Spark Driver
Reviews and Complaints

I have placed 2 delivery orders to Walmart in the past 2 weeks that have not been delivered. Driver picks up the order leaves the store and then in about 5-10 minutes brings my groceries back to the store and says he was unable to deliver them. They don't even get close to my house, and I know because I track them. It is about time that there are consequences for these drivers that don't want to do their job! I never used to have this problem, I would order my groceries and they would be delivered at the time I requested. So disappointed in this service anymore!
Amanda Bartosiewicz [protected]

It’s sad, but unfortunately, most people don’t understand the true cost of using your vehicle to run a business which is essentially what you’re doing when you deliver for Spark. The offers that you receive will only have the mileage from the store to the last stop for that trip but if that’s 12 miles outside of town, you’re gonna have to drive an additional 12 miles to get back into town or back to the store. It makes no sense to me that they don’t come account for this at all in any of their calculations especially since I’ve seen trips that take you about 23 1/2 miles outside of town which if you were to complete the trip would have cost you more money than you would’ve made After calculating Expenses. 2025 the IRS mileage deduction rate is $.70 per mile. This means that the IRS has determined that after factoring all vehicle costs for mileage, gas insurance toll fees, car washes, etc. should total around $.70 per mile. So you need to take your total mileage, including your trip back to your house or to the store and multiply that by $.70 to get An average idea of the expenses that the trip will cost you. Then subtract that from the pay that you’re being offered, and you’ll be lucky if you break even. Most of the time you’ll end up paying because it’ll be a negative number that you come up with after doing that calculation. How is a two to $3 billion corporation gonna send out offers to drivers appearing like they can make some money when in all actuality they’re actually delivering for the company for free or at their own expense. The algorithm and pay system that they use is incredibly flawed.

If you are low income or on a fixed income do not work for spark

The money is not consistent

Everyday - you can count on the app crashing and malfunctioning. It does not matter if you charged your phone to 100 and made sure you checked for any and all updates.

You cannot change the ringtone or the volume of offers received and you will receive offers the moment you put your phone down... Never put your phone down or look away

Offers sent are normally expired and they count it against you. So you were sent an offer that already expired and your metrics drop meaning you get less offers and they eventually deactivate your account.

Customers will take it out on you if anything is wrong with their order, and there will be numerous problems. You have to play customer service but the customers dont seem to understand, I am just the delivery driver.

I receive what the store gives me and I bring it to you. Sometimes they give me smashed eggs, they give you busted glass jars and for some reason the milk is always leaking? And guess what - I cant do anything about it except deliver it to you and I lost my tip because of it?

Doordash, instacart, even amazon is better than this. Goodluck to you if you do sign up but the rumors are true

It is good at first but as soon as its good it gets bad and goes to furiously worse

Save yourself and dont deliver for spark

When Spark is working properly--things are decent. But when there is a glitch, you have NO option to resolve the issue in a timely manner. There is no Spark Support--when you call the 800 # it is Walmart support you have reached. All they do is send a claim tix into Spark. You cannot talk with anyone at Spark. All you can do is contact Walmart, they tell you they will escalate it--but all you can do is wait until Spark figures it out and fixes it. You feel helpless. You are given no information on when a fix might be available. Tech will not contact you to help or walk you through anything. You may or may not receive an email from them...All. you can do is log out/in to see if you app is working again. Until it is fixed you cannot receive or accept offers to work. I am now on Day 2 of no work because my app is frozen stating I am in progress of a trip. No one can seem to clear it out--it shows completed to Walmart staff at the store and it shows completed to Walmart support when you call. So, they say they cannot help, you must wait for Spark Tech to figure out a fix. You will get no time frame--this could be hours, day, weeks...no one knows. I do not know what other glitches happen but when you cannot work or cannot earn it is quite upsetting, alarming but...this does not warrant a top priority to the Spark tech people. Yet, if they were not being paid/earning $, they would be all over this for a fix asap to get their money. I have called the minute it happened and continue to call...or send screen shots via their "Report Issues" on the app and have gotten no response what so ever.

I’ve been clamoring for a long time for Spark and Walmart to be more transparent on customer rating. The reason they aren’t is because they’re fearful that a driver will retaliate against a customer for giving them a bad rating.

What many customers don’t realize is that they’re not rating the store. They’re rating only the driver and their experience with the delivery itself, not the products in question. Walmart allows them to rate the “experience”. In many instances, the customer will blame the driver when they’re really meaning to rate the store down.

Walmart needs to educate their customers that we are not picking every order. We are only picking when it is a shop and delivery. Customers should only be able to the delivery. Walmart needs to have better transparency for both the driver and the customer.

Why won’t this happen? It won’t happen because Walmart will always blame the driver. They aren’t blaming themselves because it looks bad on them. It’s an easy cop out to just blame the driver because we’re the most visible part of Walmart delivery. We are the face of Walmart to the customer. Even if it isn’t our fault, Walmart will blame the driver.

The system has been and will continue to be unfair for drivers. I’ve been doing research and due diligence on other gig apps because Spark is just trending too far south and it’s a lot faster pace than at which other gig apps collapsed.

They don’t care. They will let this go as far south as it can. You aren’t the first to post this recently, and that’s the concern that Walmart is just not facing the problems that ail their delivery service. It’s why Spark is crashing and burning.

This customers are taking out there experiences with spark on us the sub contractors giving low ratings. If it's curb side pick up it's not on us when the store gets order ready and brings it out. But due to stores constantly being behind on orders, customer are giving low ratings to the drivers. Customers need to realize this or Spark shouldn't allow customers to rate us unless we do the actual shopping. There system is extremely flawed.

