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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:19PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:19PM (#981564)

    "Tech is not a complete solution for the human factors, including greed of the corporation."

    While true, it looks like it isn't just the greed of the corporation that is an issue. It's also just as much about the greed of the customers. That needs to be addressed too.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:43PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:43PM (#981574)

    It's also just as much about the greed of the customers.

    Turnabout is fair play? Don't like being caught in the crossfire? I suggest a strike. If there's an infinite supply of idiots to take your position, maybe you're being unreasonable and/or need to find another line of work. If there's a legitimate issue and nobody steps up to take the raw deal you've pointed out - something will get fixed, or the business will rightly shrivel and die.

    Where I come from "tip" is optional money to be offered in exchange for excellent service. In restaurants, they have perverted this to be a "standard" 15, now 20+% expected unless something is grossly sub-par. It really should go away, people should get what they need to live in exchange for showing up and doing an acceptable job, and get extra "tip" money when they have truly provided excellent service to someone who A) has some extra money to offer, and B) feels like giving it at the time. Scenes of pissed off waiters/waitresses haranguing customers who have "stiffed them" (often slightly less than 15% gratuity) are a ridiculous show of entitlement.

    My suggestion in the specific instance of instacart's system is that the delivery people regard the "proposed tip" for exactly what it is: not a promise, not anything really since contractually it can be changed up to 3 days after delivery - it's a meaningless number that only fools chase with expectation of delivery - much like the top end of the "commission income range" in sales job applications, even more meaningless that that in reality.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:10PM (#981714)

      Maybe if the tip gets cancelled, InstaCart gets to send someone round to take back the groceries.