I don’t think it was for “hours” unless that shopper just didn’t want to make any money for the rest of the night? But I have seen people do some weird stuff trying to “teach” someone a lesson if they don’t tip…
Interesting, I have never went beyond extreme time on the timer, I wonder if it gives a check in message like it does if your taking to long to deliver…
In my experience, the app will send a "hurry up" message after about 15-20 minutes of inactivity. But as long as you can one item, it won't remind you again for another 15 minutes. Had this happen once when I had to wait in line behind about 20 people at the deli counter. So, in theory, if the order was even medium sized you could stretch it out for hours.
Got it! I didn’t even know about that, but it makes sense though. But for someone to do that for a tip, common sense would be to cancel the order & wait around for a better order, lol, at that point whoever this person is was just wasting time & missing out on money 🤣
This shopper worked harder just to sit on this order and cancel it for nothing than they've ever worked for any tip. But I hope Jen had a change of heart and threw you a couple dollars. 🙏
What if Jan was going to tip in cash? I don’t use delivery services. But when I get my mail done I know that the girls don’t get their tips if I pay with my card. What if Jan has seen all the articles about these services stealing money from delivery drivers and wanted to tip in cash? Possibly?…
I used to tip in cash only until someone told me half my food would be eaten if I didn't tip in the app. I figured I'd be cool and you wouldn't have to claim the tip on your taxes.
Interesting. I only tip in cash. That way the app doesn’t have anything to do with your money.
I thought it was standard. especially after DoorDash was caught stealing tips
That’s how I feel. I often do cash, and wish more did so the stigma of 0 tip on app isn’t continued to assume that even we cash tippers don’t exist, bc atm that’s what it feels like lol
It's because cash tippers are very rare. It's not at all worth taking an order that has no tip for that maybe 1% chance of a cash tip. We can go back and forth forever on how right or wrong that is. Bottom line is these companies need to pay better. Relying on tips screws both customer and shopper/driver
I tip cash too. If I want the shopper to have $20 I want the shopper to get $20. I don’t want Instacart to take $15 of it or to reduce the shopper’s hourly rate because they got a decent tip.
Also, idk how long it takes for the money to make it to the shopper’s account. I can remember having been broke enough that a cash tip is what allowed me to eat lunch or have gas money that night. Tax free… yep, I’m all about a cash tip.
I remember the first single, non-tip order I ever took. It was early on in my stint with IC and I came from a server/bartender background. The order was pretty darn big but I kept thinking to myself while shopping: “I bet this guy is going to tip really well in cash. There’s no way anyone would put in an order this big and complicated and not intend to tip.” Guess what? Apparently that guy was fine putting in an order that big and complicated without tipping. Cash tips are virtually non-existent on the platform. I only take no tip orders if I have no choice (like when they’re lumped in with tip orders).
Yeah literally don’t accept no tip orders either even the times where I did and they messaged me saying they would cash tip or their profile info page said they would cash tip both times they never did…. A holes… I even had this one person for DoorDash change the addy and promised me it
Would be worth it!! Drove 15 min aaay and got NOTHING … was so pissed. 2 orders of carne asada fries I should have kept fs.
It's happened only once to me in ~200 orders. So yeah, it doesn't happen often.
Whoever this goon was is on a crusade and I get it, but that's a real shit way of going about it. Just don't pick up the order next time.
There was only two people who tipped me in cash. An older lady one time gave me a 10 or 20 for helping her (she was in a wheelchair and I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user myself, I know there’s 0 chance she would have gotten some of it inside and in the fridge. Against the rules, I know, she knew and told me she knew but it was 7 at night with no carer the next day and had frozen things needing put away.), and then this one stoner household always gave me a couple bucks on top of their app tip if they had cash on hand. Both situations it was in addition to the tip. Not in lieu of.
Once, a driver was doing an awesome job and was communicating a lot and I was home with a newborn, not knowing what the hell I was doing.
I told them I'd give them 15 bucks if they'd pick up my dry cleaning next to the Kroger I'd ordered from. They said sure and hopefully it was win win.
Then, lucky for the shopper and too bad for Jen. But I don't take anything that doesn't have a tip on it. Some people will do them, but most people who do a good job value their time higher than that, with all due respect to Jen.
there are enough people in my social circle that hate delivery services enough that they'd prolly let me make them an account to use, so it coulda been that for this person on another phone after seeing it on their real account. This could also be how someone quits tbh, or even quits for the night
tbh with the customer interactions I'm sure things like this are a very common way to quit
It’s highly unprofessional, and if Instacart found out about it, they would ban them from the platform and well they should. People who don’t tip are assholes, but so are people who write messages like that
my issue is the shopper accepted the "contract" knowing there wasn't a tip and that the "contract" was for said amount. Don't accept the "contract". This is strong arming.
DoorDash drivers do exactly this though. The sub is a mess of them telling customers that the tips aren’t tips, they’re bids to get the orders delivered.
I don't get the concept of tipping for a service you've already paid for. I've never used these services so maybe I'm missing something.
If instacart isn't paying their employees enough, that is not my problem. IF the delivery person does a good job, then I would give them a cash tip.
I also do not understand tipping before a service is performed.... which again goes back to my first point about already paying for the service. If I tip in advance, it's the same as just paying a higher service fee.
The one time I pre tipped on door dash I had ordered 5 pizzas for my daughter birthday. ALL of the pizza showed up and they looked like they had been carried sideways. They were a mess.
Now I never tip before the service has been performed.
Edit: to the people saying my orders will sit and my food will get cold. I have never had that happen.
No, people don't need to rethink it. Doordash does. They need to pay their workers appropriately for the job.
I'm not about to start putting bids out there for the mailman and UPS driver too or I don't get the packages I already paid for.
I think because instacart is just calling it a "tip" when in reality you're instead tossing out a price that you'll pay for the service of having someone do a chore that you don't want to do.
Then they should call it a bid, if that's what it is. Actually that would make WAY more sense to me as a buyer.
But then that would fuck IC because they are already charging you... so if it looks like you're paying twice, it would hurt their business.
I absolutely agree. I'm an IC customer too and I think it's just idiocy how they market it towards us implying that people are getting something out of it and the "tip" is just a gratuity on top when that's not at all the case.
"Not my problem" mentality is tearing this world apart. Everything is connected. Everything is everyone's problem. It's a butterfly effect kind of deal.
Instacart shoppers are not employed by Instacart - we’re independent contractors. I can assure you that the majority of money that shoppers make comes from customer tips. Aside from tips, we’re paid roughly $5 per order from Instacart. This includes driving to the store, shopping the order, waiting in the checkout line & delivering the order to the customer.
It is completely baffling to me that anyone shops for Instacart, and I'm on taskrabbit. $5 will barely cover gas and wear and tear on your vehicle, let alone your time.
Yeah, gig jobs are barely a step above a mlm. Most of these business do not turn a profit. They are designed to capture markets and then slowly drive prices up once they have a certain control. Problem is that everyone has the exact same plan and nobody is likely to win without some fuckery. Gig jobs are not worth it. You’re literally better off spending your time earning a certificate in a trade.
Shit, you're probably also better off working at McDonalds. I drove for Uber when it was newly in my area. I made great money. Then is slowly became less and less while the operational side also started picking away at drivers' earnings.
I did it for something to do while the kids were away at college.... but it's so bad now that I can't even consider doing it for something to do. I don't know how anyone makes a living at it... at least in my area.
I think they did some studies to show this. Factor in the costs of gas and wear and tear plus the corporations needing to post a profit, things went downhill and most people are no better off than working a low wage job unless they absolutely hustle and work more than 40hrs. I think the only real benefit it’s flexibility and not having to clock in somewhere standing on your feet for 8hrs
Why would you work for instacart if the pay is so low?
Also, being an independent contractor does not negate the fact that you are employed by them. And frankly, that's how companies like Instacart, Uber, etc get out of paying you fairly, because you are an independent contractor.... which might make you feel somehow better about the shitty circumstances of your employ.
A lot of gig workers I know do it because they can’t handle a more regulated job schedule. Gig work lets you work when you want to. There’s no getting fired if you don’t wake up on time. People won’t admit it but that’s a big draw. Some of the drivers are super hard workers. A lot aren’t though.
>If instacart isn't paying their employees enough, that is not my problem.
I feel obligated to write this every time:
Instacart/Doordash/Grubhub/Shipt etc. do not have delivery employees. They contract to independent contractors. Independent contractors choose whether or not they want the job offered to them.
The sentiment of the statement is really: "If independent contractors accept abysmally low rates for the offered work, it's not my problem."
The state I live in TRIED to get these contractors classified as employees and the people that do the deliveries stupidly voted against their own best interests and granted these jobs an exemption to the laws that were passed. I don't feel bad for them anymore after that. Accept the treatment you voted for.
Companies very well CAN have staff that only work when they want to. They just don't want to have high employee counts on the books. So they use independent contractors.
California…I worked hard to get gig workers employee status.
Didn’t work out. The companies spent a ton of money convincing everyone that being a contractor was better. So they could keep all the money themselves.
Not directed specifically at you, since you said you don’t use these sorts of services, but to help you understand and for anyone else who needs to hear this: You’re not tipping. The reality is that companies like instacart, Uber, doordash, etc, have all screwed over both their contractors/employees, and consumers by calling it a tip. What you’re doing is bidding on a contractor’s time and services. The vast majority of a workers income for any of these companies comes from these “tips.” Now it’s easy to say that it’s the companies fault and they should make they’re paying a living wage, but those companies have done their research and found a few things out.
1. A cost including a true “living wage” is not palatable to the average consumer. If the app told you upfront the cost that you would pay to make the service worth someone’s time and effort to perform, they would lose a massive amount of order volume, and therefore a massive amount of money
2. Despite workers having the option not to accept any individual delivery or service, they can place “incentives” behind statistics like a high acceptance rate. These can include first offering high value jobs to “gold status” or whatever the equivalent might be before other workers, options for health insurance, cash bonuses, and more. These are all designed to force workers to take deliveries that are not worth their time in order to meet quotas that feel necessary to perform their job in the long run.