Let’s start here. I have worked as a delivery person for the last 6 years in different cities and states. I work via several apps as well. I stumbled upon Walmart’s “Spark” back in late November/December . At first, this app was incredible! So many offers to choose from it was hard to keep up. These offers were diverse too, shopping, curbside and in-store pick ups, with reasonable pay included. I quickly put Spark as a priority app pulling in anywhere from $600-$900 a week before any incentives or bonuses. I referred anyone who asked about it because I felt confident in the company.
Flash forward a few months ahead to the end of April to present (June 2022). I turn on the Spark app early morning and leave it on until end of business. I stay inside my desired and assigned zone. My phone is silent. If I do receive an offer it is often a batch of curbside orders- 10 or 12 orders, generally going 30+ miles for significantly less pay. On the rare occasion of a single order it is usually $7 going at least 5 miles or further. In addition if I agree to do a curbside offer the down time waiting is unbelievable often exceeding 45 minutes if not an hour. The usual explanation is short staffing or not pulling the order until I arrive at the pickup location. This downtime used to be about 10 minutes. Spark still offers incentive programs, complete 5 trips for $15 extra etc, which is impossible if no offers are received. Or at times you’ll get 4 of 5 trips completed before it goes silent.
Customer service recommends logging out and back in to the app and if unsuccessful uninstalling and reinstalling the application to fix glitches as offers are not assigned to specific drivers but housed in a round robin forum. Both of these approaches are unsuccessful. A drivers metrics drop if they let offers, when received, expire or reject them. This remains true even if the same offer is repeated IE it is additional demerit. Finally the main form of communication with support is via email. Complain about no offers enough they will completely stop responding.
This gig that was once paying $900 now barely pays $100. Think twice before fully relying on it. They will flood you with offers when you first begin then once you have experience ghost you.

The app for the last week has been causing me to lose money. Twice I’ve accepted a order but then realized it wasn’t worth my time and I canceled the trip well twice now some how the order didn’t get canceled or removed from my account but it showed it was on my app and the a hour or so goes by and I get a random notification that my order is it at risk of being late if I don’t start soon but I don’t have any order to my knowledge so I sign out and sign back in and what do you know the order is still on my account and that’s why for a hour or more I received no new orders which means I lost out on $50 to $60 dollars because there app won’t work properly. My app is up to date and I have the newest update for my cell phone as well and I have the best cell service to offer I’m my area. So it’s on them and do they do anything to compensate you no they don’t. Also another issue is the app holds and want you to meet such high expectations for us as drivers but then the stores you pick up from can be lack luster. Twice today the same Walmart store had me waiting over a hour for one order of 15.64 which got assigned to two people so that’s mother app issue I experienced me and mother driver got assigned the same order and we were there before her but she got to get it and then another instance we had to wait over a hour for a order and missed out on $30 to $40 for that hour and spark does nothing to the stores and does nothing for you to compensate your losses a store can mess up all it wants but you mess up once with spark and your at risk of being fired if your going to have such high expectations for us you need to hold the stores more accountable for there mess ups. You also need to compensate your workers better. We make a $1 while you all make me $10 but can’t do better for us. Also you all act like you do something for us with incentives but lately I’ve been seeing less and when they do pop up they are total unattainable. Like 15 trips for $30 extra but it’s for one store location only and you got 2 days to do that but you might get 2 order from that one store in two days so it’s not like we are benefiting at all. We do a lot for this company and make it flourish but yet we aren’t treated fairly by the company. Something need to change

I was really hopeful with this app despite the other bad reviews, but now I get what they are talking about. This app is glitchy and clunky. The first 2 1/2 weeks of a new zone going active were great. The bonus incentives were amazing! Then once the honeymoon period was over a huge drop in income earning potential. I went a whole day with no job offers. I logged out of the app, turned my phone off and on. Nothing made a difference. When the same thing happened one other time, except that time I finally got an order for 2:45pm pick up, I asked the Walmart Pick Up employees if there had been other deliveries and they told me yes. They said it seems to be the same person coming all day. Yet, I can’t get one offer, even with a customer rating of 5.0 It’s beyond frustrating and disconcerting, especially when you are counting on at least a certain level of income. I know that is how delivery apps work, but this one seems a bit worse. I never get any other offers besides “Round Robin” where I have to pick up in 15 minutes. And those are always offered 20-22 after the hour. It’s insane how for a while I could predict I would get the offer at the exact minute every time. Well, since a delivery usually takes you past that, at times if you have two, then you miss out on the next hour’s delivery. You can go 1 1/2 hours with no delivery offers. Every few hours. If I get 3 in a day it’s amazing! Also, when I accept an offer it says it’s been accepted by another driver, but then it always ends up on my Home Screen, but I have to click the house icon to see it. One time, I really thought it was accepted by another driver and I didn’t know I had received the offer! Also, you need to know that the offer will show you one amount and then, when you view it after accepting it’s substantially lower. They figure tip in the offer and then only show base pay in the actual delivery. And the metrics don’t work in the app at all. Other than customer rating, none of the percentages show. So, I also can’t get more offers because that is dysfunctional. No one at customer support can give anything other than general help answers on app function, but they are great at helping you when a delivery pick up is in process and there are issues with picking up at the store.

I loved driving for Walmart before this update. I have orders cancelling g on me after I get to the store and put in my lane number and the job disappears like it never was there and didn’t even get my $2.50 for showing up and waiting several times. Also it seems like the app now goes out of its way to make us go to stores that are the furthest away from the driver to waste more time and spend more on gas, gas being so cheap these days. The app can track us for the customer but acts like it doesn’t know where we are sends us to stores that are furthest away from the customer when a store could be right around their house and I’ve had several customers complain that the app is ignoring their default store and shopping at stores that are so far away that they don’t want and consequently orders are taking longer which affects our tips. One lady said she manually put the store in by her house 3 times for the last 3 orders and the app ignores her and goes where it wants too far away for her and she was gonna stop using us. Now I wait an hr or more sometimes in between orders waiting for work when before I used to get orders one after the other so I’m just sitting in store parking lots waiting only to be sent to another store 30 min or more away in traffic to deliver orders around the corner from the store I was originally sitting at. The app update to me has cost me so much money I have to work twice the time and am making half the money that I used to and the orders just make no sense. I’ve called several times to customer service about all these issues and all I’ve gotten is lip service and the run around about we’ll look into it and call us back if it continues. This has to be the worst IT department I’ve ever dealt w because they can’t fix anything so far or even have answers for us and I’ve spoken w many drivers in the last week that all day the same thing that it’s just not worth it anymore and they’re looking for other employment. I don’t understand how you guys had such a good thing going and nothing was broke, not really anyway and y’all decided to fix it which was nothing and all the drivers income has suffered. Further trips for so much less money and double the working time to make half and spend a ton more in gas. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success.

