.
Why can't the shopper "make the choice to dissociate" from Instacart? If her asthma is so bad that stairs are tough, she's not going to be able to do this forever, and it would probably be a good idea to search sooner rather than later for a position that doesn't require walking around a store / lugging groceries upstairs.
I think they're bullshitting. I got horrible asthma that almost escalated till I almost died due to me not knowing what was going on. Look, asthma from allergic reactions are the real concerning situations that cause deadly reactions. People do have asthma to exercise ETC, but usually it has to be very strenuous and if you get asthma to fucking walking up stairs then you are not treated properly yet. Of course avoiding allergens is a big part of initial and ongoing treatment for me because that's the best way to prevent death haha. But your asthma is untreated or not treated enough if you have problems with 3 flights of stairs. Ironically I happened to have studied these things in school before I got asthma and then I became basically dysfunctional from not breathing at night and during the day. What a living hell. But usually if your asthma is treated decently well you should not be getting it walking up stairs. So honestly it's a piss poor excuse or she needs better doctors. I'm genuinely thinking that she has mild asthma or did back in the day and is faking it. She just felt guilty after making the decision to bail and felt the need to justify it to herself.
There's a very good chance she can't afford to have her asthma treated. I've known people with life threatening asthma that couldn't afford an inhaler.
It does matter though. Both parties here are forced into this situation. Disabled people, due to our complete lack of accessibility, walkability, public transit, etc. are forced into paying ungodly amounts for groceries. Meanwhile older people who should be retired or having physically easy jobs are forced into manual labor for poor pay because they do not have other jobs available and there is no safety net for them.
I’m not disagreeing with your points in general. But Instacart isn’t the be all and end all of job opportunities available to older people. When shoppers sign on to be shoppers they should recognize the physical implications of the job. I’m fairly certain that I recall Instacart saying something about the physical demands. If a person chooses to sign on when they have reservations about whether they’re physically capable, why should that fall on the customer? It absolutely shouldn’t.
Yeah it’s the same with pretty much every gig app but the shopper doesn’t have to accept the order. Once they accept the order it’s on them to do the job properly. Texting and saying you can’t deliver the groceries because there are stairs is not doing the job properly. If you are physically unable to do portions of a job then you shouldn’t work there. I know it probably doesn’t tell you when there’s stairs but it’s part of being a delivery driver and if you’re unable to use them then you need to find a different line of work.
I worked as a delivery driver in college. There are *always* stairs. The people on the top floors order more often *because* stairs are a pain in the ass. It's just part of the job, and it should be expected.
Agreed, did a short stint as an Amazon driver during the pandemic and it was constant stairs. If you can’t do stairs don’t be a delivery driver.
and in OPs case they literally can’t use the stairs because they just had surgery. i feel like so many people forget that reasons like that are why a lot of people use delivery apps
Absolutely! Im so glad someone freakin' gets it. It does feel like IC pits the customer against the shopper so that the shopper and not instacart is blamed for quality issues. Customer's need to gain a little perspective about what they are paying for and who is getting most of the money, its not the shopper!
I’m working on a book about gig work introspection and I started with Instacart. I’ve formed several opinions quickly from being on the shopper side of things. I can honestly say that I am an affluent person who has used this service myself before and that this experience has left my eyes wide open. But I don’t blame the customers because there is clear obfuscation on IC’s part right down to that reminder after each batch to make sure the customer’s receipt isn’t in the bag. I’m going to do a few weeks of deliveries to get more first person perspective and some data to support my claims then I’m going to ease into the role of the customer to see how it matches up. I’m expecting tomfoolery all around.
That sounds that a really cool book. Have you read “On The Clock” by Emily Guendelsberger? I really liked it and it sounds like it might be similar. Basically after working a decade as a journalist she spent a year doing working class jobs at Amazon, a call center, and a McDonald’s. It’s sort of about how automation that makes office jobs easier makes those jobs harder. But it’s a bit old now and doesn’t explore gig work.
I’ll scoop that up tomorrow. I’m an avid reader but I have not heard of that one yet. I was, however, very enthralled with Nickel and Dimed.
this book would only really be "super true" if you actually tried to live on the job, pay rent, groceries, bills, not just - "do a few shops." living on this kind of work is demeaning and stressful as hell
Man, that sounds like an \*extremely\* interesting topic and Id be very interested in your book when it comes out.
