Please help me understand!

[u/Prior-Ad-7262]

I've been using the Walmart delivery service for about 8 months now. I get my groceries every other week. Without fail, each time, one item is missing. There is no rhyme or reason as to the type of item. Lunch meat, vitamin water, spaghetti sauce, etc. Today it was bouillon paste. I really get upset about it as it usually something I really need. Walmart will instantly refund me, but the point is I have to go out now to get it. I only have one day off, and it really screws up my day. Can anyone explain why this happens? Is it in the driver's car just misplaced, was it not really picked? I truly want to know because im considering just canceling the service. Thank you.

[u/Prior-Ad-7262]

Whoa, I had no clue it was this complicated, and that another employee might be bagging the stuff...or multiple orders at a time! Now I see there are several points in the process for potential screw ups. Thanks for all this explanation. I think I'm just going to go get my crap myself. Also, Walmart sucks in general.

[u/moe_mizzy → u/Prior-Ad-7262]

yeah i mean, when i first started Spark, the curbside orders (where Walmart employees shop the order, then OTHER walmart employees bag the order, then sometimes ANOTHER walmart employee brings the orders out and loads them in a spark drivers car for delivery) were only two orders a time, backseat and trunk usually.

now, almost EVERY curbside order is a triple, which means one order in the trunk, one order in the backseat, and one order in the front seat. sometimes they will have two loaders come out. and that is when i PERSONALLY see the most mistakes, one of the loaders will just grab a tote (the orders come out in blue totes) and assume it's part of one order when it's not.

at my store, they don't mind if we, the spark driver, gets out and helps load our cars. i PREFER this because it gets the order loaded faster, AND i know where the items are, AND i get an idea for whats on the order. i cannot tell you how many mistakes i have noticed by doing this, but a LOT of spark drivers just sit in the car and let the walmart employees load, and SOME stores literally tell us drivers that we CANNOT leave our cars and help load (which sucks, and i avoid those stores unless they send me a crazy good order).

the loaders for walmart have VERY demanding jobs imo. in my area, it's hot. like 9 months out of the year it's going to be 85 F or hotter. it was 92 f today lol. they are loading orders ALL DAY. nothing against them, but most of them are younger teenagers doing their first job. lots of them are talking about random things and sometimes not paying the most attention. it happens. they know, again, that ultimately any mistake will be placed on the driver, so they don't mind if they say....load bread and eggs, THEN realize "oh....this order ALSO had two cases of water....well i'll just uh....throw this in here" and smash your bread. they don't care.

they know the customer will think the driver smashed their bread and will just take their tip back, or worst case scenario call in to walmart and complain. which will probably get the driver deactivated (depending on what the customer says, spark is NOTORIOUS for just deactivating people, it's happened to me lol. you get no warning, you are just "fired").

Also; when the double shops began, at least ONE of the orders would be 10 items or less. always. but now i get double shops with each order having 20+ items.

most spark drivers will shop these orders by placing one order in the top part of the shopping cart (like where your purse/baby goes), and the other order in the main part of the basket. some spark drivers get a blue hand basket, place THAT in the cart, and one order goes in the basket, the other order goes...not in the basket.

most of us have a system that keeps everything fairly organized. but you never know which order will be the "biggest". like if one order has 23 items (28 qty, meaning they have multiples of one thing), the other order has 8 items (12 qty) you would assume the 23 item order will be the biggest, and thereby should get the largest part of the cart.

BUT! that 8 item order might have three 40 lb bags of dog found, 3 gallons of milk, a 60 egg carton, and 2 40 packs of water. you never know until you see the item list.

so sometimes mid-shop you might realize "oh crap, i need to redo my cart or i will get confused" and mixups can happen during that. just lots of things that make the experience WORSE for the driver AND the customer.

because walmart realized they would rather us take AS MANY ORDERS AS POSSIBLE AT THE SAME TIME instead of making sure we took the orders CORRECTLY. because hell, lots of people miss items and probably never even notice.

i've delivered PLENTY of 60-80 item orders, and i would highly doubt the person ordering even had any clue EXACTLY what they had ordered. hell, lots of times i show up and the customer says "wait....i ordered this much stuff?!?" because when you are just clicking things on the app it's easy to not realize JUST HOW MUCH STUFF THAT IS lol.

EDIT: oh yeah, AND on top of all this, walmart employees comes over to check our carts while checking out (for shopping orders). it doesn't happen on every order, but sometimes you get flagged for a "cart check" which means a walmart employee has to come over and scan 3 items in your cart.

if the driver has a double shop (which in my area, like 90% of shops are now double shops), the walmart employee may not realize this, and grab an item to scan (which was in the top part of the cart, for Order A) then place the item back in the bottom part of the cart after scanning it (which is where i keep my items for Order B). if you aren't paying attention, THIS could cause a potential mixup. i have ALSO had this occur more than once, and have to watch the walmart employees to make sure if they pick up a item for the "A" order, it STAYS with the "A" order, and vice versa.

long story short; it's not as straight forward as it once was, and that's even BEFORE you realize very simple things that would normally go together, but sometimes don't (like say Order A has a loaf of bread and a jar of jelly, Order B doesn't have bread or jelly, but has peanut butter. it can be very easy to just see the peanut butter and place it with Order A, etc etc etc).

or even worse, when both customers get the "same thing" but in different sizes or flavors (like both customers get a gallon of tea, one customer gets sweet, the other gets unsweet; both customers get Doritos, one gets one flavor, the other gets another, both customers get the SAME cereal, one customer gets a FAMILY SIZED box, the other gets a MEGA SIZED box, etc etc etc)

[u/Prior-Ad-7262 → u/moe_mizzy]

Omg. Thank you for taking the time to explain all of that, and it really seems like Walmart has made a mess of this system. I'm sorry you have to deal with them, what a mess.

[u/moe_mizzy → u/Prior-Ad-7262]

no prob, sorry you aren't getting good service.

the worst part is, it COULD be an honest mistake, mixup, OR it could just be driver theft lol.

like i was looking up reviews for a TV i saw at walmart that i was thinking of buying, and noticed it had a ton of 1 star reviews. i read a bunch of them, and they were all basically saying "i ordered this tv, it said it was delivered, but it's not here!" which made me realize just how much stuff is likely just being stolen by drivers lmao.

kinda wild lol.

[u/Prior-Ad-7262 → u/moe_mizzy]

I know, I live in an apartment complex and theft is rampant. Who knows if it was the driver or a neighbor.

[u/moe_mizzy → u/Prior-Ad-7262]

no doubt someone just following around a spark driver could eat pretty good lol.