One Indiana delivery worker can recall just a few times when someone took away his tip after he delivered their Instacart order over his past 2½ years as a gig worker.
When he works for Walmart's Spark Driver delivery app, it happens a few times a week, he told Business Insider.
"On Spark, it is a much more prevalent thing," he said. "I keep a notes app in my phone with the tip baiters, and then I search the address when I get an offer to make sure it's not going to one of those people."
Instacart drivers mark the addresses of tip baiters on Google Maps.
Customers placing orders with generous tips only to reduce or eliminate them isn't new. The practice, called "tip baiting," has historically been the bane of gig workers as tips represent a significant portion of earnings.
Even Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi fell victim to the practice in 2022 when he was making deliveries in San Francisco as part of his undercover-boss attempt to better understand the driver experience.
While tip baiting happens on other apps, six contractors who make deliveries for Spark said the problem was particularly bad on Walmart's delivery service. They traced the problem to a Spark policy giving customers up to 24 hours to reduce or take back their tips. Four of the drivers spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.
Other apps, including Instacart and DoorDash, have shorter take-back periods or other measures that limit tip baiting.
Instacart allows customers to reduce their tips up to two hours after delivery. On Uber Eats, it's just one hour. DoorDash's app lets customers only increase a tip or add one — lowering a tip requires calling customer service, a company spokesperson told BI. In New York City, DoorDash and Uber Eats have started asking customers whether they would like to add a tip after they've received their orders.
"We understand tipping is an important part of the driver experience and are proud that most customers leave tips, with the majority of tip changes resulting in a higher tip for drivers," a Walmart spokesperson said. "Drivers keep 100% of confirmed tips."
The spokesperson added: "Driver feedback has been influential in the development of current tipping features on the platform, and we're continuously exploring new features and enhancements to give drivers the best possible experience."
Drivers must wait until the next day to know what they actually earned
Dozens of delivery gig workers previously told BI the job had become less profitable over the past year, increasing their reliance on tips.
The Spark workers who spoke with BI said a good tip could make even a small order worth their time and expenses. Before drivers accept an order, the app shows both their base pay and the customer's offered tip.
But that tip can change over the course of 24 hours.
For example, a $15 or $20 tip at the time of pickup can dwindle to just $5 or $10 when the transaction finally clears, a North Carolina Spark driver told BI.
"The fact that they make the drivers wait a whole day before we get that money — that is just really insane to me," he said.
Drivers can wind up making far less than they expected once the 24 hours is up, a Georgia Spark driver told BI. That's why she decides whether to take an order depending on its base pay, or the amount of money that Walmart offers for an order besides the tip. Another part of the calculation is how far she'll have to drive for the order.
"Gas is high across the country, and that pretty much means they did free work," the driver said. "Nobody should have to work for below minimum wage."
Her approach was echoed by Brock Dickens, a driver in Indiana who delivers for Spark, Amazon, and DoorDash. He told BI he's skeptical whenever he saw a high tip on an otherwise small order and that he wouldn't take an order unless the base pay made the order worth his time.
Being selective might help drivers make more money in less crowded markets, but that's less of an option in places where more drivers compete for fewer offers.
This seems to be the case in parts of Oregon. A Spark driver there told BI his area had too many drivers and that tip baiting wasn't a significant problem.
In other words, there's a bit of a trade-off: Since tip baiting is generally a tactic customers use to trick drivers into taking orders they might otherwise decline, an oversupply of drivers means an order is more likely to be accepted, thus reducing the incentive for deception.
Spark-driver comments on a Reddit thread indicate that tip-baiting experiences vary widely but are nevertheless infuriating when they occur. Meanwhile, several drivers in the thread said they'd received more tip increases than decreases.
A driver in Detroit told BI a friend of his saw his tips reduced two to three times a month, but, as Walmart pointed out, Spark's adjustment feature goes both ways.
"The only time I've had a customer change their tip is to give me more," the driver said.
Do you work for Spark and have a story idea to share? Reach out to these reporters at abitter@jkmperu.com and dreuter@jkmperu.com.
