Instacart Shopper
Reviews and Complaints

Since starting with Instacart I have had nothing but problems with the app and support has not been able to fix a single problem in a timely manner.

After using this app for a couple weeks there have been multiple occasions where I have received a double order from customers. On one occasion I noticed the issue and contacted the customer to verify the order had already been filled by myself that same day and the customer acknowledged such. I immediately contacted customer care, through an online chat only to be held in the chat session for over an hour with no response and once an agent entered the chat I received messages about once every 15-30 mins. After 2.5 hours on the chat I was notified the specialist was not able to address my issue and I was to be sent to “Level 2” support. The level 2 support specialist entered the chat about 30 mins after being transferred and immediately ended the chat session.

Another instance like this occurred a few days later and a similar scenario occurred. The customer, in this case noticed the order had already been filled the previous day by another shopper and notified me of the issue. I reached out to customer care concerning the issue, only to be told it would be addressed but no timeline. The app then failed to load for 45 mins and no batches were available once it did reload.

I have been sent to a store multiple times and while standing in the store, specified by Instacart and verified by google maps, I was told to proceed to the store to begin my order. Mind you I was standing in the store I was sent to and verified with employees I was in the store google maps, the store address and even Instacarts app said I was standing in. This occurred 2 mornings in a row.

After not being able to load the order in the correct store the app would not allow me to cancel the batch for 30-45 mins and once I cancelled the batch I was sent an order for another store over 30 mins away from my current location. Over the course of that day I drove over 200 miles for 5 batches over a period of 7 hours.

Yesterday I was sent into a store and upon checkout my card was declined. I attempted to contact the customer and have them reach out to support and they attempted to with no resolution. I spent 2.5 hours in a chat with a specialist and was told the issue was resolved only to walk back into the store to find it was not. I informed the representative the issue was not resolved and I was told I needed to be transferred to another representative. The next representative joined the chat, never sent me a message and ended the chat. After sitting in the parking lot of this store for over 3 hours I finally gave up, making no money, and went about my day.

I have been using this app for a only week and have experienced these issues. Constant app crashes, glitches, bugs and terrible support. I have spent over 8 hours waiting on support in chat sessions in the week I have been shopping for them, and 80% of orders have been less than $20 despite a 5 star rating from every customer who has rated me.

If you have other options for shopper apps I would seriously consider them before Instacart. I am hoping these issues will resolve themselves.

Sincerely,

Disgruntled Shopper

For the most part I do enjoy delivering for Instacart. I do have a few gripes that need to be addressed.

1) There are way too many steps that need to be taken/prompts that need to be answered in order to refund items while we’re shopping. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a shopper for years but I don’t get to the point where a refund is warranted quickly. I’ve taken the time to search for replacements, ask the customer if they even want the replacement and messaged them just to make sure the coast is clear.

2) When it comes to giving a reason for the refund, the options are always in a different order. That’s quite annoying because my answer is usually the same: customer requested the refund. But sometimes it’s the 2nd option, sometimes it’s the 4th option. When I’m walking in stores, looking down at my phone and trying not to hit anyone or be hit in the store, it would be helpful if the options were always in the same order., i.e. always ABCD instead of ACDB one time and then DCBA the next (if that makes sense).

3) Please do a refresher or reminder or something to customers because they don’t understand how the app works on our end as shoppers. I try to be gracious and understand this. Lately I’ve been getting customers frustrated at me because their order is being delivered earlier than they expected. For example: someone says their expected time wasn’t until 5:30 pm and I was ready to deliver by 4:20 pm. That’s because the app pushes out orders at whatever time frame, probably not expecting someone to choose it quickly, let alone complete it fast. I’m a really fast shopper already but they don’t understand that how the system works. They’re concerned about their groceries sitting outside in the heat until they get home, which I understand. But me telling them I don’t control how the app works & timing probably doesn’t make them happy. I don’t know what else to say.