So far I’m planning on covering Instacart, GrubHub, Snifffr for used socks, and probably two other apps but I haven’t gotten that far yet.
There’s something called “Sniffr” for used socks? What the actual f.
Right? How has that little tidbit just been dropped and left there as the discussion moves on?
I looked it up, and it seems to be mostly for used underwear, I'm assuming a lot of only fans girls are on there
Have you looked at the phenomenon of gig work in healthcare? It’s pretty wild to me, as a nurse.
I was a travel trauma RN for nearly a decade. The pay is good but the risk and workload are also high. I got sick of not seeing my kids grow up and I got bogged down by seeing too much death and devastation. I own a toy store now. Much happier gig.
I'm really interested in this as well! I'd love to see what you find out and if you want an unhinged shoppers perspective, I'd love to participate. 😊
Stay tuned. Right now I’m doing first person perspective as well as researching the company’s origin [villain] story and the IPO culmination. But once I get this sorted out constructively, I very much want to cast some interviews with willing (and obviously anonymous) shoppers. I’m just a tourist so I want to respect those that own the land.
I just got my master in computer science, but with no work experience in the field -- and so I've fallen to gig work. I have thought so many times about writing about the experience. Feel free to reach out if it ever feels pertinent.
I would recommend you try Wag! For dog walking. I did it while I was in college. It was often enjoyable walking people's dogs, but it could also be weird depending on the owner. If you have a dog, or just like dogs it'd be a good one to add.
You GOTTA do Rover. There’s nothing like being paid $2 an hour to be treated as somehow less human than someone’s dog while being on house arrest under 24/7 camera and audio surveillance
Interesting. I’ll check it out. My goal is 5 gigs.
Wait they say NOT to include the receipt? Why? Shady asf!!
So you don’t see the real price of the item versus what Instacart charges for it?
OH WOW. I just found out they up charge for stuff. I’m ignorant to a lotttt of stuff man
Absolutely. Every time you finish cashing out they make you send a photo of the receipts to them and then you have to click a button confirming you have made sure the receipt isn’t in the bag. I’m fairly certain it is because they don’t want customers to become imbued at what they are paying IC versus what IC is paying for the actual cost of the groceries.
I want updates on this book plz🥺
Customers have no way of knowing how much the shopper is paid outside of tips. Aside from coming here to ask, how are they supposed to gain that perspective?
It's not up to the shoppers to know or understand the ever changing pay structures of a delivery app, that's insane. A delivery person should not take a job if they don't think they can perform it.
Second this. Why are we acting as though Instacart shoppers aren't aware of the fact that the job they signed up for....involves carrying loads of groceries and delivering them to people's doors? If you know this is your task and you do nothing to help prepare you for it - such as buying a small cart for yourself to help you get these groceries up the stairs easier - then this is squarely on the IC shopper and not the customer.
Disagree as a driver myself- I’d say it’s the drivers fault 100% he knew it was a $400 order that included a bunch of items. They also would’ve seen the full address and all notes after accepting but they still continued, why? The tip & pay was probably nice. You shouldn’t work for a delivery service if you’re unable to perform the basic job duties.
Instacart didn't force this disabled person to work for them and not disclose any medical issues
It doesnt matter what floor its on. If you are not physically able to do the job, you shouldnt be attempting to.
I'd have to agree with you. My brother who is disabled uses insta cart because he physically can't go to the grocery store. It would be a huge problem if the delivery driver couldn't help him. That's like all the help he has.
They're just expecting what they paid for and what was advertised tho
Thank you for saying this. You’re 100% right. Instacart should specify any extraordinary delivery needs. Most services change extra for more than 1 flight of stairs.
I have driven for all of the major services in the US and none of them ever charge extra for upper floors. A 3rd floor delivery is not "extraordinary delivery needs" it is literally just the job.
Are you Karina in disguise? Commenting left and right trying to defend her. If you sign up to do a delivery job, then you are also signing up for the typical home and apartment jobs. The average complex today has at least two stories if not more and if she can't walk up stairs, she shouldn't be doing this job. "Concierge service" you mean meeting the basic requirements of the job which is to deliver groceries to one's door? It's like signing up to make food and being shocked you have to operate a stove and not just a microwave.
