Previewed a JFI shop list to find it in Spanish (but not the eggs). Have never touched the language settings. It was a trash offer so I declined, but curious if I’ll be dealing with a Spanglish version ha.
My zone seemed to be at $12/shop base longer than most, but a month ago it dropped to $11…..only to now be at $10 as of today.
People who start justifying “it’s only a dollar” - well, a $2 reduction to $12 is a 16% decrease. As someone who did roughly 2,000 trips the last 12 months (heavily weighted to shop offers), this is more than “just a couple bucks.”
Will it get worse….likely. Will drivers keep justifying taking bad offers….undoubtedly.
The *only* meaningful impact drivers can have, and it takes the collective pool of driver….so unlikely, is to let bad offers sit and accumulate extra pay from WM…..and if it’s still shit, let it sit. I know I wasted my time typing this last paragraph
The perceived importance and faux swagger from some of the drivers when they are in a WM parking lot or store is so funny to me. Walking around like their last name is Walton lol but doing the exact opposite of what actual status/swagger is. Donning sunglasses while they shop, thinking holding their 2-3 phones out to be visible is cool, wearing knockoff clothing….essentially all things that just look foolish. Also the same ones that park in the pickup spots to shop then leave their carts in the spots instead of walking the 20 feet to return the carts. I get so many laughs each day at these absolute tools.
Is this a thing already in anyone’s zone??!!
Just told by a loader it starts in mine tomorrow. He also said they are told these 4 grocery stops can still be grouped with GMD stops.
What a joke
Banner notice popped up for a JFI offer, click it immediately to bounce back to the app, only for the app to have a small message saying something along the lines of “offer already gone” — it was barely there a second.
Is this an app glitch? Bot/grabber? Anyone seeing this occur on their offers??
Any given morning has always been a bit of a crapshoot, but more often than not if I was logged at 5:30a I got a good offer to take and be shopping by 6a.
My theory from seeing enough mornings now where there is absolutely nothing acceptable — and it’s not for lack of offers — is that this time slot is now being filled with orders the stores do not want to shop, not that the customer paid for “express shopping”. The orders are just bad and all huge quantities. Toss in the mix my zone starting seeing triple shops (about 2 weeks ago) and it feels like the stores offloading a lot of labor on the bad offers. This isn’t actually a gripe because I’m so used to seeing horrible offers no matter the time of day, but it’s starting to feel like correlation after these last couple weeks observing each morning.
I know there plenty of customers that do like the 6a express shop (hell, they even post about it on the WM customer sub) and I’ll keep an eye out for those offers. But more mornings than not lately I just don’t end up accepting any offer until later in the meaning.
How is WM coming up with the mix of stops in a curbside pickup? Completely arbitrary to the AI/algo?
Some customers get majorly fucked by being paired with outrageous GMD stops. Prime example just how - 1 grocery stop, 5 small items, $7 tip, and only 2 miles from the store…..that’s a $15 1-stop trip is sent out alone, but WM slapped 8 additional GMD stops on it so the entirety of the offer is dog shit. Grocery customer fucked.
Simultaneously, the same store had a 1-stop grocery order that had no tip but no other stops.
Logged in this morning and met with the prompt to do a Face ID (seems like the normal weekly one, occasionally get days with multiple required). But after I took the 3 selfies, I was prompted to scan my license (front & back) which was a first for me (almost 2k trips).
I’m totally here for that step! If this is a widespread or even a normal occurrence for each driver, it would certainly weed out bad apples using BS accounts.
Customers expect good service, but they also expect that WM/Spark have properly vetted who is showing up to their house - with many instances of door/gate codes shared with drivers. The fact it’s been so lax (knowingly) of who is operating accounts is wild to me. Sure, WM just wants the job done as cheaply as possible….but it would take one crazy incident of a fraudulent account doing something awful to result in much worse cost/PR for Walmart. Background checks and getting are a basic expectation customers assume is handled before someone is invited to their property!
Question, and maybe I’ve taken all the steps I can.
6am shop on a huge order, 115 items at 144 total quantity - I know others may scoff but it’s a regular and the tip was $40 (total pay $67) and only 3.5 miles.
