Walmart.com using DoorDash to deliver, instead of FedEx? Should I give them a tip? (Unexpected)

[MrSquished]

I stopped using Uber eats and all those food delivery services about a year ago. Not like I used them too often, they are pricey for what you get, but they are predatory to the restaurants and their drivers.

I'll go the restaurant directly for delivery, some have their own websites here, or call them for delivery, or go pick up myself.

I had no idea Walmart was getting into the door dash exploitative business. Lovely.

 

[Youngeagle4031]

1) No, do not tip.

2) No, Walmart do not own DoorDash. DoorDash is separate public company. I'm a big DoorDash bear and hate the whole middlemen food delivery industry. I hope they all die. They're like cancer that needs to be killed.

Wow!! I just read your response to this post, and with all due respect, your words are harsh. I am a DD Driver. I also have a full time job. I have a wife and an 18 year old son. I work every morning from 7am until 12pm delivering orders to people, then I go to my regular job right from there and work from 1pm to 9:30pm just to go to bed and do it all over again the next day. In the mornings, I get a lot Walmart orders. Some customers tip, some don’t. It is a risk I choose to make because the customers who do tip usually tip very well so I choose to take the order hoping that my professionalism and outstanding customer service will earn me the tip from the customer. I am not going to change who I am if I don’t get a tip. This Job helps me support my family, I am not a cancer as you say and I am grateful for having this opportunity to bring some extra money.

Now, you also mentioned in another post that you don’t tip ups driver, or FedEx or Amazon drivers. Let me share something with you. Those drivers don’t use their own vehicles to deliver those packages. I do! These drivers get paid by the hour (a very good salary), I get paid by the job, not by the hour. I don’t have a nice brand new car to drive. I drive a 2005 Buick Century. It has a lot of miles on it and needs a lot of TLC. Yes, we do get a base pay to deliver orders. Usually $3.50 per order. Even less if we decide to double up on an order and take 2 orders instead of 1. That is not including time at the restaurant or Walmart or wherever waiting for the order to be prepped or placed in our vehicle. This does not include mileage to get to the location, then to the customer. Most deliveries are between 5 to 10 miles away. If I depended on just the base pay for income, all of my money that I earned for the day goes to put gas in my car, not food on my table, or used to pay other bills, which is the reason I do this in the first place.

I am grateful that not all people think like you and say that I should be killed because I deliver food to people. Mostpeople are grateful for this service. Especially during a pandemic when some people cannot or will not leave their home out of fear of this disease. I am an independent contractor for DoorDash, so when you mentioned that “they all should be killed” I am Who you are talking about. Not just a company.

 

[Icecold]

I am grateful that not all people think like you and say that I should be killed because I deliver food to people. Mostpeople are grateful for this service. Especially during a pandemic when some people cannot or will not leave their home out of fear of this disease. I am an independent contractor for DoorDash, so when you mentioned that “they all should be killed” I am Who you are talking about. Not just a company.

Ponyo's post was stating that all middleman food delivery companies should die. As in, he wants Door Dash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, etc. to go out of business.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just an update. I've ordered (twice) from the "Pickup & Delivery" half of Walmart's web site (grocery delivery). I tipped the first driver $10 on Paypal, and in case he didn't get it, $10 in cash. The second time, the order was over $200 and about 7 paper sacks. I tipped $20 on Paypal.

So yes, I sympathize with you gig workers. The thing that prompted this thread, was getting DoorDash drivers, delivering things *unexpectedly*, when ordering from the Walmart.com half of Walmart's web site, aka warehouse, aka usually FedEx delivery, of canned / boxed food and whatnots. Which promises "Free shipping" (for orders over $35, which mine usually are). It's really too bad, that Walmart is enlisting you guys, for local delivery of *portions* of walmart.com (warehouse) delivery orders, and only paying you $3.50 per order. No wonder drivers don't want those orders.