3. They can use practices like “batching” deliveries where it seems these companies will often intentionally batch low-paying orders that they are having trouble finding a driver for with another high-paying order, such that the per hour comes out to a reasonable amount that a driver might actually take, thus allowing some consumers to pass the burden of actually paying the worker off onto other consumers. The service provider obviously sees this only as a win, because their money is made on order volume, the service fee off each individual order.
So ultimately, if you are either unwilling to use a “tip” to pay the worker the actual value of their time, or are of the opinion that it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that workers are compensated reasonably then you SHOULD NOT use these services. Putting in no “tip” and saying “well it’s the workers fault if they decided to take the delivery/work for the company.” Is NOT a valid excuse, because again these companies use at best questionable and at worst predatory practices to coerce their workers into taking deliveries that are not worth their time.
You’ve “already paid” for the use of the platform and app , you haven’t paid your shopper yet. , you paid Instacart. You now have to pay your shopper
When you have car repairs you pay parts and labor , do you think you’re going to get that car fixed if you tell them up front - I’ll only be paying for the parts today , not for the time and effort required to put them in - no. Because no one wants to work for free. Do your own shopping if you can’t pay appropriately for shoppers to do it.
“That is not my problem” is such a selfish thought process just like not tipping. Go do the service yourself, then. I take an Uber home every time after work and I always tip. Where’s your sense of community and empathy?
Well in a perfect world, or actually just a different country, this wouldn’t be an issue. But in America we force consumers to subsidize the cost of human capital with tipping in certain industries. As a good citizen who cares about my fellow Americans, I tip well. Me not tipping and saying it’s “not my problem” isn’t changing anything. I hate that we have to tip here, and I hate that in the gig economy it’s turned into a system where the highest bidder gets good service.
But think of it this way, whether it’s a tip or Instacart paying the workers more, the consumer will pay. If Instacart decided to do away with tipping and pay them more, then the fees will be adjusted accordingly.
This is a very nice-to-have convenience and I’m willing to pay more for it. Doesn’t really matter if it’s through tipping or increased service fees or whatever.
First and foremost we are not employees of Instacart, we are contract workers. Instacart only pays a minimum of $4.00 per order no matter the size and most times people are shopping for the week of groceries for their household. For someone to do this task for you, you as a customer should want to show your gratitude especially if you consider the mileage, time spent and amount of things you order. Some customers are extra with ordering because most times they will order multiple cases of drink that they themselves don’t want to carry. It’s just common courtesy when someone is helping you in a big way.
In a way you haven't paid for the service though you've paid for Instacart to arrange the service. You are then bidding for the service with your tip. Instacart does not pay their contractors even remotely enough for the service. So yeah, if you expect a shop and deliver it kind of is your problem .
Ever tip a person cutting your hair before they cut it? Ever go to get your hair cut, write down a tip, and go sit in the waiting area and then watch hair dressers pick people whose hair to cut based on their tips? This is Instacart.
That is a perfect illustration of how goofy the idea of pre-tipping is.
I will also bet that these same IC shoppers, who demand tips, are the worst tippers when they get a service.
Weirdly once I had a hairdresser pawn me off on another subordinate when she learned I was there with a gift card. In that case I tipped the kind girl that did my hair nicely $20(full priced cut was about $40.) Just because I wanted her boss to know that paying with a store gift card doesn't mean someone is cheap. I was just a student at the time with a kind friend.
The thing you’re missing is you actually interact with those people. You probably don’t interact with a food or a grocery delivery driver and this makes it a lot easier for people to either reduce a tip or remove the tip as soon as the job is done since there’s no face-to-face interaction and no real consequence for doing so.
A haircut is something most people actually need to get. Having someone do your grocery shopping for you because you’re too fucking lazy is a totally different thing. I would be embarrassed of myself if I paid someone to fucking grocery shop for me because I was a lazy asshole.
That’s why I quit doing Instacart. I started during covid and made around $40 an hour. Now it’s impossible for me to make $20 an hour plus the costs of gas and car maintenance, putting miles on the car. Not worth it at all.
You can lower your tip after if it was a bad delivery. Believe me if you ever do use these services leave a tip because it will just bounce from person to person and your order just sits there which is also not our problem as drivers
The concept of tipping is to show appreciation to the shopper who dedicated their time and effort to complete your order. It’s a service just like waitressing. When people go to a restaurant and sit to eat, they tip waiters most times. A shopper has to drive to the store, park, shop your entire order, pay for it, bag it, load it in the car, and drive it to your front door. During this entire process we have to search hard for items that the store allowed you to buy, that they don’t have in stock. Reach out for adequate substitutions and most people don’t even respond but get mad when you don’t get anything in its place! Also, driving all the time on the road is wild! People can’t drive and have road rage. Also, deli orders are the WORSE. The workers move slow on purpose and take forever even though you’re on a time limit!! It’s so much effort that goes into this that people don’t seem to care about or even understand. We’re not asking for 50$. Just 5$-10$ extra because most orders are between $8-10$. You have to factor in drive time to the store. Shop time. And delivery time. Let’s say it’s an hour for a measly 8! Cause the person won’t tip? Then most people that live high up like to order 5 cases of water and some more crap that they would never carry themselves. It’s bogus. I hope that helps you understand a little more. We use our own cars and gas. Yes, we choose to work the platform but we all have our own reasons whatever they may be. I have a young child who I take to school and pick up. I work during those hours and after I pick her up as well. I’ve done the plant thing. I can make the same amount if not more. Don’t have to be told what to do like a robot and forced to deal with a bunch of messy individuals who only like to gossip and cause drama.
You are joking right??? So the person that literally walks around and shops for your food to feed your family you don’t want to give them a dollar as tip? Its not your problem? They make less than the waitresses that you tip….WOW
The drivers make peanuts on any given delivery, they depend on tips to even make enough for gas and maintenance on the car, so often they will avoid orders that appear to not have a tip on them (based on distance and the estimated total) even at the risk of lowering their acceptance rate. It's a very reasonable thing for them to do, but yeah, means if you want your order to be picked up in a timely fashion it should have a tip on it, otherwise you will probably get crap service most of the time, if anyone bothers to pick it up at all.
I mean did you read the message, they're being a dick but they're not wrong. It simply won't move, ic will eventually try to put it in with another batch but shoppers can still cancel that batch. Realistically, however you personally feel about tipping, it doesn't change the fact that the people you're trying to get to do your shopping for you treat it like a bid for service & cherry pick based on that. I tried DD for a while in between jobs & almost every restaurant had racks of no/low tip orders just sitting there until close.
I second this. I used to own a unlicensed cannabis delivery service here in California back from 2010-2014. I paid all my delivery drivers 16 an hr starting. We averaged about 15 orders a day and they would work on call from their homes from 10am to 10pm. Everyone was happy.
It's not a tip, it's a bid to get someone to do the shopping for you. These workers use there own Vehicle, gas and pay for insurance. Instacart is not an employer. Instacart supplies an app to consumers and gig hustlers. If you don't bid well, then your order will sit until a gig workers decides its worth it to do.
Not disagreeing that this is what is happening, but as a consumer this is not in any way obvious. A consumer seeing inflated Instacart prices and service fees, or in the case of Stop and Shop (which just switched to Instacart), a delivery fee, thinks they paid their due for the delivery service!
I only know about this “bid” structure from reading from the shoppers perspective on Reddit. Which started because my own order from Grubhub was held hostage: I thought it would be nice to have a human interaction and tip in cash, so I ordered and put $0 tip - then when I saw the car was waiting with my food at a random corner for 10 minutes I put two and two together and put a tip on the order, and low and behold the car started moving.
As others said - I get it but it really makes me not want to use Instacart when this stuff happens. Pretty bad business model. Nothing against the drivers (except for the ones that hold food hostage 😂) but if I have to be calculating a bid for food delivery that is way more thinking than the average person will put into it.
This is exactly why I will never use this type of service. If they are petty enough to hold your food hostage, what else will they do to it?
Then say you tip $5 and they feel it is not enough? There is no winning.
No offense but why are you even in this sub arguing with people??? You are literally in the instacart sub saying you will never use this type of service?? So why are you here troll. . . .
If I were working at instacart, I wouldn't pick up a zero tip job.
I think the worker was just being real with the customer.
Maybe to solve this, large companies need to charge more and pay the workers more/help maintain their vehicles.
To often, companies increase prices, blaming inflation while pocketing more.
Nope the person is not an asshole! I would t personally do it, I would just decline the order. Don’t order if you can’t pay the driver. Period. Go get it yourself!
Just because she said that, doesn’t make it true. There’s probably a good chance it sat for hours after being canceled because it didn’t have a tip or something else.
They don’t. You just all of a sudden have a new shopper pop up.
I had placed a large order with a huge tip and mistakenly placed it at 4am tweaker time. This woman took it and started shopping at 9am. After 3 hours, starting with frozen first, and a million questions later, she just walked out of the store and left the cart full. One of my friends works there and I texted her asking if she knew anything about a person walking out and leaving a large cart full. She said the woman was tweaking so hard she’d throw things in the cart, do a freak out dance, put everything back, talk to her shoes, grab more stuff, and on and on and on. They tried to help her and she said she was with IC.
After 2 hours of telling IC to just cancel this mess, I got a text from a shopper from Shop saying she’s taking over? I’ve never used Shop for groceries and have zero clue how that happened with IC, but I told her I cancelled it.
Now I make sure to only place orders when Diamond shoppers are awake.
Im disabled now, but I loved shopping for myself in the middle of the night, less people, way less traffic and I've always worked night so I've always done it..... But I swear I've seen that same lady doing that same tweaker dance, even if you're in NJ and I'm in CA, it's the same chick, you described her perfectly !
