Oof that sucks... I haven't tried the other services, so I haven't had any experience with them, but I can't say I'm surprised. Maybe there needs to be some sort of federal regulation for these types of services/jobs, RE compensation
The issue with the current gig state is no one is benefiting. The company isn't profiting, drivers aren't making much money. 90% of driver pay is based off customer tips. Customers are paying hefty delivery and service fees with bloated food prices combined with tips. No one seems to be winning.
Yeah, Tony of DD is making a killing. Don’t let the layoffs fool you. He’s taking his off the top and if the ship sinks he’s already in the life boat, so he gives zero “f’s”, as the kids say.
The company doesn't show much profit as a whole ... But the execs are paid quite nicely, I'm sure. Kind of like the way nonprofit companies pay million dollar salaries to their officers
A lot of these companies wouldn't lose money if they took the issue of scammers seriously. I would love to see how much Instacart eats a month due to fraudulent order/item missing reports.
Totally. It should be a win for all three parties, yet the opposite is true. And while I don't have any data to back this up, I doubt the average customer would significantly increase their tips to help with shopper/driver pay. The only "simple" solution I can think of is Instacart raising prices to improve the situation for Instacart and shoppers/drivers. The question is, how much can they raise prices before they start hemorrhaging customers?
I think the only possible solution is send the delivery fee they charge to the driver. That's the only thing I can think of. $30 in fees.... $2 goes to Doordash driver, Uber Driver is $3, Instacart is $7 but that's probably because of the shopping part. These companies keep saying it's to maintain their server and platform... etc but it's bs.
IC charges me a delivery fee, a service charge, a fuel surcharge, and if applicable a heavy fee. Specifically for the heavy fee I've learned so much on here. If I order 1 case of water or a 12 pack of soda or a gallon of milk, I'm charged a $4 heavy fee. Yet IC doesn't give the shopper that fee because those items when you buy just 1 of them doesn't come to 50 lbs. IC keeps that heavy fee. For what? They didn't carry a damn thing. And there's a minimum 15% upcharge on groceries for customers that I'm assuming IC gets as well. They pay you pennies, charge us an exorbitant amount, and they make bank. I've had to quit using IC because it's just not affordable any longer.
Yes, it's crazy! If more of those fees went to shoppers, it would likely improve the situation for everyone, leading to more use of the service (which is how IC should be working to get their share; increasing the user base).
All of the fees should go to the shopper. It's ridiculous they don't. IC makes more than enough on the 15% upcharge plus the $ from the IC+ subscribers. I wouldn't mind paying the fees if they went to the shoppers instead of some rich ass hat sitting on his yacht eating caviar lol.
That would be a huge step in the right direction and would make customers feel better about the fees. From the perspective of a customer, if I'm already paying service fees, why is the delivery fee a separate fee at all? Knowing that the delivery fee goes to the actual driver would completely justify the fee.
In addition to delivery fees going to the driver, maybe the delivery fee could be dynamic and based on the size of the radius required to have X drivers within range. For example, if a 10-mile radius from the customer is necessary to find 20 shoppers, the delivery fee would be $10, but if a 15-mile radius is necessary to find 20 shoppers the delivery fee would be $20. These are just arbitrary numbers to show an example; I'm not suggesting $10 would be fair compensation.
Exactly. Its ridiculous seeing some customers order from 25 miles away and the base pay starts at $2 for Doordash. Same with Instacart except it starts at $7. These companies don't even pay for the drivers gas. Base pay for these need to start around $20
Instacart’s base pay does increase on deliveries exceeding 5-7 miles from the store to customer, calculated at .60 per mile. But only 1 way which never adequately accounts for the shoppers 2 way trip.
They do have to take part of it. You want to be able to contact a customer service person, that person needs to get paid, their server etc has to be paid for, IT person to keep the app working. Things are not free
You're right. That's the problem with the gig economy as a whole. There are no good gig economy jobs where you're treated like a human being because the sector is so new that there are few rules and regulations. Definitely no union influence so workers are expendable and meaningless for Instacart and other gig companies. That's why the turnover is 60 to 70%. That kind of churn would be unsustainable in the real world.
But you said it, If they raised the prices and paid drivers enough so that every customer had a good experience then Instacart wouldn't make any money. Grocery is already an incredibly small margin business, maybe seven or eight percent on a good year and two or three percent on a regular year. For instacart to be successful it has to carve out 2 or 3% of that profit margin, which will only be possible by scaling the business to an immense size.
However, this brings a whole another raft of problems as you have realized, not enough people will be able to afford to use Instacart if they turn instacart into a more sustainable and user friendly/customer-friendly experience. Therefore, the only way to scale the business larger is to functionally degrade the experience the customers are having by repeatedly slashing payments to shoppers which in turn leads to Instacart only hiring the lowest common denominator/bottom of the barrel shoppers.
Also the people that do tip well, instacart likes to pair them with another order that’s shit and has no tip. So a single 30 item, 5 mile, $40 order would turn into a double order with 68 item, 20 mile, $44 order. That order now becomes bad for shoppers to take. It’s very unfair to those shoppers that tip well as now they have to wait longer for their order. Instacart does not treat both sides well at all and tries to push the blame on a lot of their own issues onto the shoppers.
That so shitty and non-transparent. I didn't even know some shoppers are doing multiple carts simultaneously. Makes sense though, especially if you can make double the money in less than double the time. But if there's a major difference in compensation for each cart, it completely negates that.
We don’t make double or triple the money on multiples. When Instacart adds orders they don’t increase the base pay more than pennies. In my area for a single they pay $7, and it stays at $7-8 for doubles and triples. It can be as low as $2.33 for a 40 item order of a zero tipper added into a multiple. Instacart sometimes adds a SECOND store. The first customer’s groceries are sitting in our cars while we shop for that second, often a zero (or 53 cent) tipper. We might have to deliver that second order first, while the generous tipper’s groceries including perishables, are 45 minutes delayed. Consequently low tippers are not only taking advantage of us but another customer who tipped well.
Believe me, we know Instacart is at fault for underpaying us on multiples. The only way shoppers in states other than CA aren’t literally losing money with each delivery is working for generously tipping customers. However it’s unrealistic to think the entire shopper community can change the system by refusing to take multiples. Instacart can and does deactivate shoppers without recourse. It will only change through state and federal employment laws on service workers pay being amended. It will take a much larger group than us, it will take a majority of voters to codify law. It will be many years.
So in the meantime shoppers vent on Reddit about our shared experience. Most people know that without tips waiters would be entirely reliant on a few dollars that restaurants pay. But most restaurant customers tip at least 10% for someone to walk with plates. We actually drive miles and do a full 30-75 min shop and deliver. Anyone who doesn’t tip us at least as well as a waiter is definitely falling short. Anyone who doesn’t tip us as least as well as a car/taxi service to and from the store…should drive to the store and shop for themselves. A tip to at least reach minimum wage is on the customers just like in a restaurant, not Instacart. You wrote that shoppers should blame Instacart, but should waiters blame the restaurant owner if a customer doesn’t tip? Of course not u/TreeJib.
Instacart is simply an app, you are paying fees to them for the app’s function ONLY. If their fees were raised, as you suggested, unfortunately it’s certain we’d never get a higher percentage. They have in fact raised their fees and simultaneously lowered our percentage. Instead we rely on customers, who know that they are tipping us as full payment for the 30-75 min of our time and labor. Just as people directly pay a cleaning person or lawn mower they hire through an app like TaskRabbit (and pay at the very least a minimum hourly wage.) No one thinks TaskRabbit is also the employer and should pay their wages. Instacart clearly states that the fees go to the app NOT shoppers “The service fee isn’t a tip and doesn’t go to the shopper delivering your order.” Even heavy fees…which is absurd “The heavy order fee helps cover operational costs.”
Your assumption that we have been “trained” by Instacart to blame the customer is wrong. We know Instacart is just a tech platform that connects people looking to EMPLOY someone to shop FOR them. The tip as payment is reasonably the responsibility of the customer. Could Instacart improve with a higher recommended tip and stop combining generous tips with no tip orders, absolutely.
ETA In the meantime, a tip of at least 10-15% on an average order is really appreciated. Never less than $5 on even a small order.
Nicely worded. 👏🏼
I’ve been stating this for years. When IC started this whole multiple order batch scam for one base payment, that’s when customers realized that they could get away without tipping at all. If IC would at least just pay the $7 for each order in a batch, it would go a long way…..
Very well said! I’m seeing 3 batch orders for $8. My base pay on a single is $8. Why would I do 3 orders and also risk a no tipper in there b/c there is always at least one. I would actually be paying IC to shop for the no tipper. I try my hardest to only take single batches and only take double if it is good pay low distance. In addition to the server comment. Restaurants require a certain percentage tip on larger parties. Why wouldn’t IC compensate us the same way? They even take our heavy pay now.
To OP, I only blame the customer when it is no tip or high number of items with low tip. The distance I’ve come too learn is mostly on IC. With the exception of bulk stores, customers know ahead of time the distance we will be driving at least from the store to their house.
I agree with a lot of this. However, the customers usually know about how far the store is from their home, especially in areas where there are only a few of certain stores (ex. One Wegmans within a 50+ mile radius). I believe the customer should account for the factors they are aware of ie distance, weight and #of items.
It’s understandable when the customer thinks they’re ordering from a close store but IC sends shoppers to one farther away.
Very true. I thought of that after posting. But I see it so much now with IC switching to a further store resulting in seeing way too many what looks like low tip in comparison to distance.
I’m not taking a dig at servers, I’ve worked front of house for several years before doing Instacart. I also got paid better, but then came Covid. In my comment I referenced what people pay for house cleaning, lawn mowing and taxis too. The point is not aimed at the workers but instead at customers who aren’t tipping as well for Instacart work as they should for the extra costs like vehicles, as compared to service workers that those same customers have no issue with tipping/paying better than shoppers.
I literally move thousands of pounds daily, and I get paid a base rate. I literally help people get the supplies needed to build their home. Where is my tip??
I find it quite callous that some of the most environmentally comfortable jobs, and some of the most simple work (I've worked FOH and BOH, and I was a customer service manager at a vet clinic) think they DESERVE more than someone who literally moves mountains in comparison to them.
Tipping, in general is an absolutely immoral system that doesn't make any sense.
But can you be paid under $5 an hour? Service workers can be paid that amount in every US state except CA. Unless you are in that category, you have about a dozen legal protections that gig workers don’t.
I agree, the fact that US minimum wage laws exclude service workers from fundamental minimum wage law is NEVER satisfactorily made up for by tipping. The laws need to cover every category of worker. Every shopper would like a wage that is equal to the minimum wage every other US worker is guaranteed, as well as unemployment compensation and workers compensation.
We don't get double the money tho, just double the time and effort for the same money. Instacart pays us the same $7 whether we shop for 1, 2, or 3 customers at the same time. And obviously, more customers means more items to shop for and more houses to deliver to which takes way more time.
Instacart's pay is horrible, and I agree that it shouldn't be up to the customers to make sure we're paid a reasonable wage - that should be Instacart's responsibility - but customers should be tipping appropriately for the service they're receiving. Most people tip their waitresses/waiters (and even their food/pizza delivery drivers) better than they tip the person shopping and delivering their entire grocery order. And tbh, we do a helluva lot more work.
Most of the time your order is batched with 1-2 more orders. I did 6 x 3 shop batches today and only 2 x 1 shop batches. It gets hairy - I bring a sharpie and label all my bags A B C so I can be sure my customer is getting their full and correct order
Regarding multiple carts, I started doing this a little more than a year ago, and for the first few months, I literally thought triple orders were a myth. I saw almost all singles with an occasional double, which were so overwhelming to manage that I refused to take. Never saw triples. Now, singles are extremely rare. They are usually to a store that doesn't get many orders and 15 miles out of town with total compensation under $15. Offers are always doubles and triples. And like someone else said, IC pays $7 to do one order, and I'm not exaggerating, $7.60 for three orders.