4) Please consider letting shoppers rate customers with the 5 star system like they can rate us. Some of them are annoying and micromanaging & need to be warned about, and others are great. I can only leave a comment about them if I leave feedback saying “customer was difficult or rude” and then the app gives me the option to expound.

5) i think a good change would be to increase the time by maybe 30 seconds or something every time the customer messages us WHILE we’re shopping or adds an item. If they add items (and I get this a lot), time should automatically be added because that just makes sense. When the item(s) are added last minute and they’re on the other side of the store or they may require asking someone to check the back to see if it’s available, it takes a lot of effort. And when we get multiple messages that interrupt shopping time and our usage of the app, after we chat with them, it doesn’t take you directly back to the shopping list. Another instance of too many prompts to get you where you’re trying to go in the app.

6) Please consider doing away with the customer signature for alcohol. I understand trying to cover all bases to make sure we aren’t delivering to underage people but I hate people’s (dirty) fingers touching my screen (especially during COVID) that I touch all day while using this app. Scanning the ID is enough.

Been doing this as a side gig since Feb 2019. I haven’t had issues with scheduling. When I started, the first three weeks I had early access (new shopper status). There were weeks when I hardly shopped at all, so my access was Wed at 9:30, still got most, if not all my hours, and waitlisted the rest. Usually they become available before the shopping day.

I tend to shop the same stores, so I know the layout. Other stores that have just been added are nightmares because they are not mapped.

There are bugs that need to be fixed. If I don’t want a batch, I have to wait the full 4 minutes to wait for it to remove it and give my reason. Multiple times it sends it right back, and I have to wait for another 4 minutes to decline. I have been “booted” for “not acknowledging” a batch, which was incorrect, but you can hop back on and keep working.

If I schedule to work, I try to be in hot spots, even though my home is in my zone. I don’t know if I get more orders by being in the hot spot or not, but it’s just how I prefer to work. Down time, I watch Netflix or YouTube.

I do like on-demand feature to pick up a job if I have time and I am not scheduled. However, I have accepted more than one where the in-store shopper had not completed the batch, so I had to wait.

The timer at the bottom of the app is pointless. I don’t get higher pay for faster deliveries, and I do get quality bonuses for 5 stars. If I have to text a customer regarding a replacement, I will do that even though it takes time. If they tiered pay based on time (finish 5 minutes faster than the timer and you get a $5 bonus) now it matters.

Overall though, I like it. I grew up in my zone, know most of the stores, and it’s not complicated work. I have two great insulated bags, and a foldable hand truck/cart for heavy orders.

REGARDING ORDERS REFUSED BY CUSTOMERS:

I have had two instances where orders were refused, one definitely customer fault, the other not sure.

1. customer ordered 1 rotisserie chicken from Costco, low pay but easy shop and I was there and customer close by. I get there and the customer said that is not what she wants, this is the second time that day it happened. I explained that it has to be what she ordered, otherwise the app would tell me. She refused. I call shopper help - I still get paid, and since it was prepared food they said I could keep it. Made note to self: food can not be returned, so you get to keep it- win.

2. Shopped a good sized order from Costco, mostly cases of drinks, get to the house and they had the SAME EXACT ORDER DELIVERED EARLIER. Called shopper help, said they cancelled the batch and will pay me, win. BUT, most of it was packaged goods, so my assumption was that I’d have to return it, minus the fresh fruit. I get to Costco and the return line is hardly moving. I texted shopper help that I can not accept a batch until this gets handled. He said I can do it whenever. I told him I can’t shop with 8 cases of drinks in my car. As it took forever I texted him that they should pay me to return the batch, or just let me keep it... his response? “Instacart has no policy requiring shoppers to return a refused shopped order” what!?!?, there was $100 of stuff there! Good to know for the future though...

The app has some problems:

1) The time-sensitive notifications are misused. There is no reason why I need to keep seeing that I should head to a store 25 minutes after the notification is even relevant. Time-sensitive notifications are usually used for things like leaving on time for a long-distance road trip or a very important engagement where showing up late is permitted, such as a funeral. If you are late to a batch, you just get the order removed, so there is no utility in using a time-sensitive notification instead of a regular notification. It just makes us have to manually clear the notification instead of it going away once we reopen our phone screen. It’s just an annoying feature that serves no real purpose.

