I have been delivering with Instacart for a long time but recently the few things about it are rubbing me the wrong way and I’m starting become suspicious of its platform and ethics but basically a lot of the offers they’re getting cheesy $2.03 dollar tips for one dollar tip and it just seems really suspicious to me. I know not that large percent of the population is Deliberately tipping like this and there must be something wrong or they must be stealing tips or something. Or maybe the other drivers feel the same way, but the tips just don’t seem realistic on a consistent basis of what I’m seeing on the grocery shopping offers on the app. Additionally, I lost my gold cart status right before I hit platinum cart status because they say my shop quality needs work. What happened was I was shopping at Aldi and the refrigerator section was broken so all the refrigerator items were not in stock in the order from a previous day was a large order and more than half of the items the customer ordered I ended up refunding to the customer. But in retrospect, I wish I would have just canceled the order or unassigned the batch because now when I argue with support, nobody is listening to me to audit or correct the system and now I’m out of a platinum status. And I’ve been arguing with our support staff a lot about this and demanding to talk to senior management or the CEO and they all they tell me is their system refreshes every 90 days with their statistics. This is unacceptable to me when I’m a high-quality rated shopper of 4.95

ChatGPT 5.2 said:

What you’re describing feels shady in the moment, but there are two very normal Instacart mechanics that create exactly the pattern you’re seeing:

1) The “$2.03 / $1.00 tips” are often just percentage tips + math

A lot of customers use a percentage tip (ex: 5%). That produces “weird” non-round numbers all the time.

Example: 5% of $40.60 = $2.03.

Then when items get refunded (or weights change on produce/meat), the tip auto-recalculates downward because the subtotal dropped. That’s why your Aldi refrigeration disaster would both:

• crush the tip and
• make the order look like you did a bunch of refunds (which can hurt “shopping quality”).

This isn’t tip stealing by itself—it’s how percentage tips behave when half the order disappears.

Also, customers can change tips after delivery: they can reduce a tip for up to 2 hours after delivery, and increase up to 14 days.
Instacart has also acknowledged tip-adjustments exist but are relatively uncommon past a day (historically).

2) The Cart Star / “shop quality” 90-day cycle is real (and it’s brutal)

Instacart’s own documentation says the shopping quality score reflects the last 90 days.
And Cart Star tier qualification is evaluated at the end of each 3-month period (and requires meeting the tier’s minimum shopping quality + rating).

So support isn’t making up the “refresh every 90 days” part — but that doesn’t make it fair when a store equipment failure tanks your stats.

What to do next (so you stop getting screwed by store failures)

A. When you walk into a broken store (refrigeration down, massive OOS), don’t “eat” the batch

Your best play is to get it cancelled/unassigned as “store outage” before you start refunding half the order.

Tactical rule: if you’re about to refund a big chunk (say 25–30%+ of items), pause and switch into “protect my metrics” mode.

Do this sequence:

1. Photo evidence (one clear pic of the broken cooler sign / blocked aisle / empty case).
2. Message the customer: “Store refrigeration is down; cold items unavailable. I can cancel so you can reorder later, or I can shop the non-cold items only—your call.”
3. Contact support immediately and ask for: batch removal due to store equipment failure / department outage. Keep it short and factual.

B. For your current “Needs work” situation: you can dilute it

Because it’s a rolling 90-day window, the fastest way out is usually:

• take smaller, cleaner batches
• avoid stores with chronic stock issues for a few weeks
• reduce “unrequested refunds” by offering replacements (and getting customer approval in chat whenever possible)

You’re basically trying to stack a run of “boring perfect orders” so that one disaster batch becomes a smaller slice of your last-90-days profile.

C. If you want to test whether tips are being “stolen,” track it like an investigator

Don’t argue with support from vibes—collect receipts:

• Screenshot the batch offer (base pay + tip)
• After completion, screenshot the final payout breakdown
• Note whether it was percentage-based and whether you had refunds/weight changes

If you see tips dropping without refunds/weight changes and outside normal customer-adjustment behavior, that’s when you’ve got something real to escalate.

