Instacart’s earns a 1.1-star rating from 470 reviews, showing that the majority of customers are dissatisfied with grocery delivery service.
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Delivery driver tried to intimidate elder customer into accepting unauthorized substitutions, instagram refused refund
8/22/2020: I first contacted instacart about a full refund on 7/22/2020, the same day the order was placed, and they finally responded today that it was "too late." the reason for the full refund is based on an emotionally abusive encounter with the driver over items the driver picked to replace items that were out of stock. The substitutions were unauthorized and the driver refused to take them back. (the driver probably thought she could get away with it because the customer is an elder/senior citizen.) the driver was mean and intimidating and showed a lack of respect or deference to the customer. The customer refused delivery on the entire order, but the driver refused to take it back. Also, although all of the text conversations were documented on instacart's order page, they were not considered by instacart, and the full refund was refused.
Delivery and items ordered
I have ordered from Instacart several times and today was worst. I asked the grocery delivered to the back door. It was storming all day and instead of placing the groceries under shelter they were left outside. All box are torn. Half the food was combined with another order from weeks ago and half the food wasn't delivered. So, I don't know what to do. I spend a lot of money every week. $100-$250. Today was $280.00. So, I want a photo of everything that is being delivered. Also, a receipt showing what was purchased. I will give this one more time but if other issued that's it.
Cindy Holman
[protected]@comcast.net
[protected]
Account deactivation
When shopping for groceries online at Costco, my account was deactivated. Apparently the card I used did not have enough money on it. Another possible issue is that I use a VPN, and a red flag may have went up because my IP address did not match my location. In any event, VPN's are common, and should be understood by such a large company. Inadequate funds on a card are not a reason to shut down my service. I use Costco exclusively, and use social security and unemployment cards. Deactivation of my service at Costco is a hardship for me, I do not drive and depend upon online service. The imbeciles at customer service stated I had to scan and send via email my CREDIT CARD and DRIVERS license to prove who I am, dispite the fact that I provided all information they asked me for on the phone. This is harrassment. I am consulting lawyers this week to determine my position for a lawsuit. They have clearly e4xtended their authority to screw me, as well as Costco, who will loose all my business for life because of a poor decision my an [censored] at Instacart.
You got more of an explanation than I did. I have a $200 gift card in the account they refuse to reactivate and I've been trying for a month to get my money back. They cancelled my account and gave me zero explanation other than to review their terms.
On the BBB website there were a few others that complained about the exact same scenario as myself all in the last week. Clearly this is how they are making money now, by stealing it from customers who can't afford to not have it. That was my grocery money for the month. I'm not at all exaggerating when I say I have been going days without food because I don't have the funds to buy anything. It's sickening.
please share your outcome of this. as the issue is the same as my experience
it's discrimination from IC and the actions I have been asked to support from IC make it look like fraud from inside IC.
I did have similar experience on a day where Instacart had $50 out of $150 promotion. The "Instacart Trust and Safety Team" cancelled my order, deactivated my account due to "unusual activity" on my account. The nature of this activity wasn't explained to me. This disabled my ability to make purchases on sameday.costco.com (normal Costco online delivery is not available for perishable items) I contacted Costco customer service and BBB. Instacart asked me to send them a copy of my ID and credit card without revealing the privacy portions of either document. And then, they changed that to picture of those documents by the phone ! Not everyone has smart phones, not everyone is able to take pictures with their phone and know how to load that on to their webpage ! And they don't offer the missing promotion to be applied even if I do what they told me to do.
Besides, there are better ways to prove ID than taking pictures of ID and credit card and loading them to web pages. Unless Instacart is using this security tool as a way to discriminate against certain customers.
Missing items i've paid for
I have tried to go inside the store to complain about my missing items but I was told I have to contact inscart about my missing items.
I recently purchased groceries over the weekend, and it seems I ahve been missing thhings from my order, such as, Stater brothers papertowels, and various snacks. I shop at the store weekly, and this is a disappointment to say the least. I would like ot know what can be done about this, and how we can fix it because I like Instacart, but, I do not like the fact that I am missing items lately.
Thank You,
Anita Martinez
I work for instacart and you need to contact them and they will refund the items for you. I, like many drivers, take a lot of care to please the customer and make sure they get excellent service. There is an incentive to do this because our instacart ratings affect the quality of batches that we see. Poor ratings equal very low paying batches. I'm sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, this problem works both ways. Those of us that are honest and hardworking live in fear that a dishonest customer will tell instacart that items are missing when we know they are not. Sad to say it happens on both sides. I hope you can get the problem resolved with instacart.