That's why I tip (decently, I hope) with Paypal, because I'm hoping that info is available to the potential drivers to take my delivery order.

Edit: That's for the *expected* DoorDash deliveries. I can't do much about the un-expected ones. At least, I don't think so.

Some products, show various delivery options:
1) Delivery
2) 2-day Delivery
3) NextDay Delivery

Not all product offer all options, and when actually in the checkout, I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE, other than just "Delivery" or "Pickup".

I used to, a few years back, before DoorDash and Walmart grocery delivery, get offered the option for a "later delivery" on "Free Delivery" warehouse items, in exchange for like less than a dollar off of the price of the order. I usually took that option, most of my orders aren't heavily time-sensitive.

I would PREFER it, if Walmart OFFERED the option, EXPLICITLY, for "Local Delivery" (aka DoorDash, currently), with a SURCHARGE to cover it, OR, "Normal Delivery" (aka FedEx, from a WM warehouse somewhere), that was "Free with a $35 order".

That would seem to me to make it explicit, whether I wanted "faster" (sometimes same-day) delivery of my items, or if I wanted "cheaper" delivery, and wouldn't put myself or the DoorDash drivers in the predicament of "unexpected local delivery".

 

[Youngeagle4031]

I realize it is not literal, but if I am an independent contractor, I own my own business using one of these platforms. Therefore, without these platforms, I could put food on my table or pay other bills.

 

[ponyo]

Wow!! I just read your response to this post, and with all due respect, your words are harsh. I am a DD Driver. I also have a full time job. I have a wife and an 18 year old son. I work every morning from 7am until 12pm delivering orders to people, then I go to my regular job right from there and work from 1pm to 9:30pm just to go to bed and do it all over again the next day. In the mornings, I get a lot Walmart orders. Some customers tip, some don’t. It is a risk I choose to make because the customers who do tip usually tip very well so I choose to take the order hoping that my professionalism and outstanding customer service will earn me the tip from the customer. I am not going to change who I am if I don’t get a tip. This Job helps me support my family, I am not a cancer as you say and I am grateful for having this opportunity to bring some extra money.

Now, you also mentioned in another post that you don’t tip ups driver, or FedEx or Amazon drivers. Let me share something with you. Those drivers don’t use their own vehicles to deliver those packages. I do! These drivers get paid by the hour (a very good salary), I get paid by the job, not by the hour. I don’t have a nice brand new car to drive. I drive a 2005 Buick Century. It has a lot of miles on it and needs a lot of TLC. Yes, we do get a base pay to deliver orders. Usually $3.50 per order. Even less if we decide to double up on an order and take 2 orders instead of 1. That is not including time at the restaurant or Walmart or wherever waiting for the order to be prepped or placed in our vehicle. This does not include mileage to get to the location, then to the customer. Most deliveries are between 5 to 10 miles away. If I depended on just the base pay for income, all of my money that I earned for the day goes to put gas in my car, not food on my table, or used to pay other bills, which is the reason I do this in the first place.

I am grateful that not all people think like you and say that I should be killed because I deliver food to people. Mostpeople are grateful for this service. Especially during a pandemic when some people cannot or will not leave their home out of fear of this disease. I am an independent contractor for DoorDash, so when you mentioned that “they all should be killed” I am Who you are talking about. Not just a company.

My dislike is with the company and the entire middlemen food delivery industry. Not the drivers.

I realize it is not literal, but if I am an independent contractor, I own my own business using one of these platforms. Therefore, without these platforms, I could put food on my table or pay other bills.

Yes, I realize that. I still hope all these companies go under but they're now too established with too much invested to disappear. I view companies like DoorDash as leeches. But my opinion doesn't mean anything. Good luck with your business.

 

[mindless1]

I realize it is not literal, but if I am an independent contractor, I own my own business using one of these platforms. Therefore, without these platforms, I could put food on my table or pay other bills.

Then make an independent contract with the businesses you deliver for. You are not really independent otherwise, relative to them.

