Instacart Driver Left a Customer’s Groceries in the Heat, Then Requested a Bigger Tip

A doorbell camera caught something an Instacart customer never expected to see twice. First, the driver dropped off the groceries. Then she rang the bell again, not to fix a mistake, but to ask for more money. The customer had already tipped $12 before the order even started. Behind the driver, grocery bags sat baking in direct sunlight on the porch, untouched the entire time.

The roughly 30-second clip, posted on X by user @TheEXECUTlONER_, shows the driver standing on the porch while on her phone. She can be heard asking whoever answered the door, “Sweetheart, can you ask if somebody could put some extra on my tip?” She repeated the request a second time before finally stepping away from the property, leaving the groceries exactly where she’d set them.

It remains unclear whether the driver received any extra payment before leaving. As Daily Dot first reported, the account that posted the footage pointed directly at the groceries sitting in full sun, calling out that they weren’t even placed in the shaded part of the porch. The post asked viewers a blunt question: would they have increased the tip after watching this, or wiped it out completely?

Viewers Split Between Sympathy and Fury Over the Doorbell Request

Reactions to the video split fast. Some viewers focused on the driver’s audacity for asking twice after already receiving a generous tip. Others admitted they might have handled the situation differently if the driver had simply moved the bags into the shade first. The debate spread across comment sections, with strong opinions on both sides of the tipping culture argument.

One commenter said they would have met the driver halfway. “I would of asked her to get the groceries out of the sun and would of given the $12 tip,” they wrote, misspellings included. Their comment framed the neglected groceries as the real complaint, ranking it well above the driver’s request for extra money.

Another commenter shared a separate delivery horror story involving a seafood order left several blocks from the correct address during summer heat, which required a refund. The same commenter also criticized drivers delivering for Walmart’s Spark platform, alleging address mix-ups and broken bottles from careless handling. Those specific claims about Spark drivers could not be independently verified.

Instacart Shoppers Earn as Little as $7 Per Batch Before Tips

The incident reignited a familiar conversation about gig economy pay. Instacart shoppers typically earn between $7 and $10 per batch before any tip is added, according to Gigs Done Right. That structure leaves many drivers relying heavily on customer generosity to make a shift worthwhile, which some viewers said explains, without excusing, the doorbell tip request.

Doorbell tip requests are not part of Instacart’s official process. The company has no policy that encourages or supports shoppers asking customers for extra money in person after a delivery is complete. Instacart had not issued a public statement addressing the viral clip as of publication, leaving the driver’s actions unaddressed by the platform itself.

Some viewers had no patience for the pay-pressure explanation. “Hell no, I’d zero that tip out in a heartbeat and report her to Instacart,” one commenter wrote, adding that leaving the bags “baking in the sun” before asking for more money amounted to entitlement. Their message was direct: do the job right, or don’t expect anything extra.

The Video Joins a Pattern of Viral Tip Requests From Gig Workers

This is not an isolated case. A North Carolina family’s doorbell camera recently caught a different Instacart shopper asking for extra money after already receiving a $17 tip, an amount most viewers called generous on its own. That video, reported by The Nerd Stash, sparked the same wave of frustration over shoppers pushing for more once the delivery was already done.

Together, the videos point to a pattern rather than a one-off mistake. Doorbell cameras have made these in-person tip requests visible in a way they never were before, turning private awkward moments into public debates about fairness, pay, and where the line sits between asking for support and asking for too much.

The groceries left baking in the sun turned what might have been a minor tipping disagreement into a clear-cut case for most viewers. Asking for more money is one thing. Doing it while ignoring the order still sitting in the heat erased any sympathy the driver might have earned. For this delivery, the extra tip request cost her the goodwill she was hoping to gain.