Instacart Driver Urges Other Drivers To Skip Orders That Don’t Tip, And The Internet Has Thoughts
Content creator James, who is one half of the TikTok account @JamesAndLeondra, also does Instacart deliveries, and he recently uploaded a video about the gig.
Calling his peers to unite, the man explained why he thinks nobody should accept some of the tipless orders they get.
“Look at this,” James said at the start of the clip, before dissecting the app’s microclimate. “They want 43 items. No tip. Good luck with that.”
The video quickly blew up and ignited a discussion on fair pay, tipping culture, and the entire service system as a whole.
This Instacart shopper is so sick and tired of tipless orders, he just made a video about it
Image credits: jamesandleondra
“Look at this s**t. They want 43 items. No tip. Good luck with that”
“This is a call to arms to all Instacart shoppers. If you’re an Instacart shopper, I’m calling on you to join all the other Instacart shoppers. I’ve been seeing batch after batch with no tip.”
Image credits: jamesandleondra
“If somebody orders one thing and they don’t want a tip, I get it. I’m not going to take the order. But when somebody orders 43 items with no tip and it’s 6 degrees outside, it’s a 10-mile round trip, they want us to go to the store in six-degree weather, pick up 43 items, bring it to their house, drop it off at their door, possibly ring the doorbell, wait for them to answer the door in six-degree weather.”
Image credits: jamesandleondra
“They don’t wanna tip. If you’re an Instacart shopper and you see a batch with no tip, don’t take it. Do not take it. Let it sit there and sit there and sit there until they have to go to the store their damn self. Don’t take orders with no tip. Don’t.”
Image credits: jamesandleondra
With this video, James has touched on a sensitive subject
Dr. Jaime Peters, assistant dean and assistant professor of finance at Maryville University, has a quick solution for determining when and if it is appropriate to tip: “It helps to understand how people are paid,” she told CNBC.
In other words, a waiter at a restaurant is not paid the same minimum wage as a cashier at a grocery store or coffee shop. “The lower hourly rate is justified by the opportunity for the waitstaff to earn generous tips, which should — theoretically — bring their wages to or above the state’s minimum wage,” Dr. Peters explained.
For this reason, leaving a gratuity for your waiter at a restaurant has been standard practice Other situations where tipping it’s also routine include taking a cab ride or getting a service done at a salon.
Dr. Peters added that you may also tip most front-of-house restaurant employees, bellhops, parking attendants, airport service workers, and food delivery workers. ”[Customers] should consider each one of them an independent contractor that [they] are hiring for the moment,” she said.
His TikTok quickly went viral
@jamesandleondra This is a reoccurring issue that needs to be addressed. #instacartshopper #instacart #notipnoservice #dobetter #work#fyp #viral #struggleisreal ♬ Powerful cinematic orchestra [war] – Sino
On the other end of the spectrum, fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery.
As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are automatically being prompted to leave a gratuity — many times up to 30% — at places they normally wouldn’t. And some say it has become more frustrating as the price of items has skyrocketed due to inflation, which eased to an annual rate of 6.5% in December but remains painfully high.
Unlike tip jars that shoppers can easily ignore if they don’t have any change in their pockets, experts claim digital requests can produce social pressure and are more difficult to bypass. And your generosity, or lack thereof, can be laid bare for anyone close enough to glance at the screen — including the workers themselves.
And received a lot of positive replies as well as inspired people to share their own take on the subject
However, there was a fair share of backlash, too
Some think Instacart itself is to blame for the division between shoppers and customers
The real problem is the "tipping economy". This discussion would be completely superfluous if companies would actually use the delivery fees to pay their drivers a living wage. Using "sharing economy" concepts or bogus "self-employment" to undermine minimum wage laws also is a problem. I would gladly tip a driver, but not just because the company wants to maximise profits. How long will it take until people will actually have to pay to work for those companies instead of getting paid?
Exactly. Here in the Netherlands we also have delivery companies but they employ the drivers for a normal wage. Also every supermarket has there own delivery service as well. The main problem is the format, just like doordash for example
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I'm happy to tip and I always do - but only after the fact. A tip is made and appreciation of a job well done and a service given, but apps have now changed that so a tip is required before I even get that service. If that service is done poorly, I don't get my tip back. I will never again use any app that requires me to tip beforehand. I will only use services that allow me to tip once I've seen what the quality of service has been.
