This is tough, but there is an easy solution: delivery apps provide a way to communicate with the delivery worker, explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service. They will come to your door.
In fact, for several years now I have used this feature, signaling that I would like the order to be delivered to my door.
Fingers crossed for when the majority of delivery drivers actually start reading it!
> explain your situation, potentially offer a better tip for the service
At some point, it's my business and I would rather not have to explain my disability to strangers every single time I want a meal.
You have to understand something here, before moving to shift responsibility off of the delivery workers: There are kind and unkind people. The kind people are no problem. They deliver the order according to instructions, and get a tip. The unkind people, who are more likely to not follow door dash protocol to begin with, are also more likely not to read my driver notes, are more likely to be rude even when I am forced to explain my disability. In some cases, these people will even harass you before and after delivering your order.
I once had a small animal seizing in my lap who needed emergency items, but I was unable to leave my home and the closest exotic vet was hours away and didn't open till the next morning. An Instacart delivery driver accepted the order, which included a tip of $50, harassed me for 4 hours and literally just lied about ever visiting the store, because they had a bad day. They sat in their car as this animal continued to seize, with zero feeling. They sent me photos, cursed at me, taunted me, all sorts of things.
After speaking with support, they agreed the behavior was unacceptable and allowed me to reorder... I got the same driver again. After wasting 4 hours with this person, support finally figured out how to assign a different driver. This driver immediately went to the store, called me to discuss which items were best to get, and delivered my order with zero fuss. They were happy to receive a large tip, and they assured me I wasn't in the wrong.
The animal ultimately died, that 4 hours was crucial. Should I rely on Instacart for emergency services? Of course not, but that is the nature of an emergency. I would have gladly paid that $50 toward an app specifically geared for that kind of thing.
The problem is that one often relies on Instacart when sick or disabled and the tolerance for mistakes and bad interactions is lowest. Perhaps there is an opportunity for something like vocational nursing companies to offer more skilled shoppers at a premium price...
He lied about ever going to the store, then after one and a half hours (already wasting two) just cancelled the order, saying nothing was in stock. The next driver went to the same store and got my requested items.
I haven't used Instacart since and never plan to; That was the worst customer experience of my life. The fact that I was promised by support that I would receive a different driver, then was immediately reassigned the same exact driver, was indescribably frustrating to me as a business owner and application developer myself.
> Perhaps there is an opportunity for something like vocational nursing companies to offer more skilled shoppers at a premium price...
That would be amazing. I imagine the only way it would economically work is if it were government owned/subsidized, since the kind of people who need this most (at least in the US) are already spending an exorbitant amount on health care and often don't have that kind of extra money lying around.
I've never had an experience anywhere near that bad, but InstaCart is the slider set all the way to the "this is a random person, we vaguely know what's in the store, and you work out what you're actually getting with the random person as they're shopping" end of the spectrum. The good thing about it is that its store flexibility is extremely high.
Prime Now is the slider set to the other extreme: inventory is accurate, your "shopper" might as well be a robotic arm, and your driver is a separate, nameless delivery system. The downside is the store flexibility is limited to Whole Foods.
Why yes, I did!
> Not to necessarily lay the blame on you because I probably don't fully comprehend the details of the situation
Yes, you are, and no, you don't.
> I would have many other contingency plans for events like these
This was a medical emergency, it was 2am and the only delivery app which featured a store that had the items I need was on Instacart. I checked all of them.
> how could I be expected to get help for myself or someone else close to me
Call an ambulance? An ambulance isn't going to help me take care of a seizing animal, and an Uber driver wouldn't either because it makes them potentially liable. I was also very low on cash. The $50 was quite a lot for me, but it was the life of another animal at stake, and I value the time of a person who has agreed to complete a critical, time-dependent task for me.
Before you berate me further for having an animal without being rich, this was a friend's animal who was out of state and left the animal in my care. The animal was developing diabetes and the timing was completely unfortunate.
Does this satisfy you?
Except the next guy completed the service as requested, and I handed him a $50 cash tip?
> But don't act like we live in a paradise that doesn't have extreme inequality and class tension when you use an app that summons a member of the underclass to do your bidding for $18k per annum and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you.
Maybe you're projecting your own ignorance. The majority of my life has been spent in great poverty. I am part of this "underclass". My sister does Door Dash, and it doesn't pay her bills, and I have to compensate for the difference. I'm extremely aware of the exact economics behind Door Dash.
I've usually been at the bottom end of this "extreme inequality and class tension". For you, this might be a realization, for me, it's a reality I've long known. Did it even occur to you that in this situation I obviously didn't have a car myself? This person was already one step above the economic ladder than myself, as they owned a vehicle.
> and they are rude or have a fucking attitude with you.
I spent my youth deeply broke, working as as server for the upper class of my state in a rural area with little economic opportunity. My mom can't hold a job, my dad is not in my life, and I was homeless at 15. All I knew was poverty and sickness for a long time.
If I can not catch a fucking attitude while shaking my governor's hand and getting paid $12 an hour, then some guy who is getting $50 tip + fees for a 3-item order can shut the fuck up and do the job they literally accepted to do, instead of cursing at me and mocking me and intentionally sabotaging my order. I wish I got paid that kind of money back then.
If they have a problem with their socioeconomic position, I'm not the guy to take it out on.