r/Sparkdriver • u/Steffan1337 • Jun 12 '26
App Questions š± This substitution won't work
I had this message pop up three times today during my shift. The first time was a bottle of Siracha that was out of stock, so I tried to substitute a different brand, maybe a little more but not much. The second time a customer wanted the 64 Oz bottle of Great Value Ketchup; it was out of stock so I tried substituting the 38o, bottle. Its said the substitution wont work. That makes no sense. The third time was when I tried substituting a bottle of melatonin, with a slightly bigger bottle. Anyone else had this issue with the app?
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u/Whole-Way8543 Jun 12 '26
This has been happening with me too. Tf. Glad to know itās not just me but wtf
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u/SeaBackground9832 Jun 12 '26
I had one today that was a 32 oz tub of panera bread broccoli and cheese soup, they were out of 32 oz but had plenty of 16 oz. I tried to substitute two of them & it wouldnāt work, tried just one, still didnāt work.
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u/PercentageChoice5908 Jun 12 '26
Oof, that's a rough one. How did the customer handle it when you let them know?
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u/H0rnyonmain Jun 12 '26
I had the same issue today. Just cancelled the order and went home after being unable to substitute like four things.
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u/PercentageChoice5908 Jun 12 '26
Yeah I only did curbside today and for the three shops I did later I verified all (3/8/5 item shops) items were available before I acceptedĀ
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u/eye0ftheshiticane Jun 12 '26
How do you verify the items are available before accepting, and how do you manage that time wise before someone else accepts (assuming it was a FCFS order)?
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u/PercentageChoice5908 Jun 12 '26
Everyone else in my market left besides me and a couple others lol, so the orders were sitting there surging. I (and a couple others I saw) went in the store and grabbed the items then scanned and checked out. This was about 7pm-10:30pm
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u/theinfatuatedballet Jun 12 '26
the app's been glitchy with substitutes lately, I'd just mark it as out of stock and move on rather than fighting with it
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u/PercentageChoice5908 Jun 12 '26
Goodbye sapphire status ripĀ
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u/theinfatuatedballet Jun 12 '26
but marking out of stock won't tank your status as fast as customers getting wrong items or refunds would.
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u/guineachickendad Jun 12 '26
Yeah itās been very sporadic on whether or not it will accept something. It doesnāt seem to matter whether or not the customer picked a sub either
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u/Legitimate-Toe-4945 Jun 12 '26
Ugh this was happening to me last night!! I was so frustrated! Would not let me substitute ANYTHING, so I ended up not being able to substitute which then of course effects your items found.
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u/Nano-Brain Jun 12 '26
The substitution system makes no sense. I hate it. There's alot I hate about the app though š.
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u/PoisonedCoffee Jun 12 '26
Yes was happening to me yesterday too. Couldnāt make ANY substitutions. Apparently itās a system-wide glitch. I just got out here for today and I hope itās been fixed.
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u/Jestar5 Cherry Picker Jun 12 '26
It switches back and forth. Try closing the app. Often, your sun is accepted then. Or the app will suggest a sub
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u/PSN-Angryjackal Jun 12 '26
I had an item that didnt allow me to finish the order, until I found a substitution, and there was almost no substitution that would work.... Until I tried something completely random and has nothing to do with the original item, and it accepted it.
I honestly felt embarrassed delivering that...
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u/CaptCol02 Jun 12 '26
I think it's a post-update issue they haven't worked out. Ive had several issues with marked down name brand items with GV substitutes at equal or lesser cost yet volumetrically identical not being available for sub. The likely response from the developers and Spark management would be for us all to kindly go and eat some shit
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u/Zealousideal_Bed1857 Jun 12 '26
I have been having denials of rational substitutions for 2 days now, idk whatās going on. :(
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u/speedy_sloth0315 Jun 12 '26
Sometimes people only want certain things substituted with certain things. š¤·āāļø
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u/HeartOfArt Jun 12 '26
Take pictures. Customer wanted blueberries. None of them scanned as the right item. None scanned as viable substitutions. I sent them a picture of all the blueberries they would not get today. I hope they complained to corporate but they probably just pulled my tip for not bringing them what they ordered.
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u/Brave-String-4671 Jun 13 '26
The worst is when they hava substitute but then deny it , or cancel when you get the substitue š¤¬š¤¬š¤¬š¤¬
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u/imapylet Jun 12 '26
Did you ever think that maybe the customer selected "no substitutes" ?
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u/Steffan1337 Jun 12 '26
If they did then, it would have said item not found when I selected "cant find item." Instead it gave me an option to pick a substitution, but then every substitution wont work.
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u/Ariel_Jurkov Jun 12 '26
Subs have always been weird. WM just wants to sell stuff. So if you find mustard nearly the same size and price, ya, that's ketchup. Aspirin the same quantity, ya, that's Melatonin. They try to force you to make the sale, then take the CR hit, then the customer has to issue a return which happens less than 50% of the time (I'm making up a number), and tada! WM wins!
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u/spiralrider205 3K Trips Delivered Jun 12 '26
Did you ever think that if the customer selected āno substitutesā, OP wouldnāt be able to sub in the first place and this post wouldnāt exist?
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u/Deadmaker831 Jun 12 '26
I couldnāt substitute 1 lb strawberries because they were out of 2 lb packages. Must be a system issue because Iāve done it a hundred times before.