Instacart Shopper Begs Other Drivers to Band Together and Ignore Non-tipping Customers

Delivering groceries for Instacart can be a mixed bag. Sometimes, you get customers who aren't shy with tipping their drivers, especially when it comes to massive orders that take up all of the available you have in your vehicle — and then some.

And then there are instances where you've got people who have zero qualms placing orders and then pretend like they've never received them in the hopes of getting their money back from customer service.

On the flip side, sometimes shoppers decide that a customer's groceries now belong to them if they're made to wait for their delivery confirmation for too long.

This makes TikTok a hotbed of Instacart drama, like this one video uploaded by a user named James (@jamesandleondra) who said that one customer put up an order that included 43 items, but no mention of a tip anywhere.

James listed several reasons why the order, and the lack of an added gratuity, especially in this case, was so problematic.

He begins the clip in his car, showing off an Instacart order on his phone. "Look at this s***. They want 43 items," he shows off the order on his phone, "No tip!" the TikToker exclaims, before continuing, "Good luck with that. This is a call to arms to all Instacart shoppers. if you're an Instacart shopper I'm calling on you, to join all the other Instacart shoppers."

He then delves into the problem: "I've been seeing batch after batch, with no tip. If somebody orders one thing and they don't want to tip I get it. I'm not gonna take the order. But when somebody orders 43 items, with no tip? And it's, 6 degrees outside? it's a 10-mile round trip?"

He breaks down the ridiculousness of the ask, and the entitlement the customer must have to think that someone is going to go to the store for them, look for the 43 items that they requested in such cold weather, drive to their home, all without any mention of added gratuity on the order.

"They want us to go to the store, in six-degree weather, pick up 43 items, bring it to their house, drop it off at the door, possibly ring the doorbell, wait for them to answer the door, in six-degree weather, they don't want to tip."

He then urged other Instacart shoppers to outright refuse to pick up orders like this in order to curb other customers from thinking making those kinds of asks are normal, "If you're an Instacart shopper and you see a batch with no tip, don't take it. Do not take it. Let it sit there and sit there and sit there until they have to go to the store their damn self."

He concluded the video by re-iterating, "Don't take the orders with no tip. Don't."

Unsurprisingly, there was a cacophony of debate in the comments section, with a lot of people expressing either their disapproval or support of the idea of "pre-tipping."

Many folks stated that they weren't exactly thrilled with the idea of pre-tipping on orders that they haven't received yet and that they only give out gratuities when their orders have been completed to their satisfaction.

Others remarked that individuals who say that they'll never pre-tip don't tip anyway, and that they've been burned too many times in the past by going out of their way in order to pick up and drop off a large order, only to make a couple of dollars on it, which isn't even enough to cover their gas.

What do you think? Do you think pre-tipping is fine? Or would you only ever give gratuity after the service was completed?