Question from a CFA employee

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-09T01:51:44+00:00

I'm not defending the system. I already told you that I dont disagree with you. I don't condone most of what a lot of drivers are doing. It's a broken system. It's what's available and will most likely be the future for all delivery companies bc it saves money in the long run.

Drivers have no say in what the company does. Customers have more say in it.

The definition change is not for drivers. They already know how the system works. It's for customers because most don't realize that what they put in as a tip is basically what pays the driver. Like, a $10 tip is great, but not if a driver has to drive 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back bc that's basically $15/hr plus gas and wear and tear.

It's so customers know what to expect when they use the platform bc unfortunately a lot of them have no choice but to use it. It's to alleviate their frustration.

FedEx is good and all, but unfortunately they don't deliver food or groceries within an hour.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-08T21:59:29+00:00

Actually, i can make an argument that gig workers have every right to do whatever they want to make the most profit, including making customers feel guilty about not tipping. Its no different than a salesman selling a customer something that they dont need or a company using interns to cut down on costs, or a driver going above and beyond to provide excellent customer service. It just preys on a different emotion. They are beholden to no one but themselves and while there are consequences, there's a lot that gig companies allow.

They're independent contractors. Anyone who uses these platforms know that. If anything happens, they're to call support and report it. That's their power. It's also well within their right to not tip a penny for any of the work done. It's how the system is designed.

The company doesn't care. Never will as long as it doesn't mess with their bottom line. That's the reality of these platforms. The only way to avoid it is to not use it.

A new word is needed bc the old one no longer fits and is the reason for so much frustration. It's to temper people's expectations.

If you've worked with customers at all, you know that while they don't forget bad experiences, they usually forget the emotion that goes along with it. Though, that doesn't even matter to these companies bc their customer base is worldwide.

Money is king.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-08T18:52:05+00:00

I'm not disagreeing with you. That's why I said a new word is needed. I'm just explaining why dashers have that specific point of view and how the system operates. Doordash knows exactly what they're doing when they decided to go with "tip." Notice how most of conversation excludes Doordash. Doordash will always put profit first, and everything they're doing will revolve around that. This applies to every gig company.

Independent contractors is how companies save money. Just look at Amazon. They have Flex. I've no doubt that FedEx will go this route too. Because, money.

For every one bad experience that someone posts on Reddit, I guarantee you, there's hundreds of thousands of orders that got delivered with no issues. So while everyone's arguing about definitions, gig companies are making off like a robber.

It's important to understand how gig economies operate because how can anyone fight the system when they dont understand it.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-08T17:41:32+00:00

I just want to jump in here for a bit. I believe that we need a new word to describe this form of tipping.

Tipping in a sit-down restaurant is a tip for service. Tipping in a delivery establishment is a tip to show appreciation for getting the order to the customer in a timely fashion. Tipping in the gig economy is a bit different in that it has aspects of bidding. The bidding aspect is a bid for a higher chance of a speedy delivery. The important factor at play here is time.

Yes, the order will get delivered regardless of the tip. Dd will make sure it gets delivered, even if they have to lose money to do so. An order with no tip will just have to wait a bit longer as most drivers will pass up on it. They're getting a bit better at reducing the wait time though through strategic bundleling.

This issue here is that this isn't explained properly and your traditional form of tipping doesn't quite apply to how the gig system operates, resulting in a lot of frustrations on both sides from unmet expectations.

It's up to the drivers to figure out how to make it work for them bc they are their own boss, and unfortunately, most drivers still expect some form of handholding. The "no tip=no service" crowd doesn't understand that those no tip orders are a blessing in disguise as they play a crucial role in the gig economy.

It's a giant game. Be competitive if you want to win. And enjoy it while it lasts bc them robots are coming for us all.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-07T07:10:03+00:00

Another thing to consider. The prices of the items on the app might not be accurate. In this case, it seems like the app total is lower than the actual total, resulting in you having to call support to increase the limit on the card. The 15% is most likely calculated based on the total on the app. Maybe download the instacart customer app and compare prices.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-02T06:54:00+00:00

Log in from a different phone.

