A user on TikTok has sparked discussion after calling out delivery customers who don’t leave a clear path to their residence.
In a clip with over 16,000 views, TikTok user Dougha (@doughainreality) shows a house to which a customer asked her to deliver. The house is perched atop a hill, while the only visible route to reach it is an overgrown, unmaintained stairway.
“If you are ordering delivery foods…and your house is all the way up there, you’re gonna have to start tipping a little more, because that’s crazy,” she says in the video while showing the house in question.
@doughainreality Psa if you order food or grocery delivery, if you can please take a second to think about the driver who has to get you your food. Thank you kindly 🙃 #viralllllll #dougha #mom #momsoftiktok #fooddelivery #fooddeliverygonewrong #fooddeliverydriver #instacart #grocery #onlineshopping #youngmom #work #trending ♬ original sound – Dougha
“Come on now,” she continues. “No wonder why you didn’t want to get it.”
In the caption, she pleads with customers to offer a little more thought for those who actually deliver their orders.
“Psa if you order food or grocery delivery, if you can please take a second to think about the driver who has to get you your food,” she wrote. “Thank you kindly.”
In a comment, Dougha revealed that the customer tipped $5.
Inaccessible delivery locations are just one of many issues with which Instacart drivers have to contend. Drivers can be tip-baited, have their refunds from the company refused or delayed, or be offered wild deliveries that their vehicles simply cannot manage.
In Dougha’s case, while many users speculated that there was an easier way to enter the property, others countered that such a method should have been noted on the delivery instructions.
Regardless, several users claimed that, if they were in Dougha’s position, they would have abandoned the order on the spot.
“I would’ve left it downstairs and left a message saying the stairs weren’t accessible,” wrote a user.
“I would’ve went right home and ate,” added another.
“I’m calling to see if they can come help. If no answer I’m leaving it at the bottom of the stairs,” shared a third. “Not about to watch me struggle thru the window!”
Some claimed to have had similar experiences.
“I had someone do that. They had broken steps and the audacity to order 2 cases of water and laundry detergent,” recalled a commenter. “I didn’t care about that tip anymore.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Instacart via email and Dougha via Instagram direct message.
Update 2:58pm CT June 28: In an Instagram DM exchange with the Daily Dot, Dougha says she’s encountered similar problems in the past.
“Yes, but not as far as the pathway being cluttered. More like just a far way up like as shown in the video,” she explained.
She also noted that the platform itself can be improved to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
“[They can create] a space where the customers are also a lot more aware of the interaction at hand in order to create a full circle experience for everyone, ex: informing the customer that there is an actual person shopping and delivering their food, and we are just one person,” she detailed. “It’ll do us some good to have more informed data about the drivers’ experience for the customer’s as well as the Instacart platform having that same knowledge.”
