Spark customer orders groceries online. Then allegedly threatens to report driver for refusing to enter her home: ‘Been a member for five years’

Going on delivery runs isn’t easy, as drivers often find themselves dealing with unexpected interactions with customers. But for one Spark driver, she claimed a simple order drop-off ended with a customer threatening to report her because she refused to enter their home.

“Customer withholds passcode & tries to report Spark driver,” @soothiickk wrote on-screen in a video that has garnered over a hundred thousand views on TikTok. According to the content creator, who works part-time as a driver for Walmart’s shopping and delivery app Spark, she delivered several bags of groceries to an elderly woman’s home. However, the delivery turned into a “weird experience” when the woman allegedly refused to provide the code needed to mark the delivery as complete.

In the video, Soothiickk approached the woman and asked for the code, a feature enabled by the customer themselves, but was instead asked if she would carry the delivery inside the home. Soothiickk apologized and told the woman she was not comfortable doing so, to which the customer responded, “I’m not comfortable giving you the passcode,” before claiming that is what the code was used for.

Spark does not allow its drivers to enter homes

Soothiickk apologized again, explaining that she would have to return the items if a code could not be provided due to Spark’s policy. “I’ll call the office. Set them wherever you want, and I’ll call and report,” the woman said. “I’ve been a member for five years.”

According to Spark’s Driver Contract and App Terms of Use, drivers are strictly prohibited from entering a customer’s home or the non-public areas of a business during a delivery. However, this restriction does not apply to public or common areas, such as reception areas or lobbies.

In cases where a customer specifically requests that a driver enter their home to drop off orders, such as through delivery instructions or notes on the Spark app, the company still prohibits drivers from entering the residence. The policy states that drivers are only required to comply with the requests if it is “reasonable, safe, and do not conflict with Applicable Laws, Service Level Standards, or these Terms of Use.”

In a brief update, Soothiickk told viewers she felt “the vibes were off” when she arrived to make the delivery, alleging that the woman insinuated she had taken an ice cream before telling her to “bring the stuff in,” which is when she recorded the video afterward. She said she also contacted Spark after the incident, and the company apologized for the customer’s behavior, assuring her that she had acted appropriately.

The dispute ultimately ended with the woman, whom Soothiickk described as “rude,” giving her the four-digit code when she began collecting the items to return them to Walmart. While Soothiickk lost a $2 tip, she hoped the woman learned a lesson from the incident: “Be a bit nicer to service workers and don’t demand people to do things for you. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ go a long way.”

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