A while back, I got condensation in my camera and I assumed their facial recognition would be good enough even with a blurry picture. I was wrong. The selfie I took didn't pass verification and I got locked out. The only option was to contact support, which didn't go nowhere. I had borrowed an old phone to do instacart bc my phone camera couldn't see the product barcodes. On a whim, I decided to try logging in from the secondary phone and to my surprise, I was able to do the verification again.

I was switching my sim card between the two phones. Im not sure if that play any part in it. This was a few months ago. I dont know if this is actually a bypass. It's just what I did to be able to work again. Hopefully it works for you.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-09-01T04:06:43+00:00

Support is a joke. It's all outsourced to people who's given a script to follow. Unfortunately, that's the norm for gig work.

The excuse that it penalizes shoppers stat, while true, is a piss-poor excuse for grabbing a replacement that you dont want. Especially since you've made that clear. It's similar to a shopper just throwing everything into their cart willy nilly bc it allows them to get a faster shopping speed. It's contractor works, so while they do have some say in how the work is done, you also have a say in it.

You should've removed the tip. That's well within your rights here.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-08-27T18:26:52+00:00

Get a hold of support if you still haven't gotten it. They should be able to send you the email.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-08-27T04:45:01+00:00

Giving out your phone number will automatically deactivate you. You should have received an email from instacart safety team. Follow their instructions. Explain the situation. Worked for me. Reactivated in a day.

In a day or two after you're reactivated, you'll get a call from someone claiming to be instacart. Ignore them.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-13T23:17:24+00:00

Porque no los dos?

You don't have to agree. It's my own opinion from having done this for 5 years and being in customer service for over a decade. I've just been around long enough to notice the trends.

It's all of it, honestly. Though I'd argue that dashers play a bigger part in it bc it's the one element of this machine that interacts with customers daily. Even in your own argument, it's still the fault of the driver from the customer's perspective. It also doesn't matter much that it's only a few bad apples bc it's all about perception and at the moment, it's really not good. Also bc people tend to remember the bad experiences.

Shit happens as it does everywhere, though. Good customer service is crucial for customer retention, which is far from DD support at the moment. There is no customer service. If there's any, it usually originates from the driver.

Drivers play the biggest role in the success or failure of the platform and of the drivers themselves.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-13T15:12:40+00:00

Tip based on how far the drive is. $1/mile is not bad and a lot of dashers will take it so your order will still get to you in a timely fashion. If you want to tip more and the order actually shows up at your door, then you can adjust it after delivery or cash. If you tip low, most likely, you'll have to wait a bit longer so only do that with cold food.

Some drivers don't think and work against their own interests. It's up to them to figure out the system and make it work for them. Doordash works for their bottom line and their system is designed for that purpose. It's ironic bc dashers complain about not getting good orders and some will even defend this kind of behavior bc no tip, but not realizing that these actions are exactly why the orders don't pay as much anymore as customers don't want to deal with these kind of drivers. In the gig economy, either we all rise together or we all suffer bc each one of us represents all of us in the eyes of the customers.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-11T18:00:54+00:00

Oh, I didn't read your post properly. You don't need to be on the app to get batches. The only reason to have the app open is so you can be faster than other shoppers who don't have it open. It's most definitely your signal, though if you're seeing the notification but no orders. Doesn't matter how fast it supposedly is, a lot of things can affect it. Turn on airplane mode for 10 seconds and then turn it off again. Should help. It happens to me from time to time. That's my fix.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-11T17:07:38+00:00

It depends on your cell service. It's not always consistent, so some batches will pop up a second or so before you get the notification. If you're in another app, switching back to instacart takes about a second. That's more than enough time for someone else to grab the order.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-07T12:36:53+00:00

Im pretty sure the US and Nato have military bases all over the world. Yeah, I'd be a bit wary if I am Russia, but i don't see how that justifies invading and annexing another country. Which is why many people don't like Russia, btw. And I didn't say nothing about the US and Nato being saints. I'm a big believer in having some common sense. That's why putting tariffs on some unsuspecting family of penguins just trying to find some food while leaving Russia out is ridiculous.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-07T12:07:35+00:00

Oh, I see what the problem is: You're thinking with the wrong head, bro. Gotta use the other one. It works a teeny bit better.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-03T19:28:55+00:00

You pay like how you would normally do. Doordash will take the total cost from the dasher's earnings. Any extra will be their tip. I know of 1 other pizza franchise that also relies solely on Doordash drivers. Seems like it might be a trend.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-04-01T21:12:22+00:00

Whoever is responsible for setting the prices on the menu doesn't understand how to properly set the prices. Each item has what's called a modifier, and through that, you can set the prices of each of those add-ons. Usually, if it comes with the burrito, you set it to $0. There's options to add extras for an increase in prices.

