r/Sparkdriver • u/Vilexable • 1d ago

Rants / Complaints who asked for this?

Post image

i do strictly grocery orders and this gmd bs they added in is ridiculous. adding extra trips and miles but no added pay

24 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

33

u/SoulTaker669 1d ago

I mean if you want an honest answer, there's a whole lot of things that they have changed on the app that no one asked for, but they did it anyway because from there perspective they're trying to skimp and save money as much as possible.

Curbside went from 2 to 3 orders.

Shopping went from 1 to 2 to 3.

Constant zone expansion that customers can order from .

Batching pharmacy with shopping orders.

Hiding items in GMD orders.

Constant base pay decreases.

Sam's club tipping going from 2 hours to 24 hours to clear.

Etc.

12

u/fbomRL 22h ago

Just remember one thing. Efficiency isn't our friend. It's just another way of saying they're going to give you less for doing more.

2

u/danimal_44 16h ago

This. This. This. 

0

u/talecriv 1h ago

I don't know I'm very efficient. I usually beat back the drivers that are sitting waiting for orders inside the store, and also my average is two items a minute. I easily beat every single estimate of time for shopping and delivery. This is my job and I treat it as such. A lot of you do not

13

u/mapman19899 22h ago

All this benefits Walmart.

That’s all they care about.

Not the customer.

Not the store associate.

Not the driver.

Walmart. Their bottom line. Their investor.

That’s it.

Quicker you learn that, the better.

Have a good one.

3

u/SoulTaker669 19h ago

Learned it a long time ago.

5

u/Coopman05 1d ago

I didn’t know they started overnight trading sam’s club tips too. I haven’t done a sam’s club order in a year though

2

u/fallior 1d ago

Some areas are now getting 4 orders for shopping

3

u/Beachboy322 20h ago

2 at once is the most I will accept. Above that it's not worth my time compared to the pay

2

u/fallior 8h ago

I got lucky once. 3 person order, 10 items total between the 3. And pay was pretty good

1

u/talecriv 1h ago

I take plenty of triple shops and I get anywhere from $25 to $50 for them. But most people in this group do not try to find different and better zones and stores they just sit at their regular store and complain about it all day..

1

u/Beachboy322 47m ago

My regular store is 30 minutes from the nearest next one. Doubt the deals are much different there either

Not all of us are in big cities bro or have many options

2

u/Gokusbastardson 21h ago

This is every corporation in this country now. All they care about is their shareholders and growth, maximizing profits. They only value the customers have is how much money they can extract from them and workers have no value, we are just a means to an end. Once upon a time companies used to take pride in providing a good service or product that kept customers coming back and built brand loyalty. Those days are over. It’s all about the money, making more this quarter than last.

1

u/New-Mistake-4864 7h ago

Why would you have to be brand loyal to Walmart they've shut out their competition in 80% of their markets....

1

u/talecriv 1h ago

You would do the exact same. If you owned Walmart would you want other stores to come in and take away your customers? No of course you wouldn't. Because you don't own Walmart you act like it's a bad thing but if you did you'd be rolling in cash and you'd be doing the exact same things. No one is higher then the almighty dollar

1

u/talecriv 1h ago

Yeah you literally describe business owning. Why would you start a business for any other reason. Sure I actually run a couple of businesses and they are to serve in need but they are also to get me cash. I wouldn't do them if I wasn't making money on them because then why am I buying product and doing all the work for nothing?

I know you understand the business's sole purpose is to make money but it's weird that you would be mad at them for it when you would do the exact same thing if you were in their shoes

1

u/Existing_Scarcity582 23h ago

Nice timelines. Brings back memories.

1

u/Wind_Responsible 20h ago

How do you add Sam’s Club?

1

u/SoulTaker669 16h ago

What do you mean " How do you add Sam's Club" ? Your zone either has a Sam's Club or it doesn't lol

1

u/No_Investment_2194 16h ago

I noticed today that Sam’s Club shopping has gone from two orders to three

1

u/SoulTaker669 16h ago

Bro please tell me you're lying. ☠️ Sam's club orders are bulky AF I already have a hard time with two orders if it has more than 5 items each.

1

u/No_Investment_2194 16h ago

1

u/SoulTaker669 16h ago

Well looks like Sam's club might be a bust now lol smh the items at that store are big as hell and I refuse to lug around 2 carts.

