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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:32PM (5 children)
Who came up with the idea of giving a tip in advance of a service? The whole point is an extra reward after the service is rendered. Yes, in USA tipping at restaurants has become expected, along with low base wages, but it is still given after the meal is over.
I say Instacart is responsible for this whole fiasco by allowing the tip to be added at the time the order is placed. Instead the app should hit the customer for a tip immediately after the order is delivered. And appreciative customers should also consider tipping in cash, avoiding Instacart and going direct to the worker.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:13PM
" And appreciative customers should also consider tipping in cash, avoiding Instacart and going direct to the worker."
Indeed. These days I usually try to tip in cash. There are too many employers who think nothing of reaching into their workers pockets to even steal the tip money.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:23PM (1 child)
This was my take on the situation too. Why is this even a thing? I would love to see a transcript of the meeting where this "feature" was introduced and discussed. How did they not see this situation and if they did, what was said?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:40PM
One possibility for how this became "a thing".
Pay attention to a lot of online ordering pages for restaurants that offer pickup after an online order. There is often a "tip: _____" box on the form to allow the customer to add in a tip during the order process. The difference, of course, is that the restaurant online ordering page does not allow the customer to modify the tip amount after purchase.
So one possibility for how this is "a thing" is that the design was modeled after restaurant online ordering pages, where the purchase, and any tip, are all "booked" up-front. The flaw with instacart's design is allowing the tip amount to be modified up to three days after service is rendered.
So how did the "modify tip up to three days later" become a thing? Well, one possibility is that the UI design above was built, and then some VP of Marketing dept. X gets a grand idea of "why don't we allow the customer to add tips after delivery as well, then for really great service the customer can show their appreciation?" (VP's of marketing dept. X never seem to ever have the intelligence to see potential miss-use of their great ideas.
And so, the requirement that went to the dev's was: "allow customer to modify tip up to three days after service is rendered", and the dev's built that without asking questions (I've seen enough of this style development, the dev's never ask questions or point out miss-use holes, they just "build" what the customer asks, no matter how stupid the ask might be).
Result, we started out with an "up front" tip that could not be changed, some VP had a bright idea of "allow customer to show appreciation later" (without also specifying "show appreciation" to mean "increase tip only") and the dev's built "show appreciation" as "customer can modify tip up to three days later" without any constraints to limit "modify" to only the portion involving "increasing" the tip.
Well, that's one possible senario. Is it how it happened? That I don't know. It is one possible way this became a thing. Can you think of other possible ways it might have become a thing?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 13 2020, @10:24AM (1 child)
I don't have an issue with the ability to offer a tip (that is, an above-minimum payment for service) beforehand, but in that case it should be considered part of the contract, and the customer should only be able to raise it afterwards, not to lower it. If you consider the possibility to later decide paying less, don't offer the tip up front.
The suggested requirement of 10% tip makes no sense. If it is required, then it is part of the standard fee, and not a tip.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2020, @02:15PM
I would embrace and extend your remarks by renaming your "standard fee" to the "expedite fee", or for customers in the smaller number of syllable demographics, maybe they could call it the "speed fee"
I'm not seeing a problem with two separate fees, one to get them to show up quickly on time at the top of the priority list negotiated before they show up, and a second fee rewarding them for work well done.
Tradesmen do something like this with "truck fees" and so forth.