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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: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:51PM (3 children)
During the current crisis, lots of places around here are providing instacart and similar services "for free" to keep goods moving through their stores.
As for poor people using delivery services, paying instacart to deliver your groceries is a hell of a lot cheaper than owning, insuring, and maintaining your own car.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:41PM (2 children)
I think that is debatable. Depending on the infrastructure and transportation choices available in your area, yeah, I can see that may be true. But, grocery shopping is only a small part of our travel. In fact, neither the wife or I make a special trip for shopping very often. Most of our shopping is done on the way home from work, or it's a stop along the way on some other errand. A visit to a sister in Texas always involves a stop to shop on the way home. A doctor visit usually involves a stop to shop.
If people who are not at least modestly wealthy can afford to pay someone else to do most or all of their shopping, it would seem a foreign land to me, if I moved there.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:51PM
For the last 30 days, we have only used our cars for pleasure trips (unless you count that run to the liquor store as "essential business.") We've had all groceries delivered, work and school have been done remotely. We have a grocery store about a 1 mile hike away, but the prospect of a one mile hike followed by schlepping a backpack full of groceries 20+ minutes in the sun/rain just doesn't seem like a good trade for $8.95 to me - particularly with all the milk and juice we consume.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2020, @02:04PM
My understanding of the situation is its for "unbanked" people. If you have a legal judgment hanging over your head and garnishments and all that, you can't go legit and just buy a car. On the other hand you can pay cash for labor.
There's a big societal push to get people away from capitalism and owning things and just rent things and labor. That's how to get the 1% richer and keep the rest poorer.