First you can make a lot on this app but there are several improvements that NEED to be rectified. The first being time frame offers, which is the time you are supposed to arrive at the store and the time the algorithm sends you the order is NOT feasible by any stretch. For instance, the order pick up time is 445pm the system sends it to you at 438 as an offer so if you do not accept the order it goes against your acceptance rating and your on time arrival. Plus they will send you an order that will take a minimum of 10 to 15 may even 20 minutes. Now the metrics: BE MINDFUL OF YOUR METRICS ESPECIALLY YOUR ON TIME ARRIVAL. The system DOES NOT calculate your on time arrival correctly. The app literature states that on time arrival is measured from the time you arrive at the store (start the trip), but the algorithm measures it from the time you start delivery. PLUS IF YOU ACCEPT AN ASAP the system/algorithm only gives 15 minutes to arrive at the store and what is NOT STATED IN THE LITERATURE is that ASAP orders also have a suggested arrival/pick up time and if you arrive outside the 15 minute window of that time it counts against your ON TIME ARRIVAL. ALSO when you accept ASAP orders the system/algorithm does not state a designated/suggested pick up time IT ONLY SAYS ASAP until you arrive at the store then the time revealed. Very shady practices n metrics calculations no transparency on any of the metrics especially customer ratings and on time arrival. On time arrival is also calculated incorrectly, so if you get to the store on time and have to wait 20 minutes before you are able to start delivery the system measures your on time arrival from the time you start delivery. For instance, you arrive at 1245pm but are not able to start delivery until 105pm, 105pm is what shows up as your pick up time in your completed order section. PLUS, the 15 minute early window DOES NOT WORK AT ALL! So if your on time arrival starts plummeting that is why. I have been calling and emailing them for months but nothing has been resolved. And keep in mind if ANY OF METRICS drops to the red zone and stays there you are deactivated from the platform because of the THEIR algorithm incorrectly calculating the metrics. You can make a lot money but I would not recommend this gig app to anyone until more transparency is given on the metrics calculations and explanation on how the metrics is calculated.

So I was reading the review about having 29 deliveries for a $500 bonus needing 30. This was a huge issue k kept running into! I would be right there needing one more delivery and it would never come so basically I gave up on trying to reach the bonuses or my specific store took over 1 hour to load my car which made it impossible to reach the goals of the bonuses. Also, not to mention I am upset about having gotten deactivated with no real reason as to why!? I had all good metrics, I always made sure the customers groceries was accounted for (two times the store just throws stuff in the car and items rolled far under the seat & of course I returned them to the store). Two times the store put cracked eggs in my car and support just tells you to throw them out and Inform the customer. We’re not suppose to get out the car to watch them load according to the app but then happens? (Don’t make since). There has been 3 times I had random customers call me saying the app told them I delivered there groceries but they was not even any customer I had so not sure if that goes against me. Two times I pulled up to my actual customers houses and they was upset because again the app reflected the groceries was delivered and I had to show them my phone that I was not the one who marked that. Two times the app could not pick up I was actually at my customers home (in which I verified with the customer prior to leaving them). Three times orders dropped at like 9:30 and I picked them up but when arriving to the store they was either cancelled or the store didn’t answer the phone or bring the groceries out to me. A lot of situations where the app would say I have offers but nothing was there within literally seconds. Several times the app would freeze up so I had to cancel my order while at the store and reaccept it hoping it was still available. I’m sure there’s more issues but after relaying this to spark driver support they give you no reason why your deactivated due to privacy concerns……. They want you to appeal but you have no idea what or why your appealing for. I really enjoyed doing this in between classes at school and would be open all day and super late just to get deactivated and given no reason why! It’s like whomever deactivated you assumes you have bad intentions or something. I would not assume this as a full time job because at anytime you can get deactivated with no reasoning. I’ve read situations where it could be as little as a customer complaint or an employee complaint? I’ve never had conflict with either so I’m not sure what my reason could be.

App is very user friendly and simple to navigate. Everything is self explanatory. Access to make decent money if you want to. You can set your own schedule and work when you want to as well as be off when you need to be. Everything is in your control. You can be successful as long as you get your deliveries to the customer within the set delivery window. Not hard to do. Pretty simple and lots of opportunities to make money. Paid weekly on Tuesday’s. Come join and be a part of the Spark Walmart family.

Only thing I dislike about the delivery job is the long wait times at the store waiting for the order to be dispensed. Sometimes it varies from 10min to 30min and sometimes it’s 30min to 1hr before you receive your order.
Another downfall is sometimes you will be sent a delivery at per say 25 after that is ready to be picked up at 45 after so it’s a 20min window before you have to arrive at the store. What I do is since there’s always a long wait for your order I will immediately head to the location as soon as I receive the delivery offer and if the app doesn’t allow me to check in through the app I will call them and check in. So doing it that way and arriving 20 min before scheduled time allows you to head to the store, call and check in and usually by the time your able to start the trip your order is already being brought out and loaded into your car so your able to start your delivery immediately after starting the trip.

Another downfall is, you will receive some deliveries only paying out $6.50 and have 73 items to deliver and it’s going 10miles without tipping you anything. I think that is very disrespectful for anyone to ask of someone without tipping. It really is shameful when you get to the drop off location and seeing the type of neighborhood and nice home your delivering to, and no tip really disgust me. I’m sorry I don’t understand how some ppl can ask someone to do something for them and not be considerate enough to leave a reasonable tip for the driver that went out of their way to get out, & go pick up your things & bring them to your doorstep cause for whatever reason you couldn’t do it yourself. Remember some ppl use this as their primary income and depend on your delivery and tips are always a plus to show your appreciation. Better if you can tip in cash when they arrive so Uncle Sam doesn’t take a percentage but understandable if that’s not an option tipping is also available through the app and again is always appreciated as well.

Hope this helps others along the way as well as hope customers are able to see it as well to know how appreciated tipping is when doing this type of work.

Thanks & God Bless Everyone
Have a good one going forward. M

I have been delivering for Spark about 1 1/2 months now. I enjoy the freedom of the ability to make my own schedule. I appreciate being able to pick the zone I feel comfortable working. The money is okay, however it could be much better.

The communication and understanding of how the Sparks works with things that affect pay and metrics which affects the jobs we receive.

I have several questions and suggestions to make our pick up and deliveries more efficient and less frustrating. However, I don’t feel I have a contact that can answer them properly or in detail.

One suggestion would be to have an accurate diagram on our phones of the Walmart’s we do the shopping at. Not all Walmart’s are created equal or organized the same. This causes a delay to locate a product, which can cause a time delay for the customer and affect our metrics/pay.

