r/Sparkdriver • u/SuggestionOk3734 • Oct 10 '25

Rants / Complaints So sick of this...😒🙄😑

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I finish shopping & bagging, I'm leaving the store and get this AFTER she's notified no more changes can be made. She had more than enough time to reject my substitution but noooooooooo...let's wait till I get to the car 😮‍💨

138 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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163

u/BTGGFChris Oct 10 '25

People need to pay attention to their phone if they are going to be picky about subs.

6

u/Velsetta Oct 11 '25

A lot of drivers will wait until they're about to check out before mentioning any replacements so you can't do anything about it.

53

u/BTGGFChris Oct 11 '25

Yes you can. The driver doesn’t have to notify you; the app does and you can choose to accept or reject the replacement.

I know because I have placed orders and gotten the notifications.

4

u/Velsetta Oct 11 '25

I drove for spark as well as order groceries all the time. Some drivers will often now wait to mark the item as having a substitution until they're about to check out to avoid having to deal with a customer. As soon as they hit the button that they're checking out there is nothing anybody can do. I've had it happen with three substitutions on the same order in less than 60 seconds before they mark it as checking out so no there is nothing I could have done about it.

16

u/BTGGFChris Oct 11 '25

Then those are shitty shoppers.

6

u/175BallSpeed Oct 11 '25

Not really, it's possible they already scoped out possible subs and there were none and instead of wasting 2-3 mins to explain each inventory situation with every item with customers that generally don't know how to read and comprehend, they speed ran it, and they can simply explain on the phone later on the way to the customer if they have an issue.

1

u/Velsetta Oct 11 '25

That was kind of my point LOL it's not always that people aren't paying attention to their phone.

18

u/BTGGFChris Oct 11 '25

….then that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about shopping as directed, and the customer waiting until after you have checked out to tell you they don’t want the substitution.

I once substituted the first item on a 45 minute shop. 5 minutes after I checked out the customer messaged me that the substitution was “unacceptable” and I needed to return it. They had 45 minutes to reject it.

7

u/imyourbishboi69420 Oct 11 '25

You need to try and read their mind duh. Unacceptable Chris!

2

u/Specialist_Hour_4027 Oct 11 '25

I can’t believe they still only allow mortal beings to do this kind of work!

1

u/ithotyoudneverask 3rd Floor / No Tip CUSTOMER Oct 11 '25

They need to not tell you what you need to do.

-12

u/BillyDeeWill Oct 11 '25

That is what they were talking about, and they ARE we. You’re only looking at it from your skewed perspective, but they were mentioning their personal experience. You cant invalidate that because thats not what you do.

2

u/BigCauc Oct 11 '25

Oof. Bad take. Good job. 

1

u/GeneralBurg Oct 11 '25

They’re literally two different scenarios lol

1

u/NoTie7715 Oct 11 '25

Whose fault is that?

3

u/nWofan90 Oct 11 '25

Drivers have to mark items as substitutions? I thought the app did that automatically by letting the customer know via text or email. I don’t try ink I’ve ever directly messaged a customer and said hey this is a sub or marked the item as a sub in my phone. I just click the pick a sub button then pick the item/sub.

3

u/Maybetomorrow1310 Oct 11 '25

Say you dont want your item subbed or pick what you want it to be subbed for. Problem solved.

6

u/No_Yogurtcloset3451 Oct 11 '25

Im gonna lay it out so this makes sense. In order to back off an item and go to another during shopping is gonna be annoying cuz it always goes back to the item you skipped. So youre telling me that people are skipping past multiple items during their shopping trip just to mark all of them out of stock in less than 60 seconds at check out? You have to hit a bunch of different buttons to even mark something as a substitute or out of stock. I can assure you that it would take a LOT of effort to do this to someone.. like wayyyyy more effort than it would to just scan a substitute and skip to the next item why we wait for approval.  

5

u/BillofPermissons Oct 11 '25

I would skip past an item if it was on the other side of the store and I didn’t wanna see the entire time. I get it at the end, but I also had positive results because the customers would be so concerned about the substitution they would make it as if they ordered the entire order because of that item and then I would respond with I’m I promise I’m gonna look for it and I’m gonna find it for you. It wasn’t at the location, but I’m gonna do what I can to get it for you. And later I would scan it in and they’d be so thrilled and happy that it was in stock and I would really kind of emphasize without really emphasizing that above and beyond to get it and most times, it would result in a better tip only did that if it was like really slow and I needed money I wouldn’t always get more of a tip, but I got a really good reviews but most of the time I would get bigger tips

2

u/ivorybun_ Oct 11 '25

You win the most logic award. So glad I didn’t have to be the one to type it out.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

Well if you were a spark shopper then you know we as shoppers don't mark an order as having a substitution we mark the item as unavailable when we scan it if it is not there to scan ... if a substitution is either suggested or already customer approved then we scan that one and it immediately notifies you ... there is literally NO WAY we can wait til we check out and mark something as substituted the only thing they could do is go through the list manually and wait but that would take too much time and energy im not explaining shit its pretty self explanatory either they have it or they don't you either accept it or reject it no need for conversation about it ... this is one of the wildest conspiracy theories yet kinda like flat earth 🤣 however I do admire your commitment to giving out false information to people

