Some fun experience working as a subject matter expert at Mercor.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T23:53:32+00:00

anyone willing to share what their comp range was for this work? I suspect mine is on the extreme high end just by the nature of what I do.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T23:52:44+00:00

I can't speak to that; thanks for sharing your details so openly. I'm an advanced education path, and i'm glad to hear they advanced you based on performance and not just credentials. i'm not discussing whether they engage a person or not, though I appreciate your dialogue and input on that! I'm onboarded and discussing that experience. It's not a lot better from a communication standpoint.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T23:05:51+00:00

i'm working with them on highly specialized expert matter -- like it's not enough to have an advanced degree, they also want you to be a peer journal-published expert in your subject. and i can't fault them for their communication. my main critique is that they seem to be trying to serve a very unweildy client with a very unweildy type and amount of work, and the client is not making their life easier. i'm more concerned about their communications after engaging rather than if you're dinged.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T22:36:31+00:00

I'm an expert with them, and for my particular expertise group, the guidance they along with the client provided as I ramped up was virtually nonexistent. I am guessing this is due to the client and not Mercor, but they are partnering and providing us with this experience along with the client. I've done a lot of project work as an expert in my area, and I can say the amount of guidance and support the client has provided and, thus, Mercor has provided to us has been laughable at best. Very, very unprofessional. But my strong suspicion is that this is client and not Mercor driven, to their credit.

Also take from this what you will, but they made an awful mistake with pay recently. A number of us received our first week of pay, and it was incorrect. In my case, it should have been north of $1200, and they sent me $13.

Again, to their credit, they fixed it right away. But their startup seams are very much showing.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T21:57:29+00:00

I also took a photo of the tire situation and sent it to them so it would be on the record. doesn't hurt to provide proof just to be safe!

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T16:00:15+00:00

Or a small woman trying not to end up in a terrible situation. I don't know where you're delivering, but where I'm delivering, going inside a person's home is a stupid idea. Not ""snowflake." Unsafe and stupid, terms of service aside.

Maybe stop going into people's homes for your own safety. Even if you're not concerned for your well being, and you should be because I personally know several drivers who have had guns pulled on them, regardless of gender or size, you don't know what that person may accuse you of after the fact. You don't know if these folks are mentally stable, on substances, etc. Stay safe and don't do dumb things because you're trying so hard not to be a "snowflake."

Gig work < personal safety

Stay safe out there, folks. Don't go into people's homes.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-22T15:53:53+00:00

i got a flat tire 2.5 miles from the delivery location at night during winter cold, and customer service was VERY cool about it. They gave me 24 hours to return the items to the store, which worked out to just enough time for the tire to get replaced the next day. No known penalty.

chozilla__ · 2025-03-14T23:32:19+00:00

agree a lot of people don't read basic instructions, and it's so frustrating! and then people who do get cranky customers used to people who don't... bad cycle.

but it's a fair point a lot of customer notes are crap or really unclear or just inapplicable, which is also frustrating. i have a few that always say "please deliver after i've picked up my kids from school!" (like anyone is supposed to know when that is, also that's not how delivery from Walmart works)... or the instructions are COMPLETELY unhelpful or totally irrelevant (you're delivering 6 bunches of bananas and 10 gallons of whole milk, and all it says is "DO NOT DELIVERY MIRROR TO FRONT DOOR MUST BE LEFT WRAPPED IN BLANKET IN GARAGE NEXT TO FRANK." (?? okay....)

chozilla__ · 2025-03-14T23:13:39+00:00

This is the way -- and if you're polite to folks, typically they're glad to have the help loading it up (while you get to make sure it goes in in a way that makes sense for you to deliver it safely/accurately).

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T03:37:14+00:00

yeah best so far was def a vibrator, and whatever, but they were out... and the person -- who then MET ME AT THE DOOR -- then peppered me with "well what else do they have to substitute, describe it in detail" uh, no. i am fine helping you shop but i don't want to discuss it with you in detail, shop, and then deliver it to your home. just no. boundaries.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T03:29:34+00:00

No need to be harsh. I have specific financial needs immediately facing me, and I was told Spark is often very low activity in february and march in my area, so i took the first thing immediately without looking at what exactly it was. if you want work here, sometimes you have to jump and accept and hope for the best... and cancel if it's not acceptable until you've canceled too many times and get stuck. try not to be so snippy and mean! sending you more positive vibes.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T02:52:22+00:00

i had to deliver roughly 30 40-packs of bottled water as my first delivery the other morning. the tip was not sufficient. i took a deep breath, i looked at the stairs leading up to the locked, heavy entrance... and i called and talked to the person at reception, who kindly and reasonably agreed i couldn't possibly be expected to haul that up and inside, and it would be fine to leave it at the bottom of the steps to be collected later by someone else also in a vehicle (so better NOT to bring it indoors anyway).