Also a breakdown on our pay for having to sit for over a half an hour, store and Spark errors would be nice. I have been told that I get compensated by the Spark Support if I haven’t been loaded up with products in 20 minutes also 1/2 hour.

I was sent 3 express orders in one day. I got to the Walmart within minutes for 2 of the orders just to be informed that the orders wouldn’t be ready for a long time. The third order I arrived in 10 minutes was loaded up immediately and drive straight to the address. When I arrived my phone said the order was cancelled because it was a food order and there were refrigerated items in this order that could have gone bad.

I arrived at a Sam’s for my for delivery of the day at 7am and the worker from Sam’s told me sorry, but that order will not be ready for at least an hour. He recommended that I go Spark somewhere else for a couple of hours because they were so far behind.

Same day a Walmart worker informed me after waiting one hour that he recommended I go Spark somewhere else because they were slammed busy.

I had a delivery in a mall food court. It was 30 packages of sugar. They had a shopping cart for me to bring their items in. I had to go to their restaurant and get it. Then make two trips to bring them the sugar. This was quite a ways to walk in the delivery. First of all I wasn’t made aware of this and secondly there should be additional pay for this. I wasn’t sure what my responsibility was, but I took care of it anyway.

With that being said, I really do like the job overall. However, I feel the frustrations could be limited with a better/timely questions and answers system.

No one can give me an answer if I get paid or how much I am compensated.

Once again there are many little things that come up that are frustrating because there isn’t a go to to get solid answers to my questions.

I started with Spark a month ago and started getting offers frequently throughout the day. Made great money the 1st 2 weeks. 3rd week started very slow did not make hardly any money. 4th week did good but not great. Orders were sparse and far between. I start at 7-7:30 am and work until 8pm. Have gotten an announcement twice now that hours are extending to be able to offer more work but it then announced that will be delayed. This week (Monday) I received 3 orders today that I had to call customer service to end up having the offer cancelled because Walmart is running late by 2 hours due to orders still being “picked” prepared. This was after I waited an hour for 1st 40 mins for 2nd and 30 Minutes for 3rd. I was compensated $2.50 for waiting. I was also promised it would not affect my rating. We will see. Walmart employees began saying orders have been delayed due to still be “picked” which means the order isn’t ready! My problem with this is that if the status says READY then the order needs to be ready. This is greatly affecting drivers ability to be available to accept offers that are ready. Also there needs to be better communication between app (Spark) and Walmart! The many nice customer service specialists said they (Walmart) are not supposed to mark as READY until the order is complete and ready for pickup. Apparently this is some sort of violation the store can get in trouble for. However the 2 stores in my zone both have this problem the last few days. One worse than the other. Each store complains they don’t have enough help. I usually see at least 5 employees not including the ones shopping the orders. Bottom line Walmart appears to be over there head with orders they can actually fulfill ! Also I referred many friends for the referral incentive but the 3 that applied got as far as onboarding through DDI but have never received further communication. I applied through indeed and as I stated did exceptionally well the 1st couple weeks only to see a massive decline from what appears to be too many new drivers competing along with DoorDash, Uber, & Grubhub all being offered these deliveries in my area. If expansion is the concept then Walmart needs to hire more employees to handle the massive amount of orders they are taking (Delivery & customer pick-up) and since Spark is exclusive to Walmart then the other delivery services really shouldn’t be offered any of these deliveries. Last there really needs to be better communication between app and Walmart. Offers shouldn’t be sent out unless the order is TRULY ready. Overall fair experience, going to keep working it and see how it plays out for a while longer. Oh and on bonus days good luck getting any offers don’t know what the heck is going on with that.

It’s crazy that just early last year I thought Spark was the best gig app I worked for. Not anymore. So many things have gone completely wrong with this app. 1. Based being lowered. What I see these gig apps don’t understand is a job like shopping for someone where you’re constantly walking and lifting groceries for a person takes a lot out of you. How can you not pay someone a fair amount for this type of work. What’s worse is inflation is so high right now yet they’re lowering pay; like make it make sense. 2. A MAJOR ISSUE I’ve been seeing a lot of drivers and customers mention. The app either not having an option to tip on occasions or the TIP they know they added being removed. How does this happen. STOP MESSING WITH THE TIPPING SYSTEM & PEOPLE WANTING TO TIP. 3. They over-hired because of the Christmas holiday. I never understand apps doing this when they know that that many orders isn’t the norm. Here’s an idea for all the grocery gig apps, why not hire temporary drivers during the major Christmas holiday like UPS does. That way when things are back to normal, you have the regular drivers still left with some decent orders for the day. 4. The app always has a problem. The worst is when there’s a new update. An update is supposed to fix the previous issues, not make it worse. 5. Some of the metrics we as drivers have is ridiculous; why am I being penalized for rejecting an order that’s further away when if I take that order, my on time arrival rating will be affected; like make this make sense. No app should have an acceptance rating. I always find it completely pointless to have it working a contract job where I make the decision on whether or not I want to do the order. Another thing, why am I being rated by a customer for mistakes loaders make. Customers should not be allowed to rate when we didn’t shop the order because whenever I do shop the order myself, my ratings are higher. Which brings me to 6. Why not provide us with more shopping orders. It’s easier, more convenient and most of the time gets done faster than waiting for loaders. 7. Whoever is making some of these decisions for the new app updates should be fired. I loved seeing surges on the map. Why remove that. There should be a distance to the store update like idk 5 miles from each store where I can receive orders. I shouldn’t need to be in the store’s parking lot to receive an offer or be receiving offers that are at stores 10 miles away. There’s so much that can be done to improve these gig apps yet the companies refuse to do them. We’re the ones doing all the work so why aren’t we treated better and paid what we’re worth. I was gonna give the app 1 star but because it’s fairly easy to use, especially when shopping, I bumped it to 2 stars.