That's because this "tip" isn't really a tip it's you paying the person for their service. It should be called something else like a bid and not a tip.
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So...does he want tips? Or a higher salary? Can't have both a tipping economy and a high salary economy. And by the way, the tip should come AFTER the service. How does the customer know you're going to provide good service in advance? It's all bs tbh. You want a tip? Fine. Do your job correctly, provide good service, and I'll tip you when it's done.
If someone working in an office screws up the Peterson presentation, does their boss take a cut of their paycheck? No. The company can discipline you or even fire you but they still have to pay you for making that presentation. Tipping is part of the capitalist dystopia. The multinational company is getting your full payment for a messed up contract and does not have to suffer for any loss of income because of it. That cost is absorbed by someone who isn't even being paid minimum wage.
Load More Replies... These so-called 'platforms' are essentially no different to the 18th century pre-industrial piecework economies. They are simply a high-tech way to maximise profit while throwing the costs onto the workers themselves. They claim they are 'contractors' when in fact they are entirely reliant on the platform- it is effectively indetitured labour but with none of the employment rights such as a guaranteed stable salary, paid sick leave, paid holiday, protection from instant dismissal etc etc. It's absolutely abhorrent. I am so glad I live in a civilised country where this hasn't (yet) become the norm. I'll never understand why American workers aren't burning down their law makers homes and stringing these billionaires from lamp posts. They deserve it.
(1) Your company underpays you. Blame them. Start a union. Quit and get a different job. It's not your customers who are a$$holes; it's your employer. (2) Tips are given AFTER the service has been provided, not before. It's entitled af to automatically expect a tip for a job you haven't even done yet. Tips are literally based on quality of service. (I always generously tip anyone who delivers anything to me, if their job allows tipping. And I tip AFTER the service has been provided.)
Tipping culture is so messed up. So a tip is now required in order to receive a service? That isn't tipping, that's paying for a service. If people want the option to pay more for a slightly better / faster service that's fine, but that shouldn't be called tipping.
So yet another company that expects to profit, but wants us to pay their employees? Got it. No thanks. I had heard commercials for this and now I know I won't try it.
COMPANIES NEED TO PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES BETTER! Is that loud enough? No one should have to rely on tips to get by. It’s morally wrong.
First of all nobody is obligated to tip. People need to stop feeling so entitled. As someone who uses delivery regularly because I don't have a car sometimes I do use the option "tip after delivery". I have had orders with tip gettin' straight stolen. I have had orders with tip delivered to other houses many times. I like to tip after delivery to insure I get my order. I also like to tip cash. So this is c**p. On the other hand if the weather is nuts and I place an order I will tip nicely. But the driver has to accept the order to find out. Bottom line if you're not going to deliver because you're an entitled punk get a different job.
Frankly, even if we didn't live in a "tipping" economy, I'd tip anyone who delivers food to my door. I'm sick as heck with a vvirus, and not having to force myself through the store is a huge relief. I'll give 'em a very good tip because they're doing me a service that isn't just walking across a room to fill a mug. They have to drive across the county.
I think most people agree with that in principle, but I'm not interested in tipping someone *in advance* when I don't know whether they're going to do a good job or not and the chance of me getting that money back is little to none. If they turn up with what I ordered, or at least a decent attempt at it, then great; but if they turn up with half my order, badly packed and squashed, and everything stinks of cigarette smoke or bubblegum vape juice, then that's a very different story.
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Here's the problem, which is simple to fix. Stop tipping, period. Customers shouldn't be held responsible for your pay or extras. Why am I or anyone paying you to do your job. Secondly, companies are double dipping by charging delivery fees. So again, the problem is that people assume that the consumer should pay you to do your job. That makes no sense. People are trying to get over!