I live in Colorado that is a paper bag state, so after we scan the barcode we head to customer service to get bags. This is already a dumb process, and like everything WM related to Spark there is no standard (even shift to shift at the same store). I’m immediately met with some dumb shit as I requested 20 bags - mind you, we charge the customer a pass through fee of $.10/bag in the app - and the associate starts saying they can’t give me that many because they often run out (I am well aware, as it often impacts me). When I state that that is a completely separate issue and their reasoning is flawed because they want me to use less bags magically on this order that requires 20 bags, they started on more dumb shit. Well come to find out a little later in this interaction, this was the manager on duty (it’s about 7am at this point so the actually store manager hadn’t arrived). This is the rub because clearly she was trying to act above her pay grade and started to become nasty - again, using nonsense that didn’t apply to my specific order. I see this going nowhere but yet she finally agreed to give me the 20 bags I had charged the customer for (we have to guesstimate and turns out the order really needed 22 bags but I had a couple spare from prior orders). I didn’t feel right not asking for a manager before leaving, so I re-approached her and she is talking shit about me and Spark drivers to the security guard. I asked she page the manager….and she of course then reveals she is the acting manager. She now takes a tone trying to be belittling (mind you, she is stupid so it wasn’t landing) and I just wasn’t going to waste my time and needed to be on my way to the drop off.
I called driver support to get a report going as I bagged the order, but we all know how that feels with Spark ‘support’, so I completed that and called the ethics line. This didn’t go anywhere after explaining the behaviors encountered, so I know there was no formal report generated. They gave me a number to call and it’s just Spark support.
Has anyone else faced something similar where you expect a revenge type scenario out of a store filing a report to get you deactivated when they were the ones in the wrong? I am confident (if she is even smart enough) that the complaint against me is going to be filed and I’m trying to have counter-complaints in place of the encounter. Thanks for any feedback on how you’ve navigated situations like this!
Triple shops just showed up to my zone about a week ago, oh joy. I’ve now seen the algo pairing a pharmacy order with two additional shops - and no, one of the shops is not the pharmacy customer. So just think of all the regulars that have used the delivery service for their meds — they would have a track record of experiences getting alerts and subsequently their meds in a timely fashion. These orders I’ve seen stack their meds with 50+ shop items (on top of not necessarily being the first drop off).
This is the *last* category you want peeved customers, because it takes only one pharmacy customer to rate in a way that the system takes action to deactivate a driver. I was already one to decline 98% of pharmacy offers but even for those willing to take them these bundles surely open up more danger in doing so….
Preface - I am a driver, not a customer ranting after a subpar experience. Made a post this week on shitty driver behaviors — namely the basic-ass notes customers leave to get the bare minimum expectations met (examples: make sure you’re at the right address; don’t leave in front of the out-swinging door).
Just had one happen live on a delivery. I pull up to my stop, it’s a newer multi-floor apartment that has the touchpad entry system. As I’m approaching the door, I see a gentleman with a Walmart bag and case of soda (I’m in a paper bag state, they have certain bags for Spark orders so I know he is a driver). He is already huffing and puffing about the locked entry. I tell him my customer has a note with pin, I proceed to get us in the building, and we share the elevator up to our floor (which he tells me “floor 5” and I’m also going to 5). He airs his gripes about customers and these buildings. I proceed to exit, look at the signage to find which hall to use, and head to my unit (I had wished him well as he set his stuff down to get his phone out). I finish up my drop and head for the elevator, and he is approaching my hallway and asks if I know where 502 is — well guess what, I just dropped off to 502….so the customer had two orders apparently.
Here’s the rant - this driver HAD THE SAME FUCKING NOTES I DID and was acting like he was dealing with a customer-caused situation the whole time. What the actual fuck! The inept nature of some of the driver pool is actually astonishing. I have no clue what this guy would have done had I not shown up to let him in the building but can take a couple guesses, non of which would have been to the customers satisfaction (such as leave at front of building or return the order).
GMD took me to the neighboring zone out in the Rocky Mountains - this WM ditched the blue and has a much more appealing overall aesthetic to the exterior of the building itself.
Any others out there that aren’t the typical cookie-cutter superstore design?
lol go from one issue (app down, no offers) to new fuckery
Driver here, not been a customer of a curbside or express order myself, so take this as a peer-to-peer rant and not because I had a poor delivery.
