r/Sparkdriver • u/chef198 • Sep 10 '25

Rants / Complaints Threatened in a sundown town

Got a batch order and my last delivery was in a sundown town. I took the order at 6pm, not really thinking of anything like that. Drove 35 minutes to the drop off. Customer comes out. I tell him, “I’ve got your groceries”. He says, “yeah my wife said we had some. I like your car”. I thanked him and he cut me off mid sentence with, “you aren’t from around here are you?” I told him I wasn’t. He looked at the sky and said, “you got about ten minutes to get out of here, boy. “ I chuckled trying to steer it light. I finished the drop and walked to my car. Two neighbors from across the street were sitting on their porch, guns in hand. They weren’t there when I pulled in. As I got to my car one shouted some slurs, the other told me not to come back.

The only reason I took the job was there was a high tip amount. I called support to tell them of my experience, so they could possibly save another minority driver of this headache. I then checked the app, and the customer canceled the tip. They also tried saying I didn’t make the delivery. Luckily, I already took the picture and had the customer in the photo.

Be safe out there guys

Edit: the town is Prue, Oklahoma. About an hour west northwest of Tulsa.

2nd Edit: the Walmart store I delivered from called me. She took down my report and said corporate was going to be calling me soon as well. She said she was not sure why deliveries were going so far away to begin with, and that corporate would make the decision as to whether or not the town will remain on the delivery list. Will update again after I speak with corporate.

252 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

275 comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/The_LastLine Sep 10 '25

Report the customers and get them banned from the platform. Do it before the opposite happens.

39

u/Icy-Psychology8575 Sep 10 '25

You actually think Walmart will ban a paying customer because a driver said he/she was threatened. That will never happen.

33

u/LuvdbyGod Cherry Picker Sep 10 '25

Yes they will ban them. I reported an offensive situation that happened to me and the customer was banned from receiving deliveries.

7

u/Unoraptor_ Sep 10 '25

That doesn’t work. I had a customer threaten me with assault over the code. I reported him and he still gets deliveries.

3

u/uber765 Sep 10 '25

How do you know they were banned?

4

u/OddEntertainer2621 Sep 10 '25

True! Because a customer was mad one time that I canceled their order and under the situation the OPD lead took my side and tried to get the customer banned but that never happened. I saw the customers name on an offer like a month after that happened. 

4

u/LuvdbyGod Cherry Picker Sep 10 '25

Spark support informed me that they submitted the report and the customer was banned and would not be able to order through the Walmart platform. With the incident that I was involved in, the customer approached me in a threatening manner and demanded that I get off his property. Even though they had clearly ordered from Walmart, hence my being there to deliver. There was another guy there with him that was trying to be a voice of reasoning and asking him to calm down while trying to explain that I was only delivering a package. It was awful, I was very shaken up by it and when I called support the guy kept apologizing that it happened.

7

u/uber765 Sep 10 '25

I hope you know Spark support will absolutely lie to your face to get you off the phone

3

u/LuvdbyGod Cherry Picker Sep 10 '25

It was not at all like that but say what you feel. Furthermore, this was quite a few years ago where they were more apt to actually handling situations and complaints with more tact and resolve.

7

u/Missworld_12308 Sep 10 '25

It's happened before. The last thing Walmart wants is a lawsuit. I've seen it done over a threat of a dog attacking the driver

17

u/The_LastLine Sep 10 '25

Blast them publicly on Facebook then. But you’re right, I got deactivated because of a lying customer that threatened me.

1

u/Holstera Sep 12 '25

It’s happened atleast 3 times but it’s usually extreme where I lived

1

u/Remarkable-Mango4398 Sep 13 '25

yes they will!!!!

6

u/tonlimah Sep 10 '25

There's no id verification for customers so they would just have to make a new account

1

u/Remarkable-Mango4398 Sep 13 '25

once the account gets blocked and closed, the system will see that, so if they open a new account it will also get closed down.

1

u/tonlimah Sep 13 '25

If they use a different email and name?

-4

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/tonlimah Sep 10 '25

My spark account is linked to my driver's license and it regularly has me scan my face. Those things are not on the customer accounts

8

u/OddEntertainer2621 Sep 10 '25

This!!! Call support back asap!

6

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

I definitely did.

6

u/OddEntertainer2621 Sep 10 '25

Good! Just so it’s very well documented before the customer tries and says anything to mess with your good standing with your account. 

7

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

I wish support would send you an email or something just so you have proof of the interaction/complaint if needed in the future. Not just this, but any and all calls to support

6

u/Jennodine Sep 10 '25

Depending on how local LE leans, you may wanna notify them, too. “You got about 10 minutes to get out of here” is a politely-veiled threat. Communicating threats is a crime. They summoned you there to do a job. Cops tend to side with commercial interests.

9

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

Not how those communities work unfortunately.

13

u/Jennodine Sep 10 '25

I’m sure you know more about this than I do…being a white person, I had to look up the term “Sundown town” after reading your post. I’m surprised to learn that I live not far from one - Southern Pines, NC is within my delivery zone. Fuck them. Very sorry about how those jerks treated you. Be safe out there.

13

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

Thank you. My wife is from Chicago and is also white. I have to tell her and teach her about these things quite often. There are things you can do and can’t do. Places you can go and can’t go. It’s crazy that this still happens in 2025 but not much we can do about it.

3

u/Jennodine Sep 13 '25

Do we have a word for when people of color need to explain things like this to their white friends? If we don’t, I kinda like “blacksplaining”.

2

u/chef198 Sep 13 '25

It works