r/WalmartSparkDrivers

Last night around 9:00pm I rejected s $42/25 mile one-way curbside offer, thinking it would pop back up with higher prices. Nope. It disappeared for good. I assumed someone else got it. Now today, just a few minutes ago it got sent to me as a JFY at $36. It's a large order (60/90), and the lady tipped $10...not a horrible tip, it could be better, but this poor lady is having to wait DAYS for her groceries because Walmart is too cheap to pay for its delivery.

It is yet another way to force their 💩 offers. I am in gold, because i have a 95% completion everything else is in sapphire, now i understand thats on me for canceling orders, but i started to think if the orders im getting are absolutely shit, what are silver shoppers getting. This tier system has completely removed the possibility for an order to sit and accumulate boost pay because if not picked up it’ll just roll into the next tier, and again a bit later. And because people will try to get to sapphire they will complete those orders, lowering the base pay in many areas yet again.

Walmart just gave itself a pretty broad mechanism to fuck with the economics of an offer AFTER you've already accepted it.

The important part: an accepted offer is NOT necessarily a guaranteed payout.

Walmart's own disclosure says accepted offers can be modified or canceled under a range of circumstances, including inventory problems, store operational issues, fulfillment-system problems, customer changes, third-party issues, force majeure, and certain situations they attribute to the driver. So basically whatever they want.

And here's the part drivers REALLY need to understand:

If Walmart cancels an eligible trip because of a Walmart operational event, the $2.50 modification fee can be paid INSTEAD OF THE ORIGINAL OFFER.

Think about that.

You accept a $30 offer.

You drive to the store.

Something goes wrong on Walmart's end.

Walmart cancels the trip.

Walmart Fuckery, Alakazam=

You could potentially receive $2.50 instead of the $30 you accepted.

That's not a minor policy change. THATS SOME CON ARTIST TYPE FRAUD SHIT.

That's Walmart reserving the ability to change the financial terms AFTER the driver has already committed to the trip. Fucking scum!

They've essentially said:

"Here's what we'll pay you" until we decide circumstances give us a reason to lower it.

Yes, there are protections when you already have the merchandise. See Walmart cares. If a canceled order requires a return and you complete that return, the disclosure says you'll receive the original accepted trip earnings + a return fee, although you lose the customer's tip(like those happen, pff!)

But don't miss the bigger picture:

Walmart controls the platform. Walmart controls the offers. They control all logistics. Like if anything goes wrong it's on their end not drivers, but drivers now get to gamble on their pay. And Walmart has written itself brooooooooooooooaaaaaad exceptions that can affect what you actually get paid.

If you still decide to work for these fucks: READ EVERY TRIP UPDATE instead of blindly assuming the accepted offer is still the accepted offer. They are going to start fucking people and more so those who don't understand the rules of the game.

Walmart is one of the largest corporations on Earth. It isn't struggling to find $30. Meanwhile, a driver may have already burned fuel, time, mileage, and opportunity cost getting to that store.

Fuck Walmart. Eat Shit. I will never use Spark, or Walmart in any capacity. Not like it affects them but it makes me feel better about it I guess

If a corporation writes the rules so it can change what it pays you after you've accepted the job, drivers have every right to call that shit what it is:

CORPORATE FUCKERY BULLSHIT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PEOPLE ACTUALLY DOING THE WORK.

Read the disclosure. It's basically 50 Shades of Grey: Financial Domination Edition! if that's your sort of thing. 😂

WATCH YOUR TRIP UPDATES.

SCREENSHOT YOUR OFFERS.

KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS.

And most importantly:

DON'T ASSUME WALMART'S NUMBER IS STILL YOUR NUMBER JUST BECAUSE YOU ACCEPTED IT.

It was a single order, not worthy of the miles driven, and it went up a dollar on the offer card with the word “boost” in front of it. Shades of old Instacart… which used to do that… and you knew they topped out at $12. Now they just have a flame icon to inform you it was boosted. Used to be a buck each time. Now it’s 50 cents. Instacart offer card screenshot… waiting for the Spark one to come back then I’ll screenshot that. Anyone else see that yet?

So, turned down an offer last night. Shopping offer for $18 going less than a mile. 19 items for 149 quantity. No tip ( it was a daycare).

This morning I take a delivery paying $24. Curbside less than one mile. 9 one gallon lemonade and 3 boxes of spaghetti noodles. $16 tip. Same daycare, same person on both orders.

Now, why would they tip for a small delivery and not for a large shop?

You can’t convince me Walmart isn’t still fucking with the tips

Customer last night after I completed shopping: messages me asking "Am I still getting my order?" Uh, yeah, that's why I'm shopping for it.

I input my preliminary numbers into ChatGPT, it is projecting that I retain over 81% of the revenue after tax and vehicle expenses assuming $2 per mile.

Vehicle expenses $6500 SE tax $8885 Fed income tax $1425 CA income tax $2055

Net take home $81000+

Does this seem accurate?

I’m an Instacart Shopper who finally got approved for Spark. Curious if these estimated shopping times are anywhere near reasonable or if Walmart drastically underestimates them? (Like 41 minutes for 42 items 80 units).

Maybe Walmart shopping is a breeze, but to estimate the time for less than 60 seconds for finding and checkout seems to be a stretch, especially since items can be from all over the store!

Also curious on payouts. It seems to say they’re sent weekly on Monday and then maybe when the card arrives I can get instant atm cash outs (true? If so, are free ATMs all around or rare and is there a fee after 8 withdrawals a month etc)? It sounds like there’s no way I could get an instant bank transfer today or even process a bank transfer any day where it arrives in 1-3 days? Thank you

It seems like no matter what I do, I get trashed on customer ratings. Walmart keeps batching the good customers with the bad. So I slowly build up .01 point every day just to have it knocked back down 1 full point in one day. I am starting to wonder if it's not other drivers.

I guess some people are entitled.

I’d say about 10-15% of my drop offs have an interaction with the customer - a passcode require, they are waiting on me or outside in their yard/garage, or business location - but of those stops, I hear the phrase “you speak English” out of nearly all of them. I take interactions with customers as an opportunity to provide additional customer service, even if it’s just a smile and small talk for a moment.

But, I do not understand how the stops can be a positive experience if there is a language barrier that creates stress, delays, errors, etc. I observe some of Spanish-speaking drivers only at the store with associates, but I often see no translation app already teed up to use, so any employee who doesn’t speak Spanish is trying to guess at the communication from the driver.

And this isn’t me taking some position on a soapbox, but I genuinely don’t know how some of these stops end in a successful drop off or positive experience. Like how tf are the stops that have notes like “please call ahead and I’ll meet you at the main entrance to the building” or something similar turning out? Drivers simply returning these stops?

I was hit by a driver (completely her fault) last May. She failed to yield at a T-intersection as I came barreling by at 55mph (the speed limit). At the time everyone said it shouldn't affect me, but lately I have seen numerous posts about deactivations for not-at-fault accidents. How long after the accidents have these deactivations occurred? Do I need to be concerned?

Am I the only one that’s furious about associates no longer placing labels on packages? I used to be able to stack them on the end. Both packages quickly get out of the hundred degree heat for the pouring rain and do my delivery. Now I have to put them in alphabetical order and still hunt and peck to find the right box.

Between the label issue and the associates, leaving the entire cart for us to load, it has easily tripled the amount of time it takes, and if you wear glasses, good luck.

Hi 👋🏼

What to do if there’s a manager special (yellow tags) that we can’t scan it or enter manually.. should we mark the item as unavailable and if yes I think that is not right especially if the customer paid a good tip.