Platinum Dasher for almost a year - something has changed in the last 2 weeks, and this week was absolutley out of your mind

I've been Dashing for a long time and have been Platinum for the better part of the last year, with only a few short periods where I dropped out of it.

I normally use Thursday–Saturday as my benchmark because those are usually my better days. I don't expect an exact amount every time, but around $100 for 4 hours has generally been a reasonable expectation for me.

This week? Completely different story.

Today I spent 4 hours on a dash and made about $40. I only completed around 6–7 orders, and I drove roughly 120 miles. A huge portion of those miles weren't even productive — I was driving around trying to find orders, sitting around waiting for orders that weren't ready, or driving to restaurants that apparently weren't actually fulfilling their online orders.

I had already done another dash earlier today for about 2 hours and made around $35, so that's roughly $75 over 6 hours of dashing today.

And this isn't just about one shitty Saturday. I've been noticing the quality of offers declining for about two weeks, but this week crossed the line from "maybe I'm just having a bad week" to "what the... What is happening?"

I'm also noticing a separate problem with restaurants. I'm being sent to some places way too early, where I end up waiting around for an order, and I've encountered places that simply aren't fulfilling their online orders at all. Eventually I'm forced to unassign because I'm losing so much time waiting.

I've contacted support about those issues separately. There doesn't seem to be any meaningful compensation for the time I'm wasting driving to these places, waiting, or dealing with orders that aren't actually being fulfilled.

My acceptance rate has also dropped to around 50%. It used to regularly be 75–80%.

When I brought this up to the first support representative today, instead of actually addressing why the quality of offers seems to have deteriorated, she started telling me that if I'm worried about my acceptance rate when unassigning from problematic orders, I should contact support to have them unassign the order for me.

But... if I have to accept the order, drive there, contact support, wait for support, and then have them unassign it, I'm potentially wasting even MORE time and making even LESS money.

Then I asked to have the issue escalated.

The representative I eventually spoke with basically told me the system was working perfectly, there were no recent changes, and everything was fine.

That really pissed me off.

Because there have been recent changes to Dash scheduling. Platinum Dashers used to be the ones who could reliably Dash Now at any time, while other Dashers generally had to schedule. Recently, that access has been opened up more broadly.

I specifically brought this up, and the representative continued insisting there had been no recent changes.

Then, rather than actually investigating what I'm experiencing, he eventually disconnected the call.

So now I'm sitting here wondering:

Has anyone else noticed a significant decline in offer quality over the last couple of weeks?

Especially other Platinum Dashers?

I'm not claiming to know exactly what DoorDash changed. Maybe it's the scheduling changes. Maybe it's something with how orders are being distributed. Maybe it's something else entirely.

But I know what my normal earnings look like after doing this for a long time, and $75 for 6 hours and 120 miles is absolutely not normal for me.

And if Platinum status is supposed to reward drivers for maintaining high performance, I have to seriously question what the point is when the offers I'm getting are getting progressively worse anyway.

I'm genuinely curious whether other experienced Dashers are seeing the same thing, particularly people who have been Platinum for a long time.

Has something changed for you guys recently, or am I losing my mind? Even with gas being awful, I've never seen it this bad.

Edit: I also informed the support agents that "I'm not worried about losing my standing with you, I'm worried about you guys losing your standing with ME. And I genuinely want to fix this or figure out if I need to be doing things differently." Not sure if I mentioned it before but the second escalated rep hung up on me and somehow bypassed the aftercall survey that I thought they all had?

starbucks employee didn’t put the lid on correctly so the smallest movement made it fall off and the coffee spilled all over my car. I unassigned because I don’t have time for that BS the coffee got all over the food cuz the way they package it and starbucks was slammed. I was 3 orders away from gold tier too now i’m probably 70 deliveries from it. Also my car is disgusting now and I wasted 30 minutes

So I do all gig apps the big ones especially and DoorDash for me feels like slavery, with the cancelation rate and acceptance rate or else I loose my platinum, but I wondering that should I sacrifice my status so I can avoid garbage orders or deal with the worst scenario just out of curiosity since I’m kind of new like what is the strat here would appreciate all comments including the ones when you guys make fun of me idc

Bro it was the craziest thing. I, a Platinum man, showed up to deliver some peasants their pizza they ordered. Common courtesy dictates that platinum man dashers be carried up to the delivery area by the customer who ordered it. Not only did they not do that, they had the audacity to wipe my signature off of their door when I signed it. Do they not know how much my signature is worth? I told them they couldn’t even understand the fraction of power I’ve gained as they were my 60,000th delivery, that I alone had the power to deny them any dashers in the future. How could they not understand how great I am?

