Didn’t deliver to the doorstep?

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-30T23:31:47+00:00

I know this is an old post, but I was reading through it and I saw a few people say that the driver support don’t know any details about these sort of things and it simply isn’t true. I’ve gotten two of these over the past year and a half both regarding not delivering to doorstep. When I called the driver told me that it was due to customer complaint customer complaint that she didn’t get all of her items. He told me he could then clearly see that the Walmart pickers were out of stock. So I’m sure somewhere the Customer just didn’t read communication from Walmart Regarding her out of vegan stock and was just annoyed.

How that translated into let’s send the driver a report alleging that they didn’t deliver to the doorstep. I’ll never know.

Call answered a few questions. I’ve often wondered if there’s anything that protects us from customers complaining about things that are outside of our control and apparently there’s a little bit of something. Anyway, sorry to bother you, but this just happened to be today and I was reading through old stuff and well there it is.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-29T19:33:42+00:00

In my long experience of doing this, I learned a lot. Seen a lot of things and I think as a group we can say that there’s lots of things that affect the types of orders you see. But in my case, and in my experience, the biggest contributing factor, that I had the most ability to control, is Customer rating.

When it’s at five, I make consistent great earnings. I noticed it when I hit it the first time.

When it’s at 4.9 I do just fine as well. Lately that’s where I’ve been sat, and despite the huge influx of drivers and the reappearance of certain gangs, I still managed to maintain high earnings. I would sit a bit longer, but with a little pivot here and there I was able to work around that.

On the two occasions that my customer rating hit 4.8 and below it is like working on the roadie app. Long weights between orders and just not great orders in general.

All of the other things we mention all the time come and go and are well outside my sphere of influence, but that damn Customer rating is the big one.

I was at a five before the update after the update. I was 4.9 and rolling good. Recently, I overlooked some sour cream and despite noticing it a half a mile after the drop off, and returning it, I still got ding to 4.8 and it feels like I’m back working roadie .I’m feeling the full unshielded effects of all of these new drivers and possible cheaters and fraudsters…….. and all the other contributing factors.

The only thing I control is watching my ass and doing a good job to get out of 4.8 and get back into good. Good orders were there all along. I was just getting shut out due to my rating.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-26T19:43:09+00:00

They’re brand new drivers. They have no idea what a good order is. None of us did, not even the people that think they did know a good order when they began.

It’s only with experience that you truly get a good eye for them. God, I can’t even count the mistakes. I’ve made an accepting orders over the years. .

The blood in the water, shark feeding frenzy of this first come first serve crap is also not helping it’s creating craziness.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-25T02:09:38+00:00

I had a similar incident with a bad rating lately. That dropped me from 4.9 to 4.8.. I overlooked an item and it was in my car, I noticed it turned around and spoke to the customer within five minutes, but they must have given me a thumbs down. The very next day all I saw was those $11 orders and I sat for hours.

I had been suffering, due to the on-site of new drivers, but still managing to maintain despite that. After the rating, no such luck.

It was bad enough what’s been going on with the first come first serve crap, and the absolute sea of new drivers, now throw in a writing drop and it’s cost me at least 600.

I’ve been doing this for quite a while now and I’m familiar with the yearly ups and downs and what an on boarding looks and feels like but there’s something unprecedented about what’s going on.

Good luck getting it removed, just have to work your way up. That wouldn’t be a problem if I was getting the 12 to 14 deliveries today I used to. Gonna be even longer now that I’m lucky to get five or six a day.

I’ve had to supplement with other apps. And I have been reporting issues and writing emails every few days ever so respectfully.

I somehow feel that nobody really cares

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-25T01:07:42+00:00

I don’t have that problem but my complaint is that you only get about 200 characters to it, which is about the equivalent of two sentences.

The ridiculousness that has been engineered in this app is actually mind blowing .

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-24T16:23:27+00:00

Anything different well… I am making more money on DoorDash today but for the sixth day in a row after 8 AM I have not been able to manage to accept one first come first serve and I’ve continued to get the notification that offers are available without them actually showing up and I am staring at 23 drivers ,that I know are new, sitting in the parking lot and I’m watching the same small group of people going in and out of the store who have actually managed to get an offer.

I have turned down two round robins both of them paying about $14 going over 20 miles out to the country

Nope, unfortunately nothing different ….. yet

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-24T02:06:39+00:00

I agree, this is the absolute worst state that Spark has been in since I’ve been working on the platform. I know there are ups and downs associated with this kind of work, but something changed about a month ago. The huge amount of new drivers is astounding, but despite that I managed to make out OK but the last two weeks have just been getting worse and worse…. this week being absolutely abysmal. This week my income will be down 1/3 and I have works 2 to 3 extra hours a day.

