Customers Are Using Bait-and-Switch Tipping to Lure Instacart Shoppers
Getting an Instacart order nowadays is not as easy as it used to be. But the app has introduced new features that increase chances by 50%. There is one other trick that people have been using to lure Instacart shoppers to take their order. Huge tips!
But some of those people have turned tips into bait-and-switch. CNN reports of a few instances where customers offer the big tip upfront and then take it away when the order is delivered. We are talking about a person who is going out shopping for you when and risking their health when everyone is supposed to stay home and self isolate.
Before an Instacart shopper accepts an order, they can see the store, items ordered, how much they will make and the tip amount. To get an idea of how much Instacart shoppers make, here is one order:
@Instacart these kind of orders make us not want to take them, 95 units for $14.59 with no tip and almost 6 miles away?!?! #Instacart pic.twitter.com/8k1V9J88dL
— Daniel Urena (@1sharksfan408) April 5, 2020
One case reported on CNN shows a $50 tip originally that was later changed to $0. Here is another shopper who had 4 orders with bait-and-switch tipping.
I hate it when they change the tip after I accepted the order.
I'm ok with what ever you're going to tip me. Thank you! But dont dont tell us you're tipping us a certain amount then lower it once we accept it. #coronavirus#instacart pic.twitter.com/dlJgU62oD0
— Mauri_Diaz (@mawiiyo) April 11, 2020
There is no excuse to offer someone money to do a job, and then take that money back, especially during the current pandemic when they are risking their lives. But the blame also falls on Instacart. They say they made changes, by removing the “none” option from the tipping menu, so customers will have to manually type in $0. How about just paying Instacart shoppers a bit more?
While these bait-and-switch tactics are widely reported right now, workers saw a 30 percent increase in earnings from customer tips in March. So yes, there are also amazing people out there, and here is some proof:
I did my first instacart shopping and delivery and I was pretty nervous. I left their food at the door and saw an envelope with my name. It was a cash tip with a lovely note. Please take the time to thank your delivery people ❤️. #instacart #instacartdriver pic.twitter.com/a9otULPaRx
— Anni (@Yikes_college) April 6, 2020
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I,m an instacart shopper. I had a batch last week at one of the HEB and they did not have at least 40% of what they order so I was taking pics of the empty stands and the costumer started to get mad, texted back told her for each item we replaced or refunded we get less tip, she texted and told me she did not know that. Believe me working these day shopping is not funny, we don,t find, try to replace texting costumer not answer until it,s late. We waste a lot of time trying to do a good job but with this pandemic going on is harder….trying to be safe first, finding the items, time you loose contacting costumers and some time delivering we would be late becouse of waiting on line to enter the store, so many factors.
When you shop for instacart part of your pay is determined by the number of items. The customer pays a premium so you get a certain number of cents per each item that you get for them. When you remove items it affects your tip. Let’s say they ordered toilet paper and the store has none, you’re going to have to refund their money for the toilet paper, that is going to affect your tip. If you remove 10 items from their order that will affect your tip. It looks small in the screenshot but on the app it’s actually in regular sized text, look closely at the screenshots those people posted, it says “order adjustments affected tip”. That’s why as you shop and you can’t find a specific item, the customer has an option to choose a backup. Additionally the app will encourage you to find a replacement for the item that they wanted originally. It’s not always easy but you are able to communicate with the customer most at a time. You have an option to send photos of nearby or similar items for them to choose from. Some people don’t respond or they might be busy or they might be at work so you either just refund it or you take it upon yourself to make a choice for them but you can only make so many choices with other people’s money. So at times you may have no other choice but to refund an item which will again, affect your tip. I’m sure there are some people who are loading up their order with either a large tip. I’ve seen orders where you can look at it before you and accept it and know ahead of time which items are going to have to remove i.e. orders with lots of toilet paper, orders with lots of paper towels things that you know the store is probably not going to have. So me personally, I don’t take those orders. You’re allowed to choose which orders you want to take. Believe me it’s better now that you can see what items they have because before you couldn’t see it , you had no idea what you were going to get. And it may sound bad that I say oh I don’t want to take that order and it’s just going to sit there. After an order sits for long enough and no one has accepted it instacart will boost the earnings for that order in $2 increments to make it worth your while because they know nobody wants to take it.