This isn't a W2 job, these "tips" are more like bids, your willing to pay x amount and drivers will only accept y amount. So anyone who pays y amount gets the delivery, people who don't won't. The workers won't lose anything because they're working for themselves
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As long as Instacart drivers have the option of accepting/rejecting orders, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. The tipping system is messed up. The only one who really profits is the owner who somehow gets to raise their prices because of inflation but also can't afford to pay their employees a living wage (or even minimum wage) because...inflation? The same thing they use to make more money? Meanwhile servers live on unreliable sources of income, customers are the ones expected to pay for what the employer won't, and if customers don't tip the amount others think is acceptable, the customer gets lambasted with insults by peers. Maybe if this was a restaurant, the server should be expected to serve tipless tables or quit, but this is Instacart. It works differently. It's no different than if he rejected the order because he had to pick up his kid from soccer practice. He's not violating any contract he made; he's just choosing to focus on his own financial situation.
People don't understand how Instacart works. To start with, we are contracted out. We are not employees. We have to pay our own taxes. Then, each batch starts at $7. That's what Instacart pays us. We can have up to 3 customers on that one batch and we still get $7. We get a little extra for heavy pay and a little for long distances but that's about it. You are paying Instacart the $10 delivery fee not your shopper. I don't see how people can expect someone to get in their car, drive to the store, shop for their groceries for the week, get back in their car, and drive to your house and unload it all and not tip. You tip waitress and waiter's when you go out to eat. I'm not sure how much they make an hour but I think it's more than $7 an hour and all they are doing is taking your order and carrying your plate to you. Like I said, we have to pay our taxes, drive our cars which means a lot of wear and tear and maintenance, not to mention using a lot of gas. No tip, no service.
Instacart, doordash, postmates, Uber, etc. were all advertised as side hustles, but people are relying on them as fulltime jobs. As someone who's worked in the service industry and now no longer does, I am conflicted because I see both sides to the argument. Imo, tipping beforehand is unfair to the consumer and this is where I feel these service workers are getting greedy. With not just the food cost, but all the extra fees, we're paying an extra 20% already, so tipping another 18%-20% on top of that can easily add an extra $40+ to the bill. Personally, I've found tipping well doesn't even mean I'll get good service. Often times, items are missing or incorrect or even damaged and unusable (one time the eggs I recieved were all broken). As a consumer it stings to have paid a hefty tip beforehand in addition to all the extra fees (which easily add $40+ to the bill) only to get poor service anyways.
So i understand why many people are now reducing their tips or not tipping at all. Consumers cannot do anything about the fees, so they reduce the tip to try and balance out the cost. Also, some people are just cheap jerks and just don't want to tip. However, if the delivery fee actually went to the delivery drivers maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. Overall, tipping culture has gotten out of hand, and I wouldn't even call it culture, so much as exploitation of both the worker and the consumer. Companies are exploiting workers by not paying them livable wages, and also the consumer for making them make up that cost of low wages. We need to ban together to end it.
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We don't have any of that fancy stuff in my tiny town of 500 but I am of the mind instead of going on social media complaining just quit
SO.. we tell them dont take a order if you dont like what you are being paid, argue for more money but.. when they dont take the order.. they are the bad guy. Its not like the ones who brag about being bloody thieves.
If you don't wanna work in a delivery company and complain about not getting a tip when many delivery drivers or public transportation doesn't get tips but work for longer in worse conditions. Maybe just get a real job and stop wasting so much money on gas. Maybe you wouldn't have to worry about tips if you didn't work a "job" that requires you to use money to do it. It's not complicated, stop complaining and do something about it. Like working a DIFFERENT job.
If you can't tip, go shop yourself. It's a service so pay for it or just deal with the fact no one wants to deliver your order. You don't need the service, you're choosing it voluntarily so you have to deal with how it's set up. People who bait (add a tip but redact it later) drivers are the worst. If you can't afford to tip... don't use the service?
This whole micro service/take-out economy is pretty stupid, the delivery people should get a decent job instead of perpetuating having them exploited by those big 'disruptive' companies. And if they can't survive on one job the minimum wage should be better, why don't more people fight for that? Other people are also getting too lazy to cook and shop and I don't know what, instead of complaining about having to tip for that they'd better do it themselves and if they don't have enough time for that they should also address their representative and add it to the better minimum wage issue.
