Tips Taken Back, Risky Store Trips: The Reality For Instacart Workers

CHICAGO (CBS) -- People are relying heavily on grocery delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Instacart drivers, in turn, rely on tips for financial survival. However, some delivery workers are getting stiffed.

Wait times for Instacart delivery windows are taking a little longer these days. The shoppers CBS 2 spoke with say they are lured in with the promise of generous tips, but in some cases it has turned nasty after the delivery is made.

If you've recently prowled grocery store aisles for quarantine essentials, there is a good chance you've come across Instacart workers scanning as they shop, filling on-demand orders.

Instacart shopper Layla Greer was expecting $25 after she delivered a cart, but sometimes the gratuity can be deceiving.

"If I agree to do an order for this amount then I should get paid for that amount," Greer said.

"It was $133 tip and I ended up only getting $50 for that tip. I lost almost $80 off that tip. And I got everything the customer wanted," said Instacart Shopper Jonathan Berkowitz.

"Drop off the order and next thing you know the tip's gone" said Dominic Ziola, also an Instacart shopper.

These Chicago Instacart shoppers say they've been tip baited during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the app customers have the ability to offer a tip up up front. With such high demand-lately, the higher the tip the more enticing it is for the shopper to fill an order.

"We are going through these busy grocery stores and we don't know if these stores are clean," Berkowitz said. "It's scary. We are risking our lives for these people."

But the potential damage is done after the delivery is made. The user can change that attractive big tip and reduce it, in some cases leaving change.

"The worst one for me I had a $25 tip and it it ended up being 73 cents," Ziola said. "And it took me almost three hours."

"Was it worth two hours of my time for maybe like a $20 order that ended up them, the customer paying $350 and taking 2 and a half hours out of my time and sitting in traffic and gas? I don't think so," said Berkowitz.

A spokesperson for Instacart says tip baiting is extremely rare, adding that in March nearly all customers 99.5% either increased their tip or did not adjust their tip after delivery.