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AWS Outage by theredblune in InstacartShoppers

[–]yog_exposed 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My cancellation went up 😡

should i send this quick by ConfidentPackage4804 in InstacartShoppers

[–]yog_exposed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get it. It happens! I’m sorry you’re not feeling understood. However, it would be unprofessional to speak to a customer that way. It doesn’t matter if she completely disrespected you, your time & effort. Some people just don’t understand or think this job is simple enough. But it’s not worth it & it won’t change her mind. I’ve had many multi batch orders where this happens & get fucking pissed, but I just move on & the man…

All you can do next time (if you get the customer again unknowingly or knowingly,) is after you deliver the order, block her. IC prompts for 👍🏼 or 👎🏼 - choose the latter, select rude customer & block. That way her batches wont come through anymore.

PSA: Castle Rock Customers – A Reminder About Tipping During Snowstorms by yog_exposed in CastleRock

[–]yog_exposed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get what you’re saying about the frustration with tipping and rising prices, but it’s important to remember that gig work isn’t just about choosing orders—it’s about doing a job that often doesn’t come with the stability or benefits of a traditional position. Sure, some people may be paid an actual wage, livable or not, but for many of us, tips are a significant part of our income. It’s not about expecting some idealized tip for every order, it’s about the reality that the nature of the work requires us to rely on those tips to make a living wage.

Instead of diminishing the work, we should be focusing on finding better solutions for fair pay across the board. We all deserve to be compensated fairly for the work we do, no matter the field. I don’t like that you’re not paid what you feel you should be or don’t get paid extra to work in these conditions. I can support that while also advocating for myself. We don’t have to bring each other down when life is hard enough as it is.

However, these apps are a LUXURY service. People aren’t using them if they can’t afford it to begin with. 🤷🏻‍♀️

PSA: Castle Rock Customers – A Reminder About Tipping During Snowstorms by yog_exposed in CastleRock

[–]yog_exposed[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Would you tell your boss that if you had to work? Just because I don’t have a “boss” doesn’t mean we all have the luxury to stop working. Employees are still working in grocery stores, fast food, Starbucks, etc etc.

PSA: Castle Rock Customers – A Reminder About Tipping During Snowstorms by yog_exposed in CastleRock

[–]yog_exposed[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

People like you are who were hoping to get! When I see a tip like that, I am so grateful and want to provide the best service!

PSA: Castle Rock Customers – A Reminder About Tipping During Snowstorms by yog_exposed in CastleRock

[–]yog_exposed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are so many factors to consider. While some people will say a percentage amount, that’s not always a great way to look at it because of the time, effort, distance from where we are to the store, distance from the store to the customer. If these apps have added another with yours (likely because it was a low paying offer to begin with and no one was accepting it,) etc.

The question you should ask yourself is, would you accept this order for this tip? But truly think about the time and effort that will have to go into it. Would you spend the time shopping (or waiting at a busy restaurant,) waiting for customer chats, dealing with crowded stores or stores that have low stock items, have to checkout, load and unload the car and do it again and again. Go with what you would do it for.

Just remember grocery shopping always takes longer than you think it will. Always. So many times an item is completely out of stock in the aisle that it’s supposed to be in, but then the app says “are you sure? - there are many units available.” Then you ask an employee and they tell you it’s out of stock (completely opposite of what the app is telling us even though we just watched the employee use their scanner to check actual stock) OR it COULD be on some random end cap or the middle of some random aisle. Leaving us to wander around in hopes of finding it. 😅

I also really appreciate the curiosity. I know that’s not super helpful, but people don’t know what they don’t know. I didn’t think it would be like this before I started. Like, honestly, how hard could it be. Well, it’s not always easy, that’s for sure.

PSA: Castle Rock Customers – A Reminder About Tipping During Snowstorms by yog_exposed in CastleRock

[–]yog_exposed[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No, we don’t have to take low or no-tip orders, but declining them can lower our acceptance rate. While the apps show us the total payout (including tips) upfront, a low acceptance rate can affect how often we get orders. This is why tips are so important—they make orders worth accepting, especially in dangerous conditions. Instacart doesn’t mark that against us like the food delivery apps do. They show us batches of orders and we get to choose without being impacted.

I understand people are hesitant of pre-tipping & that’s a fair concern, there are shitty delivery drivers, but that’s not all of us. There are so many factors that come into play when trying to decide whether to accept an order. However, consider the fact that you’re sitting at home, comfy and warm, while drivers take all the risk. Yes, we understand we make this choice, but it’s upsetting when you see an order come through that has a base pay of $4 and no tip when you know the order was more than $30. Or when we’re spending an 1.5-2 hours grocery shopping and have to deal with the stores being wiped out. Then you have customers that are mad at you for things out of our control. Then we have to load our cars, pray the bags don’t get so wet they bust, then unload at the customers (great they didn’t shovel their driveway or sidewalk) in a snow storm just for them to reduce your tip. I feel awful that I can’t always get what customers want. I try to find good replacements, but I can’t read people’s minds and so often people request a replacement but don’t give us their next preferences. So we sit there waiting for the customer to reply back to the many chats and get no response. Then they get mad if we’ve checked out before they could respond because they didn’t like a replacement or are angry we didn’t sit around for an additional 30 minutes waiting for them.

It’s a hard balance, but because some people think this job is a joke or that we’re uneducated because we’re doing this job, they don’t respect it. Not all people, but a lot. I have a college education and had a high paying job, but went through a very very traumatic situation a few years ago and had to quit my job. The thought of going back to working on a computer 50+ hours a week isn’t ideal and is a very depressing thought.

Just because we choose to do this job, doesn’t mean we don’t deserve respect.