Their Rules and policies are shaping our youth’s opinions about these companies at younger age , so many bugs, or professional liars, your Delivery Showing Rate (How many deliveries it will allow you too see on your screen) on the offer screen is affected by your metrics while affecting your metrics, also the stores mark the deliveries “Ready” way before they are, and it goes against your metrics, they also take your tips, Most of my customers are very nice if they meet me but most of the time they never see me unless I’m on camera, and I almost never get the tip when it is warranted, here’s something, they have orders that can be delivered , but for some reason they can REPOPULATE back in the system thru the algorithm and have a driver wait hours and only get compensated $2 for time or equivalent gas spent waiting, also from the get, they had a nice feature where you could see your offers, your DELIVERIES accepted, and your DELIVERIES completed, now only offers and deliveries completed, cause when they used to change the pay or anything, you could go back under deliveries accepted and screenshot the original offers, now all are changes to EST pays, also they need to have a early bird program or system that can tell you how many deliveries are on standby while you are delivering another one with their location, pay , this app is not safe , because you only have seconds to accept a delivery , that doesn’t care if your driving , refueling or using the restroom, which also hurts your metrics, also the region I work is expanded over 30 mins away , and they want me to drive over 30 mins to pick up a $8-$15 extra trip that will push me further away from my area, that’s around 1hr and 10 mins driving no pay, will shut you off if you only accept certain trips like the close ones, almost like if the algorithm sees you make too much money, it won’t give you orders or give you far ones that they know you won’t accept and and then affect your metrics, When you call and talk to Customer Service they all act like caring ppl but tell you nonsense and say there’s nothing we can do, outsourcing customer service positions to different countries, they don’t work with their own partners Walmart Employees who are seriously under appreciated and overworked, I have taken screenshots, photos, videos, these workers really don’t care about Walmart Spark Drivers, For the Last 4 days I have been approached to load my own vehicle several times in a row on my cameras and Walmarts cameras, They watch and let ppl steal so we will shutdown, talkin bout they are covered , seems like eventuality all companies implode on each other cause there’s no TRANSPARENCY, there’s training ppl to ACT concerning, but not follow thru with reasonable solutions to actual problems , while inferring that the problem is being solved. I know I get requested because I’m actually thorough and nice to the elderly and handicapped and children, going extra mile for them while trying to promote a positive image for Spark Drivers, Just recently heard some ppl hate us and I would have never guessed.

Well, as a Daily Spark Driver since September I never took a day off or holidays off, I work at all times when I have the time I wanted to say thank for Walmart and thank ddi for the opportunity that’s help bring food to those who in need, but as a system is not sustainable and not understandable since Iam a driver works for spark in NJ store number is 5447, since I started in September I got deactivated 2 times without knowing or addressing the reason for the deactivation, and I have completed over 500 trip in these 2 month, also I did help Walmart associates sometime when they have orders that’s other drivers took and return, I got asked to deliver it again as a favor and I did it, every time I reach out to support about my deactivated I got that’s there is not reason for the deactivation and the first deactivation I got I was calling everywhere to address where the problem so we can work something together I always follow the rules and the guidelines, trying always to be the best as much as I can, after several time wait I got the reactivating in the first deactivation and still till today don’t know the reason why ?, the second deactivation on 11/24 I woke up at 9AM took the first trip at 9:45 AM and I keep taking offer till 6:45 PM that day, completed all my trip and went home after finished my work at 11 PM on that day I recently open my app to check if I got the holiday bonus and I found a massage says ( your account has been deactivated please contact driver support to reactivate it ) I did call driver support the next day on 11/25 and got response says that’s they don’t know why! And told me that’s they will open a claim for me so I can follow up with what happens, also keep in mind that I have to wait 7 days to receive an email from them, all this time waiting losing money and losing time for deactivation I got that am pretty sure I did nothing for... I work carefully and responsibly trying to be the best as much as I can ... ( addressed that there an issue that sometimes Walmart associates forget to shop for one item or too and when we deliver the customer the grocery and he check their items they call the driver back telling him that he took the item and report him that’s he is fraud the item and the spark deactivate the driver access for something that’s is not his fault ..) the next day they reschedule the same delivery only for the item that’s has been missed by the associates and the driver got deactivated which means he got fired for something he didn’t do, also the app says it’s no contact delivery which means place the bags carefully and take a photo of it in the app and notice the customer, also the customers are complaining about leaving the bags unattended and they report a bad service about the driver... so please try to workout something about this developers and team leaders, because the only one who gets hurt even by following the rules and by following the guidelines that you put is the driver for a fault that he didn’t make ... thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your hard work .

As a driver I would love to be able to provide more specific feedback, rather than thumbs up or down for an entire trip. It would take a few more moments to complete, but could result in major improvements.

Examples of thumbs or down categories:
Wait time at the store.
Associate that loaded your vehicle-how did they do? They get to rate us but we don’t get to rate them, not exactly fair.
Customer in the right delivery area (I’ve had several recently where I truly think it would be more efficient for them to be in the other stores area).
Interaction with customer-I haven’t had any bad experiences with customers, but it could happen.

Or get rid of thumbs up or down for the associate that loads your vehicle, and let us load our own vehicles! Right now due to COVID, I we’re supposed to stay in the drivers seat, we can’t see what the associate is doing. I get a lot of batched orders since I’m in a mini-van. I am responsible for making sure the correct customer gets the correct order. I am the one that doesn’t get a tip if something is missing because it fell into the other customers tote because the associate filled it too high. I am the one that doesn’t get a tip if the bread is smashed because the associate put it next to stacked 12 packs of soda pop, and they didn’t stay stacked in transit. Or if the eggs are cracked because the associate put them on the bottom instead of the top. The one that gets me, that the customer never sees-the bag with raw chicken on top of other items-including produce! I’m not sure the customers understand exactly how little control the drivers have over their orders! Those are all also valid reasons I could get a thumbs down for a delivery, even though it was nothing I did, or was in control of-and that can affect how many trips I get offered, but as long as associates load our vehicles, and get to rate us, but we don’t get to rate them-this will continue to be a problem.

I love that most trips I have an hour or two notice, occasionally I get a “drop and go” request, but I can plan.

I would also love to see for availability a checklist of times to check rather than scrolling to set custom availability, and even the option to check for example 9:45am-single only. Right now it’s confusing, for example if I need to be home by 10am, do I set it for 7am-10am, or 7am-9am, because I can’t do a 9:45am pick up. A checklist of hours would be easier.

The stores also need to enforce the rules. I watched the videos before I started, I’m a rule follower. I see other drivers with people in the vehicle with them-including their kids. I see drivers smoking in their vehicles while the order is being loaded and while they are driving off with a customers groceries.

I also don’t understand why I don’t get more daytime trips, I usually have 2-3 in a row first thing in the morning, and 2-3 at the end of the day, I’d love to work more. I’ve also noticed a decrease in trips when I’ve taken a day or two off. And if I’m not available, that’s when I’ll get daytime trip requests.