Best,
T
Account deactivation
There was an incident of property damage when I was delivering groceries. I had backed into a brick wall but it wasn't destroyed. The customer submitted a complaint to Instacart and my account was promptly and permanently deactivated.
I understand I caused some property damage. but do I really need to lose my only source of income over this? I really needed this job and it's 2020 during the pandemic, loaners are giving grace periods, landlords aren't kicking out tenants but instacart is deactivating shoppers who are honest and hardworking just trying to scrape by.
Instacart from nob hill
I've been very happy with Instacart until today. Obviously Jacob hasn't shopped much. For 3 cans of diced tomatoes I got 3 small cans of tomato sauce. For a 15 oz tub of margarine I got 2 pounds of margarine and for Norwegian wild caught salmon I got Alaskan farm raised. Instacart refunded the money, but as a senior who is trying to stay away from Coved 19, a refund doesn't cut it. Now I have to go to a store and get these items which is why I have Instacart.
Delivering with instacart
Hi I had a problem today delivering groceries to an address that was totaling wrong I could'nt even get pass the gate because the lady said that the address did'nt exist. So I called and texted the customer no answer I chatted with customer service and she said to donate the groceries or return them to the store. Meanwhile The groceries are late to be delivered I can't get ahold of anyone very frustrating and icecream is melting. Finally 1 Hour later after I hit the delivered button to return groceries finally the customer reaches out to me with the correct address and I was able to deliver groceries to them but instacart charged me a late fee which is rediculous and for all that agrivation they only paid me $6.50 what a bunch of crap who knows what shopping rating I got which clearly was not my fault
Not delivering order
I ordered 30 cases of water. The shopper delivered 1 case and said it too much to deliver the other 29 cases. I was charged $8.99 delivery fee and $2.00 service fee. I complained to customer service and they had me place another order and gave me a credit for delivery and service. Great, except the second delivery was cancelled by the shopper because it was too much work. They stated the product was out of stock. I called the store and confirmed it was NOT out of stock. I called customer service again. they arranged for another order to be delivered an hour later. Again, the shopper texted me to say it was too much effort for what he was being paid and cancelled the order. I was hung up on twice before I got someone who told me they would have a supervisor call me back. 2 hours and still no call. This is the worst service I have ever experienced. I think hades will freeze over before I ever order again from Instacart...WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
Grocery delivery
Instacart overcharged me over $9 in a single order by claiming in the e-mailed receipt that some of the grocery items were more expensive than they actually were. I agreed to pay a 5% service charge and 5% driver tip but never agreed to pay more for each grocery item than it actually costs. I encourage you all to demand the register receipt from the grocer. Don't trust their itemized e-mail receipt. Compare the two and call them out if there's a discrepancy. This should be a class action lawsuit.
Hi Bob, it is instacart's policy that the drivers do not give the receipt to the customers because you are emailed a receipt. I work for instacart and it sounds like you had a very inexperienced shopper. Weighted items such as produce and meat can cause your order to increase if the shopper gets more than the weight requested by the customer, but typically they are required to be weighed at the store and there is a warning that pops up telling the shopper the weight is too much. However, multiple items that are weighed and are over in incremental amounts can also add to the cost but not flag the shopper. In addition, if the shopper makes substitutes for items that are not in stock and gives you a more expensive item your total will go up. However, if you watch your phone, all substituted items will stay in a review queue where you can reject them, request a different substitute, or request a refund while the shopper is in the store. Alas, if you don't watch your phone for this then the shopper will continue with checkout. I'm sorry you had this experience, most of the drivers, myself included strive to give excellent customer service.
Ontario, brampton
Our order was not dropped off at our place so I called and was mentioned that re-order is placed for free and it would be delivered as soon as possible, next day morning (today) order was dropped off to our place. When I noticed some items are replaced with similar items or are delivered less in quantity; I used app and was asked to write the information. After that I received emails and had communication in couple of emails. In all emails customer service representatives apologies for inconvenience but when it comes to refund or replace they show their limitations...
I ordered breads and I was supplied different one, when I wrote how can I return it as I didn't ordered it; emailed reply is
"you can keep or donate the breads."
Whole order
My whole order was not delivered! When I called Instacart they can't even get ahold of the delivery person! The phone line was bad so I had to call back twice. I wonder how often this happens and I would like to know if the driver stole my groceries. Instacart sucks.
