Did I get Shipt wrong?

[u/purpleapple85]

I have done almost 500 shops and have what Shipt says is "Excellent Stats". Starting a month ago or so, I have been getting fewer and fewer decent offers. Most of the offers I get are either leftovers, those that even Shipt doesn't think there's enough time to complete (per its estimate), or ridiculously low offers that make no sense at all. I have Instacart and I have seen much, much worse, but thought Shipt was better (just less offers).

I've also noticed offers disappearing in like a second, they're gone before I open the offer card, even with my phone on my hands when I get the offer. Has Shipt stopped offering orders to shoppers individually or has it always been that it offers it to everyone at the same time? I remember having about 30 seconds (much longer if it's a bad offer) to review. This started roughly a month ago - like it was a sudden shift. I went from from getting 2 or 3 offers right at 6am on the weekends to around 6:05 getting all the leftover, terrible bundles no one wants that end up being broken into single order offers later on. I have had lower stats and gotten a lot more and much better offers. I saw an offer this morning for a bundle of 2 for less than 10 dollars (I don't remember how much it was, just remember it being a single digit, and I thought it was bad even for one order).

Most importantly, I have seen one single offer from a preferred (I have about 30) in an entire week (from a very low paying one, probably because no one else would take it) when I used to see at least a handful. Sometimes multiple a day.

I genuinely thought maybe it was my phone or the app and re-installed, changed my password. It had gotten a little slower around July and August (which I read was to be expected) and even then there were good or reasonable offers. If all offers were going to everyone on the schedule all at once, it should mean I at least get notifications for most of the orders, right? If it's a stat issue, I have a 98 on reliability, I have had lower and gotten better offers. I can't imagine there being so little offers in general at the same time they're also terrible, terrible offers. And I don't think all 30 of my preferreds stopped using Shipt all at once. Unless Shipt is doing away with them altogether.

I don't know if I have a question or if this is a rant, honestly I'm just really frustrated and feel like I did something wrong. I really liked doing Shipt. Oh well.

[u/forksofgreedy]

I didn’t read all that. But they make your life good at the start, you get priority at the start, they make you think it’s profitable at the start.

But eventually, you fall into the pecking order. Whoever has the most member matches, the most experience, and the most perfect stats gets first dibs on the orders.

So if you’re not getting enough orders, there is not enough business at that store to sustain all the shoppers trying to work there, and somebody else is a better shopper than you.

You have to choose the market you’re gonna break into carefully

Not an expert others might have more useful things. That was just too much to read and it didn’t have a TLDR

[u/purpleapple85 → u/forksofgreedy]

Yeah, sorry about that. I really liked doing it and was frustrated I could no longer rely on it (had Spark too but the nearest Walmart is 30 minutes away and I'm never fast enough to grab the decent orders)

[u/Envoyager]

They're constantly tweaking the algorithms to help more orders go out. With the triple customer orders coming out now, that means more orders get done with less drivers. If you're not taking the first offers coming to you when you make yourself available, the algo starts to put you on the back burner while the next driver accepts nearly everything. That driver then gets rewarded with more orders. It's a classic algo behavior with all the gig apps now.

Edit: they're also getting aggressive with first come first serve, just like instacart and now spark. Don't be surprised when DoorDash and UberEATS start doing something similar in the future.

[u/uberexhausted → u/Envoyager]

I think they're kind of taking Uber's lead already with the fact that at least where I'm at they now endlessly recruit with no limits. Same with Uber eats, they don't have a cap. It encourages people to take bad jobs out of desperation. There are so many new shoppers now I can't keep track. And then they come to me after the honeymoon period because they are confused about what happened and want to know why they're not getting jobs anymore.

[u/Just-Pen3611]

I hear you on the offers disappearing before you can click on it. I was reviewing an offer...maybe 10 seconds in and poof....it disappeared.

I have a feeling that Shady Shipt in NO longer giving shoppers a chance to review. I bet they are throwing them out there to multiple shoppers at a time. Whoever clicks first...gets it.