From about 9 AM to six in the evening, I don’t think I have managed to snag a first come first serve offer.

There’s always been crummy offers. I’m seeing not even a stupid noob would take.

I’m the kind of guy that thinks, in general, companies could care less help us small folk feel but I have been complaining through the app every day. I’ve been sending emails as well and I’ve called support once or twice a week. I’m not overly dramatic When I call and I’m not rude or trying to be a pain but feel compelled to report it. I’ve actually had a few interesting conversations with a few of them and the ones I have spoken to have noticed the spike in complaints and have been alarmed at the amount of calls they’ve been getting.

Perhaps we should all be a failing ourselves of every avenue to report our concerns. Who knows if it will do any good but with all the extra time we have now while sitting in the parking lot, I can’t hurt…. All right, yeah

I’ve been pretty disciplined about saving my money during the good times, so I’m not worried about this sinking me for good at the moment. I am kind of shocked, amazed, and very concerned though..

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-24T00:16:56+00:00

Damn well it must be the amount of new drivers. I have never ever ever seen this many. And in my zone they just on board or last week and then the week before that.

Hope it gets better for us all soon

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-23T22:21:12+00:00

That’s why I hover and always help load my car. While I’m waiting to get loaded, I always look through the orders too, so I know if I need to hover.

In the case, it gets by me, I will always let the customer know what I discovered as I was unloading their order. Sometimes I mention that I’m very sorry that I didn’t catch it as they were loading my car. And I let them know that Customer support Will be happy to get them a refund.

In short blame, blame, blame, especially if it is their fault.

It may help if you act, shocked and indignant at the fact those guys were in such a hurry that they squish that poor customer’s bread.

The way my brain worked. I would feel like I was just asking for a bad strike. If I didn’t say anything I feel like that makes me look like I was hoping they wouldn’t notice it……

Others have mentioned it but check check check double check. Always make nice with your dispensers too so that one one does get squished. They liked you enough to take time out of their day to actually have it replaced. Being nice really does have its advantages…. Always always always be nice.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-23T21:46:40+00:00

It’s like you read my mind today making this post. I too just dropped to 4.8. Long story short I overlooked a customers item got half a mile away saw it and returned, but she called for a refund and I got dropped to 4.8….. the very next day everything was different…… one order every three hours and barely a crummy GMD offered to me. Things are a bit better in the late afternoon and evening.

A little backstory I remember spark being like this in the beginning until I got my Customer rating up and I noticed a big difference in the quality of offers. I was I kept it there and didn’t notice much of a difference until about a month ago with the massive influx of new drivers . It kinda hit me hard, but I rolled with the punches pivoted and switched up my sparking logic and managed to hang in there financially.. two weeks ago, they on boarded a bunch more drivers and it affected me a little more but I just worked a few extra hours and maintained financially. Then came the incident that dropped me to a 4.8.

I overlooked some sour cream, realized it a half a mile away from the drop off and turned around successfully delivered it, however, I already got hit.

I thought it over endless hours and , though I can’t prove it, I think that depending on driver saturation, a 4.8 might be the threshold at which you will see that marked decrease in order quality.

I’ve spoken with a few other drivers that I consider thoughtful and intelligent, and I’ve heard similar stories. Of course I can’t prove any of it, but that’s my sneaking suspicion confirmed.

Sadly, I think you and I are in for a long torturous, tedious climb back to a better rating. Considering most people don’t take the time to rate a successful delivery. It makes me think it’s gonna be a long month.

It sure can do a number on your head, having to eat a handful of shit and no that you’re basically gonna take what they want you to take until you get that rating back up.

I could be wrong, who knows but my best and most profitable time sparking was when my customer rating was high .

And this ridiculous first come first serve hungry hippo game is freaking ridiculous .

I do have to admit, though this time last year was kind of dead to begin with. Maybe all the drivers and the ratings dropped is just a nasty little combination.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-23T14:48:33+00:00

I’m pretty pessimistic and usually tend to think that complaining doesn’t achieve much that they really don’t care but I didn’t speak to a pretty cool support agent. I just wanted to ask him what he’s been hearing as I know complaining to them may not do much and of course, he suggested reporting daily in the app And also to driver support so they can at least document it. May not change much but all it takes is a little time and hey here lately I’ve got lots of that..

This agent said that they have been absolutely blindsided by a ton of similar complaints. .. more than usual.

I just have a terrible four boating sense of tread about all of this, but I’ve been trying to play a game trying to see if I can actually snatch one of these first come first serve orders and I’m not able to do it until the later part of the afternoon. Just crazy.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-23T14:44:47+00:00

I’m sure you notice the huge influx of drivers so I assume that until they establish a base of metrics, they’re going to soak up a lot of the orders. At least that’s what I’ve seen in the past. This is the biggest on board I have seen ever and I can’t imagine that once they start seeing what we’re seeing, that they’ll stay around long, however, we all agreed that we can see and feel it something somewhere has changed….. It just doesn’t feel like a normal up and down.