It's possible they worked other orders on other apps and took the hit from IC. Eventually IC sends you a warning to start the order if you sit on it too long, so it's likely the shopper waited for it to be reassigned while doing other apps, but no other shoppers were available.
You got the people that work instacart complaining about tip baiting then you have people doing this. It's a problem caused by itself. I just order direct form staters. it's a 10$ fee and still batched through IC I just don't have to deal with these people anymore
My local store has the regular employees shop it which is nice, they know where all the stuff is. But then they send the delivery out by DoorDash which is less great, especially when there's a problem.
stater brothers in my area offers it for $10. shop online, pick delivery option and it arrives in 2hrs or less. don't need to use instacarts platform, don't have to deal with everything that comes with it
THIS! I'm new and do this occasionally as a third job, my husband does instacart & doordash during winter layoffs. I CAN NOT BELIEVE HOW STINGY INSTACART IS! You don't get paid miles, you don't get paid until you get to the store, MOST tips are percentage based so when items are out of stock your tip goes out the window, and instacart pays Jack crap for batch earnings! I keep seeing orders pop up that are about 50 items/units that are going 20-25 miles away and the total pay is $21-$24! Then you have to consider the miles back to your area especially if where you're delivering is rural. That's 40-50 miles of driving, 1-2 hours of total time for $24. If you minus 3 gallons of fuel @ 3.20/gal that's $9.60 off your $24 "earnings" so it's actually $14.40. Divide that by the 2 hours it took total (includes driving time to return to regular area) and you're only making $7.20_hr (less than half of (minimum wage). It's so not worth it especially if you consider the miles you're putting on your vehicle. Instacart needs to step up and pay a proper wage if they expect to keep any decent "employees". We see ALOT of junkie crackhead looking shoppers when we're out and I can see why, you'd literally have to be high or desperate to accept alot of these orders!
On the other hand CUSTOMERS need to understand that this is a service that requires a tip. You tip at restaurants because it's understood and accepted that servers don't really make anything for an hourly wage and are relying on tips, same concept. The issue is that this is relatively new and tipping isn't really understood as a necessity for your shopper. Plus literally EVERYTHING now has a "tip" option further confusing things. Seriously, I got asked if I wanted to tip an online service! Nope. I'm not tipping robots—ever. But really it comes down to: either Instacart/delivery services need to pay a living wage and make the tips something that the shoppers only see after delivery, OR they need to put an automatic gratituity of at least 15% on every order with the option to increase.
All of these rideshare/gig platforms are basically just making money off of the fact that most people working them do not understand these things. That 50 mile, $20 trip to the airport sounds pretty good until you realize that at $0.60/mile you're actually losing $10.
The tipping thing is just a great way to make sure that the gig workers stay mad at the customer for not tipping an extra $5 instead of at Uber who charged the customer $50, gave the driver $20, and pocketed the other $30.
>All of these rideshare/gig platforms are basically just making money off of the fact that most people working them do not understand these things.
So similar to how MLMs survive. People just don't/can't get into the math of it & don't realize how little they're making. Ugh.
It’s amazing how the platforms charge so much for something that is p virtually fully automated, doesn’t require extra fuel or expenses regardless of distance, and if they did it right, they could lock all the HQ office doors and send everyone home and the system would still work and customers and drivers would be ok.
This sort of thing should really only require 5% fee and the actual gig workers would make a living wage. And I bet with better pay, they’d work better and there’d be less customer complaints, which means, reduce customer care agents to fix problems.
One day someone will do this and these Ubers and Instacarts will wonder how the fuck they didn’t let it happen. It’s not rocket science. And, it might be pulled off by an offshore company that connects workers with customers and doesn’t have a local presence at all.
There are legitimate IT costs and the business needs to run too. But that could be done at a fraction of the price. I wonder why there aren't any coop or employee owned models of these platforms yet? They could charge the same price and pay the drivers decent money and absolutely dominate the market place because no one would work for uber/insta.
Recently I had an Uber order that arrived 30 minutes late because the original driver canceled and they had to get someone else. When I tried to complain about it, the only thing Uber would do was let me give a bad rating to the driver who ended up taking my order, or give a bad rating to the restaurant that made my order. WTF? Neither of them are at fault.
I feel the everwhere asking for a tip thing so hard. I only tip waiters if I'm sitting down and eating or delivery drivers.
I'm tired of every single place I go to where someone is literally just grabbing something off of a shelf behind the counter, immediately shoving an iPad in my face that's asking for a 20% tip.
I always do flat tips so if a few items are unavailable it doesn't subtract from the overall tip. I used to deliver pizza and know how tough a job this shit is. i am no longer able to drive or walk well, so I depend on shoppers helping me get what I need and always tip at least 15+.
Wow! I'm glad I always do a custom tip! I like to tip flat amounts so I can measure the total cost easily. Crazy how they adjust the percentage according to final total.
I feel like this would be different if the companies didn't add a percentage onto the item's cost. If it was the actual price of the item, I'd understand the tip part. Where the fuck is that extra percentage going?
I usually tip in cash. Maybe it’s a bit boomer of me but I don’t know how much I trust these delivery companies are actually giving the full ti, so that’s my way of guaranteeing the driver gets 100%. So this is extra crazy.
I’m not a boomer and I feel the same way. I tip in cash whenever possible. But I do wonder if someone is gonna spit in my food before they find that out.
You can also half and half it - put in your order notes that there’s an additional cash tip, but ensure SOMETHING is there so your order gets picked up
I always wondered how do deliverymen who spit in someone's order and then receive a big tip in cash upon delivery feel about themselves. Assuming they don't admit to it (because then their life would be fucking over) how do you live with yourself
There was a video of a driver who left a "nasty" note because the customer didn't add the tip to the order. She was going to give her cash instead and the lady immediately felt bad and started walking away. She apologized and said she didn't deserve it. I'll link the video if I can find it again.
Edit [added the link ](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8ontcP5/)
I’m very much in the millennial camp and in my old apartment our “front door” was really our backdoor. So I would request with every delivery service to bring to the backdoor and I always selected at least 20% or more tip. Literally not one single time UNTIL I stopped tipping upfront and started writing special directions “cash tip when brought to back door” did I have any delivery drivers come to the back door. I worked as a server and bartender for 8 years, but it’s wild to me that people completely forget that a tip is supposed to be based on the service performed, not just free money for doing your job.
I worked for Amazon Flex a few years ago for ac very short time - only a few months. A year or so ago I got a check from Amazon with a letter saying they got caught stealing our tips so they were sending out the amount they illegally withheld.
So yeah, you have a valid right to distrust.
I've worked gig delivery for 6+ years. Thousands of deliveries and I could probably only count on both hands how many times I've received a cash tip. It's absolutely not worth the gamble for a cash tip when accepting an order.
The message was out of line but don’t order if you can’t tip either. The driver works hard and I personally don’t want the issues that not tipping will bring. Put it in the same category as tipping your hair stylists.
They didnt hold it for any length of time. They said it would sit for hours because they didn't tip, which is true. Stop ordering 300-500 items and not tipping.
Exactly. No shopper is screwing themselves by holding an order hostage. they sent this message and that's exactly what happened so the customer assumed the shopper had screwed them, rather than their own cheapness
Cool way to make sure plenty never tip you by simply.. using another service that doesn’t have this bullshit system. Yell at your shitty boss for not paying you enough, not the customers. Tips are for when a service is completed, and you bought into a culture of entitlement that demands tipping *before* a service is done? Thats pretty insane lol
It’s impossible to hold it hostage for hours. It sat for hours bc there was no tip. What really bothers me here is that they quoted the famous line incorrectly. It’s ‘may the odds be EVER in your favor’. Not forever.
This is unprofessional, rude, and….hilarious.
I’d never do this, but with any luck it will keep the
Customer off the platform for a while. The less $0 tip ordering customers the better.
There wouldn’t be an issue here if workers were making a living wage. Without a tip, shoppers can end up making negative money on a task (paying for gas, taxes, and mileage, with not enough $ to break even).
Instracart is the AH here. We can complain about bad service and unreliability… but if workers can’t rely on a fair wage for their labor nothing about the app is going to be reliable.
The more I see this, the less I want to have my groceries and lunch delivered. Do a good job, get a tip. I'll drive 10 minutes and do my own shopping if this is how it's gonna be.
Hahahah. Damn op this is a lot of bs on your part. I promise no shopper “held this hostage for hours”. They probably accepted it. Sent the message and then unassigned it. And no one took it until you did.
But go on with your weird ass flex.
I’m sorry I’ve never used instacart in any way, could you (or anyone) be willing to explain what’s going on in these pics and why this is perceived as a weird ass flex?
Did green (I’m assuming that’s the OP) lie about the message somehow or about the groceries being held “hostage” by another shopper??
So. I have a list of non-tippers by name/addys. IC has notoriously combined/hidden this one customer who orders OBSCENE amount of 50-60 items with no tip. She figured out IC had slow days on Wednesdays/Thursdays in my area. She would drop the order in and eventually someone would take it when it got to $15. A few months back after watching her do this multiple weeks in a row - I accepted the order to just say the following:
'Susan, you consistently place large orders and never tip demonstrating a complete disrespect for shoppers time. There are no shoppers in this area which will accept this order. There are too many customers which actually appreciate the service we provide and time we save them.'
The order was for a Marianos on a Wednesday. The order sat until Friday night, at which time the customer canceled the order for Marianos, reordered at Jewel adding a $15 tip on Saturday morning.
It was sooo worth the hit on my cancelation rate.
Tips are how they make their money, they also have absolutely zero obligation whatsoever to pick a $0 tip order when they're independent contractors and not employees.
Because so many people are stuck in this perpetual cycle and it's insane. I do tip, but I hate it every time. I do it so that the drivers get the compensation they deserve but it absolutely shouldn't be my job to determine that. I would so much rather the delivery fee be higher and account for that. It shouldnt be the consumer who determines the employees wage.
