An Instacart shopper exposed the “crazy” demands of a customer who only initially tipped $2.50. The customer later reduced the tip to $0.
In a viral TikTok, content creator Kobe Jo (@kobejo) breaks down his “Instacart Horror Story.” The video received over 15,000 views since Tuesday.
Jo explains the customer lives in a self-described “brand new luxury apartment.” He says their $2.50 tip was the first red flag. “So I’m driving to the store, shopping for your groceries, checking out your groceries, then taking it to you. You tip me $2.50, but had the audacity to be like, ‘the brand next luxury apartments.’ You didn’t have to do all that,” he says. The customer referred to their apartment in that manner in their delivery instructions.
He says that, also in the delivery instructions, the customer told him to park “in front of the door for 10 minutes.” The area is a “no parking” area. “[You want me] to risk my car being towed so you don’t have to come downstairs?” he questions.
As Jo sees it, a $2.50 tip does not warrant such expectations. “The thing is, if you’re only tipping $2.50, do not expect excellent, amazing service,” he says.
Jo shares screenshots of his messages with the customer. When the store did not have their requested brand of fries, Jo instead bought Instacart’s recommended substitute brand of seasoned fries. This led the customer to send a message that read: “Hey, we don’t want those fries.” They also sent, “You didn’t even ask us, you just replaced them with some random fries.”
According to Jo, the customer waited too long to say something about the substituted fries. “You waited 5 minutes to tell me that you didn’t want the fries after I was checking out,” he recalls.
A small back-and-forth via Instacart messaging ensues. Jo let the customer know it was too late to find her yet another brand of fries. And then Jo got a different kind of message from Instacart: His $2.50 tip was adjusted to $0.
“[My tip was reduced] because I got you seasoned fries as a replacement for seasoned fries. And then … you want to tell me that I got you some ‘random fries’ … when I told you that I’m already on my way. You get mad that you don’t have your fries, so you reduce your tip to $0. But still want me to bring it up to the top floor, sign in, get escorted up to your room. Are you [expletive] crazy?” he says as the video ends.
@kobejo Because the last thing that’s gonna happen is you’re gonna sit here and talk to me crazy and only tip 2.50 and expect me to drop everything and do whatever I can for you. I’m already on the way if it was a normal customer and they tipped good I would’ve drove back to the store and bought them a whole bag of fries, but you’re gonna be rude #Instacart #instacartshopper #InstacartDelivery #DoorDash #Dasher #doordashingforaweek #DoorDashAdventure #DoorDashDelivery #GigWork #ExtraMoney #doordashingforaweek #doordashdangerouscityinamerica #doordashlife #dooordashvlog #doordashfail ♬ original sound – Kobe Jo
Viewers weigh in
In the comments section, viewers shared their grievances about delivery customers and tipping etiquette.
“This is literally why I stopped doing Instacart,” one user wrote.
“Little to no tip I don’t do any replacements and I don’t do messages. I could care less how they feel,” came a second comment.
“It’s ALWAYS the bigger houses or nicer apartments that NEVER tip. The lower end houses always tip something. It’s frickin’ crazy,” and third viewer expressed.
“This is when you just cancel the order in the middle of shopping!! The low to zero tippers are the worst to deal with,” a fourth person offered.
The Daily Dot previously reported on Jo’s delivery content. The content creator made a recent video about a DoorDash customer who ordered a Steak N’ Shake delivery to a location that was right across the street. While Jo initially expressed confusion about the order and called it a “waste of money,” some users in the comments defended the order.
“Sometimes people are the only ones at the office or business and can’t leave,” one such viewer offered in the comments.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kobe Jo via TikTok and Instagram direct messages and to Instacart via email for more information.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