We could look at one person in isolation, but ultimately if these services go away, the demand for delivery remains so there will be job openings where someone will be paid to deliver as an employee of the seller, but potentially at a more fair rate. By supporting these 3rd party delivery companies by working for them, you are facilitating your own mistreatment.

If you are fit to be hired as a delivery person, you stand to gain from these leeches disappearing. If you are not fit to be hired as a delivery person (background problems, driving violations, lack of proper insurance, whatever the case may be), it seems the wrong way to make extra money.

The middleman is taking a slice of your profits.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm envisioning, once we all have self-driving electric cars, that we just use a web browser or a phone app, and place our order for pickup at Walmart, and our OWN self-driving car makes it's way to WM or wherever, and a little conveyor belt comes out (like a McDonalds fast-food truck re-stocking delivery, if you've ever seen those in progress), and loads/dumps boxes/bags into the (gull-winged, of course) hatch on our self-driving car, and then it merrily ferries the goods back to us. No drivers needed! No 3rd-party either!

 

[mindless1]

^ It seems more efficient to me that the business has their own micro- self driving car, which will only need enough room in it, battery and motor, to propel it with deliveries instead of humans, can plot an efficient route, and then not need the safety or creature comfort features of a daily driver either, so much cheaper to build and put miles on.

Amazon wants us to think flying drones, but that's not needed. We already have a road infrastructure sufficient for local deliveries.

I envision a different future further ahead where we all live in high-rise complexes and vacuum tubes deliver everything, then eventually the matrix, where we get nothing delivered except nutrient goo and the mental programming that we are satisfied. I'm not suggesting this is an upgrade.

 

[kkedd]

I don't tip for items I ordered on walmart.com. I expect them to come fedex or USPS. Then they randomly show up on my front porch. The 1st couple times I was rather confused. Then I was rather pissed off when Xmas items showed up unboxed, unbagged just sitting there for the kids to see. Now my issue is wrong item, missing items. If I order walmart.com for delivey, I expect it packaged and delivered by one of the shipping companies. If they can't ship it, I espect it to say "pick up only" If they want to offer doordash delivery for those items fine, but don't just have random people dropping off 1 item that I was expecting to be shipped. Now groceries is a whole different story. So far so good with grocery delivery ..... but again, I'm expecting some random person to show up for that delivery.

 

[Pohemi]

I tip for the same-day grocery delivery...I did before they started to use DoorDash, and I still tip the drivers now the two times I've used the service.

It's Walmart employees that pick the orders, but contracted drivers who deliver it, so especially if I have a larger delivery with numerous bags.

It's cheaper for me to tip the driver $20 (in cash that DD doesn't get to pocket) than pay a cab to take me back and forth to the store, and have to hobble around the store and shop myself. I just don't order any produce.

I figure and incorporate the cost of tipping the driver into the overall purchase, just like pizza delivery, only higher on larger deliveries.

 

[mindless1]

My last walmart delivery a couple days ago, ninja driver didn't stick around for a tip. I just saw a 5qt jug of oil sitting on my porch unboxed, no shipping label so couldn't have been a shipper that delivered it. They emailed me a pic, similar to what Amazon delivery is doing now.

Ended up arriving a day earlier than another ordered at same time that they shipped FedEx. Seems kind of inefficient to split an order for two jugs of oil up into separate shipments, I'd have been fine waiting an extra day.

 

[Captante]

I realize it is not literal, but if I am an independent contractor, I own my own business using one of these platforms. Therefore, without these platforms, I could put food on my table or pay other bills.

Really sorry for the situation which forces you to be an employee but get paid like a contractor however Grubhub/Door Dash/Postmates etc are literally parasites who took advantage of having restaurants by the balls during the pandemic.

They need to go out of business or be regulated into oblivion.

 

[mindless1]

^ Maybe, but we live in interesting times. There are many unskilled (or skill not generating income) people out there who have a car, and a desire to earn but their income comes up short.

