4 ms·

This is tough, but there is an easy solution: delivery apps provide a way to communicate with the delivery worker, explain your situation, potentially offer a b

This is tough, but there is an easy solution: delivery apps provide a way to communicate with the delivery worker, explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service. They will come to your door.

soulofmischief 3y ago
Sure, easy solution! Door dash provides such a mechanism wherein I can let the driver know how I would like to receive my order. In fact, for several years now I have used this feature, signaling that I would like the order to be delivered to my door. Fingers crossed for when the majority of delivery drivers actually start reading it! > explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service At some point, it's my business and I would rather not have to explain my disability to strangers every single time I want a meal. You have to understand something here, before moving to shift responsibility off of the delivery workers: There are kind and unkind people. The kind people are no problem. They deliver the order according to instructions, and get a tip. The unkind people, who are more likely to not follow door dash protocol to begin with, are also more likely not to read my driver notes, are more likely to be rude even when I am forced to explain my disability. In some cases, these people will even harass you before and after delivering your order. I once had a small animal seizing in my lap who needed emergency items, but I was unable to leave my home and the closest exotic vet was hours away and didn't open till the next morning. An Instacart delivery driver accepted the order, which included a tip of $50, harassed me for 4 hours and literally just lied about ever visiting the store, because they had a bad day. They sat in their car as this animal continued to seize, with zero feeling. They sent me photos, cursed at me, taunted me, all sorts of things. After speaking with support, they agreed the behavior was unacceptable and allowed me to reorder... I got the same driver again. After wasting 4 hours with this person, support finally figured out how to assign a different driver. This driver immediately went to the store, called me to discuss which items were best to get, and delivered my order with zero fuss. They were happy to receive a large tip, and they assured me I wasn't in the wrong. The animal ultimately died, that 4 hours was crucial. Should I rely on Instacart for emergency services? Of course not, but that is the nature of an emergency. I would have gladly paid that $50 toward an app specifically geared for that kind of thing.
- mistercheph 3y ago
  These are the kinds of armchair moralizing stories about the service industry that the consumer class actually believes about themselves. 99.9% of the time when people would say "If they would've done it, they would have gotten a tip for it..." it's just not true. Drivers are not getting tipped for spending 45 minutes walking around apartment buildings trying to find elevators and struggling to read the font-of-the-month printed on doors and they have to do this dozens of times every day in order to get $2.50, the base pay for a doordash order, and to make an annual salary that is a rounding error of the salaries of the people that they are delivering to. I get it, life is unfair, and not everyone can make the same amount of money. But don't act like we live in a paradise that doesn't have extreme inequality and class tension when you use an app that summons a member of the underclass to do your bidding for $18k per annum and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you.
  - soulofmischief 3y ago
    > when people would say "If they would've done it, they would have gotten a tip for it..." it's just not true Except the next guy completed the service as requested, and I handed him a $50 cash tip? > But don't act like we live in a paradise that doesn't have extreme inequality and class tension when you use an app that summons a member of the underclass to do your bidding for $18k per annum and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you. Maybe you're projecting your own ignorance. The majority of my life has been spent in great poverty. I am part of this "underclass". My sister does Door Dash, and it doesn't pay her bills, and I have to compensate for the difference. I'm extremely aware of the exact economics behind Door Dash. I've usually been at the bottom end of this "extreme inequality and class tension". For you, this might be a realization, for me, it's a reality I've long known. Did it even occur to you that in this situation I obviously didn't have a car myself? This person was already one step above the economic ladder than myself, as they owned a vehicle. > and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you. I spent my youth deeply broke, working as as server for the upper class of my state in a rural area with little economic opportunity. My mom can't hold a job, my dad is not in my life, and I was homeless at 15. All I knew was poverty and sickness for a long time. If I can not catch a fucking attitude while shaking my governor's hand and getting paid $12 an hour, then some guy who is getting $50 tip + fees for a 3-item order can shut the fuck up and do the job they literally accepted to do, instead of cursing at me and mocking me and intentionally sabotaging my order. I wish I got paid that kind of money back then. If they have a problem with their socioeconomic position, I'm not the guy to take it out on.

