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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: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 13 2020, @10:24AM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday April 13 2020, @10:24AM (#981897) Journal

    Who came up with the idea of giving a tip in advance of a service?

    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.

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2020, @02:15PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2020, @02:15PM (#981971)

    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.