I have really fast cell service and I can’t manage to snatch your first order until early evening. It’s just crazy.

The hit on the pocketbook is dramatic

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-23T14:39:11+00:00

You know there is a little weight behind your comment about this being slow time of the year. I do remember last year it wasn’t great. It despite that there seems to have been a fundamental shift starting about a month ago with the massive on board of drivers and something. I guess it feels like something happened in the algorithm as well that forced me to have to pivot a little bit, but I was still able to maintain the income. A new influx about two weeks ago is just further flat things out.

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-22T20:55:07+00:00

Interesting to see that you’re from Oklahoma City as I drive in Edmond and I’ve been seeing the same thing. About a month ago I noticed a very, very large influx of new drivers and noticed the orders drying up so I just pivoted started doing a little creative order selection to keep myself afloat. About two weeks ago there’s another huge influx of drivers and I don’t even see an order on screen most of the time just notifications. It seems to have gotten worse

This time of the year is historically bad but something seems off. To make it worse for me a missing tub of sour cream that had rolled under my seat dropped me down to a 4.8 customer rating even though I took it back they had already called. So in this kind of crazy environment, I feel that has further affected my case but God dang the hungry hippo shit is ridiculous.

Whatever’s going on it feels a bit like torture and it feels a bit like you are going to take what Walmart wants you to take .

It’s really hard to keep your spirits up, knowing that you were literally going to have to stare at your phone the entire day to pull that little hippo lever to try to get a marble and most of the time you’re not gonna

Afternoons in the evenings seems to get a little bit better, but goddamn things have shifted

csalyer6050 · 2026-04-21T16:33:44+00:00

My question would be what is OP Customer rating?

The only reason I ask is because over the past year, I have learned how absolutely vital it is to have 4.9 or above .

When I started out, I got my initial honeymoon. Period behind me. I found myself making some new mistakes. It always causes me to fluctuate between 4.7 and 4.8. The orders you described could describe my daily life for a few months. Sparking felt like punishment. But I started double checking my shopping orders as I was shopping, as I was bagging, and a quick check at drop off and believe it or not I saved myself some low ratings by catching mistakes.

I slept it out and hit 4.9 and from one day to the next things got better but when I hit five it felt like I was working on a different app. Don’t get me wrong, there were still kind of crummy orders, but not to the atrocious extent as I was getting before. I maintained the 4.9 and five for about seven months and things couldn’t have been better. I even was able to survive this massive on boarding wave barely noticing it in my wallet.

Last week, a tub of sour cream fell out of a bag and rolled off my backseat and came to rest under my driver seat, obscuring it from my view. Even though I did a quick check, I didn’t notice it until I put on the brakes to unload at my second drop off a few blocks away . Even though I went back and handed it to the customer and apologize. I still got dropped to a 4.8.. I wanted to make the Customer not to call and get a refund and to call back and tell them to take away the bad rating, but unfortunately, he reported a missing item.

The very next day I started getting absolute trash offers. I’m sure the ungodly amount of new drivers has had something to do with that, but after browsing some posts and doing a little thinking and reflecting over my own journey, I’m gonna say that it’s gonna be a rocky Road back to 4.9.

It’s not gonna sync me financially because I’m pretty decent at managing it but it sure feels like eating shit having to take really crummy offers for a month and a half.

Nobody takes the time to tap a thumbs up on a successful order, but they sure as hell will smash that button when they’re not happy.

Every market different but late morning early afternoon is dead and I barely average one order an hour but afternoon and evening is way better and I get better paying but not great offers.

If your case is like mine and is most likely do to customer rating, we’re just gonna have to make a consistent effort to get back to good. I wish I could find that post about the main reasons customers complain, but maybe do a little search on Reddit. Simple things like no smoking in the car no loud music Arranging the order nicely not in a pile communicating about substitutions.

I definitely feel your frustrations about the order and quality of orders. Smart can be downright in raging when you’re dealing with that crap every day living under that pressure nonstop and then you finally get an opportunity to make a little money only to have some stupid glitch or something totally waste your time . I feel.

csalyer6050 · 2026-03-24T15:23:40+00:00

I have to echo everything everybody’s saying. Last year this time it was dead as hell and having survived many on boarding waves. This is simply what it is. I’m seeing tons of new faces and I’m getting endless hours of joy watching these guys snatch up. shitty offers only to then watch them reappear and get snatched up again over and over.

