Audit Instacart Due to Misappropriating and Manipulating Tips
US Department of Labor
Instacart has a well-documented history of misappropriating tips that rightfully belong to Instacart’s Shoppers. In September of 2016 Instacart announced it would remove tipping from the app’s interface. The 10% default tip was replaced with an identical-looking 10% service fee, which Instacart implied went directly to us workers - but of course, it didn’t. The option to properly tip - which Instacart misleadingly referred to as an “additional tip” - was hidden.
Workers caught Instacart withholding Shoppers’ tips and over-charging customers via the service fee in February of 2018. After Shoppers repeatedly reported discrepancies between the amount customers left in tips, and the amount Shoppers received in tips, we crowdsourced the evidence and data of these manipulations. Instacart apologized and claimed they paid back all underpaid tips, but Shoppers know we have never been repaid the full amount of our misappropriated tips.
In November of 2018, Instacart programmed its algorithm to lower Instacart’s contribution to Shoppers’ earnings downward for each dollar and each cent that customers tipped us. Tips, which were intended to incentivize great service, were misappropriated by Instacart and used instead to supplement their costs, not ours. Instacart ultimately halted this practice, but only after receiving negative media coverage.
This well-established pattern of behavior demonstrates Instacart’s multiple and consistent patterns of misappropriating and underpaying tips. We are calling upon the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate and audit Instacart to determine the extent to which Instacart has defrauded its Shoppers.
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Petition by
To:
US Department of Labor
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned, are all shoppers for Instacart. We are the individuals who shop for and deliver the groceries. We serve as the heart and soul and the public face of Instacart. Instacart has a well-documented history of misappropriating tips that rightfully belong to us. We have struggled mightily and repeatedly to force Instacart to account fully for the tips paid by customers, but we have had only meager temporary success because Intacart refuses to work toward a fair and equitable solution or meet its clear obligations under the law. Thus, we now ask the U.S. Department of Labor to audit Instacart's tip handling and distribution practices to determine whether Instacart has properly provided its shoppers with the full amount of the tips to which we are entitled.
Instacart has a well-documented history of misappropriating tips that rightfully belong to Instacart’s Shoppers. In September of 2016 Instacart announced it would remove tipping from the app’s interface. The 10% default tip was replaced with an identical-looking 10% service fee, which Instacart implied went directly to us workers - but of course, it didn’t. The option to properly tip - which Instacart misleadingly referred to as an “additional tip” - was hidden.
Workers caught Instacart withholding Shoppers’ tips and over-charging customers via the service fee in February of 2018. After Shoppers repeatedly reported discrepancies between the amount customers left in tips, and the amount Shoppers received in tips, we crowdsourced the evidence and data of these manipulations. Instacart apologized and claimed they paid back all underpaid tips, but Shoppers know we have never been repaid the full amount of our misappropriated tips.
In November of 2018, Instacart programmed its algorithm to lower Instacart’s contribution to Shoppers’ earnings downward for each dollar and each cent that customers tipped us. Tips, which were intended to incentivize great service, were misappropriated by Instacart and used instead to supplement their costs, not ours. Instacart ultimately halted this practice, but only after receiving negative media coverage.
This well-established pattern of behavior demonstrates Instacart’s multiple and consistent patterns of misappropriating and underpaying tips. Please investigate and audit Instacart to determine the extent to which Instacart has defrauded its Shoppers.