Instacart has announced they have changed their tipping policy after complaints of “tipbaiting” reached a fever pitch.
The concept of Instacart is simple: just like any on-demand app or service, you pay for someone to get your groceries for you and bring them to your door. It’s been an especially popular service during the current pandemic, as people are more wary of going out a grocery store and have opted for others to do the shopping for them.
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The issue, however, came with how Instacart delivery people are tipped. The original policy allowed a customer to change their tipping amount up to three days after the delivery. This meant that some customers were promising big tips to get efficient shopping and less waiting time, only to take that tip away once the order was finished.
This obviously caused many delivery people to complain and ask for the company to change, and now it looks like they have. While customers can still change a tip, they have a much smaller window of time to do so: only 24 hours. Instacart claims that “only 0.25 percent of orders had a tip adjusted after 24 hours” and “less than 0.5 percent of orders have tips removed after delivery.” They have also expanded their cash-out feature on their app to include tips so they can now get their money 24 hours after a delivery.
This isn’t the first batch of controversy that has faced the company, with complaints arising in 2019 accusing Instacart of taking tips and applying it towards a shopper’s guaranteed payment minimum, or “tip stealing.” That policy has since been changed as well.
An investigation conducted by Verge looked into the human cost of Instacart’s expanding role in the pandemic, and found that tip-baiting was a central complaint from most workers, and that the company made it hard for them to receive promised sick pay. This policy was just changed this week after many senators, led by Brian Schatz (D-HI), called for a potential investigation into the company.
Instacart may be seeing a big bump in service, but they have to be careful about how they manage their employees and the money they have worked for.
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