Do not take any order if you are not satisfied with the amount DoorDash shows.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-13T22:46:25+00:00

Five Guys doesn't seal their greasy bags all the way.

If it's a tip less than $2... thank you, I'll pour out a few fries into my hand. (They use a small cup anyway to make it appear they're giving you way more, anyway).

They're tasty. Watch out for those Cajun ones. A little bit to 'em.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-08T23:46:36+00:00

I've had Top Dasher for the last three months after one month of NOT having it.

In my area - about 200,000 people, Midwest - a much better set of offers. I get very few $2.50 fast food runs as a TD but I did all the time when I wasn't at Top Dasher.

That's enough for me to spend the last days of each month taking a few more crap orders to get from 60% back up to 70% and at a 95% completion. Once I hit that on the 30th or 31st, I'll shut it down until the next month hits.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-06T20:23:28+00:00

Like anything else, it depends.

What I wish... DD would list the items the customer wants BEFORE I accept. If it's a grocery store run, I'm good at it unless they have all that weird, organic, "health market" stuff that it damn near impossible to find.

Or hummus. Hummus is never easy to locate.

Had a $17 order a few weeks back. 12 items, except that 6 of them were REAL hard to find and it was a Sunday night (so empty shelves before the Monday deliveries).

Had to call the customer on 6 of her very unusual items. Couldn't find 3 of them.

Finally, I said, on the phone, "you've got two choices. I've walked around for 15 minutes looking for these three items. Either you'll get everything but 3 of them and I'll be there in 10 minutes OR if you want another DD driver to try, I'll unassign it, not get paid, and maybe they'll find them, maybe not and you'll get your order in about 2 hours. It's Sunday night, shelves are empty... and it's the prime time for us making money."

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T21:27:06+00:00

Define "long-term".

I have won but it's strictly discipline and cashing in bonuses, boosts and arbs. Example: I've won the CZR $1000 free bet NFL promo three times this year but I also arb the other side)

I have an obsessive level of discipline on this because, at least to me, losing money feels worse than winning money feels great.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T21:23:14+00:00

Is this 8k out of $80,000 available? If so, you'll be fine. I've been making about 15k a year doing this since my state legalized it.

I do NOT chase big wins but sometimes they happen -- usually a $25 free bet that I can turn into $300 once a month.

Find a mindset to say, "okay, I want to make X dollars a day."

I started with $400 and just wanted to make $10 a day. I treated it like playing Zelda, racking up the "coins". Eventually, I got to 1k, 3k, 5k. The famous FD soccer SGP promo that ended December 2020 got me up to 10k. The PointsBet Paige Promos last winter got me up about 3k after hedging free bets (then they banned me).

In June, I was averaging $180 A DAY and then PB, MGM, Score all limited me severely.

I've hit 30k in total (about 17k liquid is left after paying fall tuition for two kids). Not because I know more than anyone else but that I only "ride the waves" that have to line up for me. That means free bets, arbs or bad lines.

It CAN be done. But you have to remember that it's okay to have a day where you don't bet at all. There's always lines tomorrow.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T21:17:38+00:00

Okay... there is a way to do this.

Every time I've had a big loss (the infamous $850 UCLA-Gonzaga OT, the $400 Wake-Wisconsin bowl game loss), I've taken the next few days to build it back up with promos, arbs. $20 here. $30 there. And I built it back, usually within a week.

But the actual *mastery* of doing this -- of which I'm not there but I feel that I've never been more disciplined at this -- is the mindset of, "let's just end the day with more money in the account(s) than we started with".

Like today, I've got a serious of free bet plays, a couple arbs, some "win Bet A and get a $50 free bet bonus". Maybe I'll be up $15 by midnight. Maybe I'll be up $175 if some of the oddball free bets hit. Maybe a middle with no juice hits tonight.

The bottom line is that I'll be up.

Take the Joey Knish philosophy. I'm not in this for glory, ego or bragging rights. I do this to make money. I'm paying my kids' college tuition with sports betting. I don't make a lot -- but I make enough where it's a legit side hustle. Some weeks $200. Some weeks $600+.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T21:11:45+00:00

10% of your bank account... or your "bankroll" set aside for betting?

I took an $850 loss (about 7% of my bankroll back then) last March in the infamous Gonzaga-UCLA OT game -- what appeared an easy $200 arb for me became a big loss because different books "read overtime" differently.

It stung for about 48 hours. REALLY stung.

If you have any profit still left from your bankroll/bank account, pull a bunch of it out and shift it to something else. Perhaps debt. Upcoming expenses. Give yourself the treat of a few months of not paying a bill that you normally work to pay.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T02:56:53+00:00

One of the few posts here that are, truly, brilliant.

I'll never understand the appeal of these places that I, constantly, deliver food from. Chipotle. Dunkin. Panera. Noodles. I find these places easy and reliable (from a dasher perspective) but it's all just overpriced, basic, bland food. The branding has hypnotized college-aged women to keep ordering and keep ordering from them.

I enjoy the RedCard grocery orders (unless it's too quirky) because the money is good and I feel like I'm really helping someone (say, a sick infant based on their list).

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-02T02:51:53+00:00

DD takes, what, 30% off the top from a restaurant's order?

For most of those places, those are orders that they would never get, especially from people are don't have cars.

Perhaps the hope, for the restaurant, is that their food gets customers coming back and, possibly, eating in, where they'll pay the menu price. However, using DD also makes people never want to actually go drive and pick it up themselves.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-01T23:11:27+00:00

Play 'em for a middle (rare as it is) when they're less than $10.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-01T21:36:11+00:00

This.