Overall, I really enjoy doing this, it’s flexible, and can make decent money.

I gave two stars, which is generous. Spark will not give you an option to cash out, even after your first week, which some drivers argue is because they don’t want their pay reduced because of the “Instant cash out” mentality of *other gig drivers, and that is ridiculous! If you have to wait all week for pay with these fuel prices and are still able to afford to drive hundreds of miles a day (in my state) - that’s pretty classist of you. The problem: Spark isn’t transparent about this fact. You will get a Branch Wallet and it’s more annoying than helpful! You can’t use the Branch Card very easily on purchases - like online payments - so you have to cash out (once a week!) with a fee. There is no other option, even if you read somewhere on the internet that you can cash out daily - YOU CANNOT. I felt misled. Spark wants you to be on time but you’re lucky to be loaded on time at Walmart. If you call them and check the status of a very late order, the associates with threaten to remove your order (which interferes with your metrics!) Walmart associates really make or break you with these orders. If they are having a bad day - so are you. Spark isn’t transparent about this either. Sure you can make decent money, but you will definitely not get paid when you need the gas money! If you live in a state where delivery areas are spread out and many rural communities, you will definitely need to have another “gig” to put fuel in your tank or you wait for LATE Tuesday afternoon “CT” even if you’re east coast, which is counterintuitive. Spark wants your car to be clean and the associates have a lot of power to undermine you if they don’t like you simply by saying your car is dirty (this didn’t happen to me but I did hear a women complain about her offers disappearing after words with one of the Walmart associates) So it’s pretty gamey from the start. If you want orders and you have good metrics, but don’t have any offers - chances are your local Walmart is to blame! This is again not something you are told when you sign up. Sure, they send lots of false positive emails and texts to get you to engage in long holiday weekend missions , “bonuses” and increased pay for rising GAS costs, and all that is is sales copy! You won’t get enough orders to qualify. You will see your pay once a week. You must stay on the good side of all Walmart associates (or you will be black balled) you must keep your metrics high , and at the end of 48 hours, you’ll find out exactly which trips you accepted that were nothing more than TIP BAITING. Oh and sign a NDA so they can continue to be a gross company. I am sure many love Spark, and get paid well. But there is no equal opportunity, it’s a classist system. It is for people that already have the $ to afford the gas to begin with. Spark has zero support, as well. If you are on an order and need help - good luck to you because the support is all but scripted and generic! They don’t actually know how to assist you and your specific needs. Spark is Walmart. So, if you know how they operate, and can use it for extra money, good for you. Don’t expect it to be a dependable source of income. It’s fleeting!

On numerous occasions the same Spark driver has made unwanted and grossly inappropriate sexual comments to females in the Polson MT Walmart. The latest incident was today. He has even gone so far as to follow the females to their cars in a stalking manner.
Female employees feel so unsafe when he is in the store that they will go on a bathroom break or triple up at the registers because he is so inappropriate.

This started on April 2024 and ended May 2024. As a former spark driver, I must inform the future spark drivers and current on the problem that needs to be addressed. There is at least one associate (Xilmara) that basically does not care about policies that Walmart incorporated had implemented to all Walmart stores in America. She is simply very self-centered and Moody to the point that she does not care about protocol. I will add that the policies state and I quote, “a driver is not allowed to leave the vehicle while the associate loads the customers vehicle.” The employee hands the drivers the stickers for the orders so that they may scan on their app for each order that they have before delivering to the customer. Unfortunately, this associate sometimes did not give the driver the stickers for the order, would leave the vehicle door or rear hatch open or both, and would walk away without saying a word. This associate has also falsely accused a few spark drivers including me of using foul language so that their spark accounts would be deactivated. I have also learned that the Lead (christine) of this Walmart seems to not care all the while turning their back on this issue. This has gone on from what I have learned for at least four months or even more. I have tried support and arbitration with no help. I have waited for 6 months also and no change. I hope you can help me. Thank you for any heklp you can give.

Here is the issue. We live in rural Nebraska but only 3 miles from the local Wal-Mart. The Spark drivers only use GPS navigation systems. They do not look at the numbered address that is on a person's property or on their mailbox. They deliver to the WRONG address because the GPS tells them to. I just purchased a year-long delivery service from Wal-Mart. I've ordered this way twice, and both times the driver had no idea where they were going. The first was a younger guy who admitted to me he did NOT look at the mailbox address, but just followed his GPS instructions. He delivered to an empty trailer house 1/4 mile from our home. THEN he had to come back and retrieve it and bring it here. The second driver, today, was an elderly man. He also complained about the GPS BUT said he drove right to our mail box - saw the numbers, could SEE that it was the right address, but the GPS told him to turn around. I tracked it this time. So I was able to call him and direct him to turn BACK around and head here. Someone needs to train these people. I sure don't want to have to deal with this in below zero weather, just to make sure my stuff gets delivered to MY address.

Dear Ones,

I hereby express my dissatisfaction and challenge the decision to disable my Walmart Spark Driver account unfairly and arbitrarily. I stress that such a measure was taken without any clarification or defence on my part being requested, which I consider a serious violation of the principles of justice and transparency.
Deactivation of my account has brought serious losses to my professional life, since I have been removed from my work, which I depend on financially. In addition, I sent emails seeking information about what happened, but did not receive any clear return or positioning.

It is also worrying that no concrete evidence has been reported to justify such action or to indicate whether there has been an appropriate investigation in the case, especially considering that I believe I am the victim of an unfounded and slanderous accusation.
Faced with the demonstrated disregard and the absence of responses to my attempts at dialogue, I inform you that I will take appropriate legal measures to seek redress for the damages caused by this decision, if there is no amicable and immediate resolution of the problem.

I reinforce my willingness to collaborate to clarify the facts and ask that this situation be reviewed urgently. I await a return within 7 working days, before proceeding with other legal actions.

Right from your attention, I say goodbye to waiting for an answer.
Attentively

At 6:38 central time on Friday February 23rd I spoke with a representative from the spark driver help center. He has documented our interaction, which he has explained this morning the spark application experienced a glitch causing the deactivation of hundreds of drivers accounts, mine included. But yet I’m still deactivated. No one seems to know what they are talking about. No one helps me with this issue. I spent hours trying to figure out the issue but yet it’s still not resolved. I was told to do an appeal, which I did yet nothing happened.