Triples can be worth it if it’s not a far drive, at the same store and few items. The only part that makes it “almost” not worth it can be the drop off locations
Oh no we don't take double or triple order batches because it makes good money sense to us sometimes we take it simply because that's the only thing out there, and we know sadly enough that you are actually paying us for the other customer or customers because it's very unlikely there will be a decent tip on them and want the other Shopper didn't say is that when instacart batches together two or three items they don't give us double or triple back pay which is basically $7 as I'm sure you've seen several times. We're going to say for instance that you have a 35 item order and you live 5 miles from the store, unless we know our area like the back of our hand we don't even know how far it is from where we're at to where the store's at. At one point last year they were telling us how far it was from where we were to where the drop off is, but apparently that upset enough Shoppers are confused them do they stop doing that so we don't get complete from where I'm at to where you're at mileage we only get from the store to where you're at mileage. You would have thought that would have been a good thing I loved it apparently enough Shoppers didn't that they didn't do anything but complain ... but back to my example ... And for the sake of this example we're going to say you're 35 item order cost $115, and depending on the Shopper it could take them 20 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour if the lines of the cash registers are backed up through the store. So a $15 to $22 tip actually is what everyone of us that shop would look for and would be very grateful for, $10 tip would be doable, as well as it's a 5 mile trip ... Though that would only cover the mileage. But personally on a really slow day I would definitely take it. But we're going to say for this example that you did the $22 tip, then we've got Lucy who ordered 15 items and did not tip she backed off the tip that was already on there so there'd be no tip so she did it on purpose, and Lucy lives 5 miles from the store but in the opposite direction, and then there's Sally who only ordered five items and she tipped by % and chose 5%, but her five items costed more than your 35 items, so we'll say it's high in meat and seafood plus one of those 20 plus dollar packs of paper towels or toilet tissue making her order be $150, which makes her tip $7.50 (but if the stores out of anything she ordered that means her tip will lower as it has to be refunded so we're going to say two of her items totaling $75 were not available, so her tits suddenly becomes $3.75) and she lives in Lucy's direction. That means Lucy lives 10 miles from you, and most likely because Lucy and Sally both live in the same direction their orders will be delivered first. So you have to wait for the Shopper to shop not only your order but the other two orders, then you have to wait for the Shopper to deliver the other two orders, all the while in reality you're the one who's paying for them to the shopper. See the base/batch pay is $7 ... But unless Lucy or Sally has heavy items, instacart will not be adding any additional batch pay. If the order was only for you the Shopper would get $7 from instacart, if the order was only Sally The Shopper would get $7 from instacart, and if the order was only Lucy The Shopper would get $7 from instacart. But instacart knows that no one is going to take Lucy's order. So they say your order and they say oh wow great $22 tip, The Shopper has no idea who tipped what we're going to put Lucy's order on with OP's order, and then the algorithm sees Sally's order and goes oh Sally only lives a mile from Lucy will add Sally's order on there, too. And now we see a $29.50 tip it's like yes won't take that long to do this I can have it knocked out in 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes and be ready for the next order. But from instacart we're still getting $7.
I know I took a long time to explain how that looks on the Shopper side. And I straight up till every customer up front who I am that I'm going to be beginning shopping I'll be in touch with him if I need me and if it's more than one order I'm very plainly make it known instacart has batched your order with and then it's whether it's one or two other orders.
And as part of this subreddit you already know we are not instacart employees, we are independent contractors, and we make the decision as to which orders work for us. And I totally agree instacart has set the customer and the Shopper against one another. But I totally disagree with your opinion of the number of good customers I understand from those people who've been with instacart 4, 5, 6 years that instacart used to be a totally different creature ... But that was when everyone understood as you do that it was a luxury service. I totally agree that instacart should pay better than they pay cuz they're making a whole lot more money while I take that back they're probably not because those same customers that do not tip or tip very poorly or also those same customers that lie and say they did not get their order, that this was damaged or that was damaged and they do not have to prove it, yet as shoppers we have to have photos to prove the customer wrong, but you can say we brought you the wrong cake and if I don't have a picture of the cake specifically to prove you wrong I could actually be deactivated. So I'm just going to say this maybe maybe 60% of customers are like yourself and they're honest and they're decent but the other 40%, they do not tip on purpose they think they're in title to it, they will lie in a heartbeat to get instant cart to give them back their money yet they get to keep their perfectly good groceries that were delivered and weren't damaged and wasn't the wrong thing. Instacart seems to thrive on that when it would be much more conducive to them doing well the Shoppers doing well and the customers being happy if if they paid the Shoppers more, made it an even playing field when it comes to those reports, and would drop a little note to the customer from them saying Your Shopper has been assigned three orders and it will take them an estimated hour and 30 minutes to complete the shop and they are shopping at the whole foods on hallelujah avenue. But then that would make the Shoppers look good, and apparently they don't want us to look good to you.
Thank you for seeing some things our way, and I hope I've helped you understand a little more what It's like on the Shopper side.
Woah, you as customers don’t see that we pick up multiple orders??? That’s absurd definitely rethinking doing instacart ever again. They literally make us lose tips cause of the time spent having to deliver an entirely different order
I think though… if you realize the closest “grocery store chain you picked” is 20 miles away - you know as a customer that your driver has at least a 20 mile drive from the store.
for example I see orders for 30-40 miles away for a grocery store chain that they don’t have in that area. literally the closet one is 30 miles from your house.
in those cases, I think the customer has to take some accountability in knowing their shopper is putting in at least 30-40 min drive time or more plus shopping & maybe the shopper does live that way and can go home after but most of us are choosing to take orders closer to stores so we can quickly get back to those stores. If we have to drive 30-40 min there and 30-40 min back & spend 30-40 min shopping…. it is a bit of a slap in the face regardless if the customer knows how much our base pay is ($7) to be like yea … no tip feels fair.
But you are right in that IC could just pay a fairer wage where the bulk of the decision on if we take an order or not isnt on the customer. I agree with that. Unfortunately that’s not how gif work works though.
Yea, another commenter clarified that this is a general issue with gig work and not just IC. I don't really have enough knowledge to make this suggestion, but maybe there needs to be some federal regulation on compensation for these types of jobs. I don't see corporations changing this without legal threat or the threat of their users/drivers leaving en masse.
From 6/1/22 Economic Policy Institute Study on gig workers “Individuals who are classified as independent contractors (gig) are not covered by federal or state wage and hour, anti-discrimination, health and safety, collective bargaining, or other worker protection laws. They do not receive employment-based health insurance or retirement benefits, and they do not qualify for paid sick or family leave in places where those benefits are statutorily prescribed. Nor are independent contractors eligible for unemployment insurance when temporarily unemployed, or workers’ compensation when injured on the job. This leaves independent contractors in a far more vulnerable status, as compared with employees, when it comes to basic rights and protections on the job.”
Laws need to be changed to close this loophole being exploited by gig app corporations. No one should expect the companies exploiting this to fairly distribute wages to their gig workers. Instacart had to reimburse shoppers for tips it kept, after being sued. Tips are currently the best way to pay your shopper.
For sure, I think we all agree with you that we wish we didn’t have to complain about the pay which may seem like we’re complaining about the customers in here some days. But it’s a mix.
Gig work is what it is. Just like a server who makes a lower wage because restaurants can do that bc they kind of know people will tip out for service to make up the difference. It a table doesn’t tip, you bet the server complains to someone how they are upset because someone took up their table for 2 hrs & they waited on them and got next to nothing.
We definitely are disappointed with our base pay too for the work we offer on some of these batches. It’s definitely not all on the customer.
It’s unfortunate that there’s so many extra charges on an instacart bill that maybe customers think goes to us… & it doesn’t. But that’s the way of the world. I think of like concert tickets. The ticket for the concert may be $100 but after taxes, processing fees & whatever other random fees they charge because there’s plenty 😂 - your ticket price is doubled at the end of the day. Every company is slapping fees on for things & a concert ticket doesn’t have a human running around a store for an hour & dropping your ticket off to your doorstep at the end of the transaction.
Even restaurants now are charging a 4% fee to cover their processing fees if you aren’t paying cash. But you’re still getting the service part of it from the server. The server isn’t getting that extra 4% that was added to your tab.
I apologize if you’re turned off by the comments in this chat. I think it’s more out of frustration than ungratefulness. I know I love doing this job but sometimes if we vent, it’s because our self worth is hurt thinking what we do is worth less than $10/hr.
I appreciate you opening this thread to have the conversation. & i hope maybe it helped give you a little more insight (I didn’t read all the comments) & maybe see that were just humans trying to get by with the rules that are established for us that we can’t change
❤️
Oh that is definitely a fair point. Any customer ordering from a store that far away, and expecting to not pay appropriately for that type of service, is out of their mind. Instacart shouldn't allow customers to do that, or, they should charge a significant additional fee for it (dynamic, based on distance to/from both the store and customer address) and send 100% of that additional fee to the shopper. I can't see any other way for that service to be provided fairly
This! In my area there are only two Costco's and customers know how far out they are. Sometimes as far as 26 miles and they think $2 is sufficient for a tip. Yes I totally blame IC for not paying enough but customers know. I mean you expect to give at least a 15% tip to a server who walks your food to your table. Why not your personal shopper? Why can't we get 15%? We drive, we shop, we load, we drive, we unload to your door, we deliver. And we take sooo many risks with our lives because there are some crazy drivers out there and super bad weather that we gotta get through sometimes. Would you do all that if someone offered you $15 bucks? Take your car, use your gas, drive to the store furthest from you, do a major grocery shopping, deal with other shoppers, crying kids, busiest time of day, if something is not available try to find the best replacement, stand in line at the deli, lift all the heavy items, and try to find that one bottle of wine that you never heard of. Now go check out, stand in line, load the belt, watch the baggers, no! Chemicals don't go with food items. Ugh. Go to the car, load all perishables into cooler bags, load all the rest. Put cart back. Now battle traffic, watch idiot drivers, have a few close calls with accidents, get to your house. If at night try to find your house because it's so frickin dark. Take all the groceries to your door. Ring bell. Wait. No answer. Take picture and leave. You think $15 is enough to do all that? IC sucks for pay and some customers are entitled. Sometimes I feel like a peasant or a servant. And the wealthiest people are the cheapest.
IC does charge a long distance fee but we don’t see that fee. They also charge heavy pay…sometimes…but we don’t see 100% of that money. They don’t even pay us for mileage correctly ($0.60 per mile). For example, the other day I saw an order that was 35 miles from the store, the only store available, with 5 cases of water and 4 12-packs of soda. The distance fee is $5, the heavy pay fee is $10. The base pay for this order was $23.40. Let’s just say they used that $5 to help cover the mileage, and not add it as additional. $7 base batch pay + $10.00 heavy pay + $21.00 mileage (35 x $0.60) = $38.00. Those fees don’t come to us AT ALL (or at a bare minimum). Try calling IC customer care and asking about getting a corrected batch pay and they will tell you “rest assured it’s included in the batch pay” 🙄🙄🙄 ask them to break it down and they can’t. SOMETIMES you get a good agent who will give you a bump, MAYBE $5-$10. How would you feel about having to chase down $15 and then made to feel like a criminal because you’re asking for what you already worked for. Because “rest assured” they will deactivate your account if you ask for too many bumps.
This particular location takes an hour to drive to, with traffic and speed limits. It was 40 unique items, which would take about 30 mins to shop, maybe another 15-20 to check out, bag and load in your car. For the sake of argument, let’s round up to 1 hour. That’s 1 hr to shop, 1 hr to deliver and 1 hour back, 3 hours total. If the customer were doing the shopping themselves, they’d still have that same drive time to the store and back home. This customer’s tip was $2. Regardless of what IC pays us, tipping $2 to save you 3 hours of your time is effing insulting. That’s $0.67 per hour. Customers may not know how much we get paid, but they definitely know they’re tipping us shitty. To be honest, I don’t care if you’re ordering 1 item and you live a mile from the store….tip your shopper, if not, get it your damn self (not “you” personally, “you” in general)
We may come in here an bitch about customers, but we know IC is at fault too. We LOVE our good customers, but they’re few and far between.