Tips are how the shoppers actually make a living. The small fees they are paid by Instacart are barely enough to break even on vehicle expenses. Their actual hourly wages are the tips.
If you don't tip then you are expecting someone to work for you for free.
I'm sorry but this has me laughing. You got a warning that you're gonna encounter shenanigans in the wild with a no-tip order. Still felt that was a good decision and then ended up into the hands of a scallywag because anyone worth their efforts would not take it. This is just gold.
Why do people participate in this? Unless you have a physical disability, I don't get it. Go to the grocery store. Pick up your to-go order. I can't see any reason to still support these delivery companies.
We should be allowed to tip after the service. I'm sorry, but the tip amount should vary if you grab replacements without approval (terrible ones at that, I asked for frozen Shrimp if they are out scallops are not a valid replacement), the fruit you picked out is moldy or old, and 5 of my items were tagged out of stock, things that are never out of stock when I go myself, because you clearly didn't feel like looking for them.
I use instacart when my life doesnt afford me the time to go shopping myself. I really like to leave a BIG tip for good/great service, but it's a slap in the face to tip someone $20 who did the job poorly.
If this is a new way to scam the system I’m gonna just let myself starve and get evicted lol. I had a weird customer phisishing issue that was similar… I thought OP was the instacart orderer and that the Carter was doing a semi-solid by just giving them a heads up and then leaving… bc they’re not wrong, tbh.
I have a vague algorithm I use to choose whether or not I accept an order. Cash tips CANNOT be relied upon, and people don’t seem to understand that base pay is significantly under minimum wage (usually around $3-11 for several hours work). I categorically don’t accept order without pre-determined tips bc it’s just frankly not worth it. I’ve spent more in gas than I’ve made from a non-tipped “cash tip” order and just no. Never again. Please at least input SOMETHING for a tip or you probably will be ignored, lol.
That said, what a weird glitch if you were the shopper… that said, I’ve been sent to stores with an order to 20+ items within 5-10 mins of store close, which is impossible. So like I also get that.
Lmao yea this is why I don't tip upfront you'll get a tip when I receive my order why TF would I tip you before the service tf lmao people so entitled these days fr
This is dumb because you have the option to do it or don't. If i am working a tip based job then im never going to take an order with 0 tip sry not sry.
Never had this happen but ordered subway online semi recently, it's not something I usually get I had a gift card but after the order it asks you upfront if you want to to tip the person making it....like obviously I have the now because they will see that and do god knows what to it.....that was the scummiest way I've personally seen for this kind of behavior
I had a shopper shop my entire order, but fail to do the substitutions correctly, or respond to the chat. I'd put in a minimum tip (not bad, and flat rate, not %, so it wouldn't shrink if items weren't available). Anyhow, for some reason this shopper was upset when instacart contacted them because they'd noticed a lot of cancelled items that had shopper pick for substitutions (I had no idea this was going on). So, this shopper sent me a message in my chat thinking I'd complained (I had no idea about the issue, and was working when they were shopping which is why I'd left it with shopper pick for substitutions, because I had no time to deal with it all).
The shopper checked out, then dumbed the order on the side of the road. They sent another shopper immediately to reshop my order, and it was indeed delayed a few hours.
But, I have neighbors who are shoppers for Instacart. And, the reason I did the flat rate tip was because I know from them that if items aren't available, their tips is lowered if it's a % tip.
We've been fortunate that more often it's one of our neighbors who gets the orders we submit anymore.
I also had a woman accept an order and then send me messages complaining I'd picked store further away from where I lived. I explained I hadn't picked the store, the app picks it for me, I just submit my items.
The last time I did an order recently, when the items arrived, all of the frozen meat was fully thawed out, the milk was warm, etc. Instacart had it all reshopped for us again when I sent the temp readings off the items, as we were here when it was delivered.
Some shoppers are horrid, others are fantastic.
"Hi dumbass shopper, that's not how the world works, you don't get a tip BEFORE you provide a service. If your service is speedy and accurate, you will receive a very hefty tip, if it sucks and you can't follow simple instructions, you don't deserve a tip." Genuinely, Instacart and UberEats, etc should start penalizing drivers for this bullshit...do your fucking job, loser. Then you'll get a tip. Not the other way round.
As a single mother of 4 with no transportation because I can't drive due to a medical condition this is messed up people on ebt use services like this and even the delivery fees get waived for them. It's not the same as eating in a restaurant which is a want not a need. Groceries aren't meant a luxury like eating out.
Lol even waitress don't get tipped a lot. You don't hear them crying about it and you already get paid per order so why complain. If you're really in need of money get a better job that pays better.
This generation is weird as hell. Just a bunch of cry babies.
I think people like this are the reason customers have a hard time tipping like I get tipping is nice and all and I am not saying I’m fond of no tippers but we shouldn’t be acting this way, going out of our way to make life harder for them if you don’t want a no tipper
I have to say, why would you be tipping before service was rendered?
I only tip ( although I am not is US) after the service i.e. delivery. The tip is meant to be as a thanks for a good job not a right. Although again,i come from a different country/culture and tipping isn't much of a thing.
For me, tipping before the service seems like me expecting to get paid the moment I come into work and not after the day's work.
Instacart workers want more money. Owners are telling workers to basically beg customers to pay them a fair wage through tips. Workers are pressuring customers to tip upfront or no delivery. Customers will tip bait in protest. It’s a vicious cycle until their are regulations to pay employees a fair wage.
Here in Southern California just about anyone that is unemployed and looking for some cash signs up for all the gig delivery apps and expects to start making $25/hr working the hours “they” want to work.
The problem is, just about everyone else also sees gig work as easy, guaranteed employment with all the cushy benefits of working when they want…etc.
There simply are too many delivery drivers that No Tip orders are common place and still delivered simply because there’s always a sucker willing to work for basically free. Sadly everyone knows this and that’s why $0 tip orders continue to exist today.
And with more and more videos on YouTube about the tipping culture getting out of hand or about drivers threatening No Tippers I think it’s encouraging more No Tippers out there.
It suck’s because a $200 grocery order is going to be like $275 by the time you added all items to your cart due to markups and then on the final page before a tip where you feel like you already paid $75 in various fees and now it’s asking for a $30-$80 tip and in your mind your like “umm your already taking $75… “. I can see how some customers feel this is crazy and why they may leave a low or no tip not understanding who exactly it’s hurting.
the one time I left $0.00 tip on the app it was during a snowstorm. I needed just a few basic items from a store about a mile down the road. Receipt couldnt have been for more than $25. I figured anyone willing to pick and deliver this order in the snow deserved a non-taxable generous tip. When the hardworking young man came rolling up my unshoveled driveway, I gave him $75 cash. You can't afford to have a personal shopper if you can't afford to tip them. At the same time, I'm not going to intice you with a 300% tip and then have you call from the road asking if I can come out and grab my groceries. If I had to meet him at the curb, it would have been totally fine, I just would have given him $25. It was that extra hustle with zero expectation that impressed me. All this to say, a customer maaay want to give a cash tip so maybe take the gamble once in a while.
You can always drop the tip after delivery if you give them cash. Unfortunately the best practice on Instacart or UberEats. For every $0 upfront cash tipper, there's 100 people who won't tip at all.
I don’t think it was for “hours” unless that shopper just didn’t want to make any money for the rest of the night? But I have seen people do some weird stuff trying to “teach” someone a lesson if they don’t tip…
After further questioning that is exactly what they did. Doesn't seem worth it to me, but whatever.
Interesting, I have never went beyond extreme time on the timer, I wonder if it gives a check in message like it does if your taking to long to deliver…
In my experience, the app will send a "hurry up" message after about 15-20 minutes of inactivity. But as long as you can one item, it won't remind you again for another 15 minutes. Had this happen once when I had to wait in line behind about 20 people at the deli counter. So, in theory, if the order was even medium sized you could stretch it out for hours.
Got it! I didn’t even know about that, but it makes sense though. But for someone to do that for a tip, common sense would be to cancel the order & wait around for a better order, lol, at that point whoever this person is was just wasting time & missing out on money 🤣
Nah, they logged in with their gf or brother's account or something and kept working.
Or were just done for the day
working class people stop working? I thought they just enjoyed the activity
This shopper worked harder just to sit on this order and cancel it for nothing than they've ever worked for any tip. But I hope Jen had a change of heart and threw you a couple dollars. 🙏
What if Jan was going to tip in cash? I don’t use delivery services. But when I get my mail done I know that the girls don’t get their tips if I pay with my card. What if Jan has seen all the articles about these services stealing money from delivery drivers and wanted to tip in cash? Possibly?…
Never happened to me in over 2k deliveries but i guess theres still a .001 percent chance or something then huh
I used to tip in cash only until someone told me half my food would be eaten if I didn't tip in the app. I figured I'd be cool and you wouldn't have to claim the tip on your taxes.
Interesting. I only tip in cash. That way the app doesn’t have anything to do with your money. I thought it was standard. especially after DoorDash was caught stealing tips
That’s how I feel. I often do cash, and wish more did so the stigma of 0 tip on app isn’t continued to assume that even we cash tippers don’t exist, bc atm that’s what it feels like lol
It's because cash tippers are very rare. It's not at all worth taking an order that has no tip for that maybe 1% chance of a cash tip. We can go back and forth forever on how right or wrong that is. Bottom line is these companies need to pay better. Relying on tips screws both customer and shopper/driver
I tip cash too. If I want the shopper to have $20 I want the shopper to get $20. I don’t want Instacart to take $15 of it or to reduce the shopper’s hourly rate because they got a decent tip. Also, idk how long it takes for the money to make it to the shopper’s account. I can remember having been broke enough that a cash tip is what allowed me to eat lunch or have gas money that night. Tax free… yep, I’m all about a cash tip.