They probably weren't living conservative enough, but I can see the argument for not living too conservatively in one's youth or else it is wasted away, versus the long term savings and ability to retire comfortably.

IMO there is already too much regulation, including the whole independent contractor designation. It should be entirely about what both parties agree to, yet still some things illegal if treating people inhumanely and yet these people chose this work, so in my mind the solution is an increase in the minimum wage, and a freeze/cap on commodity/staple pricing.

I opened a whole new can of worms and don't care to debate it, just an opinion that I'm sticking to.

 

[Captante]

^ Maybe, but we live in interesting times. There are many unskilled (or skill not generating income) people out there who have a car, and a desire to earn but their income comes up short.

They probably weren't living conservative enough, but I can see the argument for not living too conservatively in one's youth or else it is wasted away, versus the long term savings and ability to retire comfortably.

IMO there is already too much regulation, including the whole independent contractor designation. It should be entirely about what both parties agree to, yet still some things illegal if treating people inhumanely and yet these people chose this work, so in my mind the solution is an increase in the minimum wage, and a freeze/cap on commodity/staple pricing.

I opened a whole new can of worms and don't care to debate it, just an opinion that I'm sticking to.

I partially agree at least about the workers .... it's not their fault.

The fees these delivery places charge are too high to begin with and these are the fee's they're upfront about. They also add a substantial percentage to the restaurants menu prices trying to be sneaky.

In addition the drivers re-order your food from the restaurant most of the time and if they mess up and you complain the restaurant gets screwed even if they did nothing wrong.

Your idea might work well if everyone was inherently good.... but we know how that goes!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just an update to this thread; it seems that walmart has taken my complaints to heart. They now offer both "pickup and delivery" AND "shipping" options at checkout, with a TIP line for "Delivery".

They re-did their whole web site a couple of weeks ago, mostly for the better.

 

[debikk]

This is the second time that this has happened. I ordered off of walmart.com, the usual way through their web site, and just chose "delivery". Generally, this means FedEx.

Recently (the last two weeks), I've received partial order fulfillment via DoorDash (contractors), even when I specifically didn't order "grocery delivery", just "delivery". Normally, my understanding is, ordering "grocery delivery", is an added expense, which requires additional payment, and also, generally, a tip to the driver / shopper. I generally don't do that. (Meaning, I normally don't ORDER "grocery delivery". I DO tip local delivery drivers, for things like pizza.)

So it kind of surprises me, when I ordered some paper towels and drinks, and someone texted me this AM, claiming that they were from DoorDash, and that they had my groceries.

I got my partial order, but I didn't give them a tip. Walmart does offer "Free Delivery" for orders on their web site over $35. But at the same time, I was expecting the order to be shipped from their warehouse, and by a normal parcel carrier, which you don't ordinarily tip (they normally can't accept tips).

Using a DoorDash contractor kind of complicates things. Sure, it gets me (part of) my order slightly faster, but on the whole, seems like an unnecessary waste to me. (*Unless these DoorDash people are CIA plants. But that's a whole nother story.)

Should these people (DoorDash contractors) be receiving a tip? Should I be giving them one? I am highly sympathetic to the gig economy, and I tip my pizza delivery drivers $5 (flat), in-town. (I am reconsidering re-calculating that upwards, but the delivery fee tacked on is an additional $3.99 as well.) Even if getting delivery via DoorDash is "unexpected"? (I had no advance warning, or any indication on Walmart.com that they were sending this part of the order via DoorDash.)

I mean, if I intentionally ordered grocery delivery, then I would definitely be giving these people tips, too. That's just how it works. But I'm left with a quandry, do I give them a tip, and mentally assume that whatever I'm ordering on Walmart.com, is going to cost me an extra $5 (accounting for tip)? What if I don't get free shipping, and have to pay $5.99 shipping? And a $5 tip on top? That's really BS.

