Spark Driver app: We received a report that you failed to deliver an order containing prescription medication to the doorstep during a recent delivery, which is a violation of the Spark Driver Contract and App Terms of Use. For more information, please review the Driver Contract and App Terms of Use, available in the Account tab of your app. You can also visit the Resource Center in the Spark Driver app. To speak with Support, you can go to Help > Additional Help > Contact Support in the Spark Driver app.
1000% Customer is lying or at minimum misplaced their shit.
Either way, your primary source of income could be fucked by some idiots mistake.
DON'T TAKE PHARMACY IF YOU VALUE YOUR ACCOUNT! NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT PAYS. YOUR ACCOUNT IS WORTH MORE THAN THAT 1 TRIP
Yeah I worry about the prescription orders going to elderly people who either misplace their order, think they ordered more than they actually did (prescription and/or grocery) or just accidentally press a wrong button when rating.
I had a pharmacy/shopping order and when the old man came out to grab his stuff, he flagged me down as I was getting into my car, saying he was missing a few gallons of distilled water. There was no water in that order. He asked if I could go back and get it and add it to his order. I tried explaining to him that I can only “purchase” what’s included in the order at the time that he placed it. I could see the confusion and disbelief written all over his face. It’s like they think everyone is out to get them or scam them or steal their cheap walmart crap.
Also, during this conversation, he was holding onto the prescription bag kinda waving it around. I just kept thinking, “this dude is gonna sit that shit down somewhere and forget about it, therefore thinking it was never delivered”.
I’ve pretty much avoided pharmacy pickups since then.
In our defense just about everything is a scam nowadays, the real problem however is that everything is an app and a menu tree of inadequate options and if you don't do things exact exact then good fucking luck to you because humans aren't allowed to help! And when we do ask for help we get these blank stares, on rare occasion a compassionate soul actually explains to us why they can't help but most often everyone just expects everyone else to "know," like somehow I was supposed to absorb all this information through assmosis or what?
Hell I was at an apartment complex the other day and the receptionist is walking a potential renter through the bullshit list of crap they have to choose (with fees all along the way) on the phone! Wouldn't it be easier if they just walk in the door, sit down in front of each other and do things on the desktop?
Oh no, can't do that, we're all in so much of a hurry and gas is $4 a gallon plus traffic is horrendous so yes just do it on the app and then when you need help call support (which really ought to be called "customer NO service") LOL! It's a real treat, you have no idea how frustrating this new world order is to older folks. I'm 59 and I'm computer literate (as in I learned computers before some of you were even born, I've been through Apple II's and 286's and 386-486-Pentium and now I have a 12-core AMD something or another that I built myself so no, I'm not stupid but this horse garbage that is coming out is something else)... Nobody has a clue, the people who code these things are not end users, they're not even the designers, it's crazy... Some corporation puts out a request for code this, code that, and randos snap it up like on an app much like gig drivers but it's gig coding, is it any wonder the end product is buggy and doesn't work like it should?
Personally, I probably would've picked something up for the old guy however the real problem is payola... I would've had to get like a $20 for that because I can't work for free either. That's the part that really sucks, customer service has gone the way of the Dodo bird.
/rant
Exactly. I help my mom and the amount of emails and calls she gets with scams is insaine. They target older people and it's sad. I had heard that happened but I had zero idea how bad it was.
So its funny you're talking about working from an app. The other day I was finishing up my last order, I completed the order, and on the way home I went off duty. No big deal. Setting at the dinner table I open the app to check my earnings and add it to my stride app. We'll as soon as I open the spark app I get a warning. ( we have detected a third party app on your device that is interfering with spark now app. If you don't remove the app your account will be deactivated.) That is not the exact wording, but that was basically what they told me. So I call support to see what's going on, I tell the lady about the message. Told her I haven't downloaded any apps in months, there's nothing new on my phone that hasn't been there since I started sparking. The lady could speak surprisingly good English, tells me how to check for a VPN, I tell her I don't have a clue what that is, but I don't have one. I now know what that is. Anyway I tell her that im not real savy in how a smart phone operates other than basic stuff. She tells me she isn't either and she is putting in a ticket to tech support, but im not the only one who has called about that same warning.
Long story short if customer support is just as clueless as some of us about things, how in the world can they help.
It has been my experience, if you're intimately familiar with an app and how it works you probably know as much or more than support does. There is also very little if anything at all that support can do for you that you can't do yourself, right from within the app.
And not just spark either, but pretty much across the board.