I ordered from Instacart day before and received yesterday, one of the worst I should say since most items quality were really bad, we literally threw the green beans as almost all means were spoiled(could see lots of pressed down dots in every single beans), some tomato’s were rotten, banana’s completely riped on arrival, cabbage skins were falling apart.
Still gave good tips and did not leave bad comments, only because this its during pandemic and they picked the grocery when we were not wanting to go out.
I’ve been tipping everyone (local butchers, delivery people) 20% because I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home. These people put their lives at risk to make our lives easier. Tip these people!
Is there an option to not include your tip until the order is received? Or are people forced to put a tip amount in automatically? If forced, I could see why it could change after the delivery is made. If it’s not forced, then people who think they might change their mind on how much they tip should just wait until the delivery is made. I include the tip when ordering a pizza. Not sure if I could change the tip amount after the transaction is complete, but I’ve never felt the need. I had a kinda rude delivery driver a little while back. My total was only $20 something, and I gave him a $20 tip still. Weather was crappy, so I still believed he deserved it.
I miss when there was no tipping on Uber. It was refreshing that each party could mutually agree to a price upfront, with no pressure to tip. Quality was well controlled by the rating. It’s a shame they went away from it. Delivery services are even less suited to tipping, since there is little to no interaction, and the quality of service is not really going to vary. You either get your stuff in a timely fashion or not. It’s not like fine dining when service can make it break the experience. Please delivery services: go back to no tipping, and just factor it into the price.
The reality is most of these jobs pay little salary so it is expected people tip to make up the difference. It’s not bad that they are not paid a higher salary because then food or whatever product or service would be more expensive. In the end it comes out to the same thing with some variation. Some waitresses are making 60K a year because of tips. That’s good income for unskilled (untrained) labor. Some delivery people or Uber drivers do very well. Those who don’t make good tips because the local area doesn’t have the economic activity to support it leave that job as it is unprofitable.
Just tip 20-25% with extra for them being a high level or friendly.
I’m not understanding why instacart has their system designed this way.
First, luring with a large tip essentially cuts in front of others who may not be able to afford a tip that large. It’s analogous to going into a restaurant and putting a sign up that says “serve me now and you’ll get $50 tip” while everyone else waits.
Second, why on earth would they allow you to tip before receiving your goods. This makes absolutely no sense. This is a fail on instacart for creating such a system that allows despicable people to gamify the system to their benefit at the cost of others.
It’s not that simple. A tip is a reward on top for good service. Since you tip ahead of time with instacart you are taking it on faith that the service received will warrant the tip. If you take way the ability to change a tip you hardly encourage quality service.
I did reduce a tip to zero once because the delivery person made a wrong substitution, did not deliver an item I was charged for, delivered 2 hours early and then lied about the delivery time.
Most other times I have increased the tip after delivery if all went well.
I agree, lowering the tip after the delivery does make sense in those cases.
After reading this article, we bumped up the tip for InstaCart delivery from Costco we just got. My wife has asthma so she is at higher risk from the current goings on and we won’t leave the house. We are very appreciative of the service and risk the person took on behalf of my family.
They are definitely providing a vital service these days.
Scum that do stuff like that to Instacart and other folks ought to be BANNED from ever using the service again.
I’ve never used the service myself, but I’d guess that the option to reduce or cancel the tip is just in case the delivery person is rude or something goes seriously wrong. Figuring that, I’d say that if a delivery to a certain address had this happen twice, that address should be blocked for a couple of years. That would keep people from opening new accounts under different names to get around your suggestion.