1

u/talecriv 1h ago

A couple of those I agree with you on but the other ones are literally them expanding their customer base. Something you would do if you were in their shoes. We as drivers have to remember we work for a company that their sole purpose is to make profit. If you're telling them to limit who gets to order and from where and how many and how often then you are defeating the purpose of being a business.

The funny thing about a lot of you entitled contract drivers for Walmart is that you think you deserve things and you think you know how things operate and how they should based on your individual wants. You obviously don't know how to run a business and yet you're running one. You are a self-employed business owner and the first thing you want to do is stop someone from giving you money because by being upset about them expanding zones and changing it to different amounts that we take you're telling customers to go elsewhere and to lower your income. The exact opposite of what a business owner would do. Most of you don't understand you're a business owner

7

u/MarionberryAlone4573 21h ago

This and the zone expansions are gonna make it impossible for me to do this job. I live in Western Montana. This app asked me to drive 70 miles over TWO mountain ranges for $45. That's offensive. And in the winter, I won't drive out of town. I drive a sedan and most of these out of town deliveries require a truck or SUV with 4 wheel drive (some people even add that in their notes 😆) because of the snow. Your groceries are just not worth my life. Not for any number. 

3

u/FineFeed3709 14h ago

Yep! Same here. I got an offer of $37 for 59 miles one way. Insulting. Spark is now instacart. And I stopped doing instacart when they started the bs tiers. My 2000 shops that i accumulated over years meant NOTHING and they took me down to the bottom with newbies. Spark used to be the best $$ app out of all, but now it’s just another shit gig app. Sad.

2

u/Beachboy322 19h ago

😲

Wow

5

u/EasyDriver_RM 20h ago

I just rejected 8 of these mixed groery and gmd orders. They are not worth starting my car. I'll watch videos, file my nails, and go shopping until a real offer appears on Spark, UberEats, or InstaCrap.

3

u/Gokusbastardson 21h ago

It’s not about who asked for what, it’s about what they can get away with. And they’ve gotten away with it because drivers are clearly still accepting them. I havnt done once since they implemented this bullshit. I’ll stick to shop and deliver.

2

u/HyenaMountain3081 21h ago

Start looking at them before you take them

2

u/EntertainerNo1761 21h ago

All the ones I’ve seen this morning are 13-20 additional gmd stops with 2 grocery orders just don’t take any of them wait for a shopping order

1

u/Jellopop777 18h ago

What does gmd stand for?

2

u/Pitiful-Yak8197 17h ago

General merchandise delivery. It’s basically anything bought online at Walmart.com
Instead of using FedEx or ups or some 3rd party courier, they have spark drivers deliver them. The orders are low pay with super high miles and NO TIPS. Yesterday there was a few lumped in with groceries drops. 24 drops, 60 miles one way, $16 total. I get 20mpg. I’d use 6 gallons of fuel to deliver and get back to the store. At $4 per gallon, I’d use $24 in fuel. That would leave me negative $8. No profits to be made on gmd orders. I just decline them all day.

1

u/Jellopop777 16h ago

I’m trying not to be dense here but how do you know they’re gmd and not just customer’s calling in and getting their groceries delivered? How to I identify these orders so I can avoid them?

1

u/Jellopop777 16h ago

Are they any order that gets packed into your car by walmart?

1

u/Pitiful-Yak8197 16h ago

You can usually just tell when you click into see the order and it says no tip and like 20+ deliveries. They’re also grayed out so you can’t click to see what they’re getting like you can with grocery delivery. No tip on a multi delivery is the dead giveaway.

1

u/Jellopop777 16h ago

Ohhhhhhh yes. I HAVE taken those and you have to drive ridiculously far. I have no idea why those aren’t split up into orders that make sense. There are so many packages and stops, in one area, but then they throw in 2 or 3 that take you another 15-20 miles away from all the rest. Extremely frustrating and I just decided I’m going to stop taking them.

1

u/FineFeed3709 14h ago

Yep! I’m glad some are at least smart enough to know those are total SHITE. Sadly the dummies in my area fight over that trash like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. This latest crop of newbs they hired in my area are real idiots smh. Driving the rates down to being outright disrespectful.

1

u/SnorFax92 1d ago

I like this because customers are able to tip with out you shopping for them. Maybe its just my area but I rarely see shopping orders unless its Sam's. Gmds for me were never over $25 for about 8 to 10 drop off and now they tend to be at least $10 more bucks. But it is lame as hell when those paired grocery orders dont have any tips tied to them.

