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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the fishing-for-groceries dept.

People are baiting Instacart workers with huge tips then slashing them to zero:

Instacart workers are being wooed by orders with large tips only to find them dropped to zero after a delivery has been made, according to a new report by CNN. Instacart lets users set their own custom tip with each shopping request, but it also allows them to change it for up to three days after an order is completed to adjust for experience. Workers, however, claim that some users have been abusing this feature, baiting them with big tips to get their shopping requests completed sooner amid the pandemic rush — only to find the tip slashed afterward without much feedback.

One Instacart worker said their tip was dropped from $55 to $0 despite finding everything the customer needed. Another worker claimed their tip changed to $0 since they could not find toilet paper in stock, to which the customer described in the feedback report as "unethical."

[...] Instacart says shoppers who experience tip-baiting can report instances in-app, though some workers say this relies too much on their end and that the company should make a 10 percent-minimum tip mandatory for all orders during the pandemic.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:19PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:19PM (#981524)

    People who engage in that should just be barred from the program for a period of a few weeks. But, really, instacart shouldn't be allowing people to change their tips after the fact without contacting support. I know that would add cost, but get over it. Front line workers deserve as many protections as possible against this sort of thing.

    It's already a risky line of work to be in during a pandemic. Some of these people have already had it and are somewhat immune, but others are doing it purely because they won't be able to make rent.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:04PM (#981554)

    "People who engage in that should just be barred from the program for a period of a few weeks months."

    FTFY

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:44PM (#981642)

      I'm not sure how long it would take to discourage the behavior. I don't want anybody starving, but there needs to be some sort of punishment for abusing the system.

      Really, they should be required to contact Instacart if they want to lower it by more than a set amount and they need to have a real reason as to why they want to do it. That should discourage enough people from abusing the system that it should keep this to a minimum.

      Also, if you're lowering the amount to a significant degree, there should be feedback given so that service can improve.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:33PM (#981567)

    >> I know that would add cost, but get over it.

    Capitalism... I don't think you understand it.