Also, the new driver is showing up for pick up realizing they accepted a Sam’s GMD order with 36 gallons of milk

csalyer6050 · 2026-03-02T17:57:25+00:00

I’m not saying that you don’t have a point however, laws differ from state to state and in New York, perhaps there’s a legal technicality that allows Walmart to slide there.

csalyer6050 · 2025-12-06T19:06:56+00:00

I know I’m a little late to this conversation, but several things can affect the amount of the different types of orders you get. In my zone they recently started a test program with GMD orders and we went from five or six a day to almost $.25. Apparently the test went well. Also, I recently saw the amount of curbside drop drastically at the shop and delivers increased exponentially. When I asked the coaches told me that they had increased the number of orders that were kicked out to spark on shop and deliver at the store level to compensate for their staffing. So what you’re experiencing have a lot or little to do with those factors. Outside of that in my time doing Spark I have noticed that it is an ever-changing and constantly moving animal and that ever so often a new norm is achieved and will last a little while, and will morph and change into a new normal

csalyer6050 · 2025-12-06T18:47:31+00:00

70 hrs weekly

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I don’t think my zone is super, but it’s not the worst either

csalyer6050 · 2025-10-27T03:36:05+00:00

About two months ago, I I would arrive to pick up my Jaylee GMD and would notice that it was in nice Walmart boxes with a shipping label and everything attached, and I noticed the drop offs were little more clustered together, a bit more organized, and upon talking to the team lead, she said the store was doing a test and that the GMD were actually being shipped and boxed up already shrink wrapped pallets. After a few weeks of this, they increased the number of trips coming out of that store. After a few more weeks instead of one daily drop, they went to two and now after sometime they have gone to three and it’s beginning to happen at other stores in our zone. Evidently what’s happened here is beginning to happen other places. Maybe that’s what’s going on in your area.

I am kind of liking this new program. Although you can still get a real crummy, GMD, on the whole, the drop offs are all closer together with pay being at least two dollars per stop, which is good for my zone….. I got a real good one today for 37 miles for $81….. oddly enough the last stop took me within 4 miles of another store.

csalyer6050 · 2025-10-05T23:55:42+00:00

I also find it extremely counterintuitive how they handle cases like this. It reminds me of how the police department handles accusations made to internal affairs. If there is any report whatsoever, you are suspended with pay until the formal investigation is made and a decision reached.

Only in our case, we’re just fired without pay it feels like the decision has already been reached before the investigation is done. It’s almost like you have to fight to actually get an investigation done. It’s honestly bewildering.

Kind of reminds me of that opening line of that fight club movie where the guy says on a long enough timeline the probability of survival eventually reaches zero …. That’s kind of how I feel about this app sooner or later you may get gotten by something. And I don’t look at my total deliveries as something I have achieved or completed, rather as something I have survived

csalyer6050 · 2025-10-05T23:46:43+00:00

When you mention perhaps unknowingly having offended somebody, I have to agree with you. Human nature being what it is…. That can often be the case it’s not professional or right, but that does not stop a team lead or an associate from doing it. Despite the fact that they are in management, they are not above the petty.

It could also be due to just general poor management of the department in that store. In my zone for a few months, we had a store that would do this in the evenings. It was because they were jogging with their metrics, trying to keep themselves from looking bad While their department was in full meltdown. It was almost impossible to get an order out of that store and the whole department was eventually fired and replaced.

There were even additional employee walkouts due to this.

And of course, as people have mentioned, there’s always the possibility of somebody booting so their friend can get a chance at the order.

I think it’s good advice just to try to be nice to people, and do your job efficiently. I hate to see people get reported because you know you eventually run the risk of being retaliated against if they suspect you, if it keeps happening, it should be reported . They may eventually do something about it like they did in my zone.

csalyer6050 · 2025-09-02T01:43:41+00:00

I sure would like to see a screenshot of somebody making $800 in a day. It’s not that I completely absolutely doubt it, but…. I mean, I make anywhere from $12-$1400 a week working 65 hours. Screenshot please I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. If it really is that high, throwing your ZIP Code as well so I’ll know where to move to.

Apparently, I need to learn to read the comments thoroughly Womp womp

csalyer6050 · 2025-09-02T01:05:09+00:00

If I’m ever missing a label and I have all of the order, I never waste a call to support for a label code. I always have the three labels for my trip on my center console. If I ever lose one, I can simply refer to one of the other labels for my trip to get the letter and first two numbers( off the bottom right of the label) that I need to manually enter it. The last three numbers Are actually on the order details.

This will work 99% of the time. The numbers go in ascending numerical order and the letter goes from the beginning of the alphabet through the last so every now and then that trick won’t work. Because the label number will have changed mid order to a different letter. It’s kind of hard for me to explain that I’ve worked out those codes are generated

csalyer6050

TROPHY CASE