Delivery apps that ask customers to tip ahead of time have become more prominent in recent years—but also more controversial. And one TikToker’s frustrating story with Instacart is highlighting one of the reasons why.
Bebesita Lecii (@bebesitalecii) isn’t a regular Instacart user but told viewers she recently downloaded the app to order some supplies for her bunnies while she was sick. After placing the order and opting into substitutions for her two items to be safe, she went back to sleep and woke up around the time she got a notification that her shopper was arriving at the store.
At the same time, she noticed the receipt that had been sent to her, which listed the tip as just $2.
“Now I don’t recall it ever asking me to put in a tip, but again, I’m new to the app. Maybe I missed it,” Lecii said, adding that the minimum tip she usually leaves for anything is $5.
Feeling bad about that, she hopped into a chat with customer service to figure out how to adjust the tip, which she shows in her video. She estimated the conversation took about ten minutes, and when she wrapped up, she says she discovered a slew of confusing notifications from her shopper claiming that left her uncertain which items he actually purchased.
She messaged him to ask if he was able to find the two things on her list, and received a response that she felt was unnecessarily rude: “You were informed while I was in the store that an item was not available and that you need to pick a replacement, you ignored that notification.”
“The sass? Oh my god, ten out of ten,” Lecii says in the clip. “I’ve worked…I guess I still work in customer service. I own my own business. You do not talk to people like this.”
She called out his attitude and sent him a copy of the chat with customer service about increasing his tip to explain why she missed his notifications—and says he responded by taking her order right back to the store.
Lecii theorizes that the reason her shopper acted the way he did was due, at least in part, to the small tip he had seen ahead of taking the order. Her concern was strengthened when she says she immediately hopped back into chat with customer service to explain the situation, and they sent another shopper to pick up her order. Not only was that shopper able to find both items on her list without issue, but they confirmed the substitutions were available in the store as well.
“This is the issue with tipping before service is done…smdh,” she wrote, and she isn’t the only one frustrated with that feature seemingly becoming the norm on apps.
“I don’t use any of those apps, because why do I gotta tip before I get my delivery,” one commenter wrote.
“Sometimes I tip well and then I get rotting produce,” said another.
Even people claiming to be Instacart shoppers themselves agreed that if the shopper opted to accept the order even after seeing the tip, then he should have done the work.
“I shop for Instacart and when the customer doesn’t respond it is frustrating, we’re timed,” another explained, “but NEVER am I rude. I just do my job the BEST I can.”
“The thing is we can see the tip and total pay, if he doesn’t want it, he shouldn’t have taken the batch,” a further user wrote.
@bebesitalecii This is the issue with tipping before service is done… smdh #bebesitalecii #fyp ♬ original sound – Bebesita Lecii
Lecii wound up getting a refund, a $5 credit, and her order properly delivered by a different shopper, but it was a frustrating path to getting there.
“I don’t know why he took it if he didn’t want it,” she said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Lecii via TikTok comment.