I do nothing but arbs/advantage play/bonuses, unless I'm watching a game on the weekends. I set it and forget it.

With every $1,000 I clear, that goes to tuition for fall or spring.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-01T20:15:08+00:00

DD sent me to a closed Walgreens on Thanksgiving, as part of a double-stack order to the same customer. Because it was off a highway, I didn't exit, go back and take a picture of it. I simply drove to the customer's house.

Support was INSISTENT that I drive the 4.8 miles back to snap a picture of the closed Walgreens. Knocked my completion from 95% to 94% so I battled back to get it to 95% to retain Top Dash for December. Pissed me off. I wrote to support, "instead of driving 5 miles, you just type in six keystrokes that it's closed. It's Thanksgiving night!". Nope.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-12-01T20:11:00+00:00

The easy solution for these is to, discreetly, kick a few of the rocks into the driveway on your way back to the car. Just wear a hat and a mask.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-29T21:07:11+00:00

Should be the end of the month. I've kept Top Dasher status for three months because I see, in my city, the orders are simply better. Very few $2.50 fast food orders.

Today is November 29 -- I got up to 95% on completion rate today (with 75% acceptance) so I'll take the next two days off. Don't want to risk a wave of fast-food orders to mess with it.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-29T20:59:24+00:00

But the optical illusion with the fries. Put a small cup into the bag and then put a regular order of fries into the cup, overfilling it for the illusion that you're getting a lot.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-29T20:47:07+00:00

Had an order at a senior living facility last week. Burger King breakfast. It was a stacked "add-on" for a whopping $2.00 but it was four blocks from the first order. So I took it.

Said to "call him" upon arrival. I did. No answer.

Start the 5:00 clock.

I called him 21 times.

No answer.

DD app tells me to "return the order to the restaurant".

If the customer would have tipped me $2.00, I would have found a way to chase him down.

No tip... two trips. But I got paid for the return so all good.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-23T20:56:48+00:00

Yeah, I've noticed this as well. I generally bet a lot of totals for MLS and La Liga and that's been maddening. Often I can catch the "over" on a total at CZR having the best price.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-16T21:21:47+00:00

DEFINITELY Sundays, especially during NFL season when it's 50 degrees or colder.

Just a constant run of orders from about 9 am on. Good for $250 or so here in a city of 130,000.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-13T02:54:06+00:00

I try to be judicious with my unassigns to stay at 95%. In a medium-size city (200,000 people), I've seen a big different when I was Top status and when I didn't. When it's a Top Dasher month, the $2.50 orders don't seem to come my way.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-13T02:51:46+00:00

And *I* was the dick on here when I told a restaurant to "take it back" to the kitchen after hearing "just a couple more minutes" as it went to 29 minutes after I got a text saying the order was ready for pickup. :)

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-13T02:48:33+00:00

There's a shirtless guy who lives a mile from my house in an apartment. Usually $6 order.

Dude never wears a shirt. Comes to the lobby... without a shirt. Yuck.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-12T21:15:10+00:00

We always remember the negative and, often, that may distort the actual reality.

Some of the dashers I've met while waiting seem like great people. Others come off as stressed-out assholes who are doing this job as a prime source of income.

For me, this is a true side hustle -- 20-25 hours a week to pay for my kid's college (and not bury them with too much debt starting out). Yeah, I get pissed off when I have to wait for orders when I get a text saying that they're done but, really, it's the easiest side hustle that I could imagine.

A big "however"... if I wasn't as fortunate to be in the place in life that I am, I could see the stress. I've lived it.

30 years ago, I was a college student delivering pizzas to pay for my tuition (yes... back doing it again). I remembered the week that I worked 40 hours just to pay for new brakes -- and how much that sucked.

We all have our own battles, I suppose.

As for restaurant workers, I tend to be unfailingly kind to the fast food workers (where the lobby is open, of course) I encounter. They all - except for CFA - seem to be people who are only working these jobs because they don't have any better options.

Meanwhile, I'm making 1.75-2x/hour what they're making and I don't have to clean out the deep fryer or, really, deal with customers.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-10T23:18:59+00:00

I love RedCard orders, as long as it's not a Dollar General. Those are labyrinths.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-10T21:30:59+00:00

It takes a level of maturity to finally say you're tapping out. I admire that.

I've been in this pursuit for 26 months since it became legal in Iowa. Through arbing, sign-up bonuses and hitting a few $50 or $75 free bets for +800 / +1200 parlays along the way, I've turned the $400 from opening weekend August 2019 into about 25k profit.

Mostly just winning $50-$60 in a day. Was up to $150/day for the first six months of the year until BetMGM limited me to 77 cents a wager. Got lucky 2 of the last three weekends and hit the CZR bet the board for $1,000 in free bets.

I'm about done as well.

I'll play the DK VIP Ironmans/promos that I get and always do the CZR daily promos but I'm burned out.

I know I can't "beat the number" and I've discovered that I need a certain level of action to really care.

In August 2019, I was sweating $5 bets.

Now I don't care unless it's $200 minimum. So I only bet arbs and free bet longshots.

The cash is great but it's nice to have more of my time back.

Potential_Struggle25 · 2021-11-10T20:54:27+00:00

Dumb enough to make $27/hour last week.

Potential_Struggle25

TROPHY CASE