I work for instacart and I'm sorry this happened to you. I had an instance where I was shopping for a customer and got to the checkout and the instacart shopper app was caught in a crazy glitch that would not let me finish check out. The digital card for the store would not work. I was on the phone with support for almost 20 minutes and they kept refreshing the batch and nothing would work. The order wound up getting canceled because nothing was working. It was 8 pm at night where I was located and I had spent two hours trying to get this order shopped and this issue resolved. I felt absolutely horrible for the customer who was waiting for her groceries. If I could have called her I would have apologized myself but I did not have that option with this order. There are occasionally some crazy glitches that happen with the instacart app that is beyond the shopper's control. So I'm sorry this happened to you.
Deactivating account without notice and resolution to a paid member
I am a frequent shopper of Instacart. I recently found out that my account is suddenly deactivated without any notice. I called and was told by Instacart associates that it's unknown why this happened. They referred me to the Trust and Safety. But they can't connect me with this Trust and Safety department of their own company. I managed to find the email...
Read full review of InstacartDelivery of items
I was delivering items today which is 06/12/2020 and the items were delivered to the wrong address by mistake. So, I quickly went back to 1642 w 78 street in chicago, il retrieved that batch from the young lady gave her the right batch and proceeded to deliver the right batch to the customer at 7231 s maplewood in chicago il. Not knowing that the lady at 7231 s maplewood had already contacted instacart telling them that they didn't receive their items after I was contacted by instacart letting them know that I was in route to fix this situation and make sure that both customers were gonna get the right items they purchased. So I gave the lady at 7231 s maplewood the items and she still lied to instacart telling them she wanted a refund and still kept the items. This is just heartbreaking to know a company thinks like this! Oh I also took photos of the customer with the items in their hands and sent it to instacart! These people are crooks and it don't make sense they are doing their customers and workers this way! I took the photo through the instacart app. They have it!
Pricing
Instacart delivered shopping from ACME, I noticed that the pricing on product labels is almost $1 lower than Instacart charged. So, on $100 shopping I lost $10. I am not talking about the fees and tips, which round up to another $13. This is not my first shopping with them since COVID-19, I never checked the prices, although they looked high. It is a shamefull practice of price gauging.
Price gouging!
I placed an order at Shop Rite and Insta charged 37.19 for the items before any tip or fees. I then got a digital receipt from Shop Rite which showed the total the shopper paid at the register for my items was only 29.27$. I called and was told the store can charge an extra fee for using Insta and this is passed to the customer. This is a cost of doing business for Shop Rite and should be born by them, as many who use this service would not shop in these stores in person. This is a fee of 7.92$ for less than a 30$ order. The consumer pays a delivery fee or a subscription fee to Instacart, then a tip...why should they have to pay what should be Shop Rite's responsibility? This is price gouging! By time I paid the delivery, tip and this rip off fee, I paid over 30% in FEES! I canceled my subscription and will not shop at Shop Rite either.
Unethical practices / tip baiting
I started working for instacart in March and never had any problems. But the policy that they have for the customers and the tipping is crazy and the customers have taken cold advantage of it. Just about every customer the I shopped for has taken part of their tip or all of it after I have shopped for them and the thing is I am a great communicator and I always do everything I can to get the customer what they want and they still take the tip. To me that is very unfair and insta cart allows it. Their support team claims that the customer has 72 hours to change the tip but that is not what it says at the bottom of the batch (shoppers payment page). It clearly says a customer has three days to tip on order. It does not say anything about the customer changing the tip and its not even in the contract about the tip. Saturday May 30th, I was shopping for a customer at Wegman's when all of a sudden my account is deactivated and a message said to go to my email. I looked at the email that was send by their Safety & Trust team and it stated that I was deactivated for failure to complete a delivery but here is the kicker I don't know who are what customer they are talking about because they never send any information in regards to the accusation. I was never given the opportunity to defend myself and never seen anything that showed me where I did what they said I did. I then received another message that said that your appeal had been denied and I don't even know when I filed an appeal. I feel that their practices are unethical and unfair. As a shopper for instacart we get screwed twice, once by instacart and then by the customer and it needs to stop. I attached the company's contract but I am not sure of it uploaded please let me know if you need it again. Thank you for your time and help
Delivery of groceries
I have used instacart for two months now without any problems until today
I ordered $300 of groceries and when the shopper came here to deliver she refused to bring my groceries to my apartment because she said she was told she could not do this
Really because for 2 months no one has ever said to me that they could not bring my groceries to my door she left everything down the hall and up five stairs that I had to go retrieve by myself though she was able to put two cases of water on a dolly and bring that to my front door
I will never use instacart again and I will make sure that what happened to me will never happen to anyone again I will make sure that they are fully aware of what has happened to me
BJ delivery
On 5/19/2020, I had my groceries delivered by BJ and it was an amount of $190. However, Instacart decide to charge me $225 for the same groceries. I reached out to BJ's and was informed that unfortunately they could not do nothing about it because it was in the discretion of Instacart. I believe that Instacart is ripping customers off during these times of the pandemic. Instacart should be ashamed of themselves for ripping customers when money is tight. Please DO NOT have BJ or any other facility affiliated with Instacart delivery your groceries. Instacart is a rip-off! if you are not able to get your groceries, try to find someone aside from Instacart to pick it up for you.