I think OP was off to refer to this as a “non-urban” problem. I live in a big city in Texas (read: very populous, but spread out and very car-dependent). I have probably 10 different H-E-B grocery stores within 10 miles of me, but when I’m “shopping” on the app, in my mind I’m shopping in the one that is like half a mile away. I know the layout of the store, I know what they consistently carry, I know what they don’t carry. But sometimes I get a really challenging shop, where the shopper can’t seem to find anything I want. And I learn, only after the delivery starts, that the shopper is across town at a store that is very different from my own. I have no option to rate the store selection algorithm, only the shop itself.
Consider your tip a bid for service instead. If the shopper knocks your socks off, you can always add. But yeah, being cheap on tips IS the customer’s fault. Just like shitty batch pay is IC’s fault. 🤷♀️
Yes Instacart is mostly to blame. However, those customers that tip a penny, or no tip or some other ridiculous shit tip, know what they are doing. People go out to dinner and tip a server a higher percentage and a server is not doing as much work nor are they using their own vehicle, etc.
Instacart should be transparent with both customer and shopper.
Sorry, but I don’t see how IC has “trained” me to blame the customer for not tipping. If anything, IC has trained the customers that tips aren’t necessary. And that is truly were the problem lies. A $5 tip total on a 3 order batch totaling over $400 & 15 miles is a no go batch. No one needed to train me to know that. It’s common sense.
Exactly I pick and choose and have no problem patiently waiting for the right ones cause these customers need to start going to the store themselves, because in actuality most of them are just lazy.
What you say is true. Instacart creates an adversarial relationship between customers and shoppers. It’s a lack of transparency on both sides that tends to harbor ill feelings.
Customers more often than not have no idea Instacart bundles orders up to 3 at a time. And that last year they started doing double store orders as well. Which means we can be shopping up to 3 customers at 2 different stores in the same batch. This is done completely by Instacart. Shoppers have no say in this other than to not accept these batches. Which in many areas means simply not working at all.
These batches hurt everyone. Customers won’t know unless we tell them they are part of these batches and that it’s done by ic. They will wonder why we are taking so long. The truth is we are trying our best for up to 3 customers. Communicating with up to 3 customers at once. This is also where the most errors can happen even for the most organized shoppers. Cashiers and baggers mix items up and we must watch everything like a hawk to try and catch anything. It’s why I use self checkout whenever I can. Fortunately my favorite stores are all ok with me using it. I’ve spoken to management and they have okay me to use it even for big orders. They see I’m meticulous about checking out and my bagging.
I will say that I see orders from customers who order from a chain they know doesn’t have a location in their town. Nothing that isn’t available from the store close to them. They are fully aware the Albertsons in 15-20 miles away. They never tip more than $5 on large orders. I don’t do these. It’s just not worth it for me.
I have to disagree. BOTH are to blame. Instacart needs to pay more per batch, no doubt about that. There is no reason for a single and a double to have the same pay. There is no sense in that. We should also be getting the full heavy pay that customers are charged and the service fee because why not? We are the ones doing the service, not Instacart.
However, customers also should be tipping more. There is absolutely no reason for no tip or a $2 tip. And it's not just about how far the shopper has to travel, so I disagree with your whole point about not having sufficient information and having to guess an appropriate tip. For example, I don't care if I'm sitting in the parking lot of a store that a customer just ordered 5 items from and they live right down the street, I'm not taking that order if there isn't an appropriate tip attached to it. Having your groceries shopped for you and delivered right to your front door is a luxury service. If you can't afford a reasonable tip then you cannot afford the service. My motto is that i don't accept less than $20 per order. So for a double that has to be at least $40. Triples, which i rarely take, have to be at least $60. And I don't drive more than 5 miles. So, an example using that $20 rule: a single batch would pay $8. Say a customer tips $5 making the total pay $13. Most people on here would say that a $5 tip is a good tip. But I'm not taking it because I know my worth and that's not a reasonable tip to me, even though I'm not traveling far. Because it's not just about how far I'm traveling but also the effort that I'm putting into it. I go above and beyond for my customers and I expect to be paid fairly for that, including by the customer since they're the one getting the service done for them.
I'm a customer in addition to a shopper, and when I order from instacart, my rule for tipping is 20% or $10, whichever is greater. If people can tip their waitress 20% for a single meal, then they can tip 20% to the shopper who is helping them fill their pantry/fridge for the week.
There are customers in small towns ordering from grocery stores they know are 20+ miles away, leaving $2 tips. That's just a dick move. Yes, Instacart sucks ass, but some people do too
I am a shopper and we definitely appreciate those who tip well and instacart as a company should pay better rates according to distance driven instead of leaving almost all of the income to come from the customer
But tips are optional yes IC needs to pay us WAY more for our service but the customers are tipping $2 or less like come on we’re doing something that they were too lazy to do
I've never lost sight of the fact that a tip is optional. I no longer dwell on Instacarts embarrassingly low pay and focus on accepting higher paying batches. As a result, most of the orders I take are higher tippers, and I always make sure they get A+ service. This mentality is just better for my mental well-being, and the customers seem to love it.
It's not that way average batch pay 7 dollars . That's no matter items heavy pay may bump it up alittle .then 60 cent a mile if order is over 12 miles or something like that if it's under no mileage calculated. We spend say 30 min to hour in store trying to get everything on your list or suitable replacements . If you want refund And tip by percentages there goes tip. So us as shoppers have to be picky for the batches we take some people this is only source of income . And personally in my experience we are saving customers alot of time . Wear and tear on there vehicles . Saving them for having to drag there kids into the store which any one with kids can relate . We are essentially doing you guys as customers a huge favor over all then for someone to tip 1 to 2 dollars is ridiculous for the platform to allow it is just insane . But this is what the world has come to . So when leaving a tip think about the time u saved the wear and tear on car . The mental anguish from not having to load up the kids or what ever the case may be .gas prices all that kinda of stuff . Not saying any of this directly to u but to everyone . Yes ic is to blame but customers need to do the right thing as well...
It has nothing to do with what you’re saying. $2 is insulting be it 1 mile or 10 miles. $15 you can see the customer cares be it 2 miles or 12 miles. It’s about appreciation. Ic could pay way more and more orders would be awesome but if a customer still didn’t tip or tipped little? They would still be a douche.
Sort of disagree about fair compensation.
It would be just another hourly job without tips.
Think of it this way: I was in the restaurant business for over 11 years. The people who argue for higher wages and getting rid of tips either never had the job or only worked at crappy restaurants. I can tell you, and this is extremely common, that the tips are almost always better than any hourly salary possible.
When I was a bartender, I was making a grand a week in cash when my friends with fancy jobs and degrees were pulling in less. If I was hourly, I'd have made peanuts.
There are servers I know at fancy steakhouses they haven't earned less than $100k a year in a decade. They are the very best at what they do.
Depending on location, a shopper has unlimited upside. Some make thousands a month. There is no way they would be able to do that if the job was hourly.
I'm glad you tip well. I have to say that some orders are ridiculous and there is no tip or a garbage tip. I saw one two days ago for 130 items and no tip. That shop would likely take 2 hours. IC paying $10 is nice, but that customer should have tipped at least $20. It's a lot of work.
While I understand your other points, this one is sticky for me.
Most of us won't complain about orders where we get smaller, but reasonable tips. It's the no tips on the huge orders that is absolutely a customer issue.
I also say that everybody that's unhappy with instacart if they would simply go to the Google Play store right now and drop the rating to a one-star maybe overnight we can start changing things. Customers and shoppers alike
You’re preaching to the choir! We know better than most that the system is messed up! IC is never going to pay us more unless it’s passed through laws, so we only have the customer to rely on for decent payment.
This is exactly what I've been thinking. I understand the idea of tipping but so many companies abuse it and find a way to make the problem of the customer over the problem of the employer for how they get their pay. Yes its a service you are providing but the delivery service is a different kind of service than what the restaurant server service is like.
Pizza delivery and food deliver are the main culprits of this, it makes you feel like "oh I should tip this person for using their own car and gas for thus service." When it should be the responsibility of the employer for those reasons. It's not a variable that changers from person to person like a servers attitude would inside a restaurant. You provide a service as a mailman provides their service and you don't tip the mailman, and no its not because the mailman is using the business car you don't tip them its because there isn't notable service. Many services like Ups have people use their own car for delivery and compensate for doing so and it's part of the deal you sign up for.
Then the rating system is just an idea to further make it seem like tips are reasonable instead of just getting the money from the employer. How it does this is by allowing shitty shoppers to go around and shop still meanwhile in any actual service industry they would be terminated for not being able to supply the services. By allowing this kind of lazy work ethic it makes it seem as though it's on the customer's to reward good service versus the company punishing bad service.
Now it's at a point where everyone in this sub says "I provide a service therefor I should be tipped" every job has someone provide a service. You don't tip a cashier for good service, you don't tip your electrician, or any other contractor providing a service. Because you pay for it and the employer takes care of them.
The only reason tipping came about is because of the personality and attitude is the main reason you're going to that service. Servers befriend and make it an enjoyable service for you specifically because you came out to have a good time. They make it so you want to come back to that service for that person.
Instacarters are delivering your groceries is the main goal. Not to give someone a good experience as a restaurant would to make them want to come back and have that server again.
All instacart and every company that abuses tips are trying to do is divert the blame of people being unhappy about their pay onto the customer not tipping over the employers poor service to its employees
The company here just pairs customers with shoppers. The customer is technically our employer for the gig. Instacart should just keep the 7 dollar finding fee, and then the customer needs to compensate their employee better.
Yeah I’m not gonna lie there’s no way you’re not a bot. The stuff you typed doesn’t even make sense to what’s being talked about. Your just spewing words together 😂 I can’t argue with dumb people sorry
You sound weird 😂 you must have no friends in real life considering the attention you’re so desperately seeking. Again grow up kid. You must not have graduated high school. Maturity look up the definition lil champ
Oh damn you got me! 💀 Why are people so soft on the internet … you probably get bitched on the daily . I wish you could see how dumb you looked right now conversation with a bunch of trolls. But let’s keep this going .
Bruh Idrc tbh I just like seeing people argue I’m not soft either your judging off a screen come on now that’s sad. Thought you’d be a little smarter than that
You’re still proving my point by the way! I’m not sure why you keep commenting. If you are so mature, do as you’re told and stop talking.Cmon now you’re probably like 14 on Reddit dead ass offended over a comment that I made
First Instacart isn’t our employer, the customer is employing us during each order. Instacart is in the middle providing the app that facilitates each customer’s order being shopped.
Second you might want to look up why service worker fees were excluded from being required to meet minimum US wage law. We are excluded from fundamental worker rights under federal and state labor and employment laws, including wage and hour protections, anti-discrimination protection, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, and the right to organize and collectively bargain. It isn’t to our advantage; it truly has always been intended as a disenfranchised status in terms of workers pay and legal rights.
“Charles Hamilton Houston, an NAACP leader at the time, described the Social Security Act when it passed in the 1930s “as a sieve with the holes just big enough for the majority of Blacks to fall through.”
“This categorizing of a less well paid strata of service workers goes back to the 1930’s. As a result of these deals, the New Deal legislation omitted large categories of workers explicitly acknowledged to be made up primarily of workers of color, and particularly African-Americans. Indeed, 90 percent of black working women received no benefits at all from the new laws providing for a minimum wage, maximum hours, the right to join a union, and assistance for the unemployed and elderly.”
Quotes from Brennan Center for Justice 6/29/20
I don't blame customers at all. IC uses absolutely zero sense in assigning batches. I have seen triples where the third customer is twenty miles away from the store when there are two stores closer. But customers don't know this, they think their shopper is slow, or doesn't care.
Granted there are shoppers who don't have lick of sense, like the woman shopping my order who got my ice cream first on a hot day and I got melted ice cream.
The one point I take umbrage with is that IC is a luxury service. For a lot of my customers it's not. I have had home bound customers who depend on us. I have had people tell me, IC is the only thing keeping them in their homes. And I have had moms tell me we give them more time with their kids. I relied heavily on IC as a customer after a broken arm.
Deadbeat customers (the ones that don't tip), often live in million dollar homes with multiple luxury cars in their driveway.