A support message that tends to work better (copy/paste)

“I’m disputing a shopping quality impact from a store equipment failure. On [date], at [store/location], Aldi refrigeration was down and cold items were unavailable. I refunded many items because there were no valid substitutes. Please annotate this batch as a store outage/equipment failure and review whether it should count against my shopping quality score. I can provide a photo and the order ID(s).”

Keep it calm, specific, and repeatable. The more you go “CEO / lawsuit / everyone’s corrupt,” the more frontline support goes into script mode and you get nowhere.

If you want, paste (1) one example of a “weird tip” batch screenshot breakdown (offer vs final), and (2) what your Shopping Quality page shows as the reason (“refunds,” “replacements,” “found items,” etc.). I’ll tell you exactly which mechanism is most likely causing it and what behavior change will move the needle fastest.

You said:
the initial text I sent you had some typos in it basically basically due to voice to text translation so you misunderstood a few things. I’m not talking about a $2.03 tip at all. What I’m talking about is constantly seeing one to two dollar tips which is absurdly low and and that there tells me alone there’s something wrong either how Instacart is presenting the tip page to the customer or not encouraging more realistic tips in this day and age in United States it seems like whoever runs this company or is suggesting the customers to place those tips is in a Third World country like India

ChatGPT said:

Got it — you mean the constant $1–$2 tips (not weird “$2.03 math tips”). And yeah: that pattern is real, and it’s not because “Americans secretly all tip like that.” It’s almost always product design + customer laziness + gig-economics, not some mystery country running the show.

Why you keep seeing $1–$2 tips

1. Instacart “suggests” a default tip and many customers just tap through checkout and accept whatever’s pre-selected. Instacart explicitly says it suggests a default tip based on factors like order attributes and a customer’s tip history (and sometimes weather).
   If the default suggestion is low (or the UI makes it easy to leave it low), you’ll see low tips all day.
2. Big refunds/replacements can shrink the tip (if it was percentage-based). Instacart notes that the tip you see initially can change if replacements/refunds happen.
   So in a store-failure situation (Aldi refrigeration down), the system can make it look like “you performed badly” and reduce earnings.
3. The platform has no real reason to “teach” customers to tip more
   Apps optimize for conversion. If the checkout flow pushes higher tips, some customers abandon the order. Your instincts are basically pointing at that tradeoff: it’s not theft, it’s incentives.

Also: Instacart publicly states “100% of your tip goes directly to the shopper(s)”.
I’m not saying “trust them blindly,” but if you’re going to accuse tip stealing, you’ll want hard proof because they’ve put that claim in writing.

The “third world/India” angle

I get you’re pissed — but that framing will hurt you (and it’s not accurate or necessary). The problem is simple: the app can make low tipping feel “normal” and a chunk of customers will always choose the easiest/cheapest option. That happens everywhere.

Worth noting: NYC just passed laws that (among other things) would require apps to present tip options of at least 10%—and Instacart is suing NYC to block them. That’s a strong signal that cities think app tip design matters.

What you can do that actually moves the needle

1) Stop treating $1–$2 tip batches as “real offers”

Set your own hard acceptance floor. Example rules many shoppers use:

• minimum $/mile
• minimum $tip
• maximum item count for a given payout

Then decline aggressively. The app only learns from what gets accepted.

2) Protect your stats: if a store is broken, don’t “finish the batch heroically”

If you walk into a disaster (refrigeration down, half the list dead):

• Take 1–2 photos (sign / empty cases)
• Message the customer once
• Push support for cancel/unassign due to store outage before you refund 30 items

Because once you refund half an order, the system often records it as a “you” problem, not an Aldi problem.

3) Don’t waste energy trying to reach the CEO through chat support

That path is a dead end. If you want escalation, your best leverage is:

• a clean, calm written summary
• order IDs
• photo evidence
• a specific request (“remove/annotate this batch as store outage; it should not count against shopping quality”)

Support reps can sometimes flag things, but they won’t debate “ethics” with you.

