An Uber Eats driver is sparking controversy on TikTok after joking that she adds a few items for herself while shopping for a customer’s grocery order.
In a video with over 770,000 views, TikToker Ashley (@xoxoashleylynn) adds a pre-made sandwich to a shopping cart. The on-screen text reads: “Doing Uber Eats and you’re hungry, you throw in some snacks with the customer’s order.”
In the caption, she writes, “Couple snacks won’t hurt. Uber has my back.”
The video’s a joke, but is this actually common?
In the comments, Ashley clarified that the video was “just a joke” and that she pays for her snacks separately. However, some viewers say that their grocery shoppers have actually added their own items to their tab.
@xoxoashleylynn Couple snacks wont hurt , uber has my back. 😅
♬ Big Back – The Original Parody – thecincomedy
“When I used to order InstaCart id see extra items on the receipt & be so confused,” one said. A former shopper concurred, saying, “No, because when I used to do Shipt, my Meijer would never check my prepaid orders, so I’d just add things to my cart for fun, and they’d never notice.”
“My insta cart shopper did this with my Krogers i requested a refund,” another wrote.
“I did this one time on accident. I meant to do 2 separate purchases. I was shocked that it worked tho. DD never said anything,” a third shopper admitted.
In the comments section, some shoppers insisted to alarmed customers that they don’t foot the bill since they pre-pay for their order.
“This does work. My friend adds stuff all the time on ppls orders. They never know bc Instacart refuses to give the customer a receipt,” a viewer explained. Ashley agreed, writing, “They won’t charge you extra. We keep the receipt. You pay what you ordered.”
The workaround
But there may be a workaround for hungry drivers who want to grab a snack. A few clever viewers explained how, without adding to a customer’s tab or doing anything illegal.
“The only time I would do this is if there’s a bogo deal at the store, then I would keep the free one :)” one wrote.
“I do instacart and sometimes they have bogo on sodas and I always wonder if the customer knows that bc i be wanting to keep the free ones,” another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Uber via email and to Ashley via TikTok comment for further comment.
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