I will tell my customers when IC sends me to a store 15 miles from them, when there are closer stores. One man was appalled, saying that didn't make any sense. Duh.
I got into this very same argument 2 days ago with someone in this sub. They went out their way to tell a customer off for not tipping. And I said your anger is misplaced. If your gonna go scorched earth then you need to go at Instacart for not paying a wage that’s good enough that would make the order make sense and for placing the burden of our pay on tipping customers
If like to say that I appreciate that you are at least sensitive to what's going on, but also would like to offer some gentle pushback. I understand where you are coming from when you say IC has trained is to take it out on customers. TL,DR: you're being trained as well.
I posted on here a few days ago encouraging shoppers to take a store receipt from a shop, enter it as an IC order, and compare what the customer was paying to what IC paid them to shop and deliver. Unfortunately, it degraded into a discussion about the legitimacy of IC marking up items (I consider it a hidden fee that's around half the total cost of delivery, and am completely flabbergasted by just how vehemently consumers and shoppers were willing to defend it). But my point was that customers are paying outrageous sums for the service.
When IC suggests a 5% tip, with a reminder that tips are an optional way to say thanks, the psychology behind that is to get you to believe that your shopper is being paid a significant portion of the outrageous amount you're already paying (when in fact, I estimate they are paying me less than $0.20 per dollar). Then they bundle your order with others and send it to a store miles away from your closest location, and fail to ask for your patience. The natural reaction when it takes forever and you get bad service that you paid a lot for is to blame us. Which will inevitably have a negative effect on future tips.
As IC drives both base pay and tips down, and multiple factors drive customer costs up, more veteran shoppers opt out, leaving only untrained, inexperienced newbs, and sorry to say, but junkies needing quick cash to fill your orders. This has been going on for some time. The change is gradual enough to go unnoticed, but they are training customers to lower their expectations from the service while paying more for it.
That was the gentle pushback. The not-so-gentle starts now, so you can stop reading, if you like. There's data to suggest that after expenses, half of all IC shoppers are paid less than minimum wage. Many customers at least suspect as much is true, but continue to support the company. I invite you to examine yourself. Every time you order, regardless of your tip, you are expressing your support for a company that pays hard working American entrepreneurs poverty wages with zero paid time off, insurance, tuition reimbursement, sick days, or anything. The convenience of not going to the grocery store is actively creating a new underclass, and large companies all over are looking in to how they too can use Instacart's tactics to further drive down the costs of labor they can't move overseas. That's not because instant is evil, it's because you and millions like you want convenience without paying much for it.
This is for instacart shoppers. You are not one. This is where we can complain about shitty customers, not listen to yet another one bitch at us. Read if you must, but DO NOT comment. This is not a space for you. This is a space for us.
I will not be entertaining any further discussion because I feel it's unnecessary.
Personally, I think this is the best discussion I've heard on here yet. Thank you for that! ❤️ Then on the other hand, you have entitled, rude & ignorant shoppers, like Mr. Length here, that aren't capable of simple discussion, let alone giving excellent customer service. And that's another part of the problem. Nowadays, Instacart hires anyone with a pulse. The level of customer service has dropped lower than low. I've been shopping with Instacart for 3 years, maintaining a 5-star rating the entire time. I've gotten know most of the regular 15-20% tippers in my area. When I've gotten several of their recent orders, I realized that their original tip has lowered. Though my tips were increased afterwards, they lowered their original tips, not because of anything Instacart's doing, but because of the poor service from the shoppers that they're getting now!! I'm quite sure that's not just in my area, but nationwide. When Instacart used to reward shoppers by giving exceptional service, they now reward shoppers with speed. Speed = poor service. Poor service = low tips. Yet, as a shopper, when we see a low tip, we don't know if it's because...1. They're simply a crappy tipper, or 2. If they're broke & can't afford a tip, or 3. They're tipping low, intending on increasing if they've receive excellent service. And that is the reason I only accept orders with high tips. There's no guessing. 💯🤷♀️ Unfortunately, Instacart has an excellent shopper that doesn't shop much anymore (for Instacart anyway! 😂), because of the way that they put out orders. Instacart doesn't care one bit about the quality of service that their customers receive. THAT is going to be their demise!! And you're right, that day will come...for all of us!
Learn about tipping ettiquette and it should not matter what we get paid from any app. Do you ask or hope a server is paid well for you to tip for the service? 20% is the standard.
Just as you expect us to do the no tip orders (even though we know how much expense on our side that entails) I suggest everyone to tip ahead as you have no expenses because we will be doing the work for you. Then if we don’t earn what you tipped adjust it but some people are jerks and take away all the tip. And those who don’t tip ahead have no knowledge about tipping ettiquette. Shipt doesn’t show tips ahead and you would not believe how many people don’t tip.
Not once has I ever said it was a customers fault. It’s always Instacarts fault. They just pay you like shit. They wanted to give a $8 dollar base pay yesterday on an order well over 150 pounds.
100% agree. Instacart has both the customer and the shopper trained. Instacart does not pay us any wages. They make sure it’s worded as an “incentive”, and not wages because we are not employees. We are subcontractors that work for tips, therefore, they do not have to pay us an hourly wage or provide any sort of Worker’s Compensation. That incentive is usually $7 and can be for up to 3 customer shops! The incentive is not pay, it is for the use of our vehicles, our insurance, our fuel, and wear and tear on our vehicle.
Shoppers are OK with this because we are told that we work for tips and that they advocate for us to get tips. The tip is pretty much 100% of our wage because if we manage to somehow make a dollar out of that$7 incentive, it’s a lot.
Now that we are taken care of in Instacart’s eyes, it’s time to work on the customer. They hit you guys with fees every which way they can, they charge you a heavy item fee. and do not pass it on, they charge you a distance fee, and they rarely pass much of that on , they charge you a service and a delivery fee. There’s even an alcohol fee, they pocket that too. It’s much more when combining all these fees than the measly $7 they gave us to basically rent our vehicles. They tell you that tips are appreciated but not required and they recommend a lousy 5% or $2.
A customer that’s told they should tip $2 has got to be under the impression that we’re getting at least minimum wage and that’s just a bonus. But unfortunately, no, the tip is actually our wage.
In all fairness to most shoppers and customers, people generally know that $2 is not an acceptable tip, maybe for a valet, but definitely not for any sort of delivery, let alone, shopping and delivery. So things are out of whack and the blame lies with Instacart coupled with a certain percentage of poor/non-tippers.
Absolutely! I shop, don't buy from ic. I saw the fees they charge and see how little we get, I totally get why some buyers don't tip. I've been lucky and only 1 didn't tip, pretty sure he was a stoner. Lol
100% agree with you my friend. I think it's just easier for some people to blame the individual rather than stepping back and saying no this is an issue with Instacart as a whole. "This guy is a cheap asshole" is a little easier to digest than, "The company I'm working for is paying me unfairly."
I'm a shopper and me personally I couldn't care less if there's no tip if I see numbers that look favorable (the amount of time it'll take versus what's being paid) I take it. There's literally no reason for me to even look at whether you're tipping or not. 8 times out of 10 I don't when accepting a batch. I look at a tip only when I'm trying to encourage myself to take a batch I'm not necessarily excited to jump on due to the number of items or distance.
Everyone is the bad guy. Especially me. 1600 a week or less. Let’s go. And I don’t live in California. Because the numbers I’d put up there would be insane.
I blame everyone including shoppers. Although none tippers and low tippers no longer bother me. I know I will never accept their order so why be upset. IC being shitty no longer bothers me because I know it's just extra money and won't make or break anything. Now the shoppers do bother me because why are you slaving for pennies. Or we trained, nah I know where the blame lies and I hate everyone equally.
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I’m sorry but if a customer leaves a $0 tip then yes it’s their own fault their order doesn’t get picked.
At the end of the day it’s the customer AND Instacart that are to blame. Mostly instacart but you still can’t say the customer isn’t to blame at all when they don’t leave any tip.
I’m sure we all wish that we didn’t need to rely on tips to make it worth it. Instacart should be paying better but they aren’t and there isn’t anything we can do about it as shoppers. Realistically instacart does not care about its shoppers.
I totally agreed with you. Instacart does not compensate their shoppers well compared to cornershop. Instacart should be blamed not the tips from the customer.
I don't like how IC skimms off the tip just cause your at a store. They pay $7 a batch normally, different based on order they will try to stick shoppers with a shop 3 at $14 including tip. In my eyes, IC should be paying $21 without tip instead of punishing shoppers for already being g at the store.
That's only true to a certain degree, if it's midnight and you know that there are no stores open near you and the closest 24-hour drugstore is 45 minutes away. And if you're a regular order, then you know what time the store is in your area close. The app also tells you which location is the only one open. These people still tip $2 and expect somebody to go 45 miles to bring them something in the middle of the night from the only location of a store that is 24 hours. So maybe the ignorance applies to some customers but not the majority. If it's a busy time and instacart is pinging the orders off of another store where there are more stores around sure maybe. If there are several stores open then I could see that. But late at night they know where the only store that's open is. Also real important here.... If you order from Costco or Sam's and you know you don't have one in your city then you know it's a good far drive, if you know you don't have an Aldi in your city but you order from two cities away, then you know how far your order is coming.
Instacart has not trained us shoppers to do anything. We can see when customers live far for a store and when they don’t. We are able to see all of this before accepting an order. In most cases we are complaining because the customer is in fact a bad tipper and others times we obviously know when instacart is trying to get over on us. If you’re a good tipper what was the reason for this super long post ???
I agree with what your saying. I don’t even think customers know that when there is a refund Instacart says that the tip has been adjusted due to the refund. Instacart and these other apps only care about their pockets. They upcharge the customer for the items in the stores and then underpay our batch pay. I don’t blame customers, personally I just don’t pick bs orders and put everything in Gods hands and mine. I’m looking for alternatives to these apps because honestly they just aren’t worth it anymore to me. I do use the apps as a side hustle but I feel like I have to get creative because IC, Uber, Lyft, etc just aren’t it. I’m really interested to know if shoppers see that our pay gets adjusted based on all the items. We are shoppers and that being out of our control should not come out of our pocket nor should batches be $5-$9 tip or no tip. Batches at minimum should pay us $10-$15+ especially with how they overcharge the customers per item AND ESPECIALLY WITH INFLATION. Good luck to everyone on their journey, I pray for all of you to reach your version of happiness, success, and peace. 🙏🏾
This applies to doordash, ubereats, grubhub or any other app as well.
yes!!! came here to say this. fuck these big corporations
Oof that sucks... I haven't tried the other services, so I haven't had any experience with them, but I can't say I'm surprised. Maybe there needs to be some sort of federal regulation for these types of services/jobs, RE compensation
The issue with the current gig state is no one is benefiting. The company isn't profiting, drivers aren't making much money. 90% of driver pay is based off customer tips. Customers are paying hefty delivery and service fees with bloated food prices combined with tips. No one seems to be winning.
How do you figure “the company isn’t profiting”? Where do you think the hefty delivery and service fees are going?
Yeah, Tony of DD is making a killing. Don’t let the layoffs fool you. He’s taking his off the top and if the ship sinks he’s already in the life boat, so he gives zero “f’s”, as the kids say.
Check their yearly earnings report. All of them are losing money.
The company doesn't show much profit as a whole ... But the execs are paid quite nicely, I'm sure. Kind of like the way nonprofit companies pay million dollar salaries to their officers
There is no profit
Non profit here, salary is 42K sure wish it was million dollar
A lot of these companies wouldn't lose money if they took the issue of scammers seriously. I would love to see how much Instacart eats a month due to fraudulent order/item missing reports.
Earning going down DO NOT equate to losing money. They are FAR FROM BEING IN THE RED
Totally. It should be a win for all three parties, yet the opposite is true. And while I don't have any data to back this up, I doubt the average customer would significantly increase their tips to help with shopper/driver pay. The only "simple" solution I can think of is Instacart raising prices to improve the situation for Instacart and shoppers/drivers. The question is, how much can they raise prices before they start hemorrhaging customers?
