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Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

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Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#51

Post by dylan604 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #40
dylan604 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taping an envelope to your door clearly visible for the delivery person would still remain contactless. If the envelope is still there when you pick up your items, then no harm in trying

And if it's not, then you'll wonder if it went to the Instacart driver or the UPS guy. (well, not my UPS guy, he's actually a she, and she gives my dogs treats when she sees him)

You kind of know if you have deliveries coming to your house, right? You get to schedule your Insta deliveries, so just don't make your Insta deliver 10:30am, 3pm, or 9pm. Should avoid the UPS delivery

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#52

Post by gonehome »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #41

> some shoppers are paying software developers who have created bots — in the form of third-party apps — that run alongside the legitimate Instacart app and claim the best orders for clients Instacart is a real-time market. In real-time markets reaction time is paramount. "Cranking up pressure against app makers and banning violators when they find them" is swimming up a waterfall. The solution is in the market struc…

I'd be surprised if Instacart could pull this off, their app is one of the worst pieces of software I use on a regular basis.

Really confusing UX, simple things like looking up previous orders are several clicks and popups away. It's extremely, painfully slow (page loads take seconds and refresh often, I have a gigabit connection). Want to add things you always buy? It'll show you things you often buy in a weird side scroll thing. Pop ups of sales and extra things, confusing calls to attention everywhere.

Click that option to add what you've previously ordered? Hopefully you haven't already added some stuff because it's not smart about adding things, it'll just increment everything already in your cart that was also in your previous order.

Group cart where you have express? Make sure you're the one to click order, if a roommate does you won't get the free delivery. Lots of extra fees, order soda? heavy order fee, get alcohol? extra alcohol fee.

I've gotten used to it, but it's not a great experience.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#53

Post by Johnny555 »

dylan604 wrote: post #51
Johnny555 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if it's not, then you'll wonder if it went to the Instacart driver or the UPS guy. (well, not my UPS guy, he's actually a she, and she gives my dogs treats when she sees him)

You kind of know if you have deliveries coming to your house, right? You get to schedule your Insta deliveries, so just don't make your Insta deliver 10:30am, 3pm, or 9pm. Should avoid the UPS delivery

I live in a condo with 4 doors in close proximity, so I don't really know when UPS, Fededx, Ontrac, Amazon Delivery or USPS are coming -- UPS could come anytime from 8am-6pm, and sometimes more than once a day.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#55

Post by 29athrowaway »

I stopped using Instacart years ago. My reasons were:

1) Shoppers would ring your phone for less than a second, ghost you and then show up with random replacements you never approved.

2) They would fail to deliver on time, then unilaterally reschedule a delivery for another time when I was not even going to be home.

3) Amazon Fresh and Prime Now are far superior services. Amazon Fresh has gotten slightly worse in the last couple of years, but it is still far better than Instacart.

Has the service improved lately? Should I use Instacart in 2020?

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#56

Post by ralmidani »

I’m a software developer who has been enthusiastic about technology pretty much my entire life, but lately I’ve started doubting that our current technological advances are even a net positive for humanity. Reading about things like this (and also about online ads, robocalls, tracking, spyware, ransomware, extortionware, massive environment-ravaging crypto-mining ops, state surveillance, “predictive policing”, fake news, state-coordinated FUD campaigns, etc.) makes me want to give it all up and live out what remains of my life in subsistence on a primitive farm.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#57

Post by behnamoh »

meritt wrote: post #39

No clue what Instacart shoppers do. What makes the orders lucrative/better? Is it high dollar orders, or multiple orders at the same grocery store, or is the tip pre-published, or what's the criteria when looking for orders to fulfill?

I think it means orders which will result in higher tips.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#58

Post by dylan604 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #53
dylan604 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You kind of know if you have deliveries coming to your house, right? You get to schedule your Insta deliveries, so just don't make your Insta deliver 10:30am, 3pm, or 9pm. Should avoid the UPS delivery

I live in a condo with 4 doors in close proximity, so I don't really know when UPS, Fededx, Ontrac, Amazon Delivery or USPS are coming -- UPS could come anytime from 8am-6pm, and sometimes more than once a day.

Fair enough. I wasn't considering non-single family locations. At that point, you wouldn't know if it was a rando walking down the corridors let alone an actual delivery person. No good deed goes unpunished

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#59

Post by angry_octet »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #41

> some shoppers are paying software developers who have created bots — in the form of third-party apps — that run alongside the legitimate Instacart app and claim the best orders for clients Instacart is a real-time market. In real-time markets reaction time is paramount. "Cranking up pressure against app makers and banning violators when they find them" is swimming up a waterfall. The solution is in the market struc…

What you're working up to is a reverse auction for delivery service. Who is willing to do a batch of deliveries for the least price? Constrained time TSP+Knapsack, a very challenging problem. (Because you can choose many different subsets of delivery jobs, run TSP for each, and calculate a bid price for each job that will win, or if you don't, minimises regret.)

The real problem with instacart is that some orders are better than others. If the delivery fee reflected the real costs then this wouldn't be such a problem.

EDIT s/your/you're. I swear my phone's predictive text is getting antagonistic.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#60

Post by sitkack »

gonehome wrote: post #52
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #41

> some shoppers are paying software developers who have created bots — in the form of third-party apps — that run alongside the legitimate Instacart app and claim the best orders for clients Instacart is a real-time market. In real-time markets reaction time is paramount. "Cranking up pressure against app makers and banning violators when they find them" is swimming up a waterfall. The solution is in the market struc…

I'd be surprised if Instacart could pull this off, their app is one of the worst pieces of software I use on a regular basis. Really confusing UX, simple things like looking up previous orders are several clicks and popups away. It's extremely, painfully slow (page loads take seconds and refresh often, I have a gigabit connection). Want to add things you always buy? It'll show you things you often buy in a weird side…

Instacart rivals AirBnB in how bad their software is. Wipe from your resume bad.
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