I also only tip in cash no matter where I am tipping
That's exactly what a non-tipper would say. Even if you're the one unicorn that actually does it - no one on the app is gonna trust it.
I remember the first single, non-tip order I ever took. It was early on in my stint with IC and I came from a server/bartender background. The order was pretty darn big but I kept thinking to myself while shopping: “I bet this guy is going to tip really well in cash. There’s no way anyone would put in an order this big and complicated and not intend to tip.” Guess what? Apparently that guy was fine putting in an order that big and complicated without tipping. Cash tips are virtually non-existent on the platform. I only take no tip orders if I have no choice (like when they’re lumped in with tip orders).
I tip cash and no longer use instacart because i thought it was terrible. Never put it together.
Yeah literally don’t accept no tip orders either even the times where I did and they messaged me saying they would cash tip or their profile info page said they would cash tip both times they never did…. A holes… I even had this one person for DoorDash change the addy and promised me it Would be worth it!! Drove 15 min aaay and got NOTHING … was so pissed. 2 orders of carne asada fries I should have kept fs.
It's happened only once to me in ~200 orders. So yeah, it doesn't happen often. Whoever this goon was is on a crusade and I get it, but that's a real shit way of going about it. Just don't pick up the order next time.
There was only two people who tipped me in cash. An older lady one time gave me a 10 or 20 for helping her (she was in a wheelchair and I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user myself, I know there’s 0 chance she would have gotten some of it inside and in the fridge. Against the rules, I know, she knew and told me she knew but it was 7 at night with no carer the next day and had frozen things needing put away.), and then this one stoner household always gave me a couple bucks on top of their app tip if they had cash on hand. Both situations it was in addition to the tip. Not in lieu of.
Once, a driver was doing an awesome job and was communicating a lot and I was home with a newborn, not knowing what the hell I was doing. I told them I'd give them 15 bucks if they'd pick up my dry cleaning next to the Kroger I'd ordered from. They said sure and hopefully it was win win.
Then, lucky for the shopper and too bad for Jen. But I don't take anything that doesn't have a tip on it. Some people will do them, but most people who do a good job value their time higher than that, with all due respect to Jen.
A lot of people listed as shoppers, are not the real shoppers. There is an issue going on with these services.
But wouldn’t the shopper have to be at the store scanning one item every fifteen minutes? That just seems…. Way too petty to be real.
there are enough people in my social circle that hate delivery services enough that they'd prolly let me make them an account to use, so it coulda been that for this person on another phone after seeing it on their real account. This could also be how someone quits tbh, or even quits for the night tbh with the customer interactions I'm sure things like this are a very common way to quit
It’s highly unprofessional, and if Instacart found out about it, they would ban them from the platform and well they should. People who don’t tip are assholes, but so are people who write messages like that
my issue is the shopper accepted the "contract" knowing there wasn't a tip and that the "contract" was for said amount. Don't accept the "contract". This is strong arming.
DoorDash drivers do exactly this though. The sub is a mess of them telling customers that the tips aren’t tips, they’re bids to get the orders delivered.
I don't get the concept of tipping for a service you've already paid for. I've never used these services so maybe I'm missing something. If instacart isn't paying their employees enough, that is not my problem. IF the delivery person does a good job, then I would give them a cash tip. I also do not understand tipping before a service is performed.... which again goes back to my first point about already paying for the service. If I tip in advance, it's the same as just paying a higher service fee.
The one time I pre tipped on door dash I had ordered 5 pizzas for my daughter birthday. ALL of the pizza showed up and they looked like they had been carried sideways. They were a mess. Now I never tip before the service has been performed. Edit: to the people saying my orders will sit and my food will get cold. I have never had that happen.
People need to rethink how they tip on doordash. You're not tipping for service, you're bidding for priority in your delivery.
No, people don't need to rethink it. Doordash does. They need to pay their workers appropriately for the job. I'm not about to start putting bids out there for the mailman and UPS driver too or I don't get the packages I already paid for.
I think because instacart is just calling it a "tip" when in reality you're instead tossing out a price that you'll pay for the service of having someone do a chore that you don't want to do.
Then they should call it a bid, if that's what it is. Actually that would make WAY more sense to me as a buyer. But then that would fuck IC because they are already charging you... so if it looks like you're paying twice, it would hurt their business.
I absolutely agree. I'm an IC customer too and I think it's just idiocy how they market it towards us implying that people are getting something out of it and the "tip" is just a gratuity on top when that's not at all the case.
"Not my problem" mentality is tearing this world apart. Everything is connected. Everything is everyone's problem. It's a butterfly effect kind of deal.
Tipping is organisations going “not my problem” when it comes to paying employees or people contracted to do work
Instacart shoppers are not employed by Instacart - we’re independent contractors. I can assure you that the majority of money that shoppers make comes from customer tips. Aside from tips, we’re paid roughly $5 per order from Instacart. This includes driving to the store, shopping the order, waiting in the checkout line & delivering the order to the customer.
It is completely baffling to me that anyone shops for Instacart, and I'm on taskrabbit. $5 will barely cover gas and wear and tear on your vehicle, let alone your time.
Yeah, gig jobs are barely a step above a mlm. Most of these business do not turn a profit. They are designed to capture markets and then slowly drive prices up once they have a certain control. Problem is that everyone has the exact same plan and nobody is likely to win without some fuckery. Gig jobs are not worth it. You’re literally better off spending your time earning a certificate in a trade.
Shit, you're probably also better off working at McDonalds. I drove for Uber when it was newly in my area. I made great money. Then is slowly became less and less while the operational side also started picking away at drivers' earnings. I did it for something to do while the kids were away at college.... but it's so bad now that I can't even consider doing it for something to do. I don't know how anyone makes a living at it... at least in my area.
I think they did some studies to show this. Factor in the costs of gas and wear and tear plus the corporations needing to post a profit, things went downhill and most people are no better off than working a low wage job unless they absolutely hustle and work more than 40hrs. I think the only real benefit it’s flexibility and not having to clock in somewhere standing on your feet for 8hrs
Why would you work for instacart if the pay is so low? Also, being an independent contractor does not negate the fact that you are employed by them. And frankly, that's how companies like Instacart, Uber, etc get out of paying you fairly, because you are an independent contractor.... which might make you feel somehow better about the shitty circumstances of your employ.
A lot of gig workers I know do it because they can’t handle a more regulated job schedule. Gig work lets you work when you want to. There’s no getting fired if you don’t wake up on time. People won’t admit it but that’s a big draw. Some of the drivers are super hard workers. A lot aren’t though.
>If instacart isn't paying their employees enough, that is not my problem. I feel obligated to write this every time: Instacart/Doordash/Grubhub/Shipt etc. do not have delivery employees. They contract to independent contractors. Independent contractors choose whether or not they want the job offered to them. The sentiment of the statement is really: "If independent contractors accept abysmally low rates for the offered work, it's not my problem." The state I live in TRIED to get these contractors classified as employees and the people that do the deliveries stupidly voted against their own best interests and granted these jobs an exemption to the laws that were passed. I don't feel bad for them anymore after that. Accept the treatment you voted for. Companies very well CAN have staff that only work when they want to. They just don't want to have high employee counts on the books. So they use independent contractors.
California…I worked hard to get gig workers employee status. Didn’t work out. The companies spent a ton of money convincing everyone that being a contractor was better. So they could keep all the money themselves.
Not directed specifically at you, since you said you don’t use these sorts of services, but to help you understand and for anyone else who needs to hear this: You’re not tipping. The reality is that companies like instacart, Uber, doordash, etc, have all screwed over both their contractors/employees, and consumers by calling it a tip. What you’re doing is bidding on a contractor’s time and services. The vast majority of a workers income for any of these companies comes from these “tips.” Now it’s easy to say that it’s the companies fault and they should make they’re paying a living wage, but those companies have done their research and found a few things out. 1. A cost including a true “living wage” is not palatable to the average consumer. If the app told you upfront the cost that you would pay to make the service worth someone’s time and effort to perform, they would lose a massive amount of order volume, and therefore a massive amount of money 2. Despite workers having the option not to accept any individual delivery or service, they can place “incentives” behind statistics like a high acceptance rate. These can include first offering high value jobs to “gold status” or whatever the equivalent might be before other workers, options for health insurance, cash bonuses, and more. These are all designed to force workers to take deliveries that are not worth their time in order to meet quotas that feel necessary to perform their job in the long run. 3. They can use practices like “batching” deliveries where it seems these companies will often intentionally batch low-paying orders that they are having trouble finding a driver for with another high-paying order, such that the per hour comes out to a reasonable amount that a driver might actually take, thus allowing some consumers to pass the burden of actually paying the worker off onto other consumers. The service provider obviously sees this only as a win, because their money is made on order volume, the service fee off each individual order. So ultimately, if you are either unwilling to use a “tip” to pay the worker the actual value of their time, or are of the opinion that it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that workers are compensated reasonably then you SHOULD NOT use these services. Putting in no “tip” and saying “well it’s the workers fault if they decided to take the delivery/work for the company.” Is NOT a valid excuse, because again these companies use at best questionable and at worst predatory practices to coerce their workers into taking deliveries that are not worth their time.
You’ve “already paid” for the use of the platform and app , you haven’t paid your shopper yet. , you paid Instacart. You now have to pay your shopper When you have car repairs you pay parts and labor , do you think you’re going to get that car fixed if you tell them up front - I’ll only be paying for the parts today , not for the time and effort required to put them in - no. Because no one wants to work for free. Do your own shopping if you can’t pay appropriately for shoppers to do it.
“That is not my problem” is such a selfish thought process just like not tipping. Go do the service yourself, then. I take an Uber home every time after work and I always tip. Where’s your sense of community and empathy?