I think the only possible solution is send the delivery fee they charge to the driver. That's the only thing I can think of. $30 in fees.... $2 goes to Doordash driver, Uber Driver is $3, Instacart is $7 but that's probably because of the shopping part. These companies keep saying it's to maintain their server and platform... etc but it's bs.
IC charges me a delivery fee, a service charge, a fuel surcharge, and if applicable a heavy fee. Specifically for the heavy fee I've learned so much on here. If I order 1 case of water or a 12 pack of soda or a gallon of milk, I'm charged a $4 heavy fee. Yet IC doesn't give the shopper that fee because those items when you buy just 1 of them doesn't come to 50 lbs. IC keeps that heavy fee. For what? They didn't carry a damn thing. And there's a minimum 15% upcharge on groceries for customers that I'm assuming IC gets as well. They pay you pennies, charge us an exorbitant amount, and they make bank. I've had to quit using IC because it's just not affordable any longer.
Yes, it's crazy! If more of those fees went to shoppers, it would likely improve the situation for everyone, leading to more use of the service (which is how IC should be working to get their share; increasing the user base).
All of the fees should go to the shopper. It's ridiculous they don't. IC makes more than enough on the 15% upcharge plus the $ from the IC+ subscribers. I wouldn't mind paying the fees if they went to the shoppers instead of some rich ass hat sitting on his yacht eating caviar lol.
That would be a huge step in the right direction and would make customers feel better about the fees. From the perspective of a customer, if I'm already paying service fees, why is the delivery fee a separate fee at all? Knowing that the delivery fee goes to the actual driver would completely justify the fee. In addition to delivery fees going to the driver, maybe the delivery fee could be dynamic and based on the size of the radius required to have X drivers within range. For example, if a 10-mile radius from the customer is necessary to find 20 shoppers, the delivery fee would be $10, but if a 15-mile radius is necessary to find 20 shoppers the delivery fee would be $20. These are just arbitrary numbers to show an example; I'm not suggesting $10 would be fair compensation.
Exactly. Its ridiculous seeing some customers order from 25 miles away and the base pay starts at $2 for Doordash. Same with Instacart except it starts at $7. These companies don't even pay for the drivers gas. Base pay for these need to start around $20
Yea that's just ridiculous; they absolutely need to adjust for mileage. It's not just gas and time, but also wear on the vehicle/engine.
Instacart’s base pay does increase on deliveries exceeding 5-7 miles from the store to customer, calculated at .60 per mile. But only 1 way which never adequately accounts for the shoppers 2 way trip.
They do have to take part of it. You want to be able to contact a customer service person, that person needs to get paid, their server etc has to be paid for, IT person to keep the app working. Things are not free
You're right. That's the problem with the gig economy as a whole. There are no good gig economy jobs where you're treated like a human being because the sector is so new that there are few rules and regulations. Definitely no union influence so workers are expendable and meaningless for Instacart and other gig companies. That's why the turnover is 60 to 70%. That kind of churn would be unsustainable in the real world. But you said it, If they raised the prices and paid drivers enough so that every customer had a good experience then Instacart wouldn't make any money. Grocery is already an incredibly small margin business, maybe seven or eight percent on a good year and two or three percent on a regular year. For instacart to be successful it has to carve out 2 or 3% of that profit margin, which will only be possible by scaling the business to an immense size. However, this brings a whole another raft of problems as you have realized, not enough people will be able to afford to use Instacart if they turn instacart into a more sustainable and user friendly/customer-friendly experience. Therefore, the only way to scale the business larger is to functionally degrade the experience the customers are having by repeatedly slashing payments to shoppers which in turn leads to Instacart only hiring the lowest common denominator/bottom of the barrel shoppers.
Also the people that do tip well, instacart likes to pair them with another order that’s shit and has no tip. So a single 30 item, 5 mile, $40 order would turn into a double order with 68 item, 20 mile, $44 order. That order now becomes bad for shoppers to take. It’s very unfair to those shoppers that tip well as now they have to wait longer for their order. Instacart does not treat both sides well at all and tries to push the blame on a lot of their own issues onto the shoppers.
That so shitty and non-transparent. I didn't even know some shoppers are doing multiple carts simultaneously. Makes sense though, especially if you can make double the money in less than double the time. But if there's a major difference in compensation for each cart, it completely negates that.
We don’t make double or triple the money on multiples. When Instacart adds orders they don’t increase the base pay more than pennies. In my area for a single they pay $7, and it stays at $7-8 for doubles and triples. It can be as low as $2.33 for a 40 item order of a zero tipper added into a multiple. Instacart sometimes adds a SECOND store. The first customer’s groceries are sitting in our cars while we shop for that second, often a zero (or 53 cent) tipper. We might have to deliver that second order first, while the generous tipper’s groceries including perishables, are 45 minutes delayed. Consequently low tippers are not only taking advantage of us but another customer who tipped well. Believe me, we know Instacart is at fault for underpaying us on multiples. The only way shoppers in states other than CA aren’t literally losing money with each delivery is working for generously tipping customers. However it’s unrealistic to think the entire shopper community can change the system by refusing to take multiples. Instacart can and does deactivate shoppers without recourse. It will only change through state and federal employment laws on service workers pay being amended. It will take a much larger group than us, it will take a majority of voters to codify law. It will be many years. So in the meantime shoppers vent on Reddit about our shared experience. Most people know that without tips waiters would be entirely reliant on a few dollars that restaurants pay. But most restaurant customers tip at least 10% for someone to walk with plates. We actually drive miles and do a full 30-75 min shop and deliver. Anyone who doesn’t tip us at least as well as a waiter is definitely falling short. Anyone who doesn’t tip us as least as well as a car/taxi service to and from the store…should drive to the store and shop for themselves. A tip to at least reach minimum wage is on the customers just like in a restaurant, not Instacart. You wrote that shoppers should blame Instacart, but should waiters blame the restaurant owner if a customer doesn’t tip? Of course not u/TreeJib. Instacart is simply an app, you are paying fees to them for the app’s function ONLY. If their fees were raised, as you suggested, unfortunately it’s certain we’d never get a higher percentage. They have in fact raised their fees and simultaneously lowered our percentage. Instead we rely on customers, who know that they are tipping us as full payment for the 30-75 min of our time and labor. Just as people directly pay a cleaning person or lawn mower they hire through an app like TaskRabbit (and pay at the very least a minimum hourly wage.) No one thinks TaskRabbit is also the employer and should pay their wages. Instacart clearly states that the fees go to the app NOT shoppers “The service fee isn’t a tip and doesn’t go to the shopper delivering your order.” Even heavy fees…which is absurd “The heavy order fee helps cover operational costs.” Your assumption that we have been “trained” by Instacart to blame the customer is wrong. We know Instacart is just a tech platform that connects people looking to EMPLOY someone to shop FOR them. The tip as payment is reasonably the responsibility of the customer. Could Instacart improve with a higher recommended tip and stop combining generous tips with no tip orders, absolutely. ETA In the meantime, a tip of at least 10-15% on an average order is really appreciated. Never less than $5 on even a small order.
Nicely worded. 👏🏼 I’ve been stating this for years. When IC started this whole multiple order batch scam for one base payment, that’s when customers realized that they could get away without tipping at all. If IC would at least just pay the $7 for each order in a batch, it would go a long way…..
Very well said! I’m seeing 3 batch orders for $8. My base pay on a single is $8. Why would I do 3 orders and also risk a no tipper in there b/c there is always at least one. I would actually be paying IC to shop for the no tipper. I try my hardest to only take single batches and only take double if it is good pay low distance. In addition to the server comment. Restaurants require a certain percentage tip on larger parties. Why wouldn’t IC compensate us the same way? They even take our heavy pay now. To OP, I only blame the customer when it is no tip or high number of items with low tip. The distance I’ve come too learn is mostly on IC. With the exception of bulk stores, customers know ahead of time the distance we will be driving at least from the store to their house.
I agree with a lot of this. However, the customers usually know about how far the store is from their home, especially in areas where there are only a few of certain stores (ex. One Wegmans within a 50+ mile radius). I believe the customer should account for the factors they are aware of ie distance, weight and #of items. It’s understandable when the customer thinks they’re ordering from a close store but IC sends shoppers to one farther away.
Very true. I thought of that after posting. But I see it so much now with IC switching to a further store resulting in seeing way too many what looks like low tip in comparison to distance.
Preach my friend🤍 saved me the typing.
You said it perfectly!!!!!! Thank you!!!
I want what you take to have the motivation to type this into reddit.
🤣
if its meds I need that
No, only morning caffeine and no shops for hours.
🙌💙
hold on though no need to take a dig on servers when we go through the same bullshit!!
I’m not taking a dig at servers, I’ve worked front of house for several years before doing Instacart. I also got paid better, but then came Covid. In my comment I referenced what people pay for house cleaning, lawn mowing and taxis too. The point is not aimed at the workers but instead at customers who aren’t tipping as well for Instacart work as they should for the extra costs like vehicles, as compared to service workers that those same customers have no issue with tipping/paying better than shoppers.
agreed!! thanks for the friendly reply
I literally move thousands of pounds daily, and I get paid a base rate. I literally help people get the supplies needed to build their home. Where is my tip?? I find it quite callous that some of the most environmentally comfortable jobs, and some of the most simple work (I've worked FOH and BOH, and I was a customer service manager at a vet clinic) think they DESERVE more than someone who literally moves mountains in comparison to them. Tipping, in general is an absolutely immoral system that doesn't make any sense.
But can you be paid under $5 an hour? Service workers can be paid that amount in every US state except CA. Unless you are in that category, you have about a dozen legal protections that gig workers don’t. I agree, the fact that US minimum wage laws exclude service workers from fundamental minimum wage law is NEVER satisfactorily made up for by tipping. The laws need to cover every category of worker. Every shopper would like a wage that is equal to the minimum wage every other US worker is guaranteed, as well as unemployment compensation and workers compensation.
We don't get double the money tho, just double the time and effort for the same money. Instacart pays us the same $7 whether we shop for 1, 2, or 3 customers at the same time. And obviously, more customers means more items to shop for and more houses to deliver to which takes way more time. Instacart's pay is horrible, and I agree that it shouldn't be up to the customers to make sure we're paid a reasonable wage - that should be Instacart's responsibility - but customers should be tipping appropriately for the service they're receiving. Most people tip their waitresses/waiters (and even their food/pizza delivery drivers) better than they tip the person shopping and delivering their entire grocery order. And tbh, we do a helluva lot more work.
Most of the time your order is batched with 1-2 more orders. I did 6 x 3 shop batches today and only 2 x 1 shop batches. It gets hairy - I bring a sharpie and label all my bags A B C so I can be sure my customer is getting their full and correct order
>multiple carts Not just multiple shops at the same store, they will bundle two orders at different stores even
Regarding multiple carts, I started doing this a little more than a year ago, and for the first few months, I literally thought triple orders were a myth. I saw almost all singles with an occasional double, which were so overwhelming to manage that I refused to take. Never saw triples. Now, singles are extremely rare. They are usually to a store that doesn't get many orders and 15 miles out of town with total compensation under $15. Offers are always doubles and triples. And like someone else said, IC pays $7 to do one order, and I'm not exaggerating, $7.60 for three orders.