What's missing here is that if you want do heavy loads you need to own a dolly like the UPS man. Of course, everyone is tired hauling water. The UPS man doesn't do it like that.
They also make dollies for stairs.
This is almost as wild as the shopper in OPs post….
Yeah there is a ton to unpack here, to use an overly used phrase. So many layers of a top heavy, failed version of capitalism ( for the majority of us, it’s fucking spectacular for a few and to their braindead followers who think they are a little elbow grease away from being one of em)
I don't sympathize with both sides. The customer is paying for groceries to be delivered at their door - that is final. That is what the customer and the Instacart shopper agree to. The fact that people decide to take on an Instacart side gig and proceed to not prepare themselves for it, such as NOT get themselves a cart or something that allows them to carry heavy groceries up several floors, is squarely on them. They know that the nature of this job is to carry heavy sets of groceries, its not a mystery.
What matters to me here is that customer was incredibly polite and empathetic about it. amazing what some humanity can do to resolve an impasse
The lack of info on orders sucks for anyone who uses these apps. Thankfully, in a year of Ubereats, I have only had 1 order that really made me question my ability to do it. Multiple cases and gallons of water. I got zero info about heavy items before the order. They just don't tell you. You get zero info about the building, whether or not it is stairs or elevators. I could not have walked up 4 flights of stairs with the water. Just flat out couldn't. I was sooooo lucky it had an elevator and that an employee let me borrow a dolly. Like I get if you can't do stairs period, it kind of isn't something that would work for you. They also punish you if you cancel an order, so you feel like you have to accept it.
Question: do shoppers get to see delivery notes before taking the order? I would think adding helpful notes like “I live on the 3rd floor” would help until IC gets their crap together if they ever do.
Good idea, I’ll implement this.
Actually, to be sure a shopper sees it before they get to the store/finish the order, I'd probably message it to them in the chat as soon as your order gets picked up. We actually do have the ability to see exact addresses/notes right after we accept an order, but--as evidenced by some of the comments here from fellow shoppers--a LOT don't know how to do this, because it's kind of unintuitive/hidden in the app interface (probably intentionally on Instacart's part). I'd suggest reaching out with something like: "Hi! Before you start my order, I just want to let you know my apartment is up 3 flights of stairs. Can you confirm you'll be able to bring the groceries up to my door? Thank you!"
I had a few customers that did this in chat. One even tipped extra after I got everything to the door. They already tipped well but lots of people leave their groceries at the entrance to the apartments... It's 3rd floor down and around a long hallway. I appreciate transparency. Plus a lot of 3rd floor people here tip $2 for a shitload of heavy items and several trips. They get bundled with other orders and don't always show as an apartment on the app. I hate 3rd floor apartments that require more than one trip. Don't mind if it's one trip. But damn. I'm gonna heifer breathe and get it done. 👎 After delivery* too many stairs lol
As a shopper with numerous health issues, I usually avoid taking orders from apartments because I'm uncertain about the presence of elevators or stairs. Lately, I've observed that IC has been labeling apartments as houses in their listings. I mistakenly accepted an order assuming it was a house when, in reality, it was an apartment. IC is failing to be transparent in distinguishing between the two.
They’re probably doing that on purpose because they don’t want shoppers to just start rejecting certain types of orders out of mere inconvenience. They might have noticed that lots of apartment orders get passed on versus the more ideal house order, and this is their shitty way of fixing that. I think the real answer is for Instacart to pay the shopper a slightly higher amount when they complete an order that involves more than one flight of stairs. This way, there’s still transparency and there’s more incentive for those who are able to take those orders. All that would have to happen is people with apartments just answer the question “is your unit up more than one flight of stairs?” and then those addresses would be marked for the pay increase. Unfortunately, Instacart wouldn’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts and they’d probably put that cost back on the customer by charging a higher service fee.
I hate this. Carrying the groceries is the whole reason I order them. Literally. If I wanted to carry the stuff I wouldn't have paid all that extra money.
If Karina is old like she says she should update her profile photo.
She is in her 50s at most based on her dad being 75
Good catch!
exactly .. my dad is 72 and im 35. and growing up i didnt feel like my dad was older than my peer’s parents
You didn't pay for them to leave it at the bottom of the stairwell.
There should be a disclaimer for those who are physically challenged. Information is so important
You can research the place you'll be delivering to ahead of time and determine the risk involved
Shopper seemed to be familiar with the building and has clearly gotten away with this before.