Falsely accused of stealing an order of food.
I delivered food order to a third floor of a senior living facility. I was let in by a man who is a resident of the complex. I took the groceries to a third floor customer. While I was at the door of the customer Instacart sent a message to take my picture because someone else may be using my identity. I took the picture of me in the hallway outside the customer door. Then a little bit later I got an email that Stated I stole food and could no longer work for them. My account was and is deactivated.
Almost every instacart customer reports false claims so they can get free groceries. The most common ones are missing and damaged items and these are very inexpensive items. One of the customers reported a missing item that was not even purchased but was replaced to a similar item as per his request. Another one reported missing groceries while I was on my way to deliver . If it is an apartment complex, do not deliver in front of garage because they will report it missing. I often bag during check outs and take pictures of the groceries upon delivery. You will get reinstated within 2 weeks.
Defamation and accusations
So you're saying that through your GPS tracking I did not deliver the items that each customer purchased even though I've had such a great record the whole time that I have been doing this for you guys? Not one complaint has been made against me in that regard. I've never stolen food. I just took screenshots of the GPS data that you guys have in your system showing that I was there and I placed the stuff there. And seeing that proof that I did in fact deliver food there, you've deactivated my account. I have been so grateful for the opportunity to provide this service through instacart. How funny is it that I have completed well over 100 orders I'm sure, have a great rating, work in law, have a great character, have great morals, have a wonderful personality and yet all the sudden the past few days Instacart is saying that items are missing? where is your proof? Because, honestly, I know I delivered to the address provided. Even my tracking shows that I was there. So pray tell, why would I waste all my time and energy running from store to store to store to store to provide the service to someone, then use my gas to drive to their house after I've completed shopping their order, just to drive away with their items? That's absurd. Maybe y'all provided the wrong address. If this is instacart's way of trying to get people out of providing this type of service through their company, is not a correct way to do things. To slander or defame, imply or even punish someone for something they are not even remotely guilty of, then that's something to be ashamed of! I've taken pride my entire life in being an upstanding person - I volunteer all the time for the church. I volunteer for the youth ranch over here. I'm always doing something community-based. I teach 18 Bible studIes. I teach catechism courses so the kids can get their sacraments at our church. I donate my time, energy and food to elderly and disabled people. I do that because I want to & because I love it - because that's what God has placed on me and you guys are going to sit here and imply that I'm doing something completely against my grain and against my character. Please issue payment for everything that I've done through this date immediately.
I was falsely accused of stealing an order today
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About Instacart
The platform allows customers to browse and purchase groceries from their favorite local stores, including popular retailers like Whole Foods, Costco, and Safeway. Customers can select their items and schedule a delivery time that works best for them, with same-day delivery available in many areas.
Instacart has become a go-to service for busy individuals and families who don't have the time or desire to go to the grocery store. With the ability to shop from multiple stores at once, customers can easily compare prices and find the best deals on their favorite products.
In addition to its convenience, Instacart has also become known for its exceptional customer service. The platform offers a 24/7 customer support team that is available to assist with any questions or issues that may arise during the shopping and delivery process.
Overall, Instacart has become a game-changer in the grocery industry, providing customers with a seamless and stress-free shopping experience. With its growing popularity and expanding service areas, it's clear that Instacart is here to stay.
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3. Writing the title: In the 'Complaint Title' field, concisely summarize the main issue you have encountered with Instacart. Make it specific and clear, such as "Incorrect Instacart Order Charges" or "Delayed Delivery by Instacart."
4. Detailing the experience: In the complaint description, provide a detailed account of your experience with Instacart. Include key areas such as:
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Instacart emailshappycustomers@instacart.com100%Confidence score: 100%Support
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Instacart addressBlue Shield of California Building, 50 Beale St. Suite 600, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
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