Instacart not only marks up every single item on the list (which can add up a huge amount on big orders) but then they charge a service AND delivery fee on top. By the end of it you're paying 1.5 - 2X the amount you would in store. Sometimes adding a huge tip isn't even possible at that point because you're trying to just pay for the food. I've only ever used this service not when I'm "lazy" as the tik toker claims, but in emergency situations when my car was broken down and was pregnant and needed food badly. Was low on money and didn't have a bunch to just throw into a tip. Especially because I've had drivers accept orders before, start the order, message me trying to solicit their personal business, and when I didn't join right away they canceled the order halfway through the shop and I was without groceries the rest of the night. It really does go both ways but I agree instacart needs to do something about it, when I messaged them regarding that issue I didn't even recieve a repl
If I tipped everybody that Dr. Says then I wouldn't have any money. You are not entitled to tips. If you don't like it get a better job. I especially don't tip bad service and it sounds like insta cart, grub hub and the likes all have attitudes and feel entitled.
I am disabled and very much appreciate these delivery services. I understand how it works, and yes I tip generously beforehand because that's how you get their attention so that they will take your order. Tipping generously is also how you keep getting good service in the future. Remember the rating system goes both ways and if you get a bad rep then you may have difficulty getting deliveries in the future. Occasionally it has been necessary for me to change my tip afterwards, and these apps fully allow that. I get why people criticize the tipping culture, but it certainly isn't fair to penalize the workers because of it. Probably a lot of people don't really depend on these services regularly, so they pretty much don't care. But ask yourself what would happen if you were to become disabled and had no one to help you out? And these people did perform a valuable service during the pandemic. Be grateful for them!
I generally avoid tipping via app--because I prefer to give a CASH tip so I can make sure they get 100%. I usually notate "cash tip" as well--if that means someone won't deliver my order because they think zero gratuity, then f**k them because I try to tip at least 25%...
Is there a way to tell the driver you're tipping in cash? I don't use Instacart.
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I love my Instacart shoppers. I get the same 3 all the time. I tip 25-30%. I've never had to wait longer than 2 hours from start to delivery.
Maybe this just isn't an economically viable business. The demand is there, but shopping and delivering is a labour/time-intensive service. But, too many people -- whether it is through the app's fees or through tipping -- just don't want to pay for time, effort, and expenses involved. They just don't value it sufficiently to pay for the workers. (And I hope the app bans users who repeatedly claw back tips. That bait and switch stuff is gross and disrespectful of the workers.)
Rejecting orders is the same as any other sub-contractor refusing to accept a contract to provide services because you won't pay them. If you only offer a roofer $50 to fix your house, they have no obligation to accept it. The delivery driver has no obligation to accept a contract that will not pay them.
It sucks that people reverse their tips, for no good reason - yeah I understand why the option has to be there, there are a*****e delivery people too, but giving someone 5 stars, and reversing the tip? I see that as theft of service. There should be a flag on orders of purchasers who do this so contractors can avoid taking that risk.
Yea, let's just stay quiet and not mention it, that'll guarantee things change.
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I totally get where you're coming from, but this is a very ableist mindset. My 93 year old grandmother was across state and couldn't buy groceries herself, so I'd get groceries and food delivered to her. During this time, I was an extremely broke kid working 2 minimum wage jobs just to get by. I genuinely couldn't afford to tip more than a few bucks. That is how it is for many people. It's not as simple as, "if you can't afford it don't use it". These services have been godsend for the disabled and need to be affordable. It still falls back to the company's exploiting born the workers and consumers in order to excessively line their own pockets
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$30/hour is for those that have expensive tastes. I make $18/hour at my job, so I wouldn't expect to make twice as much to "break even".
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There could be any number of reasons people need delivery
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The real problem is the "tipping economy". This discussion would be completely superfluous if companies would actually use the delivery fees to pay their drivers a living wage. Using "sharing economy" concepts or bogus "self-employment" to undermine minimum wage laws also is a problem. I would gladly tip a driver, but not just because the company wants to maximise profits. How long will it take until people will actually have to pay to work for those companies instead of getting paid?