2) If we give a thumbs down rating to any batch, the app logs us out and demands a facial scan verification, as if we somehow stopped being who we are halfway through a shift. This is just plain harassment, not a glitch. Somebody in dev team purposely put this feature in the app. I’ll do a facial verification before a shift, but I will never do one in the middle of a shift because there is no job where halfway through a shift you will be asked to show your ID and scan your face just to prove that you are the same person that you were for the previous 3 hours that you were sitting there doing your job. When Instacart makes these type of passive aggressive and annoying demands, I just switch over to another gig app for the rest of the day, regardless of how busy it is or how short-handed Instacart is in my area.

3) Orders get thrown together in batches even if they don’t actually go together. I’ve seen stores in entirely different neighborhoods paired together with customers living in opposite directions. What should often be two separate orders get combined into Frankenstein batches that nobody really wants to take. Also, if Instacart cobbles together 3 orders that pay only 5 or 6 dollars for shopping 25 items each, the result is a $15 batch that requires you to shop 75 items and have 3 separate drop-off locations. Nobody wants to take these, since is means that you are working anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours to only make $15 minus gas expenses.

4) There is a glitch when replacing items. It doesn’t automatically put it in the cart and take you back to the to-do list. You have to manually back out to the to-do list to continue shopping.

5) The distances listed for multiple-order batches are usually inaccurate. They never seem to match what my odometer says. The methodology of how its calculated needs to be overhauled.

6) Shoppers should be able to set multiple custom greetings (one for initial greetings, one for post-checkout normal orders, and one for post-checkout alcohol / medicine orders). The less time that I have to spend typing, the smoother everything flows.

7) The notifications that we should start heading to a store are suboptimal, at best. They come through even if I’m in the car and have been moving towards the store for the past 5 minutes. If I get a multi-order batch of orders that really don’t go together, I’ll get some passive aggressive notification on the order screen of the second order that I need to start heading towards the second store. It’s not my fault that two orders in completely different parts of town got cobbled together into a single batch during rush hour.

There are a lot of things I love about this app and working for this company. I love that the hours are flexible and I can work as much or as little as I am able to. However I feel like there are a few things that need to be addressed to make this company better.
1. The rating system is really unfair. Customers can both take away tips and give bad ratings for whatever reason, and once your score is “average” you won’t have access to many orders and the orders you do see are literally ones nobody else wants. My score is 4.93 and that’s “average” (42 five stars, 1 four star and 1 three star and now I make half the money I made in twice the time).
2. The double and triple orders really should have an item limit or something because it’s really hard to keep larger orders separate or push two full carts around the store.
3. Time is really an issue too. I normally can shop an order in half the time the app allows as long as the store is perfectly stocked but right now it obviously isn’t. Also when deli meat/cheese is on the order I’m almost definitely going over my time because the app doesn’t give extra time to wait in the deli line. And it has to be frustrating for the customer who doesn’t get their groceries “on time” (and they leave a bad review). Also the app doesn’t give extra time to shop big box stores like sams club or Costco and they don’t give you the aisle number to make it easier to find items. So if you have just a few items to grab your going to get 10 minutes or less to navigate Costco with no idea where anything is.
4. Replacements/contacting customers. So when an item is out of stock a customer can request a specific item instead, but 99% of the time customers dont do this and instead expect you to contact them for approval of substitutions. That’s fine and all but a huge percent of those people won’t even respond back. So it’s up to me to either replace the product with something and hope it’s ok or refund the item and hope the customer doesn’t give me a bad rating because I “forgot” something. It would be better if customers would be required to put in approve substitutions. Especially if they don’t want to be contacted. At least until stores are stocked normally again. This will save a lot of time and customers would get their order faster.
5. Instacart should put a box in the customers address area specifically for gate codes. If you have a gate code or code on the door of the building or whatever, it should be mandatory to have it in the address. I’ve waited almost a half hour outside someone's gate waiting for them to see my message and respond. (And they gave me low stars because I was late!) I’ve messaged so many customers over this my phone almost puts in the whole question once I start typing it.
6. I don’t like the instacart credit card anymore. All orders should be online. Once I was shopping a triple order and the card declined on the last order so I had to contact customer support and was told if I use my own card and save the receipt that I will be reimbursed by Instacart. Nope I wasn’t. So because i had to contact customer support I obviously took more time and was late for 3 people’s orders when only one order was an issue, all three people removed their tip, I had to pay for the last persons groceries and I didn’t get reimbursed. That’s not fair is it. So all orders should be online.