But if I ever have to use DoorDash myself, personally, to get something to me, I don't want to have a "bad rep" with the DoorDash contractor pool, if they tag my address internally with a note "doesn't tip", or something.

Edit: Maybe a better ancilliary question is, do you tip your Amazon delivery driver, every time you get a package from Amazon delivered? (Excluding those deliveries via USPS for Amazon, for which I believe it's illegal to "tip" a federal worker.)

Edit: Second ancilliary question: Does Walmart.com OWN DoorDash? Could they be trying to scale them up to be "Walmart Delivery Service" to compete with "Amazon Delivery Service"?

Edit: I mean, I'm young enough, I'm not a FYGM Boomer, I don't mind giving tips where appropriate. But when someone texts you out of the blue, "Hey, DoorDash here, I have your delivery, which apt. is yours?", and I don't have any $1 bills to hand them, it puts me in a hard spot. I wouldn't normally order (personal) delivery, if I didn't have the means to tip them.

I mean, this delivery (in that manner) was entirely un-expected. I was totally un-prepared to give them any sort of tip. But I don't want to get a bad rap among DoorDash people as a "non-tipper".

I totally agree with you. I am a Boomer and do leave tips for grocery delivery, food delivery type stuff despite being on fixed income. Do plan according to what I can afford at the time. But I "always" leave a 20% tip at least. But when I select "shipping" I in the many years have always had delivered all together by FedEx, sometimes DHL. Now the past 6 months it has been coming peice by peice via DoorDash. The first time it happened I called Walmart because it ticked me off to have 1item delivered of 5. I said I wasn't prepared to leave a tip and had no cash on me. They assured me that I should not be tipping as the drivers were being compensated accordingly. Basically told me that they get paid a higher than normal DoorDash wage. I don't know. But what really bugs me is every single one of the drivers lolly gag dropping off the items as if expecting me to come out and tip them. But I won't because I got free shipping and didn't order delivery. There is no place in the "shipping: part of an order to leave a tip, nor do they say DoorDash will be doing it. It just doesn't seem right to me and feel it gives those of us who got free "shipping" a bad name. But if I could always afford a tip I would. But I order from Amazon, Ebay, etc... because I don't have to pay tips. I never have cash on hand. I have read so many comments from doordash drivers about how they hate Walmart orders because they don't get tipped. There obviously is great miscommunication between what I was told re: shipping opposed to delivery and what Doordashers get and are being told.

 

[debikk]

Just an update to this thread; it seems that walmart has taken my complaints to heart. They now offer both "pickup and delivery" AND "shipping" options at checkout, with a TIP line for "Delivery".

They re-did their whole web site a couple of weeks ago, mostly for the better.

Yes you are correct regarding the website. I literally just ordered items to be "shipped" 2 days ago and there was no place for a tip and said nothing regarding Doordash. And again, I get a doordasher delivering 2 of the 5 items I ordered to be shipped. I have cameras and can look back or watch live and again, the dasher just lingered. Walmart needs to tell these dashers on certain orders to drop of the order and leave. The same way amazon, fedex, ups does. It's so annoying. I do feel bad. But it is Walmart who is causing this BS.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes you are correct regarding the website. I literally just ordered items to be "shipped" 2 days ago and there was no place for a tip and said nothing regarding Doordash. And again, I get a doordasher delivering 2 of the 5 items I ordered to be shipped. I have cameras and can look back or watch live and again, the dasher just lingered. Walmart needs to tell these dashers on certain orders to drop of the order and leave. The same way amazon, fedex, ups does. It's so annoying. I do feel bad. But it is Walmart who is causing this BS.

Yes, they offered the option for "delivery" now, with a tip line, but if you choose "shipping", sometimes they still re-route it to Doordash, which is really disconcerting and unfortunate, mostly for the Doordash drivers that don't get a tip.