Exactly. Here in the Netherlands we also have delivery companies but they employ the drivers for a normal wage. Also every supermarket has there own delivery service as well. The main problem is the format, just like doordash for example
Load More Replies... I'm happy to tip and I always do - but only after the fact. A tip is made and appreciation of a job well done and a service given, but apps have now changed that so a tip is required before I even get that service. If that service is done poorly, I don't get my tip back. I will never again use any app that requires me to tip beforehand. I will only use services that allow me to tip once I've seen what the quality of service has been.
That's because this "tip" isn't really a tip it's you paying the person for their service. It should be called something else like a bid and not a tip.
Load More Replies... So...does he want tips? Or a higher salary? Can't have both a tipping economy and a high salary economy. And by the way, the tip should come AFTER the service. How does the customer know you're going to provide good service in advance? It's all bs tbh. You want a tip? Fine. Do your job correctly, provide good service, and I'll tip you when it's done.
If someone working in an office screws up the Peterson presentation, does their boss take a cut of their paycheck? No. The company can discipline you or even fire you but they still have to pay you for making that presentation. Tipping is part of the capitalist dystopia. The multinational company is getting your full payment for a messed up contract and does not have to suffer for any loss of income because of it. That cost is absorbed by someone who isn't even being paid minimum wage.
Load More Replies... These so-called 'platforms' are essentially no different to the 18th century pre-industrial piecework economies. They are simply a high-tech way to maximise profit while throwing the costs onto the workers themselves. They claim they are 'contractors' when in fact they are entirely reliant on the platform- it is effectively indetitured labour but with none of the employment rights such as a guaranteed stable salary, paid sick leave, paid holiday, protection from instant dismissal etc etc. It's absolutely abhorrent. I am so glad I live in a civilised country where this hasn't (yet) become the norm. I'll never understand why American workers aren't burning down their law makers homes and stringing these billionaires from lamp posts. They deserve it.
(1) Your company underpays you. Blame them. Start a union. Quit and get a different job. It's not your customers who are a$$holes; it's your employer. (2) Tips are given AFTER the service has been provided, not before. It's entitled af to automatically expect a tip for a job you haven't even done yet. Tips are literally based on quality of service. (I always generously tip anyone who delivers anything to me, if their job allows tipping. And I tip AFTER the service has been provided.)
Tipping culture is so messed up. So a tip is now required in order to receive a service? That isn't tipping, that's paying for a service. If people want the option to pay more for a slightly better / faster service that's fine, but that shouldn't be called tipping.
So yet another company that expects to profit, but wants us to pay their employees? Got it. No thanks. I had heard commercials for this and now I know I won't try it.
COMPANIES NEED TO PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES BETTER! Is that loud enough? No one should have to rely on tips to get by. It’s morally wrong.
First of all nobody is obligated to tip. People need to stop feeling so entitled. As someone who uses delivery regularly because I don't have a car sometimes I do use the option "tip after delivery". I have had orders with tip gettin' straight stolen. I have had orders with tip delivered to other houses many times. I like to tip after delivery to insure I get my order. I also like to tip cash. So this is c**p. On the other hand if the weather is nuts and I place an order I will tip nicely. But the driver has to accept the order to find out. Bottom line if you're not going to deliver because you're an entitled punk get a different job.
Frankly, even if we didn't live in a "tipping" economy, I'd tip anyone who delivers food to my door. I'm sick as heck with a vvirus, and not having to force myself through the store is a huge relief. I'll give 'em a very good tip because they're doing me a service that isn't just walking across a room to fill a mug. They have to drive across the county.
I think most people agree with that in principle, but I'm not interested in tipping someone *in advance* when I don't know whether they're going to do a good job or not and the chance of me getting that money back is little to none. If they turn up with what I ordered, or at least a decent attempt at it, then great; but if they turn up with half my order, badly packed and squashed, and everything stinks of cigarette smoke or bubblegum vape juice, then that's a very different story.
Load More Replies... Here's the problem, which is simple to fix. Stop tipping, period. Customers shouldn't be held responsible for your pay or extras. Why am I or anyone paying you to do your job. Secondly, companies are double dipping by charging delivery fees. So again, the problem is that people assume that the consumer should pay you to do your job. That makes no sense. People are trying to get over!