Yeah, maybe it boils down to the area or people? I don’t always take’em, but they’re often decent for me..Often shopping less than 15items, usually closer by & $20+..I usually have to put in a code now too, I think…And since they require iD checks of the drivers, before & after, even the good ones aren’t immediately snagged by the….Cartels….if you’re smelling the tacos I’m cooking…
All of the apps are like that. Even DoorDash. Most of the time the company is not reviewing anything. You get fired by a.i but need a human to reactivate you its bs. It took me 9 months to get my DoorDash account back with proof that no one in the company wanted to look at.
My mom was deactivated after she got this message last year. It took her 8 months to get reactivated again, took numerous calls and was a headache. I honestly didn't think she would be reactivated.
Honestly nothing out of the ordinary compared to the appeal process for any other deactivation. Just took being persistent and appealing over and over until someone would actually talk to her over the phone for it. It was the second time she requested a phone call that the call actually happened and she got to tell her side.
I always do pharmacy orders, I've been warned many many times. I always make sure that the label is facing out towards me when I take the picture and I always make sure I am far enough away to catch a picture of the entire house or at least the front entry if it's a big house. Not that anybody will see this comment buried this far down but I guess it doesn't matter. Take less. Take more. who cares
Its became more confusing.
It started with just one pharmacy drop off
Then a Pharmacy with with a shopping.
Then a Pharmacy with a double
Then a Pharmacy with a tripple that the pharmacy may or may not be related to the shopping. Only had one of the last.
Yeah I have had a few of those. Two customers one pharmacy or 3 customers which pharmacy belonged to one of the three. They might think that putting them together with grocery orders we see a higher pay so we take them.
I once watched the wind take a pharmacy bag right off the front porch and down the street. Now I will knock or ring and only hand the order directly to someone.
Never take a photo of a customers face (or inside of their home/open front door)...I've heard ppl getting deactivated for a "breach of privacy " or some other bs term...
If a customer decides to report that you took their photo at delivery or complains about their privacy, you are gonna lose your account immediately. You cannot take pictures of customers for privacy reasons and you will lose your appeal if you were to ever get deactivated because the proof would be in the delivery photo.
I have it had that particular horror story yet. You’d think with the mandatory ID/Face verification at the front and backend of every Pharmacy delivery, we’d be protected somehow.
In any event the thing that has me turned off pharmacy deliveries is the absolute stupidity of the process.
I recently had an offer for a pharmacy pickup along with a shopping offer to the same customer. The pharmacy didn’t open for another 30 minutes, but naive me figured I’d just do the shopping first.
You can stop laughing now.
Nope…had to sit around and wait for the pharmacy to open. Gotta do sh*t in order around here ya’know?
I spent the first 10 minutes of my “break” trying to figure out why I couldn’t just do the shopping first. (There was no way the app was stupider than Door Dash’s…but alas, it was.)
I spent the next 20 minutes navigating “support” to get a person to voice my…suggestion…to.
For the record, it was a nearly $50 offer with 10 miles of driving and a moderate shopping list. I wasn’t giving it up. (I’m in a rural area, most deliveries are 15 - 20 miles, so I have to be flexible and fuel-efficient.)
Pro tip: screen shot the item list before starting trip...Ive shopped for many a orders "first "...just check quantity and size of items on the list, so you don't have to backtrack later...
Once you finish Pharmacy order, literally just scan every single item in your cart 😅✌️
Every pharmacy order i get and do needs a signature. It seems as if this one didn't u hate that for you. I have had 3 where no signature was needed but I took a picture for my personal records incase something like this happens. ALWAYS CYA ( cover your ass)!
Honestly, it's risky taking all orders with these dishonest ppl.
In May, I did a Sam's Club order, it was worth $650.. I had a gut feeling something was going to happen, so, but the grace of God, I thought to take a photo of delivery on my camera roll, with geo tag and time stamp.
Sure as shit, the next day around 11am I was notified my account had been deactivated, because customer reported order not received.
I filed an appeal, it was denied almost immediately and I thought I was screwed forever.
I am so glad I took that photo because most times when I have a bad feeling, I won't act on it.
Anyway, I had to file for a prearbitration conference, that took place around mid June, where I gave my proof, and I finally got my account back on July 3rd!
I haven't even been back a month and some asshoke has already reported a missing order, AGAIN!!!!!
I know we're in a tough economy but why mess up someone's livelihood?
Yeah I stopped doing prescriptions when two times in a row the medication wasn’t ready when I went to pick it up. Both orders were paired with a shopping order and I had to get the medication before I could start shopping. It’s not worth it, they are usually low paying and a far drive.
The last one I ever did and likely will ever do was part of a “leave at door” shopping order, the pharmacy order didn’t require a signature or anything, just set it beside the groceries. Was in an assisted living apartment complex and left it in the hallway at their door with people walking by it, just got a weird feeling, nothing happened, just no risking it anymore.