I verified my facial recognition and have never had problems in the past. Tonight I verified and my account was immediately deactivated. Why is this happening to me? I’m already going through so much. A loss of my best friend of 10 years and being in a car accident that totaled my car. Please, I’m literally begging you to help me. I don’t want to lose my place of living. My insurance and everything is up to date

I had to have shoulder surgery and went to log into my Spark driver app to work found out I was deactivated. I filed appeals and contacted driver support. They still have not given me a reason or a response. It’s been five months. I had surgery in August 2023 and was deactivated right afterwards. Apparently you can not have a medical issue working for Spark is all I can figure out. This is discrimination!

Horrible, unprofessional, and discriminatory. Spark deactivated my account after what I assume was a failed ID verification but who knows because they refused to tell me even what the reason was after four months of deactivation. I have called ,emailed , submitted appeals, and done exactly what they wanted, including waiting, patiently and not a single person has reached out. They deactivated me right before Christmas, which is severely inconvenienced my family. One agent I spoke with, told me that my appeal likely got lost and I should just submit another one since it had been over a month. Really?! This is a low even for Walmart. What’s even more bother some you have seem to have trouble identifying me which I think is a bit discriminatory.

I was Deactivated back in September 2023 they gave me No reason , Ive been with them since inception Then Uber deactivated me but they gave me the reason it was a county background check from checkr a non moving violation listed as criminal though a lowest level violation which was taken off , so now I have a clear background no points everything good but they will not reactivate me even though Uber has

I was a full time driver for Spark. Loved it, with minimal issues and used it to support myself and pay all my bills. Even recommended it to friends. Then one day out of nowhere, my account was deactivated and the only notice I got was that "a customer or store reported an item of their personal property missing during a delivery". As if I'm some type of petty thief! I had only done 2 deliveries thar day and one of them was to a woman in an assisted living facility which had a locked door and she wouldnt give the pass key to bring her order inside. It took a bunch of time and calls before I was finally able to get inside the building to deliver her order. I really suspect she's the one who lied and claimed an item of her personal property went missing, although I have no way of knowing for sure. As if I could've stolen something in the whole 15 second interaction while she was there watching me the whole time?!? I never even set foot in her room! How would I have stolen something? Absolutely appalling to be falsely accused like this and have no one at Spark even give a flip. I've never stolen anything in my life, and never will. I've wasted so many hours appealing, only to get a crappy, awful, uncaring text that I'm still deactivated 10 days later that really shows they didn't even remotely bother reading anything I spent so many hours sending them. I even offered to go to the police and let them search me and all my possessions, car, home, etc so they could try to find whatever ridiculous item it was that allegedly went missing, to clear my name. Absolutely horrific treatment on behalf of Spark. Can't tell you how disappointed I am.

There are Spark drivers who are out here they have not been through the Spark background check. They are using somebody else’s app. There non-document workers and different ethnicity. These could be people who are criminals or have been charged with sexual assault that are going to peoples homes. They are using robot apps to block people who have been approved to be Spark drivers. I have reported this to the company. The workers at Wal-mart and Sams are not asking these people for ID to check and see if this is the correct Spark Driver and the ones who do give ID give fake ID.

Per Spark policy, during identity verification, a driver has three attempts to submit a driver’s license and/or real-time photo verification. My account was deactivated during identity verification, but I was never asked to submit an image of my drivers license or take a selfie. I am the driver listed on the account and my drivers license matches the information listed on the account. Please allow me to complete the identity verification process as designed, and verify my identity with an image of my drivers license and selfie. Thank you so much for taking the time to review this issue, your help is invaluable.

The procedures of some of them they are following are not in favor of the drivers. Some of them are not treating the drivers in consideration the time and effort they are doing. Drivers are exposed to weather conditions. They are not considering if the drivers have a place to park and keep them on the line for 20 mts specific date 12/10/23

I had to call them several times due to inefficiency of the app

I received a text notification that my Walmart package was delivered on 12/2/2023 at 1:01 pm with a picture of it in my mailbox. Upon my arrival at my mailbox approximately 10 minutes later, I found the package missing. There was also another package missing that was delivered earlier by UPS. I have filed a police report for the theft. The Walmart order was placed on Dec. 1, 2023. Order number is 2000114-[protected] and was for a 4 pack of Apple Airtags at a cost of $79.99 plus tax.

My aunt/ uncle who lives in port charlotte had a spark driver that was very rude and obnoxious and threw the order in the porch and when spoken to about that she told them to “ do it themselves then” they asked her for her name to report her and she said her name was Joyce Lewis and that Walmart wasn’t going to do anything.

I haven’t been driving for spark for as long as some but I have a few months under me. I worked nonstop all through thanksgiving and Black Friday with no issues. I’ve never had a complaint. Never been late. Nothin. After the holiday weekend I went to log in and it wouldn’t let me. I chat and they said to change my password for some reason. So I did. Then I had to do face verification. I did that. It was accepted. The app then logged me out, I got back in and it wanted facial verification again. It would not accept my pictures. It logged me out and then deactivated my account. There is ZERO HELP with these situations. No customer service. Every email is ignored. The chat has no information and will not help in any way. This seems to be very common lately. It is completely unacceptable as a company to treat employees this way. They go against their own contract by not answering emails requesting arbitration or pre-arbitration. I would like my account back to help my family. I would like some explanation or Walmart to atleast follow their own process with the situation. This will be a lawsuit for them eventually for unfair practices.

I was given a job $40 for 1.5 hours of driving time.

I did nothing but deliver the items. It took 2.5 hours to deliver. They scammed me. They refuse to compensate me for my time. Customer service is a nightmare!

You just get transferred around and no one knows what they are doing. Not even management. One rep said my manager wanted to speak to me because I asked who oversees them...fcc?bbb?

She immediately said my manager wants to talk to you. That wasn't even true. I was blind transferred again.

Since calling ive talked to 3 managers and 9 reps. No one knows what they are doing. Horrible company which I will no longer be working for. I'm going to every social media platform to expose the scam so others aren't hurt in this.

I'm a single mother that was diagnosed with cancer a year ago... im trying to make extra money for bills. They took advantage of me.