soulofmischief 3y ago

Sure, easy solution! Door dash provides such a mechanism wherein I can let the driver know how I would like to receive my order. In fact, for several years now I have used this feature, signaling that I would like the order to be delivered to my door. Fingers crossed for when the majority of delivery drivers actually start reading it! > explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service At some point, it's my business and I would rather not have to explain my disability to strangers every single time I want a meal. You have to understand something here, before moving to shift responsibility off of the delivery workers: There are kind and unkind people. The kind people are no problem. They deliver the order according to instructions, and get a tip. The unkind people, who are more likely to not follow door dash protocol to begin with, are also more likely not to read my driver notes, are more likely to be rude even when I am forced to explain my disability. In some cases, these people will even harass you before and after delivering your order. I once had a small animal seizing in my lap who needed emergency items, but I was unable to leave my home and the closest exotic vet was hours away and didn't open till the next morning. An Instacart delivery driver accepted the order, which included a tip of $50, harassed me for 4 hours and literally just lied about ever visiting the store, because they had a bad day. They sat in their car as this animal continued to seize, with zero feeling. They sent me photos, cursed at me, taunted me, all sorts of things. After speaking with support, they agreed the behavior was unacceptable and allowed me to reorder... I got the same driver again. After wasting 4 hours with this person, support finally figured out how to assign a different driver. This driver immediately went to the store, called me to discuss which items were best to get, and delivered my order with zero fuss. They were happy to receive a large tip, and they assured me I wasn't in the wrong. The animal ultimately died, that 4 hours was crucial. Should I rely on Instacart for emergency services? Of course not, but that is the nature of an emergency. I would have gladly paid that $50 toward an app specifically geared for that kind of thing.

mistercheph 3y ago
These are the kinds of armchair moralizing stories about the service industry that the consumer class actually believes about themselves. 99.9% of the time when people would say "If they would've done it, they would have gotten a tip for it..." it's just not true. Drivers are not getting tipped for spending 45 minutes walking around apartment buildings trying to find elevators and struggling to read the font-of-the-month printed on doors and they have to do this dozens of times every day in order to get $2.50, the base pay for a doordash order, and to make an annual salary that is a rounding error of the salaries of the people that they are delivering to. I get it, life is unfair, and not everyone can make the same amount of money. But don't act like we live in a paradise that doesn't have extreme inequality and class tension when you use an app that summons a member of the underclass to do your bidding for $18k per annum and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you.
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  > when people would say "If they would've done it, they would have gotten a tip for it..." it's just not true Except the next guy completed the service as requested, and I handed him a $50 cash tip? > But don't act like we live in a paradise that doesn't have extreme inequality and class tension when you use an app that summons a member of the underclass to do your bidding for $18k per annum and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you. Maybe you're projecting your own ignorance. The majority of my life has been spent in great poverty. I am part of this "underclass". My sister does Door Dash, and it doesn't pay her bills, and I have to compensate for the difference. I'm extremely aware of the exact economics behind Door Dash. I've usually been at the bottom end of this "extreme inequality and class tension". For you, this might be a realization, for me, it's a reality I've long known. Did it even occur to you that in this situation I obviously didn't have a car myself? This person was already one step above the economic ladder than myself, as they owned a vehicle. > and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you. I spent my youth deeply broke, working as as server for the upper class of my state in a rural area with little economic opportunity. My mom can't hold a job, my dad is not in my life, and I was homeless at 15. All I knew was poverty and sickness for a long time. If I can not catch a fucking attitude while shaking my governor's hand and getting paid $12 an hour, then some guy who is getting $50 tip + fees for a 3-item order can shut the fuck up and do the job they literally accepted to do, instead of cursing at me and mocking me and intentionally sabotaging my order. I wish I got paid that kind of money back then. If they have a problem with their socioeconomic position, I'm not the guy to take it out on.