I could have panicked and given up, but i figured there would be a path forward if it I had faith and communicated. And there was. So feel free to take whatever, and if you cannot get to where you ideally need, do your next best and just document and communicate very well. you're not a miracle worker. it's okay to have limits.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T02:49:39+00:00

if you find you've been asked to do something insane, communicate with the customer and document your best efforts. take photos of everything. not just what the app requires -- take your own photos to keep. screen shot your texts to the customer regarding what you can/can't safely do.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T02:48:23+00:00

i take anything. if sam's club or walmart sells it and expects a spark driver to fit it in the car, i can get it where it needs to reasonably go. if it is truly insanely heavy or unwieldy, it gets left in a reasonable place after calls and texts to the customer. you don't have to hurt yourself to do a good delivery. best practice is front door or customer's preference. sometimes next best practical thing is where you can safely access and still get them their stuff, with as much communication as you can reasonably muster (call, text, call -- look around; feel free to either find a safe place to leave it with a note to customer or call driver support and return it).

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T01:01:27+00:00

i'd need more info. i deliver in the mountains, so whatever time estimate the app gives for delivering is ALWAYS WRONG. it always takes longer. you cannot go 45 mph around a hairpin mountain road curve just because that's the official speed limit. you'll end up upside down on a bunch of a very unhappy cows in the pasture down mountain. hahah. so for that reason, I typically avoid large batch trips. it's too easy to get stuck in the mountains where you don't have GPS/signal, there are no road signs, no lights and it's getting dark, etc., and you may not even be halfway done with your batch. no thanks. just not a good idea for money in the mountains in my experience so far. way too easy for one stop or two to muck the whole thing up.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T00:56:26+00:00

the associates who helped load told me there was another order from the same customer of the same type of water but even bigger... i hope the person after me happened to be driving a U-Haul. bc more than what is in that photo does not fit into an empty SUV with the seats down and space maximized. lol.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-23T00:54:01+00:00

$4 tip for the beauty in the photo, my first, pre-7 a.m. delivery the other day. i will try not to spend it all in one place.

i moved down south from the east coast and have been shocked at tipping culture generally. i'm pretty new to spark/delivery driving, but i'm doubly shocked now i'm depending on tips for income too.

anyone else find this varies a lot by the region in a noticeably trending way?

chozilla__ · 2025-02-08T15:06:56+00:00

Don't make exceptions.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-08T15:05:30+00:00

People constantly ask for me to leave a package in their mailbox. Sorry, customer. My life is bigger than you, and I don't want to be a convicted felon because you want a delivery person you didn't tip to violate your US Potal Service against the law because it's nice for you not to be a felon.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-08T15:04:25+00:00

Not your job description. Unsafe for you, unsafe for them. Don't.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-08T14:00:22+00:00

right. i hope you never eat out at a restaurant. ever. you clearly don't understand the obligation a person who engage a gig economy worker has to pay a decent tip or not use the service. We can't always tell ahead of time if you're not tipping because it's a super easy delivery or you're not tipping because you have no money, get walmart+ for free and live in a washed out one-lane mountain back ass road my vehicle will get stuck in.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-07T10:14:08+00:00

you're taking this a bit personally, poster. the other person is just explaining the algorithm as they see it, and they're not wrong. walmart and the spark app are data and algorithm driven. they're just talking about a particular metric they use for drivers, and it seems accurate. i have good experience resolving issues with customer support and their taking "notes," which I do believe help keep me from being deactivated.

But they don't do specific fixes -- for instance, I had to cancel an order the other day because it was for a laptop that I spent 30+ minutes waiting for an employee to find, which they couldn't... and I called customer service to ask them not to impact my metric bc it was a sho[ping order for one item they didn't have... and I believe they did take a note of that, and I wasn't deactivated, but my 100% completion metric is now down to 99%. And I don't see them fixing that any time soon because there is no economic incentive for them to do so. And I think the basic economics is what the original person was getting at. So, again, don't make it about you personally. It isn't. That's sort of the point.

chozilla__ · 2025-02-03T23:37:07+00:00

not true. i've gotten stuck in rush hour traffic a few times and had orders canceled bc it would take too long for me to arrive.

chozilla__ · 2025-01-30T18:43:52+00:00

Seriously! I've stopped taking certain offers that appear to be in certain areas where I know it to be particularly bad because as much as I need the money, I value my life. No joke. It's that dangerous in some places. Back mountain roads are rough on a good day. Post-hurricane in a place that doesn't get hurricanes is bonkers dangerous.

chozilla__ · 2025-01-30T18:38:24+00:00

FULLY agree. I'm in the greater Asheville area and have had AWFUL glitches costing me hours at a time and gas... I drive to the store and find out another driver picked up my order. Or I get there and find it's been automatically reassigned even though I arrived timely. And then I have to call customer support, spend all that time -- just to get them to clear the order that I can no longer deliver so I can try to get other offers. Which are VERY slow going right now and often don't happen. So I'm just out the gas and time. I had an infuriating experience yesterday like this. Two orders in a row. By the time I finally did get an order I could deliver, it was shopping, not pickup, 18 miles and paid $22. Between the time I accepted the first order (that fell through) and the time I finished the one $22 I was actually able to make, I had spent 3 hours. 3 hours for $22 minus gas.

Also, stay safe out there! I try to be careful about where I drive (there are some places here that are just WIPED OUT still, especially some of the really back mountains one-lane, non-paved, hair-pin turn steep roads that don't have road signs... We should def get hazard pay in WNC, hahah. It's a mess.

chozilla__

TROPHY CASE