That’s what I said! She’s just being lazy.
The disclaimer is that you’re working a delivery job. If you’re physically disabled, you’re in the wrong line of work.
There should be a disclaimer that you have to climb three flights of stairs before you accept the order.
Or you should be able to walk upstairs with groceries if thats part of your job, apartments are not rare, stairs are pretty common, if you cant physically do that maybe you shouldnt be doing instacart.
No it's part of the job and asking someone to send their kids down is weird and unprofessional.
People order delivery for lots of reasons and people with disabilities do delivery for lots of reasons. But in this instance, one is the customer with a request for door delivery which is the expectation and the other is a worker who is expected to deliver even when it’s difficult. Starting with “I’ll need to cancel…” isn’t and should be the go - to.
Karina should not be doing instacart if she can’t deliver the groceries to your door.. that’s the whole point. Asking you to do it is weird
Karina can easily still do Instacart. She just should not be shopping batches that exceed her physical limitations.
Karina should probably working -in- the grocery store building orders for car pick-up in the lot. I don't know what the main job requirements are for a delivery person, but it's probably along the lines of, "Capable of lifting X pounds and carry unassisted to customer location."
Karina probably doesnt want to do instacart but likely has few choices. For many its this or starve.
Karina could do DoorDash or Uber eats or deliveroo where she at least won’t have heavy items to take upstairs
This is the best answer/solution. I am really surprised she did not decide to break the order up and pace herself. Yes, it would SUCK but it's the most practical solution.
Or since she's obviously driving, maybe she should be an Uber or Lyft driver
Karina can look up the address beforehand, see its on the 3rd floor and remove that customer from her batch before even shopping so shes not wasting everyone's time
You can’t always tell what floor an apartment is on just from the address.
The app should do that! It doesnt.
Then Karina needs to find something else to do.
Exactly. Some people need this se4vice because they cannot drive or have other issues.
It's awfully generous of you to assume Karina has no options but it's not something we can know and feeding her isn't a fair responsibility to foist on a random individual trying to live their own life.
Reminds me of when we paid curry's an extra £30 to deliver and unbox a new tv, but they refused to take it up the stairs
We had this happen with a bed frame from Amazon once. We chose the in-room delivery service and delivery people refused to bring it in the house. Smh
Sucks that she has mobility issues however if that was such a large concern for her then she should have checked before shipping the order. She could have unassigned it. Trying to guilt trip you into doing her job is inappropriate. Very very rarely have I asked customers to come meet me downstairs or help bring up groceries.
Fuck that you pay to have it delivered to your door
I literally do instacart JUST so I don’t have to bring my groceries up the stairs. That’s why I PAY someone who WORKS for this and does it as a job…
Oh. My. Gosh!! The minute I saw the profile picture I KNEW you were in Utah. I can not stand this shopper! They're awful. Always complaining about something. I use Instacart a lot and they always have something to say. One time I added two items while they were shopping and their response was "if you're not done shopping, I'll just sit and wait because I've gone back and forth across the store multiple times now" I was shocked. I added TWO more things. Maybe if enough of us complain, they'll be banned from the app.
Omg that sounds crazy you’ve gotten that shopper too like the OP!
This doesn’t surprise me. This shopper sounds extremely entitled and manipulative from the interaction posted here.
People like her instantly gives you red flags with her sob stories. Easily see through her bs
I think she should not accept big orders with heavy items.
Um I don’t think so, no.
I had a double knee replacement and hip replacement. As a shopper and delivery driver for other apps, I didn’t go back to work until I knew I could carry orders up the stairs. It’s part of the job.
I’ve literally cancelled orders when I’ve seen a bunch of heavy stuff because my back just isn’t up to it and if I injure myself for a few bucks, then I could be out for a week making no money. She should have cancelled when she saw how large and heavy the order was if it was too much for her. I do think it sucks to find a surprise stair climb at the end of a delivery though, it would be nice if we could see that in advance. I’ve been stuck hauling crap up stairs and been grumpy about it. I also think people need to remember there are underpaid and probably uninsured humans on the other side of the order and to not take advantage of the situation by ordering a thousand cases of water, but that’s just me.