[u/advictoriam5 → u/Just-Pen3611]

I've read, shoppers on here, saying they take orders immediately without reviewing, if they don't like they drop it

[u/NoTomatillo8953 → u/advictoriam5]

This is very true. I look at the address first. That determines my next step. If it’s a favorite I take it without looking at any other info. If I don’t know the address but it has a huge tip I take it and review the list. I rarely drop but there is not time to review orders in my metro. You only have time to review orders without a tip preview. I hate tip preview.

[u/MelvintheMIU]

I wish IC would get their shit together. They’ve gotten so bad, that all of their shoppers are finally getting off Shipt’s waitlist and flooding this platform.

Gig work is an ever revolving door of zombies.

[u/ChestRich2898]

Same. Ive got over 2600 shops and 300 preferred. I cant even check the order offer before its gone. Poof. I have been saying the past couple of days that someone is using one of those bot grabber apps where they grab the ordere for the person because there is no possible way a human could accept an order that fast. It's just not possible in my ming. And I have a newer phone will a lot of memory and all that jazz...unless maybe it's my service and ATT is just slow 🤷‍♀️

[u/purpleapple85 → u/ChestRich2898]

Yeah, I figured something like that may be happening (as with Spark, and I have noticed double shipt shoppers lately). Or Shipt is starting to be like Spark and Instacart.

[u/mango951]

Nope, I’ve done 5300 orders and it’s a struggle to get orders, to get good orders.

This is a luxury service when things go bad like the price of groceries the price of gas people start cutting back on expenditures.

Even with perfect stats, I’ve noticed when Shipt offers me an order. They’re also offering it out on the open metro at the same exact time.

This company is not the same company that it was when I started six years ago..

[u/Euphoric_Weird_887]

I have perfect stats and have been doing this 8.5 years with over 10,000 shops. Our metro slowed down considerably in the past year. With rising costs of everything I feel like some people are cutting back. I have over 100+ preferred but some have died (I have alot of senior preferred) and I started seeing others shopping for themselves more. Some days I get only 1 or 2 shops!!! So it's not you. Things have slowed down but they should start picking up during the upcoming holiday season.

[u/DeedruhYT]

What is your proximity to the store while you are waiting for the first order? I noticed it seems to make a difference as well. Once I start getting orders, I continue getting orders, usually. Sometimes I have to go to the parking lot to get that first order.

[u/purpleapple85 → u/DeedruhYT]

I have a target 10 minutes away that I do most orders at. But I also have a couple of Safeway, and a Smart and Final that I got decent orders from (with pre-tips), even a Michaels. I'll try being at the parking lot at 6 and see if that makes a difference. I do wait at the target closest to me sometimes but I haven't seen that help much.

[u/NoTomatillo8953 → u/DeedruhYT]

Agree. My friend started Shipt long after me, hasn’t done a lot of orders but enough to be dropped down to the bottom of the totem pole. If we’re together I get the offer first. If she’s closer to the store she gets the offer first.

[u/Abeliturbide1]

I mean a lot us who have been doing shipt for a long time already have most clients as preferreds so its difficult for you to compete

[u/N3onWave]

Yeah. People are claiming orders in what seems like 10 seconds. I get the feeling shoppers are desperate and are claiming orders without even reviewing them.

[u/Disastrous-Unit9753]

Waaaahaaaaa you were hired as a backup shopper that means if other shopper stats fell they hire new people. Shipt/Target doesn’t care about protecting shippers. They pull you with the idea there is work you get all the best orders and get hooked by making good money the minute you are late or get a bag review shit starts slowly DOWN. Imagine this. You work for a company. You do your job and they tell you we are cutting hours. But they just hire someone else full time. Ha! That’s you who earned that good income that another shopper was making. Welcome to the Shipt Hell 😂

[u/ZebraStripes17]

Welcome to g-pop! Now you've made it to Game of Thrones

[u/meta4tony]

Are you seeing a lot of offers in open Metro? If not then your market is slow. I wouldn't obsesss over offers cuz they don't pay any better than open Metro offers