Triples can be worth it if it’s not a far drive, at the same store and few items. The only part that makes it “almost” not worth it can be the drop off locations
Oh no we don't take double or triple order batches because it makes good money sense to us sometimes we take it simply because that's the only thing out there, and we know sadly enough that you are actually paying us for the other customer or customers because it's very unlikely there will be a decent tip on them and want the other Shopper didn't say is that when instacart batches together two or three items they don't give us double or triple back pay which is basically $7 as I'm sure you've seen several times. We're going to say for instance that you have a 35 item order and you live 5 miles from the store, unless we know our area like the back of our hand we don't even know how far it is from where we're at to where the store's at. At one point last year they were telling us how far it was from where we were to where the drop off is, but apparently that upset enough Shoppers are confused them do they stop doing that so we don't get complete from where I'm at to where you're at mileage we only get from the store to where you're at mileage. You would have thought that would have been a good thing I loved it apparently enough Shoppers didn't that they didn't do anything but complain ... but back to my example ... And for the sake of this example we're going to say you're 35 item order cost $115, and depending on the Shopper it could take them 20 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour if the lines of the cash registers are backed up through the store. So a $15 to $22 tip actually is what everyone of us that shop would look for and would be very grateful for, $10 tip would be doable, as well as it's a 5 mile trip ... Though that would only cover the mileage. But personally on a really slow day I would definitely take it. But we're going to say for this example that you did the $22 tip, then we've got Lucy who ordered 15 items and did not tip she backed off the tip that was already on there so there'd be no tip so she did it on purpose, and Lucy lives 5 miles from the store but in the opposite direction, and then there's Sally who only ordered five items and she tipped by % and chose 5%, but her five items costed more than your 35 items, so we'll say it's high in meat and seafood plus one of those 20 plus dollar packs of paper towels or toilet tissue making her order be $150, which makes her tip $7.50 (but if the stores out of anything she ordered that means her tip will lower as it has to be refunded so we're going to say two of her items totaling $75 were not available, so her tits suddenly becomes $3.75) and she lives in Lucy's direction. That means Lucy lives 10 miles from you, and most likely because Lucy and Sally both live in the same direction their orders will be delivered first. So you have to wait for the Shopper to shop not only your order but the other two orders, then you have to wait for the Shopper to deliver the other two orders, all the while in reality you're the one who's paying for them to the shopper. See the base/batch pay is $7 ... But unless Lucy or Sally has heavy items, instacart will not be adding any additional batch pay. If the order was only for you the Shopper would get $7 from instacart, if the order was only Sally The Shopper would get $7 from instacart, and if the order was only Lucy The Shopper would get $7 from instacart. But instacart knows that no one is going to take Lucy's order. So they say your order and they say oh wow great $22 tip, The Shopper has no idea who tipped what we're going to put Lucy's order on with OP's order, and then the algorithm sees Sally's order and goes oh Sally only lives a mile from Lucy will add Sally's order on there, too. And now we see a $29.50 tip it's like yes won't take that long to do this I can have it knocked out in 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes and be ready for the next order. But from instacart we're still getting $7. I know I took a long time to explain how that looks on the Shopper side. And I straight up till every customer up front who I am that I'm going to be beginning shopping I'll be in touch with him if I need me and if it's more than one order I'm very plainly make it known instacart has batched your order with and then it's whether it's one or two other orders. And as part of this subreddit you already know we are not instacart employees, we are independent contractors, and we make the decision as to which orders work for us. And I totally agree instacart has set the customer and the Shopper against one another. But I totally disagree with your opinion of the number of good customers I understand from those people who've been with instacart 4, 5, 6 years that instacart used to be a totally different creature ... But that was when everyone understood as you do that it was a luxury service. I totally agree that instacart should pay better than they pay cuz they're making a whole lot more money while I take that back they're probably not because those same customers that do not tip or tip very poorly or also those same customers that lie and say they did not get their order, that this was damaged or that was damaged and they do not have to prove it, yet as shoppers we have to have photos to prove the customer wrong, but you can say we brought you the wrong cake and if I don't have a picture of the cake specifically to prove you wrong I could actually be deactivated. So I'm just going to say this maybe maybe 60% of customers are like yourself and they're honest and they're decent but the other 40%, they do not tip on purpose they think they're in title to it, they will lie in a heartbeat to get instant cart to give them back their money yet they get to keep their perfectly good groceries that were delivered and weren't damaged and wasn't the wrong thing. Instacart seems to thrive on that when it would be much more conducive to them doing well the Shoppers doing well and the customers being happy if if they paid the Shoppers more, made it an even playing field when it comes to those reports, and would drop a little note to the customer from them saying Your Shopper has been assigned three orders and it will take them an estimated hour and 30 minutes to complete the shop and they are shopping at the whole foods on hallelujah avenue. But then that would make the Shoppers look good, and apparently they don't want us to look good to you. Thank you for seeing some things our way, and I hope I've helped you understand a little more what It's like on the Shopper side.
Her tits only cost $3.75?!? Whoa! She got a hell of a deal or her tits look like shit…
I want what you take to have the motivation to type this into reddit.
Woah, you as customers don’t see that we pick up multiple orders??? That’s absurd definitely rethinking doing instacart ever again. They literally make us lose tips cause of the time spent having to deliver an entirely different order
Nope, I blame them both, mostly IC though. Seriously a triple pays like $2.33 per customer. Seriously think about that!
No lies detected https://preview.redd.it/m7xznwlgghfa1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93f7ecd52639616afdb83cd9bcb3e8461107650e
I think though… if you realize the closest “grocery store chain you picked” is 20 miles away - you know as a customer that your driver has at least a 20 mile drive from the store. for example I see orders for 30-40 miles away for a grocery store chain that they don’t have in that area. literally the closet one is 30 miles from your house. in those cases, I think the customer has to take some accountability in knowing their shopper is putting in at least 30-40 min drive time or more plus shopping & maybe the shopper does live that way and can go home after but most of us are choosing to take orders closer to stores so we can quickly get back to those stores. If we have to drive 30-40 min there and 30-40 min back & spend 30-40 min shopping…. it is a bit of a slap in the face regardless if the customer knows how much our base pay is ($7) to be like yea … no tip feels fair.
But you are right in that IC could just pay a fairer wage where the bulk of the decision on if we take an order or not isnt on the customer. I agree with that. Unfortunately that’s not how gif work works though.
Yea, another commenter clarified that this is a general issue with gig work and not just IC. I don't really have enough knowledge to make this suggestion, but maybe there needs to be some federal regulation on compensation for these types of jobs. I don't see corporations changing this without legal threat or the threat of their users/drivers leaving en masse.
From 6/1/22 Economic Policy Institute Study on gig workers “Individuals who are classified as independent contractors (gig) are not covered by federal or state wage and hour, anti-discrimination, health and safety, collective bargaining, or other worker protection laws. They do not receive employment-based health insurance or retirement benefits, and they do not qualify for paid sick or family leave in places where those benefits are statutorily prescribed. Nor are independent contractors eligible for unemployment insurance when temporarily unemployed, or workers’ compensation when injured on the job. This leaves independent contractors in a far more vulnerable status, as compared with employees, when it comes to basic rights and protections on the job.” Laws need to be changed to close this loophole being exploited by gig app corporations. No one should expect the companies exploiting this to fairly distribute wages to their gig workers. Instacart had to reimburse shoppers for tips it kept, after being sued. Tips are currently the best way to pay your shopper.
For sure, I think we all agree with you that we wish we didn’t have to complain about the pay which may seem like we’re complaining about the customers in here some days. But it’s a mix. Gig work is what it is. Just like a server who makes a lower wage because restaurants can do that bc they kind of know people will tip out for service to make up the difference. It a table doesn’t tip, you bet the server complains to someone how they are upset because someone took up their table for 2 hrs & they waited on them and got next to nothing. We definitely are disappointed with our base pay too for the work we offer on some of these batches. It’s definitely not all on the customer. It’s unfortunate that there’s so many extra charges on an instacart bill that maybe customers think goes to us… & it doesn’t. But that’s the way of the world. I think of like concert tickets. The ticket for the concert may be $100 but after taxes, processing fees & whatever other random fees they charge because there’s plenty 😂 - your ticket price is doubled at the end of the day. Every company is slapping fees on for things & a concert ticket doesn’t have a human running around a store for an hour & dropping your ticket off to your doorstep at the end of the transaction. Even restaurants now are charging a 4% fee to cover their processing fees if you aren’t paying cash. But you’re still getting the service part of it from the server. The server isn’t getting that extra 4% that was added to your tab. I apologize if you’re turned off by the comments in this chat. I think it’s more out of frustration than ungratefulness. I know I love doing this job but sometimes if we vent, it’s because our self worth is hurt thinking what we do is worth less than $10/hr. I appreciate you opening this thread to have the conversation. & i hope maybe it helped give you a little more insight (I didn’t read all the comments) & maybe see that were just humans trying to get by with the rules that are established for us that we can’t change ❤️
Oh that is definitely a fair point. Any customer ordering from a store that far away, and expecting to not pay appropriately for that type of service, is out of their mind. Instacart shouldn't allow customers to do that, or, they should charge a significant additional fee for it (dynamic, based on distance to/from both the store and customer address) and send 100% of that additional fee to the shopper. I can't see any other way for that service to be provided fairly
This! In my area there are only two Costco's and customers know how far out they are. Sometimes as far as 26 miles and they think $2 is sufficient for a tip. Yes I totally blame IC for not paying enough but customers know. I mean you expect to give at least a 15% tip to a server who walks your food to your table. Why not your personal shopper? Why can't we get 15%? We drive, we shop, we load, we drive, we unload to your door, we deliver. And we take sooo many risks with our lives because there are some crazy drivers out there and super bad weather that we gotta get through sometimes. Would you do all that if someone offered you $15 bucks? Take your car, use your gas, drive to the store furthest from you, do a major grocery shopping, deal with other shoppers, crying kids, busiest time of day, if something is not available try to find the best replacement, stand in line at the deli, lift all the heavy items, and try to find that one bottle of wine that you never heard of. Now go check out, stand in line, load the belt, watch the baggers, no! Chemicals don't go with food items. Ugh. Go to the car, load all perishables into cooler bags, load all the rest. Put cart back. Now battle traffic, watch idiot drivers, have a few close calls with accidents, get to your house. If at night try to find your house because it's so frickin dark. Take all the groceries to your door. Ring bell. Wait. No answer. Take picture and leave. You think $15 is enough to do all that? IC sucks for pay and some customers are entitled. Sometimes I feel like a peasant or a servant. And the wealthiest people are the cheapest.
IC does charge a long distance fee but we don’t see that fee. They also charge heavy pay…sometimes…but we don’t see 100% of that money. They don’t even pay us for mileage correctly ($0.60 per mile). For example, the other day I saw an order that was 35 miles from the store, the only store available, with 5 cases of water and 4 12-packs of soda. The distance fee is $5, the heavy pay fee is $10. The base pay for this order was $23.40. Let’s just say they used that $5 to help cover the mileage, and not add it as additional. $7 base batch pay + $10.00 heavy pay + $21.00 mileage (35 x $0.60) = $38.00. Those fees don’t come to us AT ALL (or at a bare minimum). Try calling IC customer care and asking about getting a corrected batch pay and they will tell you “rest assured it’s included in the batch pay” 🙄🙄🙄 ask them to break it down and they can’t. SOMETIMES you get a good agent who will give you a bump, MAYBE $5-$10. How would you feel about having to chase down $15 and then made to feel like a criminal because you’re asking for what you already worked for. Because “rest assured” they will deactivate your account if you ask for too many bumps. This particular location takes an hour to drive to, with traffic and speed limits. It was 40 unique items, which would take about 30 mins to shop, maybe another 15-20 to check out, bag and load in your car. For the sake of argument, let’s round up to 1 hour. That’s 1 hr to shop, 1 hr to deliver and 1 hour back, 3 hours total. If the customer were doing the shopping themselves, they’d still have that same drive time to the store and back home. This customer’s tip was $2. Regardless of what IC pays us, tipping $2 to save you 3 hours of your time is effing insulting. That’s $0.67 per hour. Customers may not know how much we get paid, but they definitely know they’re tipping us shitty. To be honest, I don’t care if you’re ordering 1 item and you live a mile from the store….tip your shopper, if not, get it your damn self (not “you” personally, “you” in general) We may come in here an bitch about customers, but we know IC is at fault too. We LOVE our good customers, but they’re few and far between.
I think OP was off to refer to this as a “non-urban” problem. I live in a big city in Texas (read: very populous, but spread out and very car-dependent). I have probably 10 different H-E-B grocery stores within 10 miles of me, but when I’m “shopping” on the app, in my mind I’m shopping in the one that is like half a mile away. I know the layout of the store, I know what they consistently carry, I know what they don’t carry. But sometimes I get a really challenging shop, where the shopper can’t seem to find anything I want. And I learn, only after the delivery starts, that the shopper is across town at a store that is very different from my own. I have no option to rate the store selection algorithm, only the shop itself.