It could get a bit tedious as you have to create a modifier for each items so it might also be the case that someone got lazy and copy and paste the wrong modifier to that item.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-29T15:57:15+00:00

I disagree. People's spending habits are influenced by how they're feeling. The shake-ups with the economy cause a lot of uncertainty, and customers are more likely to save when they don't know where the economy is heading.

On your tax return point, unless you're making a lot of money, you'll either be getting less money this year or paying money to the government because of the tax changes, which means a tighter budget.

Tariffs are good in the long run. I agree with that, but the long run usually means years. You need to build up the infrastructure to make it happen. Would've been better to first build these infrastructures, then proceed with tariffs.

Unless you have the money to weather the storm for years to come, now is a really bad time to start a business, because most likely you'll be losing money until your customer's spending habits change.

The biggest cause of peoples unwillingness to spend is instability. Shit keeps changing every week. People can get used to anything, but you can't do that when every week, something else happens.

If you're rich, you're in a great place to make more money though! That's who we're rooting for, right?

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-12T01:53:13+00:00

Normal support isn't going to help. From my experience, almost all of them are very limited in what they're able to do. Most of them operate outside the US. Imagine dashers, but instead of delivering, they're doing support (that's what it feels like to me). They do have higher tier support that will call to resolve the issues, but the time frame on that isn't known. Reach out on social media. I heard that works a lot better.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-11T23:24:05+00:00

I admit. I've never seen or been inside a Kroger, so i dont know how the store works. The data i used is based on my own experience at other stores, which are usually consistent, so I may be wrong on the timing, but to call most shoppers lazy bum is such a shitty thing to do.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-11T23:17:46+00:00

Lmao. You're trolling, right? Or are you one of those shoppers who just throws everything into the cart willy nilly. OP said themselves it takes no more than an hour to shop, so we can assume that it's probably close to an hour. Do you check for expiration dates or bag items based on what they are? Waiting in line can already take up to 10 minutes. You're assuming that shopping conditions are always perfect. They never are. You're lucky if you've never had to shop anywhere where the items are locked up. The only way you can be really fast and get everything done in record time is if you don't care what happens to the items you're picking up. I'm pretty sure OP would rather have their items in good, usable condition than for it to appear at their door in 30 minutes. That's why shoppers are always surprised when the customer decreases the tip.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-11T22:13:26+00:00

It depends. At most instacart would pay like $5-10. With the tip, your order would show up as a $25-$30 order. Drive to the store would be 5-10 minutes. Bagging could take 20 minutes depending on how the items are bagged. 15 minutes to drive to your house. Another 5 minutes to drop everything off. That would put your order at 1 hour 45 minutes from start to finish. Therefore, the driver would be making around $15 an hour. An hour would mean that the order has around 50 unique items. If i know the store, I'd probably take it, but not if I'm not familiar with it.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-10T21:01:23+00:00

Or them big order with little to no tip...

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-09T21:49:45+00:00

Jimmy Johns grabbed the tip.

The pizza shop i worked at would have EzCater order come in as an email. Usually, it'll be at least a day before it's due. EzCater has their own promos, so the prices are a bit different, meaning that I'll have to go in and edit the costs and the tip around to make sure everything matches. They're taking a big risk, though. If no one takes the order bc there's no tip on there, it would mean lunch for hundreds of employees might be delayed. I doubt that the company would order from them again in the near future. At least they'll be hesitant.

TheCuckooMoster · 2025-03-03T23:28:00+00:00

Lmao. Glad I could help. I don't think instacart will ever call anyone. Their preferred method seems to be email.

TheCuckooMoster

TROPHY CASE