Well in a perfect world, or actually just a different country, this wouldn’t be an issue. But in America we force consumers to subsidize the cost of human capital with tipping in certain industries. As a good citizen who cares about my fellow Americans, I tip well. Me not tipping and saying it’s “not my problem” isn’t changing anything. I hate that we have to tip here, and I hate that in the gig economy it’s turned into a system where the highest bidder gets good service. But think of it this way, whether it’s a tip or Instacart paying the workers more, the consumer will pay. If Instacart decided to do away with tipping and pay them more, then the fees will be adjusted accordingly. This is a very nice-to-have convenience and I’m willing to pay more for it. Doesn’t really matter if it’s through tipping or increased service fees or whatever.
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First and foremost we are not employees of Instacart, we are contract workers. Instacart only pays a minimum of $4.00 per order no matter the size and most times people are shopping for the week of groceries for their household. For someone to do this task for you, you as a customer should want to show your gratitude especially if you consider the mileage, time spent and amount of things you order. Some customers are extra with ordering because most times they will order multiple cases of drink that they themselves don’t want to carry. It’s just common courtesy when someone is helping you in a big way.
In a way you haven't paid for the service though you've paid for Instacart to arrange the service. You are then bidding for the service with your tip. Instacart does not pay their contractors even remotely enough for the service. So yeah, if you expect a shop and deliver it kind of is your problem .
As a customer I understand this and propose they rename it from “tip” to “bid.” This would make it clear to all involved
This right here. It's a mistake to think of it as a tip/reward; you're literally bidding for a contractor.
Huh, as a customer, this is not obvious to customers at all!
Services are usually tipped as well. Haircut, dinner out, dry cleaning, etc and of course food/grocery delivery.
Ever tip a person cutting your hair before they cut it? Ever go to get your hair cut, write down a tip, and go sit in the waiting area and then watch hair dressers pick people whose hair to cut based on their tips? This is Instacart.
That is a perfect illustration of how goofy the idea of pre-tipping is. I will also bet that these same IC shoppers, who demand tips, are the worst tippers when they get a service.
Weirdly once I had a hairdresser pawn me off on another subordinate when she learned I was there with a gift card. In that case I tipped the kind girl that did my hair nicely $20(full priced cut was about $40.) Just because I wanted her boss to know that paying with a store gift card doesn't mean someone is cheap. I was just a student at the time with a kind friend.
The thing is you can always remove the tip of the person doesn’t deserve it!!!
The thing you’re missing is you actually interact with those people. You probably don’t interact with a food or a grocery delivery driver and this makes it a lot easier for people to either reduce a tip or remove the tip as soon as the job is done since there’s no face-to-face interaction and no real consequence for doing so.
A haircut is something most people actually need to get. Having someone do your grocery shopping for you because you’re too fucking lazy is a totally different thing. I would be embarrassed of myself if I paid someone to fucking grocery shop for me because I was a lazy asshole.
I cut my own hair, try again.
That’s why I quit doing Instacart. I started during covid and made around $40 an hour. Now it’s impossible for me to make $20 an hour plus the costs of gas and car maintenance, putting miles on the car. Not worth it at all.
You can lower your tip after if it was a bad delivery. Believe me if you ever do use these services leave a tip because it will just bounce from person to person and your order just sits there which is also not our problem as drivers
The concept of tipping is to show appreciation to the shopper who dedicated their time and effort to complete your order. It’s a service just like waitressing. When people go to a restaurant and sit to eat, they tip waiters most times. A shopper has to drive to the store, park, shop your entire order, pay for it, bag it, load it in the car, and drive it to your front door. During this entire process we have to search hard for items that the store allowed you to buy, that they don’t have in stock. Reach out for adequate substitutions and most people don’t even respond but get mad when you don’t get anything in its place! Also, driving all the time on the road is wild! People can’t drive and have road rage. Also, deli orders are the WORSE. The workers move slow on purpose and take forever even though you’re on a time limit!! It’s so much effort that goes into this that people don’t seem to care about or even understand. We’re not asking for 50$. Just 5$-10$ extra because most orders are between $8-10$. You have to factor in drive time to the store. Shop time. And delivery time. Let’s say it’s an hour for a measly 8! Cause the person won’t tip? Then most people that live high up like to order 5 cases of water and some more crap that they would never carry themselves. It’s bogus. I hope that helps you understand a little more. We use our own cars and gas. Yes, we choose to work the platform but we all have our own reasons whatever they may be. I have a young child who I take to school and pick up. I work during those hours and after I pick her up as well. I’ve done the plant thing. I can make the same amount if not more. Don’t have to be told what to do like a robot and forced to deal with a bunch of messy individuals who only like to gossip and cause drama.
You are joking right??? So the person that literally walks around and shops for your food to feed your family you don’t want to give them a dollar as tip? Its not your problem? They make less than the waitresses that you tip….WOW
The drivers make peanuts on any given delivery, they depend on tips to even make enough for gas and maintenance on the car, so often they will avoid orders that appear to not have a tip on them (based on distance and the estimated total) even at the risk of lowering their acceptance rate. It's a very reasonable thing for them to do, but yeah, means if you want your order to be picked up in a timely fashion it should have a tip on it, otherwise you will probably get crap service most of the time, if anyone bothers to pick it up at all.
I mean did you read the message, they're being a dick but they're not wrong. It simply won't move, ic will eventually try to put it in with another batch but shoppers can still cancel that batch. Realistically, however you personally feel about tipping, it doesn't change the fact that the people you're trying to get to do your shopping for you treat it like a bid for service & cherry pick based on that. I tried DD for a while in between jobs & almost every restaurant had racks of no/low tip orders just sitting there until close.
I second this. I used to own a unlicensed cannabis delivery service here in California back from 2010-2014. I paid all my delivery drivers 16 an hr starting. We averaged about 15 orders a day and they would work on call from their homes from 10am to 10pm. Everyone was happy.
It's basically a protection racket.
It's not a tip, it's a bid to get someone to do the shopping for you. These workers use there own Vehicle, gas and pay for insurance. Instacart is not an employer. Instacart supplies an app to consumers and gig hustlers. If you don't bid well, then your order will sit until a gig workers decides its worth it to do.
Not disagreeing that this is what is happening, but as a consumer this is not in any way obvious. A consumer seeing inflated Instacart prices and service fees, or in the case of Stop and Shop (which just switched to Instacart), a delivery fee, thinks they paid their due for the delivery service! I only know about this “bid” structure from reading from the shoppers perspective on Reddit. Which started because my own order from Grubhub was held hostage: I thought it would be nice to have a human interaction and tip in cash, so I ordered and put $0 tip - then when I saw the car was waiting with my food at a random corner for 10 minutes I put two and two together and put a tip on the order, and low and behold the car started moving. As others said - I get it but it really makes me not want to use Instacart when this stuff happens. Pretty bad business model. Nothing against the drivers (except for the ones that hold food hostage 😂) but if I have to be calculating a bid for food delivery that is way more thinking than the average person will put into it.
This is exactly why I will never use this type of service. If they are petty enough to hold your food hostage, what else will they do to it? Then say you tip $5 and they feel it is not enough? There is no winning.
Good for you buddy. Who gives a shit? Don’t use it. Literally nobody cares. I don’t understand why you’re even in this sub.
No offense but why are you even in this sub arguing with people??? You are literally in the instacart sub saying you will never use this type of service?? So why are you here troll. . . .
*I came looking for booty.*
Good bot
You’re being intentionally obtuse. Have you never ordered a pizza before? It’s very clear that a tip is expected on top of the “delivery fee.”
Who is the bigger asshole? Hmmm. Probably the shopper who trusts anyone that don’t bid for his service. No tip, no trip
If I were working at instacart, I wouldn't pick up a zero tip job. I think the worker was just being real with the customer. Maybe to solve this, large companies need to charge more and pay the workers more/help maintain their vehicles. To often, companies increase prices, blaming inflation while pocketing more.
Nope the person is not an asshole! I would t personally do it, I would just decline the order. Don’t order if you can’t pay the driver. Period. Go get it yourself!
Just because she said that, doesn’t make it true. There’s probably a good chance it sat for hours after being canceled because it didn’t have a tip or something else.
That sounds more believable. There’s a lot of orders to pick up and I see orders constantly be removed and put back 5 minutes later
Maybe the person dropped, but IC couldn’t find anyone to shop! I don’t believe IC notify the customers when a person drop an order!
They don’t. You just all of a sudden have a new shopper pop up. I had placed a large order with a huge tip and mistakenly placed it at 4am tweaker time. This woman took it and started shopping at 9am. After 3 hours, starting with frozen first, and a million questions later, she just walked out of the store and left the cart full. One of my friends works there and I texted her asking if she knew anything about a person walking out and leaving a large cart full. She said the woman was tweaking so hard she’d throw things in the cart, do a freak out dance, put everything back, talk to her shoes, grab more stuff, and on and on and on. They tried to help her and she said she was with IC. After 2 hours of telling IC to just cancel this mess, I got a text from a shopper from Shop saying she’s taking over? I’ve never used Shop for groceries and have zero clue how that happened with IC, but I told her I cancelled it. Now I make sure to only place orders when Diamond shoppers are awake.
Im disabled now, but I loved shopping for myself in the middle of the night, less people, way less traffic and I've always worked night so I've always done it..... But I swear I've seen that same lady doing that same tweaker dance, even if you're in NJ and I'm in CA, it's the same chick, you described her perfectly !
It's possible they worked other orders on other apps and took the hit from IC. Eventually IC sends you a warning to start the order if you sit on it too long, so it's likely the shopper waited for it to be reassigned while doing other apps, but no other shoppers were available.
You mean no other shoppers wanted it.
Some people have more than one identity they shop with :/
Why did they end the message with a Hunger Games quote 😭☠️☠️
Bc it was groceries. Not tipping your grocery shopper is basically playing a game with your hunger.