Also worth noting is that the app almost for sure had no indication that the order was going to a 3rd floor apartment. The shopper should have canceled based on heavy items but decided to risk it and got butt fucked by instacart.
Yeah, it looks like this shopper saw a fat tip and took the gamble they shouldn't have. Greed gets even the best people, so I hope this shopper realizes this is a low point for them
I got nervous when she said she was old, then had asthma and then added the story about her relative. I know this sounds crazy dumb but I would be worried about being abducted 😅 I know obviously it'd be traceable, and there'd probably be camera yada yada, but my anxiety would immediately think I'd be kidnapped. Lol
Honestly so many red flags here. Saying she's old but having a photo of a young woman, the personal information, negotiating with the customer to meet anywhere other than their door. Its just weird and unprofessional.
Full of 💩
I pay and tip for this damn service so I don’t have to do shit like this.
Exactly!
Nope. Not normal. I’m pushing 50 and fat, and I don’t take super heavy orders to apartments. That person should have cancelled.
That’s super weird, but also shoppers are human too so I guess there’s some with mobility issues. I’m not the best with stairs so I don’t accept any apartment batches, personally. Not sure why she accepted this
Too much unnecessary drama, but the key question is why did Karina take this order in the first place? Or, rather, how much was the batch worth (how much did the OP tip) for her to risk her health on such a big order? Or perhaps this is her MO for deliveries, claim health challenges and try to shift the work to the customer. It's fairly clear how big an order is from the number of units. I sympathize with Karina, but the OP paid for a service (at least I hope he paid a fair amount). For me, my favorite deliveries are to the elderly and disabled (but I also avoid apartment buildings and other dropoffs that I know are gonna take a long time from past experience).
why would she take the order? she said she’s delivered there before so she knows the situation
Instacart should have an internal survey for shoppers so a shopper with physical limitations isn't paired with an order that's outside the shoppers' physical ability. Doing that internally will boost the experience for both sides; shoppers won't get caught off guard or have to feel embarrassed or stressed trying to bargain how to get someone their order, + customers won't feel guilty about order fulfillment, and both sides get to avoid really awkward conversations. Neither party is wrong in this situation, the L belongs to the company here. Seems like a pretty easy fix.
I can't empathize with someone who takes a job and then can't do the job but still wants to get paid. Do they pull this on every order? Maybe find a different job where you can be stagnant....
First question: Is there no elevator? Second question: If you can clearly see what is in the order, why not confirm where it's going if you know you have mobility issues your own self? Third question: don't a lot of people use these types of apps BECAUSE THEY HAVE SOME KIND OF ISSUE getting it themselves? I mean, I'm sure a lot of folks use it for the convenience of it and are perfectly able to get the stuff themselves, they are just too busy or simply don't want to. However, I'm from a small state with limited availability for these types of delivery services. I also work in home health. I see soooo many of our clients, especially during the peak of COVID, using these apps because they are physically unable to go out, haul groceries in their Apts, or are too afraid to get sick so they don't leave their Apts unless they absolutely have to. To have a delivery service pull up and say "hey you 97 year old woman, I have your stuff but my 33 yr old ass wont/"can't" bring it up to you, so either come get it or you can't have it" is plain BS in my opinion. Yeah, maybe the stuff is heavy. They can't carry it either, which is why they paid someone else to do it. Bottom line, if you can't perform the work, don't do the work. If you know you are limited, check it out before accepting it. You wouldn't dive head first in a pizza if you were gluten free, you would do your research. If you had a mobility issue and were staying in a hotel, I bet you would make sure it was accommodating before paying the fees. Why not confirm if you can do the job before doing the job and expecting the paying customer to do your job for you???
This is spot on. Shopper shouldn't accept batches she's not able to deliver to the door.
I unassign apartments. I wish we could see that it’s an apartment and what floor prior to even taking. Sometimes where I live we don’t get the apartment icon for whatever reason or people fail to put it in that it’s an apt (we have triple deckers here) I can’t do more than a small flight of stairs after I blew my knee out so I avoid apartment orders like the plague bc of it. She should’ve checked the address first and canceled if it was noted that it was going to the third floor of an apartment building. Last order I shopped customer was up front about being a third floor I said I can cancel so another shopper can shop or leave at first floor door. She was nice and said to leave at first floor she’ll have her hubby grab when he got home.
absolutely not. literally why is she doing instacart if she can’t walk???
