Class Action Accuses Insomnia Cookies of Pocketing Delivery Drivers’ Tips

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An Uber Eats driver claims in a proposed class action that Insomnia Cookies has been pocketing tips meant to be passed on to drivers.

The 13-page lawsuit says that when Insomnia Cookies, who sells cookies at over 100 locations across the U.S., is short on its own delivery drivers, it relies on third-party services such as Uber Eats to deliver orders to customers. When Insomnia Cookies pays the delivery service for the orders, however, it fails to pass on the tips left by customers for drivers, the complaint claims.

The plaintiff, an Uber Eats driver who delivered for Insomnia Cookies’ Auburn, Alabama location, claims to been owed at one point last year more than $400 in unpaid tips. Even after communicating with the company’s executives, the plaintiff has yet to be fully paid for tips taken by Insomnia Cookies, the suit says.

“Through his exhausting efforts raising this issue time and again with Insomnia Cookies, Plaintiff was reimbursed some – but not nearly all – of the tips he earned on Insomnia Cookies deliveries,” the complaint alleges. “Because of Insomnia Cookies’ actions, Plaintiff and other similarly situated individuals have been cheated out of their hard-earned pay – tips that customers believed were going to Plaintiff and putative Class members as a compliment for their services.”

The lawsuit relays that through Uber Eats’ arrangement with the defendant, Insomnia Cookies is considered a customer of the delivery service. When Insomnia Cookies cannot fulfill orders using its own delivery drivers, the company sends a request to Uber Eats to pick up the order and deliver it through the Insomnia Cookies platform. Per the case, payment for the order is made to Insomnia Cookies, who then pays Uber Eats for the delivery.

The plaintiff, who started off as a Postmates driver before the delivery company was acquired by Uber Eats in December 2020, says he reached out to Postmates in late August of that year, explaining that he had made 61 deliveries for Insomnia Cookies between August 11 and 18 for which he had not received any tips. In response, Postmates “ignored [the plaintiff’s] request for an audit” and assured him that the platform does not keep drivers’ tips, the suit says. By August 31, the plaintiff had made 93 deliveries for Insomnia Cookies, 90 percent of which listed tips on the receipts, and still had not received any tips, the suit claims.

After being referred by Postmates to Insomnia Cookies, the plaintiff was told by the manager of the store for which he made deliveries that the company “had been having issues with Postmates, including fee glitches,” according to the complaint.

The issue remained unresolved as the plaintiff “spent months going further up the chain of command at Insomnia Cookies” before finally communicating with the company’s director of operations and vice president of people, the suit relays.

Per the case, the plaintiff was ultimately reimbursed for some of the more than $400 he says he was owed in unpaid tips for Insomnia Cookies deliveries.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who made deliveries while working for a third-party delivery service, such as Uber Eats or Postmates, for orders placed directly through Insomnia Cookies and who did not receive the entire tip paid by an Insomnia Cookies customer for the delivery.

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