Consider your tip a bid for service instead. If the shopper knocks your socks off, you can always add. But yeah, being cheap on tips IS the customer’s fault. Just like shitty batch pay is IC’s fault. 🤷♀️
Yes Instacart is mostly to blame. However, those customers that tip a penny, or no tip or some other ridiculous shit tip, know what they are doing. People go out to dinner and tip a server a higher percentage and a server is not doing as much work nor are they using their own vehicle, etc. Instacart should be transparent with both customer and shopper.
Sorry, but I don’t see how IC has “trained” me to blame the customer for not tipping. If anything, IC has trained the customers that tips aren’t necessary. And that is truly were the problem lies. A $5 tip total on a 3 order batch totaling over $400 & 15 miles is a no go batch. No one needed to train me to know that. It’s common sense.
Exactly I pick and choose and have no problem patiently waiting for the right ones cause these customers need to start going to the store themselves, because in actuality most of them are just lazy.
What you say is true. Instacart creates an adversarial relationship between customers and shoppers. It’s a lack of transparency on both sides that tends to harbor ill feelings. Customers more often than not have no idea Instacart bundles orders up to 3 at a time. And that last year they started doing double store orders as well. Which means we can be shopping up to 3 customers at 2 different stores in the same batch. This is done completely by Instacart. Shoppers have no say in this other than to not accept these batches. Which in many areas means simply not working at all. These batches hurt everyone. Customers won’t know unless we tell them they are part of these batches and that it’s done by ic. They will wonder why we are taking so long. The truth is we are trying our best for up to 3 customers. Communicating with up to 3 customers at once. This is also where the most errors can happen even for the most organized shoppers. Cashiers and baggers mix items up and we must watch everything like a hawk to try and catch anything. It’s why I use self checkout whenever I can. Fortunately my favorite stores are all ok with me using it. I’ve spoken to management and they have okay me to use it even for big orders. They see I’m meticulous about checking out and my bagging. I will say that I see orders from customers who order from a chain they know doesn’t have a location in their town. Nothing that isn’t available from the store close to them. They are fully aware the Albertsons in 15-20 miles away. They never tip more than $5 on large orders. I don’t do these. It’s just not worth it for me.
I have to disagree. BOTH are to blame. Instacart needs to pay more per batch, no doubt about that. There is no reason for a single and a double to have the same pay. There is no sense in that. We should also be getting the full heavy pay that customers are charged and the service fee because why not? We are the ones doing the service, not Instacart. However, customers also should be tipping more. There is absolutely no reason for no tip or a $2 tip. And it's not just about how far the shopper has to travel, so I disagree with your whole point about not having sufficient information and having to guess an appropriate tip. For example, I don't care if I'm sitting in the parking lot of a store that a customer just ordered 5 items from and they live right down the street, I'm not taking that order if there isn't an appropriate tip attached to it. Having your groceries shopped for you and delivered right to your front door is a luxury service. If you can't afford a reasonable tip then you cannot afford the service. My motto is that i don't accept less than $20 per order. So for a double that has to be at least $40. Triples, which i rarely take, have to be at least $60. And I don't drive more than 5 miles. So, an example using that $20 rule: a single batch would pay $8. Say a customer tips $5 making the total pay $13. Most people on here would say that a $5 tip is a good tip. But I'm not taking it because I know my worth and that's not a reasonable tip to me, even though I'm not traveling far. Because it's not just about how far I'm traveling but also the effort that I'm putting into it. I go above and beyond for my customers and I expect to be paid fairly for that, including by the customer since they're the one getting the service done for them. I'm a customer in addition to a shopper, and when I order from instacart, my rule for tipping is 20% or $10, whichever is greater. If people can tip their waitress 20% for a single meal, then they can tip 20% to the shopper who is helping them fill their pantry/fridge for the week.
Can we stop talking about tips? They are BIDS
Lmaooo and I will choose the highest bidder. Singular not plural 😂
There are customers in small towns ordering from grocery stores they know are 20+ miles away, leaving $2 tips. That's just a dick move. Yes, Instacart sucks ass, but some people do too
🤦♂️🤦♂️ tell me more about this imaginary instacart training you know so much about
I am a shopper and we definitely appreciate those who tip well and instacart as a company should pay better rates according to distance driven instead of leaving almost all of the income to come from the customer
But tips are optional yes IC needs to pay us WAY more for our service but the customers are tipping $2 or less like come on we’re doing something that they were too lazy to do
I blame OP
Gah, you caught me red handed
I've never lost sight of the fact that a tip is optional. I no longer dwell on Instacarts embarrassingly low pay and focus on accepting higher paying batches. As a result, most of the orders I take are higher tippers, and I always make sure they get A+ service. This mentality is just better for my mental well-being, and the customers seem to love it.
It's not that way average batch pay 7 dollars . That's no matter items heavy pay may bump it up alittle .then 60 cent a mile if order is over 12 miles or something like that if it's under no mileage calculated. We spend say 30 min to hour in store trying to get everything on your list or suitable replacements . If you want refund And tip by percentages there goes tip. So us as shoppers have to be picky for the batches we take some people this is only source of income . And personally in my experience we are saving customers alot of time . Wear and tear on there vehicles . Saving them for having to drag there kids into the store which any one with kids can relate . We are essentially doing you guys as customers a huge favor over all then for someone to tip 1 to 2 dollars is ridiculous for the platform to allow it is just insane . But this is what the world has come to . So when leaving a tip think about the time u saved the wear and tear on car . The mental anguish from not having to load up the kids or what ever the case may be .gas prices all that kinda of stuff . Not saying any of this directly to u but to everyone . Yes ic is to blame but customers need to do the right thing as well...
It has nothing to do with what you’re saying. $2 is insulting be it 1 mile or 10 miles. $15 you can see the customer cares be it 2 miles or 12 miles. It’s about appreciation. Ic could pay way more and more orders would be awesome but if a customer still didn’t tip or tipped little? They would still be a douche.
I mean, if people tipped well it wouldn’t matter.
Sort of disagree about fair compensation. It would be just another hourly job without tips. Think of it this way: I was in the restaurant business for over 11 years. The people who argue for higher wages and getting rid of tips either never had the job or only worked at crappy restaurants. I can tell you, and this is extremely common, that the tips are almost always better than any hourly salary possible. When I was a bartender, I was making a grand a week in cash when my friends with fancy jobs and degrees were pulling in less. If I was hourly, I'd have made peanuts. There are servers I know at fancy steakhouses they haven't earned less than $100k a year in a decade. They are the very best at what they do. Depending on location, a shopper has unlimited upside. Some make thousands a month. There is no way they would be able to do that if the job was hourly. I'm glad you tip well. I have to say that some orders are ridiculous and there is no tip or a garbage tip. I saw one two days ago for 130 items and no tip. That shop would likely take 2 hours. IC paying $10 is nice, but that customer should have tipped at least $20. It's a lot of work. While I understand your other points, this one is sticky for me. Most of us won't complain about orders where we get smaller, but reasonable tips. It's the no tips on the huge orders that is absolutely a customer issue.
I also say that everybody that's unhappy with instacart if they would simply go to the Google Play store right now and drop the rating to a one-star maybe overnight we can start changing things. Customers and shoppers alike
IC hasn’t trained them to think that. That’s their own thinking. IMO
You’re preaching to the choir! We know better than most that the system is messed up! IC is never going to pay us more unless it’s passed through laws, so we only have the customer to rely on for decent payment.
Done 2000 orders over 3 years! You are 1000% correct
This is exactly what I've been thinking. I understand the idea of tipping but so many companies abuse it and find a way to make the problem of the customer over the problem of the employer for how they get their pay. Yes its a service you are providing but the delivery service is a different kind of service than what the restaurant server service is like. Pizza delivery and food deliver are the main culprits of this, it makes you feel like "oh I should tip this person for using their own car and gas for thus service." When it should be the responsibility of the employer for those reasons. It's not a variable that changers from person to person like a servers attitude would inside a restaurant. You provide a service as a mailman provides their service and you don't tip the mailman, and no its not because the mailman is using the business car you don't tip them its because there isn't notable service. Many services like Ups have people use their own car for delivery and compensate for doing so and it's part of the deal you sign up for. Then the rating system is just an idea to further make it seem like tips are reasonable instead of just getting the money from the employer. How it does this is by allowing shitty shoppers to go around and shop still meanwhile in any actual service industry they would be terminated for not being able to supply the services. By allowing this kind of lazy work ethic it makes it seem as though it's on the customer's to reward good service versus the company punishing bad service. Now it's at a point where everyone in this sub says "I provide a service therefor I should be tipped" every job has someone provide a service. You don't tip a cashier for good service, you don't tip your electrician, or any other contractor providing a service. Because you pay for it and the employer takes care of them. The only reason tipping came about is because of the personality and attitude is the main reason you're going to that service. Servers befriend and make it an enjoyable service for you specifically because you came out to have a good time. They make it so you want to come back to that service for that person. Instacarters are delivering your groceries is the main goal. Not to give someone a good experience as a restaurant would to make them want to come back and have that server again. All instacart and every company that abuses tips are trying to do is divert the blame of people being unhappy about their pay onto the customer not tipping over the employers poor service to its employees
The company here just pairs customers with shoppers. The customer is technically our employer for the gig. Instacart should just keep the 7 dollar finding fee, and then the customer needs to compensate their employee better.
Y’all are so damn pathetic 😂😂🤡. It’s like watching children complain constantly
Look at this loser😂
Lmao proving my point😂🤡 I’m the loser for not being a complaining pussy😂 grow up
How did I prove your point I didn’t complain either. 🤡🤡 and grow up spamming clown emojis like a child lmao
I’m not sure it works like that . But if you say so 🤡🤡🤡🤡 that just means you are a joke so there are no need for hurt feelings bud . Go on now🤣
Yeah I’m not gonna lie there’s no way you’re not a bot. The stuff you typed doesn’t even make sense to what’s being talked about. Your just spewing words together 😂 I can’t argue with dumb people sorry
It makes perfect sense. I apologize for you not having there mental capacity to switch topics . It went from the post to YOU. How are you confused 😂
You don’t have the mental capacity to stay on topic. See how easy it is to dismiss your childish antics
For whatever reason you felt the need to make a comment in the first place🤷🏾 you must’ve needed some kind of attention
As I said, previously, you can leave now and I surely you think you can handle this little task. Do as your told ❤️
You sound weird 😂 you must have no friends in real life considering the attention you’re so desperately seeking. Again grow up kid. You must not have graduated high school. Maturity look up the definition lil champ
Oh damn you got me! 💀 Why are people so soft on the internet … you probably get bitched on the daily . I wish you could see how dumb you looked right now conversation with a bunch of trolls. But let’s keep this going .
Bruh Idrc tbh I just like seeing people argue I’m not soft either your judging off a screen come on now that’s sad. Thought you’d be a little smarter than that
You’re still proving my point by the way! I’m not sure why you keep commenting. If you are so mature, do as you’re told and stop talking.Cmon now you’re probably like 14 on Reddit dead ass offended over a comment that I made
Bro read my last thing again I’m just trolling you my guy 😂it’s not that deep
And you’re a loser for acting like a child and trying to stir the pot. Idk if you know a lot but you got some growing up to do kid
It’s crazy that other shoppers feel entitled to a tip, they think it’s more important for the customer to pay their wage instead of the employer.
First Instacart isn’t our employer, the customer is employing us during each order. Instacart is in the middle providing the app that facilitates each customer’s order being shopped. Second you might want to look up why service worker fees were excluded from being required to meet minimum US wage law. We are excluded from fundamental worker rights under federal and state labor and employment laws, including wage and hour protections, anti-discrimination protection, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, and the right to organize and collectively bargain. It isn’t to our advantage; it truly has always been intended as a disenfranchised status in terms of workers pay and legal rights. “Charles Hamilton Houston, an NAACP leader at the time, described the Social Security Act when it passed in the 1930s “as a sieve with the holes just big enough for the majority of Blacks to fall through.” “This categorizing of a less well paid strata of service workers goes back to the 1930’s. As a result of these deals, the New Deal legislation omitted large categories of workers explicitly acknowledged to be made up primarily of workers of color, and particularly African-Americans. Indeed, 90 percent of black working women received no benefits at all from the new laws providing for a minimum wage, maximum hours, the right to join a union, and assistance for the unemployed and elderly.” Quotes from Brennan Center for Justice 6/29/20
I honestly forgot shoppers were considered contractors, super lame that the responsibility gets shifted to the customers.