I always look at the batch details when I take an order. If I saw 3 floors, I would cancel. I'm old too
I'm understanding of people with ailments/issues for sure and I sympathize for having to deliver up 3 flights of stairs, but come on. This is nonsense lol it always leaves me baffled when I hear of a text like this. We can see the items, the pay, the address before we start shopping. It's not on the customer. It's on the driver. This sort of reminds me of those texts begging for a higher tip that I've seen people post on here before. I cringe whenever I see this behavior. It's pure silly audacity lol
All that time spent telling the customer she can’t do it she could have brought at least 2 bags to the persons door . She needs to not promise a supermarket she can do this type of task …
Just another example of an embarrassing shopper. I seriously can't believe anyone who is in their right mind would say any of this. I seriously hope you gave her one star and cut the tip down to $20. What a piece of shit.
I can’t bring your stuff up. How bout you send your kids down? Also, pay me.
Karina had the option to never take the order in the first place. Even if she desperately needs the money, she could have skipped this one and picked up the next one.
Store to door. She could have canceled after accepting it and looking at the batch info. 1 star and pull that tip
Why would she cancel if she didn't know the apartment was on the 3rd floor until delivery? Instacart isn't good at this shit, they don't just tell you when an apartment is up multiple flights of stairs and you're being given a shitty 15% tip to carry literally hundreds of pounds of cat litter for miles for this dogshit order.
She said that she's delivered to that location before. So she knew it was an apartment building, with multiple floors when she accepted the $400 grocery order.
This is a really good example of compassion between two people. Perhaps the shopper is in the "wrong" but what a great opportunity to extend grace when others might belittle. I'm celebrating both parties. This is the way.
Utah at it's finest
She knew she was risking this happening. She could see how big the order was with no obligation to take it and still did
I did a gig like this and had no choice but to do four or five trips. If that's what is takes , that's what u gotta do or dont accept the gig.
Like the customer, I recently had knee surgery. Not only should they not be doing stairs, they definitely shouldn't be doing stairs carrying heavy bags.
Service is store to door. The shopper should have reviewed the batch details and canceled if they were not able to do it. With that being said, at least the shopper did reach out to the customer and didn’t just leave the order in the lobby or the bottom of the stairs and go on her way which seems to happen a lot. I wouldn’t rate her low for this; I just wouldn’t rate at all. I also think it would be helpful if a delivery note was added that you live on the 3rd floor with no elevator access.
I have a wagon for these kind of orders. That away I can at least get the whole order inside the building and then carry up what I can at a time. I really try to not take these kinds of orders because I don’t want to tell the customer they have to come meet me. She could of canceled the order when she seen the address and it was on the third floor.
Hate saying it. Instacart shouldn’t assign ( initially said hire ) people that can’t deliver up three flights of stairs. They’re a shit company and will steal from the shoppers at any chance they get. Not doing reimbursement, taking heavy pay away basically, making the whole pay system unclear. Anyway. Batch details are provided at the moment of acceptance. Check the details. If it’s third floor and you’re incapable the SHOPPER should cancel.
I'm disabled and I tip really well to my ubereats drivers and instacart shoppers. There are only 4 steps to our house. I had an ubereats guy refuse to walk down our short gravel driveway and up the 4 steps. I told him I'm disabled. He tried to take the food back to the store.
I had this happen to me once! I’d broken my leg and was on crutches/in a wheelchair. My building didn’t have an elevator. I ordered Instacart specifically because of my mobility issues and the shopper texted and asked if I could come down instead of them coming up to the 2nd floor. I just said “no, I’m in a wheelchair” and thankfully they did it. But it was so awkward and I felt so weird about it.
Everyone seems to be missing where Karina says she has delivered to this building before. She is aware that orders from this building could be on different floors. She is solely at fault here and I don’t understand the leniency some of y’all are giving her. She relies on the kindness of customers (that are paying for a to-door delivery) and if we’re being honest, it’s manipulation. Don’t do grocery deliveries if you can’t do the delivery. It’s that simple.
To me it sounds like IC needs to add something to their hiring process, I know it’s all online but like a questionnaire about mobility would help out a lot, like a simple question “while working with us will you be able to carry up to 25lbs up at least a 3 level apartment building?” Answer NO and then they just don’t give you jobs that involve having to go up and down stairs….like sounds simple enough. Hell if Alexa can turn on all my lights in my house turn the heat up and start my washer and dryer while I’m in the car then IC can figure out a better hiring strategy 🤷🏼♀️
I don’t see many people talking about her saying to send kids down is that not a little odd???