Also, I've had the opoosite problem. I explicitly ordered "delivery" (same-day, for $17.95, "Express Delivery"). They delivered to the WRONG address, no contact from Doordash at all during the delivery, and the best that Walmart's chat line would do, was a refund. Which as I found out later on, only was refund of the products, and NOT the Express Delivery fee of $17.95. C'mon. If I pay, I want my stuff. Not that hard to figure out.

The problem is, and not to be racist or anything, but probably at least half of the Doordash drivers (my sample size is small and not statistically significant), DON'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH. They get my "xxxx Cir", mixed up with a similar address, which is "xxxx St.".

 

[debikk]

Yes, they offered the option for "delivery" now, with a tip line, but if you choose "shipping", sometimes they still re-route it to Doordash, which is really disconcerting and unfortunate, mostly for the Doordash drivers that don't get a tip.

Also, I've had the opoosite problem. I explicitly ordered "delivery" (same-day, for $17.95, "Express Delivery"). They delivered to the WRONG address, no contact from Doordash at all during the delivery, and the best that Walmart's chat line would do, was a refund. Which as I found out later on, only was refund of the products, and NOT the Express Delivery fee of $17.95. C'mon. If I pay, I want my stuff. Not that hard to figure out.

The problem is, and not to be racist or anything, but probably at least half of the Doordash drivers (my sample size is small and not statistically significant), DON'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH. They get my "xxxx Cir", mixed up with a similar address, which is "xxxx St.".

Ya, it is very disconcencerting to me as well. But Walmart says they are being compensated accordingly with this type of delivery (shipping that is). But now I wonder after hearing all the doordash issues with Walmart and no tips.

I live in AZ so have many non speaking english here. Fortunately I have not had issues with finding my place correctly. But honestly most my deliveries are from Amazon. I am trying to avoid "shipping" with Walmart unless significant price difference from Amazon because of the doordash thing.

I tried the Express delivery once and it was missing key items to what I had planned to cook. There was no way to contact anyone to cancel the order because now I had to go to the store anyway. I did tip the driver. But I also complained to Walmart that they need to give orders the option to cancel immediately if items are missing. I told them the driver did his job correctly. But then I get a refund for the express cost and his delivery tip. I told them I will never order Express again. But I do grocery pickup religishly every month for many years and I can tell you I rarely have been unhappy with what they gave me or what was substituted, etc... And if something was missing they immediately credit you no questions asked. I order alot monthly but being disabled I wouldn't mind delivery. But I order to much and don't want to break up into 2 x a month then I have extra delivery fees. The Express and this DoorDash are my pet peeves with Walmart.

I am glad I ran across your post as this was bothering the heck out of me. I hate the lingering thing as it does make me feel guilty about something I shouldn't feel bad about at all.

 

[Meghan54]

My last walmart delivery a couple days ago, ninja driver didn't stick around for a tip. I just saw a 5qt jug of oil sitting on my porch unboxed, no shipping label so couldn't have been a shipper that delivered it. They emailed me a pic, similar to what Amazon delivery is doing now.

Ended up arriving a day earlier than another ordered at same time that they shipped FedEx. Seems kind of inefficient to split an order for two jugs of oil up into separate shipments, I'd have been fine waiting an extra day.


View attachment 44869

M1 EP? Same thing happened with the two jugs I ordered from WM…one one day, second another day. Nothing else left, just the jug.

 

[mindless1]

^ Yes the M1 EP w/rebate... that rebate period ends tomorrow if anyone missed out.

Mobil 1™ – Terms

acbincentives.com

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Wally is evil.

Never do Wally.


Repeat as necessary.

 

[Ken g6]

Wally is evil.

Never do Wally.


Repeat as necessary.

Getting most stuff, other than groceries, for delivery, I don't know of a site other than "Wally" or Amazon. Do you?

 

[Captante]

Getting most stuff, other than groceries, for delivery, I don't know of a site other than "Wally" or Amazon. Do you?

Target also offers delivery for most of what they sell in my area.

They're at least a small notch above Wally-World in customer service.