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 VLM on Monday April 13 2020, @02:09PM
The problem with making everyone a commodity independent contractor laborer with individual app mediated bosses, is the flip side of the problem is most people are shitty bosses.
On one hand, half the laborers are below median performers. We have technology and societal stuff and expectations to work around that.
On the other hand, half the bosses are below median bosses and if you make everyone an independent contractor there will be lots of shitty bosses. We have no technology or societal stuff to work around that. In the old legacy company days you'd have the financial markets apply discipline and use monopolistic forces to keep the number of bosses small to make it more easy to regulate them.
Its a pretty big problem with the "gig" economy. How to deal with most people being below average bosses.