If you want, paste one screenshot worth of details (you can redact names/addresses): items, miles, base pay, tip, and whether it’s Aldi/Publix/etc. I’ll help you build a strict acceptance rule that fits your Treasure Coast market so you stop bleeding time on insulting offers.

You said:
It really sounds like you are defending them and I’m quite shocked actually and I want to end this subjected. I’m pissed. It’s very unfair. What they’re doing. End of subject.

ChatGPT said:
Understood. We’ll drop Instacart.

One thing I’m going to say bluntly, because it helps you: when you’re this pissed, don’t fire off messages to support or type anything you’ll regret. Step away for a bit and protect your account and your headspace.

If you want to switch gears right now, pick one:

• Money today: I’ll help you map a simple plan for the next 7 days around the Treasure Coast (hours, zones, and which apps/orders to prioritize).
• Paperwork/life stability: we can focus on your Florida “no address” situation and what to do with your expired passport + damaged birth certificate + CO license + SS card.
• Anything else: tell me what you want to talk about and I’ll follow your lead.

You said:
I simply want to talk to the CEO. It’s not too much to ask for I think he’s not aware of how his drivers feel and all the internal problems and how much badly the app needs to be redesigned.

ChatGPT said:

If your goal is actually getting this in front of the “real” decision-makers, here’s the most realistic path.

First, who the CEO is right now

Instacart announced Chris Rogers as CEO (effective Aug 15, 2025), with Fidji Simo remaining Chair of the Board.

What “talk to the CEO” usually means in practice

You probably won’t get a direct phone call with Chris Rogers. What does happen, sometimes, is your note gets routed to an Executive Escalations / Office of the CEO team if it’s:

• short
• documented
• specific about the ask

So your mission is: get routed to “Office of the CEO.”

Best channels to reach “Office of the CEO”

1) Certified mail to HQ (most “serious” signal)

Address Instacart (Maplebear Inc.) HQ as:
Maplebear Inc. (d/b/a Instacart)
Attn: Chris Rogers, Chief Executive Officer
50 Beale Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94105

(Use certified mail/return receipt if you want proof it arrived.)

2) Email that can get internally forwarded

• Press / Communications: Press@Instacart.com
• Investor Relations: investors@instacart.com

You’re not “press” or “an investor,” but those inboxes are monitored by corporate teams who can forward to exec staff if your note is tight and credible.

3) Official company “Contact Us” (lowest success, but easy)

Instacart’s corporate contact routing page is here.
You’ve already dealt with support—so this is mainly a backstop.

What to send (keep it to ONE page)

Use this structure:

Subject: Request: Office of CEO review (Shopper pay design + store-outage metrics)

1) Who you are (2 lines):
“I’m a long-tenured Instacart shopper in Florida, currently rated 4.95.”

2) The two issues (bullets, no ranting):

• “Tip UX is producing a constant stream of $1–$2 tips; it appears the checkout default/placement is normalizing unrealistically low tips and shifting pay burden onto shoppers.”
• “A documented store equipment failure (Aldi refrigeration down) caused mass refunds, and the system penalized my shop quality/tier despite circumstances outside my control. Support refused any audit/correction and stated I must wait 90 days.”

3) Evidence you can provide (bullets):

• “Screenshots of offer screens showing repeated $1–$2 tips across [date range]”
• “Order IDs / batch IDs for the Aldi incident + photo evidence of refrigeration outage”

4) The ask (make it reasonable):

• “Please route this to the Office of the CEO / Executive Escalations.”
• “I’m requesting either (a) a written response from that team, or (b) a 10–15 minute call with an exec escalations rep to discuss tip UX defaults and store-outage protections for shopper metrics.”

That’s it.

One tactical note (this matters)

If you send it angry, insulting, or blaming specific countries/people, it becomes easy to dismiss. If you send it like a product/ops bug report with receipts, it’s harder to ignore.

If you want, paste your rough draft (even messy/angry), and I’ll rewrite it into a one-page executive escalation letter that keeps your fire but lands like a serious complaint.