Stop being the fucking issue! It is mind boggling seeing customer notes asking for the most basic, common-sense level of service.
Don’t take an offer if you’re not willing to provide a good service. And stop justifying your shitty behavior/service levels — “no/low tip”, “too many miles”, “second floor unit”, “Spark this or that” - don’t take the fucking trip! We get order details, use them. Then find your self-pride and common sense and provide the service you signed up to do :)
When an order, namely an express shop, is offered at a store that is super far from the customer’s address and there are multiple stores much closer (I’m in a market with 12 WM, so some orders I see can have 5+ stores closer), what is the root cause? Dumb customer? Bad algo/WM selecting the store?
I see dozens of these offers each day, some of which have a store within 2 miles, yet the offer is at a store 10-20+ miles away.
The express shop/delivery option shows a time range that could in fact be underestimated BIG TIME, based on several factors. The biggest factor being what’s in the order and the compensation offered to the driver.
If it is a complete shit order with no tip…..guess what…it sits on the FCFS board for indeterminate amount of time, which given some of the shittiest orders I see any given day could easily exceed the “promised“ window *before* a driver finally takes it (still likely shit even with the max surge pay). So now said driver is really showing up to under-deliver on a promise WM made on the website.
Consider this factor if you’re ever enticed to take a surged order, that although the pay may fall in your “fuck it, I’ll take it” you may be setup for an unhappy customer experience even if you have a flawless shop, bagging, and delivery….so the customer may be more apt to leave a less-than-5 star review.
I place one order (roughly 10 products) on WM.com and the items were split into 3 separate deliveries, some of which looked to come from the stores (Spark) and others from a 3rd party vendor. I noticed an issue shortly after placing the order that the delivery address reverted back to an old one on my profile so I called CS. Even being a short time after the confirmation was sent (within a couple hours) I was told they couldn’t cancel and WM would simply issue a full refund, of which they could process 48 hours after each delivery. Well that was the first lie.
First two deliveries went according to the above plan, but on the 3rd/last delivery I was informed they couldn’t issue the refund due to a cap on what they issue. So I escalated. I talked to a rep that submitted a case and who also stated the refund would be processed (just give it up to 10 biz days). I waited. Then I followed up only to be assured the refund is still pending but there was something needed to get it across the finish line. Again, continuing to confirm a full refund is issued. After about another week and still nothing I called today. Well, turns out each prior rep I spoke with simply LIED to me, and there is in fact a cap to refunds on circumstances like this.
I waited forever on hold to speak to a supervisor who simply stated I would have to take it up with my bank. He took ZERO accountability for the lies told to me that have resulted in a few hours on the phone with CS reps over the past 30 days.
TL:DR……..F*ck WM
**edit to amend my statement about JFY offers specific to my zone**
My market sees regular JFY offers, sometimes ranging 5-10 per hour I’m not on an order (I read posts here of others seeing limited to none any given day) and a day like today flooded with orders gives a glimpse at how bad the wheels have fallen off. I finished a delivery about 5 miles from the nearest WM and decided to keep Spark on while I ran an errand and got some lunch. Being that far from a store with hoards of drivers out and still receiving easily 10+ offers in 30 mins was wild in itself. But the crazy part was just how horrible every single one of them were.
It’s bad, getting worse, and I honestly wonder if some of what I saw will ever get picked up today…..but then it dawned on me that there are enough crackhead drivers taking the garbage.
It’s not working lol
Every single order in my zone is so horrible that they endlessly circulate and surge pricing is added, yet even at the increased pay they are still garbage 🗑️ that can’t be good for biz, right?
Oh yeah, the customer Reddit page is feeling the burn too
But hey, thanks for those menial incentives to avoid any acknowledgment that fuel prices are up 200+% in the past 90-120 days
Some of the customer notes I see asking for the *bare minimum* and *obvious* things, such as ensuring it’s at the right address, really has me scratch my head at how low-IQ some drivers must actually be.
Yes, we have valid gripes on some customer-caused issues, but for notes to spell out such basic stuff is concerning. They pay a premium (tip or no tip) and should get a quality service.