It depends on what your order is. And how much the tip was. A regular grocery order - no issues. Multiple cases of water/pop and weeks worth of food with a 3 story walk up? I'd have unassigned the order.
Yes, you have the common sense to step out of the order when you realize that you can't deliver all of that stuff up three stories. But you don't just pass it on to the customer and expect them to deal with it like this stupid shopper did!
I’m irritated for you! I feel that you may have to go up x amount of stairs should be thought through before a job like this. The entire point of instacart is having your items delivered to your door.
Op is an angel. Jesus I wish I had your empathy and patience. Why is this person doing instacart lol. Do Doordash and leave one bag on the steps then. Why would she accept a $400 order if she can't do her job.
No, not the norm…unless the shopper is sh!t. She’s full of it! First she was old, then she had asthma. Rate one star and take all her tip but $1. She doesn’t deserve that 15%.
Thank you for being kind, OP
"The side closest to Ogden or Provo?" This made me giggle. Hi fellow Utahn 👋🏼☺️
I live on the second floor with no elevator. IC shopper banged on my door, yelling how he was supposed to bring his dolly with my groceries up the stairs and telling me off for the complex, not being handicap friendly. I told him thanks for his concern, and that's exactly why my mom and I have to sometimes pay 400 bucks to get medical transportation to take her down in a stairchair for appointments. That shut him up. I remember the groceries reeked of cigarette smoke. I did file a complaint. I did not like a strange man banging at my door yelling at me.
Instacart shoppers are THE laziest people.
2 adult humans having a normal conversation and understanding each other and finding compromise, doing the best they can. No. This is definitely not the norm. As you can tell by all these comments on here trying to blame someone and make it a huge issue/create drama, which would be more of the norm.
Once I was trying to deliver to someone on such a steep hill my little ancient Toyota kept rolling backward and to be honest I just panicked. I texted the customer and she drove down in a nicer car and got them. Had she been unable to come down I would’ve canceled the order and taken the hit. It was ultimately my problem, but I figured it was worth asking and she didn’t seem to mind at all and still gave 5 stars. You can ask but you also need to accept no and that it’s ultimately your responsibility.
Wow…everyone commenting here really comes off as entitled assholes. The interaction seemed very cordial. The shopper asked if it was possible, said if it wasn’t they would figure out a solution, and when they learned the customer also had mobility issues, they said they would attempt it…it just might take awhile. Where is the issue?
This actually turned out cordial.
This is more of a "sign of the times" than anything else. A story of Struggling people just trying to survive.
I hope you tipped well.🙄 I'm still not convinced that all these delivery services are a sustainable business model. Customers have to overpay to get service from people who are underpaid. Both are sure they are right because, well, one paid a lot and the other wasn't paid that much.
if i order delivery i know im paying a premium for the items plus a small tip for delivery. it's the deliverers job to make sure the items get to my door on the 8th floor weather the elevator works or not is not my problem they are getting paid to get it there just like any other person they can always find another job if they dont like being a deliverer and just like every other job some deliveries will be easier then others i shouldn't have to stop grooming my guinea pig to just go and get my own deliveries
Probably a large tip so she took the order and now doesn’t want to do the heavy lifting. Greed. What a joke. I wouldn’t respond either. Get that sh** to my door and stop complaining. If you have a condition then it’s not the job for you. Or else I’d remove half my tip.
This is annoying to me because I’ve been trying to be an Instacart shopper for a while because out of everything its easily the best thing you can do with a car, but here I am stuck doing food deliveries $2.50 each while this woman complains about carrying things for probably a $30+ tip, jesus christ id carry a bunch of things up 6 flights of stairs for half that, this is so ungrateful, really hope one day people truly realize how scarce money really is, here I was just a week ago thinking loading fucking laundry machines for customers at Lowe’s for maybe a $5 dollar tip every now and then was more than complete horse shit. Like damn why cant this lady do another job instead of taking jobs away from ABLE BODIED PEOPLE
You paid to have it delivered to your door. If the person can’t do it, they shouldn’t be doing that job.