Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 376 posts

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#71

Post by EpicEng »

0xffff2 wrote: post #26
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the pendulum swings very-left (as it will, American politics follow a tick-tock partisan pattern) I believe someone (AOC?) will crack down on "contractor" companies - they're not paying payroll taxes. Not a good thing.

What's to crack down on exactly? The government still gets all its taxes. It just gets all of it from the employee (sorry, "contractor") rather than getting half each from the employee and employer.

"Crack down" doesn't necessarily mean "they're doing something illegal _today_." They could certainly go after the contractor laws and change them. It's not all taxes; many protections employees get are skirted via these gig job companies due to everyone being a contractor.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#73

Post by fucking_tragedy »

jedberg wrote: post #30
mhb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instacart workers have urged customers not to boycott the company, which would cut even further into their earnings.

This is exactly why I don't boycott WalMart. Because as abhorrent and their policies are, the last thing I want to do is put some poor person barely scraping by out of a job. The solution here is not to boycott these places, it's to use your power to lobby for better laws to protect the workers, which will apply evenly to all companies, including future companies that might try to take advantage of people.

You can lobby for better laws and boycott businesses that treat their employees poorly at the same time.

Hopefully your business will stimulate growth in companies that treat their employees fairly, and they will hire those who are still stuck working for bad employers.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#74

Post by AimForTheBushes »

mhb wrote: post #9
chaboud wrote: post #6

I have a simple answer: I will never use Instacart or Doordash again, ever. Even if they change their policy, they are dead to me as companies, and any company that acquires them is similarly dead to me. If you're out there, upstart disruptors, know that pulling stuff like this will cost you at least one customer for life. I'm sure that there are more people like me.

Instacart workers have urged customers not to boycott the company, which would cut even further into their earnings.

Mostly false.

https://www.businessinsider.com/instacart-shoppers-threaten-...

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#77

Post by save_ferris »

airstrike wrote: post #42
resters wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. Well it's obviously a case where the consumer habit of tipping for delivery means that on a $100 order there may be $105 that the customer is willing to (or used to having to) pay. Thus leaving that $5 on the table is perhaps a stupid business decision. I should hope an MBA would point that out, so long as another MBA pointed out that the user experience may be more important than the few extra dollars.

An MBA would point out that in the this isn't a sustainable strategy, regardless of any concept of fairness. Backlash from customers and workers is virtually guaranteed to hurt long-term profits.

Serious question: are ethics taught in MBA programs, and if so, how?

Generally speaking, how are MBA's taught to avoid making this very mistake?

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#78

Post by yoodenvranx »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #4

This is a great example in my opinion of the apathy we need to combat as technologists. Why did NO ONE in any meetings when designing this "feature" or process say anything? "This is wrong/greedy/will have blowback." No one voiced concerns? Or, more specifically, if they did, no one listened? They didn't think this would leak out, with all the hatred regarding wage stagnation, income inequality, corporate greed? A ma…

> No one voiced concerns? Or, more specifically, if they did, no one listened?

Based on experience I would say that the engineers had concerns but they knew that upper management was not interested. It's all about that short-term profit!

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#79

Post by bluedino »

resters wrote: post #25

Why doesn't this problem exist when I order something from Amazon? Because there is no absurd idea that I should be tipping the UPS guy or anyone else involved in fulfilling my order. It makes much more sense for InstaCart to simply collect star ratings and offer bonuses for the employees who are going above and beyond. Considering how often the shopper has to call me about replacements, parking outside my building,…

It's not uncommon to tip your UPS/FedEx delivery person, or your USPS carrier. At least around the holidays.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#80

Post by russellbeattie »

This is wage theft, but the fact is even with this negative publicity these companies will continue to steal tips from now on. This isn't the first news report about it, but DoorDash and Instacart obviously don't care.

They're not so dumb as to not realize how this might be a public relations 'challenge'. They realized it would be seen negatively, did the math, and decided that the general public would be apathetic and the supply of people desperate for work would continue to provide them with enough deliverers regardless of how badly they treat them.

The only solution to this is legislative. The whole 'gig' economy is capitalism gone mad, where large corporations take advantage of the most vulnerable people in society for cheap labor without benefits or stability. Governments need to crack down on this before it gets bigger than it already is.

Post reply on HN