On November 20, 2023, I logged into my Spark Driver App to take deliveries, but was given a notice that my Spark account was deactivated, but there was no reason given. The app tells you to call into support to get the reason for deactivation, but the representative couldn't find a reason. She then put me on hold to get her manager, and the manager informed me that she also couldn't find a reason. I was told to appeal anyway, and if I didn't hear anything back to contact tier 2 support. Well, I did that and tier 2 support was no help as he advised me that they don't know the reason and the department that handles appeals has not way to be contacted internally. This has to be the most unprofessional and frustrating experience.

I woke up on Friday Nov 10, 2023 my account deactivated. Walmart 301 was so far behind Thursday November the 9th in the afternoon and I kept accepting orders and cancelling these orders, while I was at Walmart because the orders weren't even close to being ready, because they were in the picking stages. I guess I accepted the orders too many times and collecting the 2.00 show up fee. I didn’t realize what i had done. I was just in my normal routine accepting and canceling orders because they weren’t even close to being ready. Walmart 301, earlier in the day was also canceling my orders on my behalf or changing them from a 3 order trip to a 1 order trip because they were behind. I wasn’t trying to manipulate the system in my favor. I truly was trying to accept orders that came through but all the orders were behind . I kept accepting these orders because I figured they were close to being ready and I was wanting to get the order. I would be fine with you guys taking back all the 2.00 show up fees and reinstate me. I don't know what i was suppose to do in this situation.

Also, when I tried to send the appeal form with my reinstatement reason, the submit button wouldn’t finish processing (the hourglass never ended it just kept spinning). It never showed that I had submitted my reason. So I never knew if I had successfully sent the appeals form.

I’m a very hard worker and my metrics are in good shape…WM 301 is very challenging to work for when they are often behind. Please reinstate me as this is my lively hood. I do feel like if WM had the orders ready we wouldn’t

have been in this predicament. However, I do realize there are busy times

and I will try and work with them on being behind. I want u guys to know that I wasn’t trying to trick the system and just get the 2.00 show up fee.

The 2.00 fees are not what I’m after. I’m after legitimate orders. The

2.00 fees are just enough to get me in trouble …I would be fine with just deleting that part for the future. Again take all the 2.00 show up fees off. Please reinstatement me as soon as possible …I really really enjoy driving for spark and would hate to be finished.

On October 17th I attempted to log into my Spark app to make deliveries. When I logged in there was a screen that popped up that said I needed to do my identity verification. I did not have my driver's license with me so I had to run back inside and grab it when I came back out the screen now said that my identity verification was being processed. About an hour later it allowed me to get back on but my screen again said that I needed to do my ID verification. I attempted to do this I took a picture of the front of my license the back of my license and then was in the middle of the 3D face recognition when it kicked me out and went back to the screen that said I had to do my ID verification again so the same process as I had just done I had done again. This time when it kicked me out it said that my account was deactivated. I immediately called customer care who advised me to file an appeal which I did they told me at the time it would be 2 to 5 business days before I heard anything back. After I waited the two to five business days and hadn't heard anything I call and that's what I was told 7 to 10 business days.I've made several phone calls to customer care over the last basically month trying to get this resolved to no avail. I've spoke with supervisors I've been told when she file an appeal not to file another one. I've been told that you have to file by email. I've been told you have to file on the website. I've been told that if you file another appeal after you've already filed one haven't heard anything back then it just kicks your original appeal to the end of the line and you have to start the waiting process all over again. Finally I'm on November 4th I decided to go ahead and submit another appeal after I was instructed to by one of the workers on the customer service line. As of yet I have still not received any response no text messages or emails from anyone advising me on what happens next or why my account is actually suspended. When my account was suspended I hadn't also not received an email advising me why there was no notifications in my app advising me why not when I log into the DDI advising me why my account was deactivated I'm just assuming there was the ID verification since I was in the middle of that. I'm the original customer service lady I spoke with said that it could have been because my app wasn't on the current version. I think that if this is the way they want to do things and they want to do the idea to verification that's great but they need to have a better way to resolve problems like this. I was also informed that we might be able to take this arbitration because that's what it says in our contract as a way of handling discrepancy is like these. So I've also emailed the arbitration Department asking for a pre-arbitration phone conference and I have also not heard back from them I did that last week. I've been in contact through phone calls through emails and it seems like the process is just getting me nowhere. Today I spoke with another supervisor who gave me a number for the driver applicant support and said that they would be able to help me because they can pull up my driver's license my insurance and all of that information when I called that number they told me that I have to go to the active driver line that they couldn't help me I asked to speak with the supervisor there and she got back on and said that it would be one to two hours before I could speak with the supervisor they were in a meeting. I feel this is very unfair especially since I've never been notified as to why my account was deactivated I'm believe there should be a certain line you can call just for that reason to find out why your account is deactivated you should also have the opportunity to resolve any matters. I started driving for approximately a year ago my metrics are good all of them are in green I've never had any issues. Since I had been making decent money while driving for spark I decided to enroll myself into school so I can complete the credits needed to receive my master's degree. Now here I am and it's my second payment is due and I have no idea how I'm going to pay it not to mention it's the holidays and I also plan to use money from driving for spark to purchase Christmas for my four children and 2 months before Christmas they deactivate my account with for no obvious reason and give me a timeline of 7 to 10 days for this matter to get resolved yet here I am a month later and still nothing's happening. I find this to be very unprofessional behavior from a corporation as big as Walmart is it's sad really.

Claimed Loss:

Loss of wages of at least $300 plus a week, unable to make my monthly college tuition payment, emotional distress with holidays approaching and unable to earn money to purchase Christmas for my 4 children is extremely overwhelming and stressful to say the least. Getting unbearable anxiety over being embarrassed at school when I am asked about my late monthly payment so choosing to just skip class to avoid having to tell the staff at school that I don't have this months payment. At least my bank where I got the loan for my books can just call or send notices in the mail.

Desired Outcome:

A response and update on my situation as well as my account being reactivated would be a great start. A fee to compensate me for some of the wages I have lost do to this would be a great way to show appreciation to contractors going through similar situations that are avoidable espwcially at this time of year. Not only is the money needed this time of year but the earnings are better because it's busy during the holiday season. A change in policy making a notice be sent to advise you of the reason for you deactivation, the opportunity to be heard before account is deactivated to prevent incidents that can be quickly resolved with a video call or phone call. Access to the appeals department by at very least th supervisors at the call center so they are able to get an update on your appeal after the 7 to 10 days if you have not been contacted. An alternative way to do your Identity Verification especially if you had an issue with the third party AI app in charge of verification.