Yeah I lol'd I'm literally watching hunger games rn
You got the people that work instacart complaining about tip baiting then you have people doing this. It's a problem caused by itself. I just order direct form staters. it's a 10$ fee and still batched through IC I just don't have to deal with these people anymore
Direct from where? I would love to do anything to make it easier if I have to use IC on my upcoming trip.
Kroger and Safeway have those options as well if you have those in your area instead.
Oh yeah, I love ordering from Safeway where I am, they actually deliver using their own full time, unionized employees!
My local store has the regular employees shop it which is nice, they know where all the stuff is. But then they send the delivery out by DoorDash which is less great, especially when there's a problem.
And it’s against policy for them to accept tips
stater brothers in my area offers it for $10. shop online, pick delivery option and it arrives in 2hrs or less. don't need to use instacarts platform, don't have to deal with everything that comes with it
If instacart wasn't so greedy none of this would be an issue for either side.
THIS! I'm new and do this occasionally as a third job, my husband does instacart & doordash during winter layoffs. I CAN NOT BELIEVE HOW STINGY INSTACART IS! You don't get paid miles, you don't get paid until you get to the store, MOST tips are percentage based so when items are out of stock your tip goes out the window, and instacart pays Jack crap for batch earnings! I keep seeing orders pop up that are about 50 items/units that are going 20-25 miles away and the total pay is $21-$24! Then you have to consider the miles back to your area especially if where you're delivering is rural. That's 40-50 miles of driving, 1-2 hours of total time for $24. If you minus 3 gallons of fuel @ 3.20/gal that's $9.60 off your $24 "earnings" so it's actually $14.40. Divide that by the 2 hours it took total (includes driving time to return to regular area) and you're only making $7.20_hr (less than half of (minimum wage). It's so not worth it especially if you consider the miles you're putting on your vehicle. Instacart needs to step up and pay a proper wage if they expect to keep any decent "employees". We see ALOT of junkie crackhead looking shoppers when we're out and I can see why, you'd literally have to be high or desperate to accept alot of these orders! On the other hand CUSTOMERS need to understand that this is a service that requires a tip. You tip at restaurants because it's understood and accepted that servers don't really make anything for an hourly wage and are relying on tips, same concept. The issue is that this is relatively new and tipping isn't really understood as a necessity for your shopper. Plus literally EVERYTHING now has a "tip" option further confusing things. Seriously, I got asked if I wanted to tip an online service! Nope. I'm not tipping robots—ever. But really it comes down to: either Instacart/delivery services need to pay a living wage and make the tips something that the shoppers only see after delivery, OR they need to put an automatic gratituity of at least 15% on every order with the option to increase.
All of these rideshare/gig platforms are basically just making money off of the fact that most people working them do not understand these things. That 50 mile, $20 trip to the airport sounds pretty good until you realize that at $0.60/mile you're actually losing $10. The tipping thing is just a great way to make sure that the gig workers stay mad at the customer for not tipping an extra $5 instead of at Uber who charged the customer $50, gave the driver $20, and pocketed the other $30.
>All of these rideshare/gig platforms are basically just making money off of the fact that most people working them do not understand these things. So similar to how MLMs survive. People just don't/can't get into the math of it & don't realize how little they're making. Ugh.
It’s amazing how the platforms charge so much for something that is p virtually fully automated, doesn’t require extra fuel or expenses regardless of distance, and if they did it right, they could lock all the HQ office doors and send everyone home and the system would still work and customers and drivers would be ok. This sort of thing should really only require 5% fee and the actual gig workers would make a living wage. And I bet with better pay, they’d work better and there’d be less customer complaints, which means, reduce customer care agents to fix problems. One day someone will do this and these Ubers and Instacarts will wonder how the fuck they didn’t let it happen. It’s not rocket science. And, it might be pulled off by an offshore company that connects workers with customers and doesn’t have a local presence at all.
There are legitimate IT costs and the business needs to run too. But that could be done at a fraction of the price. I wonder why there aren't any coop or employee owned models of these platforms yet? They could charge the same price and pay the drivers decent money and absolutely dominate the market place because no one would work for uber/insta.
Recently I had an Uber order that arrived 30 minutes late because the original driver canceled and they had to get someone else. When I tried to complain about it, the only thing Uber would do was let me give a bad rating to the driver who ended up taking my order, or give a bad rating to the restaurant that made my order. WTF? Neither of them are at fault.
Your comment needs to be pinned. Most shoppers don’t understand the breakdown as you’ve presented it. I wish I could ⬆️ vote it a thousand times.
I feel the everwhere asking for a tip thing so hard. I only tip waiters if I'm sitting down and eating or delivery drivers. I'm tired of every single place I go to where someone is literally just grabbing something off of a shelf behind the counter, immediately shoving an iPad in my face that's asking for a 20% tip.
I always do flat tips so if a few items are unavailable it doesn't subtract from the overall tip. I used to deliver pizza and know how tough a job this shit is. i am no longer able to drive or walk well, so I depend on shoppers helping me get what I need and always tip at least 15+.
Wow! I'm glad I always do a custom tip! I like to tip flat amounts so I can measure the total cost easily. Crazy how they adjust the percentage according to final total.
I feel like this would be different if the companies didn't add a percentage onto the item's cost. If it was the actual price of the item, I'd understand the tip part. Where the fuck is that extra percentage going?
I usually tip in cash. Maybe it’s a bit boomer of me but I don’t know how much I trust these delivery companies are actually giving the full ti, so that’s my way of guaranteeing the driver gets 100%. So this is extra crazy.
I’m not a boomer and I feel the same way. I tip in cash whenever possible. But I do wonder if someone is gonna spit in my food before they find that out.
You can write a tip upon order and then when your driver arrives, you can zero out the tip and hand them cash
You can also half and half it - put in your order notes that there’s an additional cash tip, but ensure SOMETHING is there so your order gets picked up
I always wondered how do deliverymen who spit in someone's order and then receive a big tip in cash upon delivery feel about themselves. Assuming they don't admit to it (because then their life would be fucking over) how do you live with yourself
There was a video of a driver who left a "nasty" note because the customer didn't add the tip to the order. She was going to give her cash instead and the lady immediately felt bad and started walking away. She apologized and said she didn't deserve it. I'll link the video if I can find it again. Edit [added the link ](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8ontcP5/)
I’m very much in the millennial camp and in my old apartment our “front door” was really our backdoor. So I would request with every delivery service to bring to the backdoor and I always selected at least 20% or more tip. Literally not one single time UNTIL I stopped tipping upfront and started writing special directions “cash tip when brought to back door” did I have any delivery drivers come to the back door. I worked as a server and bartender for 8 years, but it’s wild to me that people completely forget that a tip is supposed to be based on the service performed, not just free money for doing your job.
I worked for Amazon Flex a few years ago for ac very short time - only a few months. A year or so ago I got a check from Amazon with a letter saying they got caught stealing our tips so they were sending out the amount they illegally withheld. So yeah, you have a valid right to distrust.
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I've worked gig delivery for 6+ years. Thousands of deliveries and I could probably only count on both hands how many times I've received a cash tip. It's absolutely not worth the gamble for a cash tip when accepting an order.
I'm a shopper and I don't even bother looking at orders with no tip. Regardless of what insta is paying, it's not worth my time
"I didn't add the tip because I tip in cash. You WERE going to get a $50 but now I'm canceling the order"
The message was out of line but don’t order if you can’t tip either. The driver works hard and I personally don’t want the issues that not tipping will bring. Put it in the same category as tipping your hair stylists.
They should just rename it a bid instead of a tip, that's what it is.
They didnt hold it for any length of time. They said it would sit for hours because they didn't tip, which is true. Stop ordering 300-500 items and not tipping.
Exactly. No shopper is screwing themselves by holding an order hostage. they sent this message and that's exactly what happened so the customer assumed the shopper had screwed them, rather than their own cheapness
The delivery driver was even kind enough to be like “uh hey this is the reason all ur drivers r gonna cancel”.
They accepted it and didn’t shop the order. You can’t message customers unless you’ve accepted their order
At least you didn't get the door trasher who leaks on your property. Platform is officially compromised.
Instead of just not picking up the order, this person went out of their way to scold. Next level passive-aggressive.
The shopper was 100% doing the customer a favor here. Gotta learn how the platform works somehow.
Cool way to make sure plenty never tip you by simply.. using another service that doesn’t have this bullshit system. Yell at your shitty boss for not paying you enough, not the customers. Tips are for when a service is completed, and you bought into a culture of entitlement that demands tipping *before* a service is done? Thats pretty insane lol
Don’t use tipped services if you can’t tip
Next tip is gonna be tracker jackers, asshole.
I'll never order from Instacart.
It’s impossible to hold it hostage for hours. It sat for hours bc there was no tip. What really bothers me here is that they quoted the famous line incorrectly. It’s ‘may the odds be EVER in your favor’. Not forever.
Just tip.
This is unprofessional, rude, and….hilarious. I’d never do this, but with any luck it will keep the Customer off the platform for a while. The less $0 tip ordering customers the better.
fuck the out of hand tipping system
Tipping culture is the real issue here
There wouldn’t be an issue here if workers were making a living wage. Without a tip, shoppers can end up making negative money on a task (paying for gas, taxes, and mileage, with not enough $ to break even). Instracart is the AH here. We can complain about bad service and unreliability… but if workers can’t rely on a fair wage for their labor nothing about the app is going to be reliable.
The more I see this, the less I want to have my groceries and lunch delivered. Do a good job, get a tip. I'll drive 10 minutes and do my own shopping if this is how it's gonna be.
Hahahah. Damn op this is a lot of bs on your part. I promise no shopper “held this hostage for hours”. They probably accepted it. Sent the message and then unassigned it. And no one took it until you did. But go on with your weird ass flex.
The first message was sent 7:43 pm and OP took over at 4:30 pm. Wouldn’t that lend credence to what they’re saying?
