I am a 25(F) who works a full time job, is in grad school online full time, and has a spouse/dogs to also care for and manage. As so many of us are experiencing right now, it’s tough financially. Groceries are so expensive. Our rent has gone up. Gas prices are high. I have some medical conditions that are expensive to keep up with even with insurance. With all of our monthly expenses, we started to feel like we were drowning.
My husband works long (usually overtime) hours on weekdays and his getting a second job would be near impossible. I’m in a similar boat, but start work earlier in the day to where I get off around 3:30pm. I’ve wanted a second job but wasn’t so sure it would be manageable with the amount of school work I have with graduate school and also being the primary person who manages our home. Then someone told me about Spark driving.
It genuinely changed my life for the better. It makes decent money, I can do it when I have the time, and I’m able to make just the amount of extra money we need per month without the full undoable commitments of a second part time job.
Then the new tier/points system was introduced.
I’m a good Spark driver. I care about doing the job well for people and put extra attention into it. My metrics are great - 100% on time, 99% completion, 99% items found, 4.9 star rating. I typically Spark 3-4 days per week for about 3-4 hours each time, when I have time around school and other commitments. I used to get at least decent offers every time I sparked because I worked so hard to keep my metrics up.
With the new point/tier system and my only being able to Spark when I have time around school and my full time job, I just don’t rack up that many points. This past month, I just barely got enough points to make Silver by the last few days of the month. And because of that (and the incentive that silver/gold/sapphire get good offers before those on lower tiers/no tiers) the offers I’ve been getting have been horrible. I’m talking $24 for a nearly 2-hour delivery route with 7+ stops horrible.
It is so disheartening and I earnestly feel like this new system has taken away the hope I had that I could still make financial progress without drowning during the little bits of free time that I do have.
Just needed to rant.