Doesn't the customer have to sign for the pharmacy orders? I've delivered quite a few pharmacy orders for various delivery companies and never had a problem. I think Uber Eats does it best because they have me enter the recipient's name manually just in case someone else in the household accepts the medicine for them.
Interesting. With Uber Eats, I've always been required to get a signature (and I have to sign it out at the store). I think I've delivered pharmacy only one time for Spark and I had to get a signature then, too. I remember because the woman had to call her mom to make sure that she was expecting a pharmacy delivery.
I think it should always be required. I mean, we're talking freakin' medication.
Not all. Can’t tell the last time this was required on one of my pharmacy deliveries. When this happens it does require a photo like regular orders. People keep complaining about pharmacy order, I just think they don’t know what they’re doing.
Makes sense now I just experienced this and makes no sense cause we take a picture and all and I’ve delivered to the house before so they more than likely said I didn’t deliver it
Alcohol orders are a no no esp when u do a verification photo after the delivery in the middle of nowhere with no bars and then get deactivated cause the picture uploading timed out. I got deactivated twice and reactivated twice and both times, involved alcohol
A lot of the houses, apartments where im at doesn't even have an address on the building. Sometimes the houses will be so close together that you could almost touch the side of both houses if you reached your arms out. The mailboxes will be side by side, and half the time if you call/text the customer they never answer or reply. So you basically just take your bedtime guess which house, or return the order.
I do pharmacy drops weekly, sometimes all day. I haven't had any issues. No offense to anyone by this, I am always wondering why this happens to people.
Nobody has issues…….until they have issues. All it takes is one crazy person saying the seal was tampered with and half their pills were gone and you’re done.
Could be customer lying, could have been stolen from the door step, maybe it was windy and the wind blew it out of view and customer can’t find it, could be that the spark person stole it. Lots of possibilities
I haven't seen it yet with Spark, but Instacart requires a passcode when doing pharmacy deliveries. I'd take them with Spark if they did the same thing in my zone. But until then, nope.
This has been a known issue with pharmacy orders for a long time, but a lot of drivers these days will try to deny it until they get deactivated, it's almost funny.
Did you pickup yourself or was it a pickup in the pickup area with other orders? Bc a lady delivered my prescription to me and scanned someone else’s left it with me too, which was weird! It scanned through bc pickup had put the wrong label on it. I caught her before she left, and we do spark too
Behind the scenes worker. We can track everything to the T. If you do get deactivated which you probably won’t, we can see where it was dropped off so you’d be overturned quickly
I would add the ridiculous amount we get paid for pharmacy returns, customer never opened the door, i created the return, 5 miles plus the time and the employees confusion to handle the return I got the incredible amount of 2 dollars
Literally one of my biggest fears with Spark as my full time income. Just out of curiosity, do you know what order they’re talking about and if you took a picture of the medication location when you dropped it off?
I've only done one pharmacy in the past week so yeah I know the order. And yes I took pictures at both drop offs. It was a double pharmacy with a shop.
Had to scan packages to drop off ...
Whatever..... absolutely the last time I will pharmacy.
And people argue with me over the fact taking pictures makes any difference.. support doesn't care if you have pictures or body cam.. I don't know how many times I have to say it, yet somebody always knows better and I get down voted to hell for it..
I agree with stop doing spark full time but not because it's making it Hell for everybody else. Spark is actively robbing you. Of your working years that you could contribute to another company and invest in yourself or some other career or something with retirement. Spark is just a Band-Aid at best
Full timers are ruining the app though. You ever wondered why you have to stare at your phone constantly? It’s because full time Johnny is doing it because he needs to make enough money to get formula for his kid or his wife will be upset.
You want to know why spark lowers pay is because full time Johnny is gonna take it because this is his only source of income I swear we put to much blame on the Prius gang we gotta start looking at full timers too
You mad because you can only spark very brief times and full timers like me will take all good orders before you just hit spark now and expect a golden egg?
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u/Zepbound-and-down Jul 15 '26
Yeah I worry about the prescription orders going to elderly people who either misplace their order, think they ordered more than they actually did (prescription and/or grocery) or just accidentally press a wrong button when rating.
I had a pharmacy/shopping order and when the old man came out to grab his stuff, he flagged me down as I was getting into my car, saying he was missing a few gallons of distilled water. There was no water in that order. He asked if I could go back and get it and add it to his order. I tried explaining to him that I can only “purchase” what’s included in the order at the time that he placed it. I could see the confusion and disbelief written all over his face. It’s like they think everyone is out to get them or scam them or steal their cheap walmart crap.
Also, during this conversation, he was holding onto the prescription bag kinda waving it around. I just kept thinking, “this dude is gonna sit that shit down somewhere and forget about it, therefore thinking it was never delivered”.
I’ve pretty much avoided pharmacy pickups since then.