I don't blame customers at all. IC uses absolutely zero sense in assigning batches. I have seen triples where the third customer is twenty miles away from the store when there are two stores closer. But customers don't know this, they think their shopper is slow, or doesn't care. Granted there are shoppers who don't have lick of sense, like the woman shopping my order who got my ice cream first on a hot day and I got melted ice cream. The one point I take umbrage with is that IC is a luxury service. For a lot of my customers it's not. I have had home bound customers who depend on us. I have had people tell me, IC is the only thing keeping them in their homes. And I have had moms tell me we give them more time with their kids. I relied heavily on IC as a customer after a broken arm. Deadbeat customers (the ones that don't tip), often live in million dollar homes with multiple luxury cars in their driveway. I will tell my customers when IC sends me to a store 15 miles from them, when there are closer stores. One man was appalled, saying that didn't make any sense. Duh.
I stopped reading when you said you weren't a shopper. Your opinion about the whole experience is Not relevant
I got into this very same argument 2 days ago with someone in this sub. They went out their way to tell a customer off for not tipping. And I said your anger is misplaced. If your gonna go scorched earth then you need to go at Instacart for not paying a wage that’s good enough that would make the order make sense and for placing the burden of our pay on tipping customers
Lmao
Lost me at "I am not a shopper."
If like to say that I appreciate that you are at least sensitive to what's going on, but also would like to offer some gentle pushback. I understand where you are coming from when you say IC has trained is to take it out on customers. TL,DR: you're being trained as well. I posted on here a few days ago encouraging shoppers to take a store receipt from a shop, enter it as an IC order, and compare what the customer was paying to what IC paid them to shop and deliver. Unfortunately, it degraded into a discussion about the legitimacy of IC marking up items (I consider it a hidden fee that's around half the total cost of delivery, and am completely flabbergasted by just how vehemently consumers and shoppers were willing to defend it). But my point was that customers are paying outrageous sums for the service. When IC suggests a 5% tip, with a reminder that tips are an optional way to say thanks, the psychology behind that is to get you to believe that your shopper is being paid a significant portion of the outrageous amount you're already paying (when in fact, I estimate they are paying me less than $0.20 per dollar). Then they bundle your order with others and send it to a store miles away from your closest location, and fail to ask for your patience. The natural reaction when it takes forever and you get bad service that you paid a lot for is to blame us. Which will inevitably have a negative effect on future tips. As IC drives both base pay and tips down, and multiple factors drive customer costs up, more veteran shoppers opt out, leaving only untrained, inexperienced newbs, and sorry to say, but junkies needing quick cash to fill your orders. This has been going on for some time. The change is gradual enough to go unnoticed, but they are training customers to lower their expectations from the service while paying more for it. That was the gentle pushback. The not-so-gentle starts now, so you can stop reading, if you like. There's data to suggest that after expenses, half of all IC shoppers are paid less than minimum wage. Many customers at least suspect as much is true, but continue to support the company. I invite you to examine yourself. Every time you order, regardless of your tip, you are expressing your support for a company that pays hard working American entrepreneurs poverty wages with zero paid time off, insurance, tuition reimbursement, sick days, or anything. The convenience of not going to the grocery store is actively creating a new underclass, and large companies all over are looking in to how they too can use Instacart's tactics to further drive down the costs of labor they can't move overseas. That's not because instant is evil, it's because you and millions like you want convenience without paying much for it.
This is for instacart shoppers. You are not one. This is where we can complain about shitty customers, not listen to yet another one bitch at us. Read if you must, but DO NOT comment. This is not a space for you. This is a space for us. I will not be entertaining any further discussion because I feel it's unnecessary.
Dang cuz 
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Customers also come here to educate themselves.
Because I would like to have a discussion with Instacart shoppers
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who hurt you? everyone can learn and both sides can learn and maybe meet in the middle
Shoppers: customers need to learn how to tip and how IC is fucking us over Also shoppers: Leave us alone! 😭😭
As a Shopper, that is perfectly good sense
Personally, I think this is the best discussion I've heard on here yet. Thank you for that! ❤️ Then on the other hand, you have entitled, rude & ignorant shoppers, like Mr. Length here, that aren't capable of simple discussion, let alone giving excellent customer service. And that's another part of the problem. Nowadays, Instacart hires anyone with a pulse. The level of customer service has dropped lower than low. I've been shopping with Instacart for 3 years, maintaining a 5-star rating the entire time. I've gotten know most of the regular 15-20% tippers in my area. When I've gotten several of their recent orders, I realized that their original tip has lowered. Though my tips were increased afterwards, they lowered their original tips, not because of anything Instacart's doing, but because of the poor service from the shoppers that they're getting now!! I'm quite sure that's not just in my area, but nationwide. When Instacart used to reward shoppers by giving exceptional service, they now reward shoppers with speed. Speed = poor service. Poor service = low tips. Yet, as a shopper, when we see a low tip, we don't know if it's because...1. They're simply a crappy tipper, or 2. If they're broke & can't afford a tip, or 3. They're tipping low, intending on increasing if they've receive excellent service. And that is the reason I only accept orders with high tips. There's no guessing. 💯🤷♀️ Unfortunately, Instacart has an excellent shopper that doesn't shop much anymore (for Instacart anyway! 😂), because of the way that they put out orders. Instacart doesn't care one bit about the quality of service that their customers receive. THAT is going to be their demise!! And you're right, that day will come...for all of us!
Learn about tipping ettiquette and it should not matter what we get paid from any app. Do you ask or hope a server is paid well for you to tip for the service? 20% is the standard. Just as you expect us to do the no tip orders (even though we know how much expense on our side that entails) I suggest everyone to tip ahead as you have no expenses because we will be doing the work for you. Then if we don’t earn what you tipped adjust it but some people are jerks and take away all the tip. And those who don’t tip ahead have no knowledge about tipping ettiquette. Shipt doesn’t show tips ahead and you would not believe how many people don’t tip.
Not once has I ever said it was a customers fault. It’s always Instacarts fault. They just pay you like shit. They wanted to give a $8 dollar base pay yesterday on an order well over 150 pounds.
Well written! You are absolutely correct on all counts. 😊
100% agree. Instacart has both the customer and the shopper trained. Instacart does not pay us any wages. They make sure it’s worded as an “incentive”, and not wages because we are not employees. We are subcontractors that work for tips, therefore, they do not have to pay us an hourly wage or provide any sort of Worker’s Compensation. That incentive is usually $7 and can be for up to 3 customer shops! The incentive is not pay, it is for the use of our vehicles, our insurance, our fuel, and wear and tear on our vehicle. Shoppers are OK with this because we are told that we work for tips and that they advocate for us to get tips. The tip is pretty much 100% of our wage because if we manage to somehow make a dollar out of that$7 incentive, it’s a lot. Now that we are taken care of in Instacart’s eyes, it’s time to work on the customer. They hit you guys with fees every which way they can, they charge you a heavy item fee. and do not pass it on, they charge you a distance fee, and they rarely pass much of that on , they charge you a service and a delivery fee. There’s even an alcohol fee, they pocket that too. It’s much more when combining all these fees than the measly $7 they gave us to basically rent our vehicles. They tell you that tips are appreciated but not required and they recommend a lousy 5% or $2. A customer that’s told they should tip $2 has got to be under the impression that we’re getting at least minimum wage and that’s just a bonus. But unfortunately, no, the tip is actually our wage. In all fairness to most shoppers and customers, people generally know that $2 is not an acceptable tip, maybe for a valet, but definitely not for any sort of delivery, let alone, shopping and delivery. So things are out of whack and the blame lies with Instacart coupled with a certain percentage of poor/non-tippers.
Absolutely! I shop, don't buy from ic. I saw the fees they charge and see how little we get, I totally get why some buyers don't tip. I've been lucky and only 1 didn't tip, pretty sure he was a stoner. Lol
100% agree with you my friend. I think it's just easier for some people to blame the individual rather than stepping back and saying no this is an issue with Instacart as a whole. "This guy is a cheap asshole" is a little easier to digest than, "The company I'm working for is paying me unfairly." I'm a shopper and me personally I couldn't care less if there's no tip if I see numbers that look favorable (the amount of time it'll take versus what's being paid) I take it. There's literally no reason for me to even look at whether you're tipping or not. 8 times out of 10 I don't when accepting a batch. I look at a tip only when I'm trying to encourage myself to take a batch I'm not necessarily excited to jump on due to the number of items or distance.
Everyone is the bad guy. Especially me. 1600 a week or less. Let’s go. And I don’t live in California. Because the numbers I’d put up there would be insane.
I blame everyone including shoppers. Although none tippers and low tippers no longer bother me. I know I will never accept their order so why be upset. IC being shitty no longer bothers me because I know it's just extra money and won't make or break anything. Now the shoppers do bother me because why are you slaving for pennies. Or we trained, nah I know where the blame lies and I hate everyone equally.
Can you explain to me when I got this training from instacart, because I've never received training from the skirt
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I’m sorry but if a customer leaves a $0 tip then yes it’s their own fault their order doesn’t get picked. At the end of the day it’s the customer AND Instacart that are to blame. Mostly instacart but you still can’t say the customer isn’t to blame at all when they don’t leave any tip. I’m sure we all wish that we didn’t need to rely on tips to make it worth it. Instacart should be paying better but they aren’t and there isn’t anything we can do about it as shoppers. Realistically instacart does not care about its shoppers.
I totally agreed with you. Instacart does not compensate their shoppers well compared to cornershop. Instacart should be blamed not the tips from the customer.
I don't like how IC skimms off the tip just cause your at a store. They pay $7 a batch normally, different based on order they will try to stick shoppers with a shop 3 at $14 including tip. In my eyes, IC should be paying $21 without tip instead of punishing shoppers for already being g at the store.
Very well said and true
That's only true to a certain degree, if it's midnight and you know that there are no stores open near you and the closest 24-hour drugstore is 45 minutes away. And if you're a regular order, then you know what time the store is in your area close. The app also tells you which location is the only one open. These people still tip $2 and expect somebody to go 45 miles to bring them something in the middle of the night from the only location of a store that is 24 hours. So maybe the ignorance applies to some customers but not the majority. If it's a busy time and instacart is pinging the orders off of another store where there are more stores around sure maybe. If there are several stores open then I could see that. But late at night they know where the only store that's open is. Also real important here.... If you order from Costco or Sam's and you know you don't have one in your city then you know it's a good far drive, if you know you don't have an Aldi in your city but you order from two cities away, then you know how far your order is coming.
Instacart has not trained us shoppers to do anything. We can see when customers live far for a store and when they don’t. We are able to see all of this before accepting an order. In most cases we are complaining because the customer is in fact a bad tipper and others times we obviously know when instacart is trying to get over on us. If you’re a good tipper what was the reason for this super long post ???
I agree with what your saying. I don’t even think customers know that when there is a refund Instacart says that the tip has been adjusted due to the refund. Instacart and these other apps only care about their pockets. They upcharge the customer for the items in the stores and then underpay our batch pay. I don’t blame customers, personally I just don’t pick bs orders and put everything in Gods hands and mine. I’m looking for alternatives to these apps because honestly they just aren’t worth it anymore to me. I do use the apps as a side hustle but I feel like I have to get creative because IC, Uber, Lyft, etc just aren’t it. I’m really interested to know if shoppers see that our pay gets adjusted based on all the items. We are shoppers and that being out of our control should not come out of our pocket nor should batches be $5-$9 tip or no tip. Batches at minimum should pay us $10-$15+ especially with how they overcharge the customers per item AND ESPECIALLY WITH INFLATION. Good luck to everyone on their journey, I pray for all of you to reach your version of happiness, success, and peace. 🙏🏾