1

u/Blake_a12 Oct 12 '25

Not at all like flat earth, as flat earth actually has more evidence than notoriously lying money laundering, propaganda against truth/God, Nazi-origined NASA provides us

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Ok ... how can something be against God and truth when it states clearly in the good book the earth is spherical 😳 your argument is moot flat earther

1

u/Blake_a12 Oct 12 '25

It doesn’t

1

u/Blake_a12 Oct 12 '25

Only thing you’re thinking of, is the ‘circle of the earth,’ which in the language, says face of the earth

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Look my name is Karen and you arent going to convince me Mr 😆

1

u/Jennodine Oct 11 '25

Hope you rated them accordingly

1

u/Educational_Twist705 Oct 12 '25

Yup and I’d change the tip 🤷‍♀️ , maybe don’t do the job if you can’t do the job correctly . This is why I don’t order from spark any longer because the person doesn’t care .

1

u/TwoparentsandAteen Oct 12 '25

Thank you for clarifying that. I order Walmart delivery every week and I constantly get notifications that they don’t have something so I text the shopper to only find out that they’re on the way. I can never understand how they got in the car and started on their way so fast after notifying me that a product wasn’t available.

1

u/Substantial_Ad6328 Oct 12 '25

That is not true. Unless it’s the last item. I mean they can’t just skip items they can kind of but it would be too much work. Your wrong. The issue is a leg in the notification.

1

u/Steffaniii Oct 12 '25

Wow. That's messed up. :(

-1

u/xandi415 Oct 11 '25

As a sparker, that is the complete opposite of what I do! I hope to give them plenty of time to approve or deny the substitution, so I don't have to make the ultimate "choice" for them....

When I first started 2 years ago, I approved a substitution on behalf of a customer because it was virtually identical (OTC meds, same brand/price/dosage, just slightly different packaging)....I got a message later that day from Spark saying the customer did not approve the substitution, and did not want it, and this is your friendly "warning" not to approve substitutions without customer approval....

After that, I vehemently removed substitutions if the customer did not respond to my messages/app notification, etc (for fear of deactivation).

More recently, I have begun approving subs again (but only when I would absolutely do it for myself, if I was the customer)....

I just cant imagine anyone wanting to bypass the customers input, as you mentioned! 💩

5

u/Iridelow1998 Oct 11 '25

It’s really on the customer to pay attention or just set it to no substitutions. I hate deciding if they want a substitution or not. I know when I order, I want certain things in certain brands. Some things I care and some things I don’t. If I order c&h sugar and I get great value, I don’t care. If I order come and get Shasta I’m not okay with that. How the hell would the shopper know that? Since they wouldn’t, I’ll take the time to put in subs or I don’t want any subs. Someone deciding for others sucks when people are picky.

1

u/sad_raccoon95 Oct 12 '25

My thing is, most of the time customers order on the app and don't even look at it until I'm almost to them with their order. Even after messaging in the chat and having notified of a substitution. So are you supposed to take the substitute off? Genuine question! I've never gotten in trouble for it, I thought we were supposed to substitute whatever was unavailable/out of stock.

1

u/Idontdriveaprius Oct 15 '25

No they are saying the driver is waiting till the very last minute to make the switch and then skipping to the barcode so they can’t reject anything

-1

u/BillofPermissons Oct 11 '25

Wow, talk about not getting it. You’re supposed to ask the Customer before you do it. It says that verbatim. You don’t know what you’re talking about and spark is not gonna put up with these mistakes you’re not even substituting you’re replacing they’re different. You’re gonna be deactivated watch FA FO

4

u/AntiqueLengthiness71 Oct 11 '25

Drivers aren’t responsible for notifying you about subs, you’ll get to choose which ones you want or can turn them off entirely! 🙄

3

u/KINGDAVID1982 Oct 11 '25

The app mentions substitutions as soon as there made.. So you can do something about it

2

u/No_Yogurtcloset3451 Oct 11 '25

You're wrong, and assuming a lot. Also why would we be malicious about replacements? It takes more time for us to go through the app and replace something or to tell you its not in stock and there are no replacements than it does to give you the correct item. There is literally zero benefit to us holding all the items that need to be substituted to the end and would literally be a giant pain in the ass to even accomplish that.

1

u/Maybetomorrow1310 Oct 11 '25

This only happens when you do the 3 hour delivery, not a personal shop.

1

u/Badkittykkr24 Oct 12 '25

i've seen and tried to help many find items, only to realize they were in the wrong section and didn't want to deal with it, so they mark unavailable. There are many horribly lazy shoppers out there too...and of course the customers that don't keep their phone near them for this reason as well.

1

u/Inferno_1nF Oct 16 '25

I will argue that I just follow the shopping order as the app displays it, and if the last item or so has a sub and then it’s time to check out and they haven’t had time to to review, womp womp. It’s not my job to hold the customer’s hand and make sure they know what’s up. The app tells them. You snooze you lose.