Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

Very fair point. I considered revising that as I wrote it. I think consumers can and should be able to "protest" (for some definition of protest) by either choosing an alternative or tipping more or whatever. But that should be a consumer decision, not necessarily an obligation.

Sure, easy solution! Door dash provides such a mechanism wherein I can let the driver know how I would like to receive my order.

In fact, for several years now I have used this feature, signaling that I would like the order to be delivered to my door.

Fingers crossed for when the majority of delivery drivers actually start reading it!

> explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service

At some point, it's my business and I would rather not have to explain my disability to strangers every single time I want a meal.

You have to understand something here, before moving to shift responsibility off of the delivery workers: There are kind and unkind people. The kind people are no problem. They deliver the order according to instructions, and get a tip. The unkind people, who are more likely to not follow door dash protocol to begin with, are also more likely not to read my driver notes, are more likely to be rude even when I am forced to explain my disability. In some cases, these people will even harass you before and after delivering your order.

I once had a small animal seizing in my lap who needed emergency items, but I was unable to leave my home and the closest exotic vet was hours away and didn't open till the next morning. An Instacart delivery driver accepted the order, which included a tip of $50, harassed me for 4 hours and literally just lied about ever visiting the store, because they had a bad day. They sat in their car as this animal continued to seize, with zero feeling. They sent me photos, cursed at me, taunted me, all sorts of things.

After speaking with support, they agreed the behavior was unacceptable and allowed me to reorder... I got the same driver again. After wasting 4 hours with this person, support finally figured out how to assign a different driver. This driver immediately went to the store, called me to discuss which items were best to get, and delivered my order with zero fuss. They were happy to receive a large tip, and they assured me I wasn't in the wrong.

The animal ultimately died, that 4 hours was crucial. Should I rely on Instacart for emergency services? Of course not, but that is the nature of an emergency. I would have gladly paid that $50 toward an app specifically geared for that kind of thing.

What you've said makes no sense.

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One of my principles is that you shouldn't screw with the people who deliver your packages. And this goes double if they're delivering food.

If the man calls and says come down to get your food, your options at that point are a) come down to get your food, or b) refuse delivery.

Anything else is out of scope here, _including_ the notion that the delivery person was supposed to deliver upstairs and is refusing. While it might be an inconvenience, it's really not your problem as a customer. What are you going to do about it anyway? Argue? That'll just get you posted on tiktok.

It's the company's problem, and it's a self-correcting evolution - given enough instances, presumably that person won't be allowed to handle deliveries anymore, OR you wouldn't patronize that service any longer.

Now, you may have already switched delivery services when the recalcitrant delivery person is replaced with someone more amenable to delivering upstairs. But either way, the problem is solved.