Walmart Spark shoppers can remove their tips up to 24 hours after delivery. Drivers say that contributes to a problem of 'tip baiting.'

Thu, 01/11/2024 - 05:47

A customer in the parking lot of a Walmart store — While tip baiting happens on other apps, six contractors who make deliveries for Spark said the problem was particularly bad on Walmart's delivery service.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez

Some delivery customers offer tips they don't intend to pay to trick drivers into taking an order.
This "tip baiting" isn't new, but drivers say it's especially bad on Walmart's Spark platform.
Walmart says only a small percentage of orders have tips lowered and tips are more often increased.

One Indiana delivery worker can recall just a few times when someone took away his tip after he delivered their Instacart order over his past 2½ years as a gig worker.

When he works for Walmart's Spark Driver delivery app, it happens a few times a week, he told Business Insider.