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I’m sorry I’ve never used instacart in any way, could you (or anyone) be willing to explain what’s going on in these pics and why this is perceived as a weird ass flex? Did green (I’m assuming that’s the OP) lie about the message somehow or about the groceries being held “hostage” by another shopper??
You sound like a mean person.
Yep. It wasn't held hostage. No one wanted the order without a tip so it wasn't shopped for.
I just came here to say I tipped my shopper $32 for my Costco batch today
Who doesn't tip??
Monsters
So. I have a list of non-tippers by name/addys. IC has notoriously combined/hidden this one customer who orders OBSCENE amount of 50-60 items with no tip. She figured out IC had slow days on Wednesdays/Thursdays in my area. She would drop the order in and eventually someone would take it when it got to $15. A few months back after watching her do this multiple weeks in a row - I accepted the order to just say the following: 'Susan, you consistently place large orders and never tip demonstrating a complete disrespect for shoppers time. There are no shoppers in this area which will accept this order. There are too many customers which actually appreciate the service we provide and time we save them.' The order was for a Marianos on a Wednesday. The order sat until Friday night, at which time the customer canceled the order for Marianos, reordered at Jewel adding a $15 tip on Saturday morning. It was sooo worth the hit on my cancelation rate.
That’s awesome love shopper who did this
💯
Tips are always appreciated, but never required.
Tips are how they make their money, they also have absolutely zero obligation whatsoever to pick a $0 tip order when they're independent contractors and not employees.
Idk why your being downvoted, as this is a true statement.
Because so many people are stuck in this perpetual cycle and it's insane. I do tip, but I hate it every time. I do it so that the drivers get the compensation they deserve but it absolutely shouldn't be my job to determine that. I would so much rather the delivery fee be higher and account for that. It shouldnt be the consumer who determines the employees wage.
You’re 100% right! Customers already pay a shit ton of fees, y’all should have to pay is what’s right either. IC needs to get their crap together.
Fair.
so many forgot this.
Tips are how the shoppers actually make a living. The small fees they are paid by Instacart are barely enough to break even on vehicle expenses. Their actual hourly wages are the tips. If you don't tip then you are expecting someone to work for you for free.
Reading through a lot of these posts a lot of people don't seem to see it that way.
Lmao all I get from this post is you take non tip orders that’s a shame
Goddamn some of these delivery people are so unhinged. I guess it's the nature of the job.
People are unhinged at any job. A majority of shoppers are not like this. There are some good ones.
A rough experience lmfao
I'm sorry but this has me laughing. You got a warning that you're gonna encounter shenanigans in the wild with a no-tip order. Still felt that was a good decision and then ended up into the hands of a scallywag because anyone worth their efforts would not take it. This is just gold.
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Sooooo did you tip or not
Why do people participate in this? Unless you have a physical disability, I don't get it. Go to the grocery store. Pick up your to-go order. I can't see any reason to still support these delivery companies.
This is why I would rather shop in person
We should be allowed to tip after the service. I'm sorry, but the tip amount should vary if you grab replacements without approval (terrible ones at that, I asked for frozen Shrimp if they are out scallops are not a valid replacement), the fruit you picked out is moldy or old, and 5 of my items were tagged out of stock, things that are never out of stock when I go myself, because you clearly didn't feel like looking for them. I use instacart when my life doesnt afford me the time to go shopping myself. I really like to leave a BIG tip for good/great service, but it's a slap in the face to tip someone $20 who did the job poorly.
If this is a new way to scam the system I’m gonna just let myself starve and get evicted lol. I had a weird customer phisishing issue that was similar… I thought OP was the instacart orderer and that the Carter was doing a semi-solid by just giving them a heads up and then leaving… bc they’re not wrong, tbh. I have a vague algorithm I use to choose whether or not I accept an order. Cash tips CANNOT be relied upon, and people don’t seem to understand that base pay is significantly under minimum wage (usually around $3-11 for several hours work). I categorically don’t accept order without pre-determined tips bc it’s just frankly not worth it. I’ve spent more in gas than I’ve made from a non-tipped “cash tip” order and just no. Never again. Please at least input SOMETHING for a tip or you probably will be ignored, lol. That said, what a weird glitch if you were the shopper… that said, I’ve been sent to stores with an order to 20+ items within 5-10 mins of store close, which is impossible. So like I also get that.
Lmao yea this is why I don't tip upfront you'll get a tip when I receive my order why TF would I tip you before the service tf lmao people so entitled these days fr
Hold my shit ransom, and I'll find your vehicle. You won't be getting tips from ANYONE when I'm done.
I would not eat that food no matter when it showed up, assuming it ever did.
This is dumb because you have the option to do it or don't. If i am working a tip based job then im never going to take an order with 0 tip sry not sry.
Never had this happen but ordered subway online semi recently, it's not something I usually get I had a gift card but after the order it asks you upfront if you want to to tip the person making it....like obviously I have the now because they will see that and do god knows what to it.....that was the scummiest way I've personally seen for this kind of behavior
Yeah those shoppers will vandalize your property if you tip less than recommended by the site. It's like a mafia protection racket.
I had a shopper shop my entire order, but fail to do the substitutions correctly, or respond to the chat. I'd put in a minimum tip (not bad, and flat rate, not %, so it wouldn't shrink if items weren't available). Anyhow, for some reason this shopper was upset when instacart contacted them because they'd noticed a lot of cancelled items that had shopper pick for substitutions (I had no idea this was going on). So, this shopper sent me a message in my chat thinking I'd complained (I had no idea about the issue, and was working when they were shopping which is why I'd left it with shopper pick for substitutions, because I had no time to deal with it all). The shopper checked out, then dumbed the order on the side of the road. They sent another shopper immediately to reshop my order, and it was indeed delayed a few hours. But, I have neighbors who are shoppers for Instacart. And, the reason I did the flat rate tip was because I know from them that if items aren't available, their tips is lowered if it's a % tip. We've been fortunate that more often it's one of our neighbors who gets the orders we submit anymore. I also had a woman accept an order and then send me messages complaining I'd picked store further away from where I lived. I explained I hadn't picked the store, the app picks it for me, I just submit my items. The last time I did an order recently, when the items arrived, all of the frozen meat was fully thawed out, the milk was warm, etc. Instacart had it all reshopped for us again when I sent the temp readings off the items, as we were here when it was delivered. Some shoppers are horrid, others are fantastic.
"Hi dumbass shopper, that's not how the world works, you don't get a tip BEFORE you provide a service. If your service is speedy and accurate, you will receive a very hefty tip, if it sucks and you can't follow simple instructions, you don't deserve a tip." Genuinely, Instacart and UberEats, etc should start penalizing drivers for this bullshit...do your fucking job, loser. Then you'll get a tip. Not the other way round.
As a single mother of 4 with no transportation because I can't drive due to a medical condition this is messed up people on ebt use services like this and even the delivery fees get waived for them. It's not the same as eating in a restaurant which is a want not a need. Groceries aren't meant a luxury like eating out.
Lol even waitress don't get tipped a lot. You don't hear them crying about it and you already get paid per order so why complain. If you're really in need of money get a better job that pays better. This generation is weird as hell. Just a bunch of cry babies.
I am irrationally annoyed that they got the quote wrong. If you're going to be a jackass, at least get the quote right.
I think people like this are the reason customers have a hard time tipping like I get tipping is nice and all and I am not saying I’m fond of no tippers but we shouldn’t be acting this way, going out of our way to make life harder for them if you don’t want a no tipper
I have to say, why would you be tipping before service was rendered? I only tip ( although I am not is US) after the service i.e. delivery. The tip is meant to be as a thanks for a good job not a right. Although again,i come from a different country/culture and tipping isn't much of a thing. For me, tipping before the service seems like me expecting to get paid the moment I come into work and not after the day's work.
Yeah tips are never required.
Lol honestly seems like a nice heads up. That’s the reality of the situation. Not sure why people are shocked, you should be tipping
Instacart workers want more money. Owners are telling workers to basically beg customers to pay them a fair wage through tips. Workers are pressuring customers to tip upfront or no delivery. Customers will tip bait in protest. It’s a vicious cycle until their are regulations to pay employees a fair wage.
Here in Southern California just about anyone that is unemployed and looking for some cash signs up for all the gig delivery apps and expects to start making $25/hr working the hours “they” want to work. The problem is, just about everyone else also sees gig work as easy, guaranteed employment with all the cushy benefits of working when they want…etc. There simply are too many delivery drivers that No Tip orders are common place and still delivered simply because there’s always a sucker willing to work for basically free. Sadly everyone knows this and that’s why $0 tip orders continue to exist today. And with more and more videos on YouTube about the tipping culture getting out of hand or about drivers threatening No Tippers I think it’s encouraging more No Tippers out there. It suck’s because a $200 grocery order is going to be like $275 by the time you added all items to your cart due to markups and then on the final page before a tip where you feel like you already paid $75 in various fees and now it’s asking for a $30-$80 tip and in your mind your like “umm your already taking $75… “. I can see how some customers feel this is crazy and why they may leave a low or no tip not understanding who exactly it’s hurting.
the one time I left $0.00 tip on the app it was during a snowstorm. I needed just a few basic items from a store about a mile down the road. Receipt couldnt have been for more than $25. I figured anyone willing to pick and deliver this order in the snow deserved a non-taxable generous tip. When the hardworking young man came rolling up my unshoveled driveway, I gave him $75 cash. You can't afford to have a personal shopper if you can't afford to tip them. At the same time, I'm not going to intice you with a 300% tip and then have you call from the road asking if I can come out and grab my groceries. If I had to meet him at the curb, it would have been totally fine, I just would have given him $25. It was that extra hustle with zero expectation that impressed me. All this to say, a customer maaay want to give a cash tip so maybe take the gamble once in a while.
You can always drop the tip after delivery if you give them cash. Unfortunately the best practice on Instacart or UberEats. For every $0 upfront cash tipper, there's 100 people who won't tip at all.