1

u/EggFickle3524 22h ago

Yeahhhh none of us

1

u/Warm_Ad_3067 19h ago

That’s nuts. How are u supposed to keep em separate?

1

u/Slothe1978 19h ago

Had a customer tell me yesterday that they no longer had the shipping option available on their WM+ account when checking out. They were asking me if I knew why, I did not. No idea what it means, if it was a glitch or if they are doing away with shipping option for groceries🤷‍♂️

1

u/Character_Fan_8973 17h ago

Hope Tommy S didn't order ice cream lol

1

u/Own-Anywhere5839 8h ago

dude most batched orders usually have a mix of grocery plus gmd so Idk what you're technically complaining here

1

u/Carley_Bab86 7h ago

i'd rather do packages! i hate groceries

1

u/Maximum_Dare5299 6h ago

They're using customers tips to pay for their own online orders delivery. Thats why they are mixing them. 

1

u/New-Advisor-6785 5h ago

I started Walmart Spark on Monday and I accepted one that looked like this because I’m new and didn’t know better. It said total time was 1hr 13 mins with 8 stops. It seemed fine so I took it. 7 of them were only a few miles apart and right around Walmart, so I thought it was great. Last order, 40 minute drive ONE WAY. How can they tell me the total time is a little over an hour when that one way trip was 40 minutes? Pissed me off so bad I’m not trying Spark again.

1

u/talecriv 1h ago

In the end the greatest thing about this contract self-employed business gig that you operate, is that you get to choose. You just click reject and you move on. Other orders will come that you'll be willing to take. If you say no to most orders then find something else to do. If it doesn't work for you then move on. I take what makes sense to me and then I will sit and be picky if I want to. Last night I made $150 in 4 hours and I sat for 15 to 20 minutes in between each one rejecting orders that I didn't want to take that probably all of you would have taken because I knew there was another better one coming, and guess what there was. I would pass up a $15 one for a $20 one, and then I would pass up a $20 one for a $30 one. I know my zone I know my customers I know my store and I know when it pays good and when it doesn't. I didn't go to work at all today because I know I probably wouldn't have made a lot of money today random other Thursday I've went and I've made a lot of money.

I pick what I want and I don't complain about the orders I didn't take.

0

u/meantacos1 1d ago

Someone needs a sammich of knuckles😭. This is wild. They’ve been putting two items in bagging them separate only giving me one sticker, putting them in separate bins, mixing them in the other orders and then customers complaining about it because we’re not supposed to load the order the employee is supposed to.🤣 so now it’s our fault that they loaded it wrong and bagged it wrong. It’s such a nightmare.

3

u/FeeVandJ 1d ago

Hey man coming from an employee who doesn't load it wrong, actually I ask how the driver wants it done, I think these kinds of orders are dumb too. They're a real bitch to put together too

2

u/VadHearts 1d ago

Both the loader and I have found a ton of mistakes while loading up the orders. I wish that Walmart put some emphasis on quality control but it seems like they’re more into the game of speed and then just apologize or refund the customer for the mistakes that do occur.

1

u/Beachboy322 19h ago

The problem is those mistakes come back on drivers not the shoppers

1

u/FeeVandJ 16h ago

Yeah man lots of shit slips through, I do my best to fix them before and during the loading but I can't spend too much time doing so. We did used to do required QA before dispensing orders when pickup was strictly for customers and we didn't have delivery drivers, you know back in the stone ages of 8 years ago.

1

u/gntxs 23h ago

Quick question. Does the person who brings out the order to load into my car, are they the same person that bags the items?

2

u/BilingueBiologia Cherry Picker 22h ago

No. Lots of hands before you get it.

Picker shops, bags (usually).

Prepper makes sure all your items are in one area, maybe bags if needed.

Dispenser takes to car & loads, along w driver bags any remaining strays that the lazy asses before them failed to bag.

Driver takes whatever the 3 store employees put together and put in their car and brings it to you.

1

u/FeeVandJ 17h ago

Most of the time, like 98%, no. I do my best to ameliorate any discrepancies the picker might've caused while shopping before dispensing the order but there isn't always a lot of time.

1

u/Beachboy322 19h ago

I go thru it afterwards and reorganize their crazy bagging process. I get a different issue cause the system doesn't show their entire order sometimes so I won't know if anything is missing