I just got a Costco delivery and I received regula milk instead of lactaid. I specified that I do not want a replacement if lactaid was not available. I reported the discrepancy and they gave me a refund.
This got me wondering whether the cost of the milk was being charged back to the instacart shopper.
Am I screwing over the instacart shopper (who got a $47 tip, which seemed like a lot but given the circumstances, I can’t really complain).
Generally speaking…no.
They do keep tabs on those kinds of errors and complaints which can eventually lead to the end of their “job” ending.
I also know why this tends to happen. With percentage based tips, every item you refund reduces the tip, because tip is a percentage of the total bill. So shoppers will often try to force a substitution to preserve the tip. I had an order come through for 2 packs of toilet paper, 2 24 packs of eggs, hand sanitizer, laundry soap… Basically everything stores were out of. I started with a $50 tip…i received $12 of that after all the out of stock refunds.