This isn't a W2 job, these "tips" are more like bids, your willing to pay x amount and drivers will only accept y amount. So anyone who pays y amount gets the delivery, people who don't won't. The workers won't lose anything because they're working for themselves
Load More Replies... As long as Instacart drivers have the option of accepting/rejecting orders, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. The tipping system is messed up. The only one who really profits is the owner who somehow gets to raise their prices because of inflation but also can't afford to pay their employees a living wage (or even minimum wage) because...inflation? The same thing they use to make more money? Meanwhile servers live on unreliable sources of income, customers are the ones expected to pay for what the employer won't, and if customers don't tip the amount others think is acceptable, the customer gets lambasted with insults by peers. Maybe if this was a restaurant, the server should be expected to serve tipless tables or quit, but this is Instacart. It works differently. It's no different than if he rejected the order because he had to pick up his kid from soccer practice. He's not violating any contract he made; he's just choosing to focus on his own financial situation.
People don't understand how Instacart works. To start with, we are contracted out. We are not employees. We have to pay our own taxes. Then, each batch starts at $7. That's what Instacart pays us. We can have up to 3 customers on that one batch and we still get $7. We get a little extra for heavy pay and a little for long distances but that's about it. You are paying Instacart the $10 delivery fee not your shopper. I don't see how people can expect someone to get in their car, drive to the store, shop for their groceries for the week, get back in their car, and drive to your house and unload it all and not tip. You tip waitress and waiter's when you go out to eat. I'm not sure how much they make an hour but I think it's more than $7 an hour and all they are doing is taking your order and carrying your plate to you. Like I said, we have to pay our taxes, drive our cars which means a lot of wear and tear and maintenance, not to mention using a lot of gas. No tip, no service.
Instacart, doordash, postmates, Uber, etc. were all advertised as side hustles, but people are relying on them as fulltime jobs. As someone who's worked in the service industry and now no longer does, I am conflicted because I see both sides to the argument. Imo, tipping beforehand is unfair to the consumer and this is where I feel these service workers are getting greedy. With not just the food cost, but all the extra fees, we're paying an extra 20% already, so tipping another 18%-20% on top of that can easily add an extra $40+ to the bill. Personally, I've found tipping well doesn't even mean I'll get good service. Often times, items are missing or incorrect or even damaged and unusable (one time the eggs I recieved were all broken). As a consumer it stings to have paid a hefty tip beforehand in addition to all the extra fees (which easily add $40+ to the bill) only to get poor service anyways.
So i understand why many people are now reducing their tips or not tipping at all. Consumers cannot do anything about the fees, so they reduce the tip to try and balance out the cost. Also, some people are just cheap jerks and just don't want to tip. However, if the delivery fee actually went to the delivery drivers maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. Overall, tipping culture has gotten out of hand, and I wouldn't even call it culture, so much as exploitation of both the worker and the consumer. Companies are exploiting workers by not paying them livable wages, and also the consumer for making them make up that cost of low wages. We need to ban together to end it.
Load More Replies... We don't have any of that fancy stuff in my tiny town of 500 but I am of the mind instead of going on social media complaining just quit
SO.. we tell them dont take a order if you dont like what you are being paid, argue for more money but.. when they dont take the order.. they are the bad guy. Its not like the ones who brag about being bloody thieves.
If you don't wanna work in a delivery company and complain about not getting a tip when many delivery drivers or public transportation doesn't get tips but work for longer in worse conditions. Maybe just get a real job and stop wasting so much money on gas. Maybe you wouldn't have to worry about tips if you didn't work a "job" that requires you to use money to do it. It's not complicated, stop complaining and do something about it. Like working a DIFFERENT job.
If you can't tip, go shop yourself. It's a service so pay for it or just deal with the fact no one wants to deliver your order. You don't need the service, you're choosing it voluntarily so you have to deal with how it's set up. People who bait (add a tip but redact it later) drivers are the worst. If you can't afford to tip... don't use the service?