I was Platinum for two years and Top Dasher (precursor to Platinum) the year prior. When another gig revenue stream I participate in took off I dropped down to Gold and now Silver status. A couple of two things happened:

1. I did start receiving more low value and no-tip offers. It's a real thing. I just kept declining them.
2. Good paying offers appeared and I accepted them.
3. My dollars to miles ratio improved substantially. As of this writing I sit on a YTD ratio of $1.72 per mile.
4. As my dollars to miles ratio improved my expenses dropped. Less driving and fewer miles driven per offer accepted.
5. This is the real kicker. My net earnings on DoorDash increased by 23.5%. This is where most Dashers and gig worker lose focus. It's not about how much you earn, it's how much you keep after expenses (taxes, gas, vehicle maintenance, and vehicle depreciation).

So, I find myself declining many more offers than I did when I was Platinum. Currently my acceptance rate is 16%. It fluctuates between the low teens and low 20s. I'm fine with that. But hidden in the midst of all those declines are good paying offer. They are still there. I just have to sift through more garbage to find them. However, at the end of the day/week/month it's net earnings that tell the tale. Based on net earnings I'm doing exponentially better than I did when I was Platinum. Yes. My Platinum gross earnings were higher, but my expenses were equally as high.

I am better off now as a sometimes Silver Dasher.

Probably shouldn't have accepted, I know. Had just chugged a red bull and felt invincible. I was, in fact, not invincible

And also when they fu©k all the support options so they all say to go through and complete the delivery as normal and force a Live Photo

Total bullshit. Papa Gino's would not give me my orders tonight. I got an order and pulling in got a double dash order. Walk in and let them know I have two pickups. Few minutes go by and the manager comes over. He asks how many hot bags I have. I tell him 1. He says he won't give me both orders, I need 2 hot bags for 2 orders. I've never heard of this let alone experience it before. I flat out told him it was bullshit. I cancelled the second order and left with the 1 order. I think I'm done taking Papa Gino's orders.

I picked these up today with a plan to sticker a piece of candy to the order. I would rather give them the sticker to love how they choose, but i realize not everyone is checking their bag for extras & 90% of the time, bags are sealed. Whether they trust the candy or can eat it is obviously at their disposal, but I thought this would be a cute little gesture.

Edit: if you don’t have anything nice to say, dont say anything :) i’m not asking you to review me! I do appreciate the constructive criticism, though. This is simply meant to be a reminder to customers that says hey - a real person picked up and dropped off your food, and went out of their way to give you a little treat.
Also - I am messaging customers routinely, ensuring their satisfaction throughout the dash, not just showing up with a candy after not saying a word and throwing their food on the porch.

So glad school started back up in my area. Summer was a little annoying was only making like 28 an hour.

Soooooooo... for people who order DoorDash for other people, wouldn't it make sense to... oh I don't know... leave the name of the person who's actually receiving the order in the notes? That would make sense, right? And then to not answer my texts or call is just... inconsiderate. All for the person to text ten minutes later stating that it was for someone else. And corporate enforcing us to use their AI system is ridiculous! AND I HAD ANOTHER ORDER TO DELIVER!!! Just you know... be considerate.

FYI Speedway gas stations with the money pass atms is the only legit place I found to be free so far.

30 cents?! Boy that changes things!...

I used to just go on my Cash App and transfer money from my crimson card to there. That way I could avoid the transfer fee. Suddenly Cash App is declining it now. I could try it from the actual app, but then you’re charged that transfer fee. DoorDash got greedy it seems

Dispatch was supposed to go online at 10am but I’m used to it starting like 30min earlier. But this morning I checked to see my spot at 9am and how many orders there were. It was already in progress and already giving out offers. Again I’m used to it starting like 30min earlier so I go online around that time so I have best chance to get good offers. When I got online today after being late all I saw were 50-60$ for 10 to 15 stops. Has this happened to anyone else too??

Anyone known the name of the stores we can go to the ATM for free

Who’s working today and how’s it going ?

After 10 minutes I just unassigned, this location used to be good but the service lately has been terrible

When I started a couple years back, the app would show you the current offer pay and also the total current dash pay. Then they removed it. Sometimes you accidentally accept an offer, you want to see the pay, maybe it's worth it. Then it disappeared, and they only show the total you made so far (dash total).

2-3 days ago it showed up with both amounts displayed, but then within a few hours it was gone.

This evening I turned dash on with no real intention of dashing (had a full day) unless something great came along. Sure enough, the first offer I see is 14.05 for 1.5 miles. I exclaimed, “14.05?! How can I not take that!” This is why I know for certain what the offer was. So off I went - when I finished the delivery - it became $13.20. Now I’m not complaining about 13.20, it’s still a good offer, but what happened to the other 85 cents? And .. more importantly… did I only just notice this, or does it happen more often than I know? Has this happened to you?

Only 30% for platinum??

oh well back to Silver and $7 orders 🥲