This whole micro service/take-out economy is pretty stupid, the delivery people should get a decent job instead of perpetuating having them exploited by those big 'disruptive' companies. And if they can't survive on one job the minimum wage should be better, why don't more people fight for that? Other people are also getting too lazy to cook and shop and I don't know what, instead of complaining about having to tip for that they'd better do it themselves and if they don't have enough time for that they should also address their representative and add it to the better minimum wage issue.
Instacart not only marks up every single item on the list (which can add up a huge amount on big orders) but then they charge a service AND delivery fee on top. By the end of it you're paying 1.5 - 2X the amount you would in store. Sometimes adding a huge tip isn't even possible at that point because you're trying to just pay for the food. I've only ever used this service not when I'm "lazy" as the tik toker claims, but in emergency situations when my car was broken down and was pregnant and needed food badly. Was low on money and didn't have a bunch to just throw into a tip. Especially because I've had drivers accept orders before, start the order, message me trying to solicit their personal business, and when I didn't join right away they canceled the order halfway through the shop and I was without groceries the rest of the night. It really does go both ways but I agree instacart needs to do something about it, when I messaged them regarding that issue I didn't even recieve a repl
If I tipped everybody that Dr. Says then I wouldn't have any money. You are not entitled to tips. If you don't like it get a better job. I especially don't tip bad service and it sounds like insta cart, grub hub and the likes all have attitudes and feel entitled.
I am disabled and very much appreciate these delivery services. I understand how it works, and yes I tip generously beforehand because that's how you get their attention so that they will take your order. Tipping generously is also how you keep getting good service in the future. Remember the rating system goes both ways and if you get a bad rep then you may have difficulty getting deliveries in the future. Occasionally it has been necessary for me to change my tip afterwards, and these apps fully allow that. I get why people criticize the tipping culture, but it certainly isn't fair to penalize the workers because of it. Probably a lot of people don't really depend on these services regularly, so they pretty much don't care. But ask yourself what would happen if you were to become disabled and had no one to help you out? And these people did perform a valuable service during the pandemic. Be grateful for them!
I generally avoid tipping via app--because I prefer to give a CASH tip so I can make sure they get 100%. I usually notate "cash tip" as well--if that means someone won't deliver my order because they think zero gratuity, then f**k them because I try to tip at least 25%...
Is there a way to tell the driver you're tipping in cash? I don't use Instacart.
Load More Replies... I love my Instacart shoppers. I get the same 3 all the time. I tip 25-30%. I've never had to wait longer than 2 hours from start to delivery.
Maybe this just isn't an economically viable business. The demand is there, but shopping and delivering is a labour/time-intensive service. But, too many people -- whether it is through the app's fees or through tipping -- just don't want to pay for time, effort, and expenses involved. They just don't value it sufficiently to pay for the workers. (And I hope the app bans users who repeatedly claw back tips. That bait and switch stuff is gross and disrespectful of the workers.)
Rejecting orders is the same as any other sub-contractor refusing to accept a contract to provide services because you won't pay them. If you only offer a roofer $50 to fix your house, they have no obligation to accept it. The delivery driver has no obligation to accept a contract that will not pay them.
It sucks that people reverse their tips, for no good reason - yeah I understand why the option has to be there, there are a*****e delivery people too, but giving someone 5 stars, and reversing the tip? I see that as theft of service. There should be a flag on orders of purchasers who do this so contractors can avoid taking that risk.
Yea, let's just stay quiet and not mention it, that'll guarantee things change.
Load More Replies... I totally get where you're coming from, but this is a very ableist mindset. My 93 year old grandmother was across state and couldn't buy groceries herself, so I'd get groceries and food delivered to her. During this time, I was an extremely broke kid working 2 minimum wage jobs just to get by. I genuinely couldn't afford to tip more than a few bucks. That is how it is for many people. It's not as simple as, "if you can't afford it don't use it". These services have been godsend for the disabled and need to be affordable. It still falls back to the company's exploiting born the workers and consumers in order to excessively line their own pockets
Load More Replies... $30/hour is for those that have expensive tastes. I make $18/hour at my job, so I wouldn't expect to make twice as much to "break even".
Load More Replies... There could be any number of reasons people need delivery
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