When I started doing instacart in mid 2020, it seemed like a great option. I was making quite decent money, albeit putting a ton of miles on my car. Flash forward to now, Instacart is straight cruelty. All batches, whether they are one order with a 2 mile delivery or three orders with a 30 mile delivery pay 7$. Not 7$ for each order, 7$ for each batch. Tips used to save me, I am very personable with the customers, and take the extra time to make sure all of my customers felt cared for. But now it seems instacart has been referring to us as drivers to the customers. So now many customers don’t seem to know we shop for them as well. Now in my area, there are less and less orders with any substantial tip if one at all. Instacart is seeming to go the hire to fire route as well. Instacart assigns batches from a black box system. The system used to look at your ratings and efficiency and would reward that; now all new shoppers are automatically schedule 1, and old shoppers are lower priority on default. So if you start with them now, it will seem to be good, until one sudden day when that invisible priority will vanish and you will be suddenly struggling to find any decent paying orders that aren’t an hour across town just for 7$ of pay with a possibility of a small tip. They used to have heavy lifting and delivery distance pay, but they have been stingier and stingier with the assignment of these bonuses, to the point I no longer expect either because one of the last orders I was supposed to get heavy lifting pay on, did not pay me the heavy pay that the order said I would get (order had a bunch of water and they lived in a tall condo tower), I contacted support and spent over 25 minutes with their god-awful support who are somehow worse than a brick wall, accomplishing nothing other than verifying my name repeatedly. And the app is so poorly designed and coded. Will just suddenly lose connection to the server out of no where. I know it isn’t my phone or internet as the apps of other courier gigs don’t have this problem at all. Instacart will be unable to connect while Shipt will connect immediately every time. And the only way to connect their support is through the app. Soooo if you are in the middle of an order and the instacart servers decide to stop working and you can’t reconnect, you are screwed. A couple weeks ago, Instacart’s servers died in a Costco just as I was trying to scan the last item. I ended up sitting on a bench just outside the entrance for over 30 minutes of desperately trying to reconnect to the instacart servers with no luck. Finally I just gave the groceries to an employee and started driving until I get a connection to their servers. Over an hour into the order, finally was able to connect to Instacart’s servers. Then I contacted support, who took another 30 minutes of my time asking repetitive questions and seeming to not be able to read my responses. They wanted to cancel the order at my fault ever though it was due to app issues on their end. They eventually gave me a small bump for my inconvenience, but it came out to about 4-5 $ an hour before gas for that nightmare. The last month has been so incredibly bad. I have been a 5.0 shopper the entire time since my ratings started counting; I used to make 19$ an hour minimum after expenses; now the pay barely even covers my gas. I can’t survive on walking home with 9$ after gas after shopping for 4 hrs. Used to love this gig, now it is just insulting.

Updated 12/14/2022

Last update is very buggy
Slow performance
Batch “priority” access
Messages to customers not working properly
Camera scanner crashes
Connection to server lag, constantly rebooting app

I thought I’d take a few minutes this morning to write a review of this app and several problems I’ve encountered while using it.

First, let me state I am a 5 star shopper with a Diamond cart rating. On a daily basis the past year I am not placed in the first group of shoppers to receive batches from Costco at 10am when the store opens (or sooner with my priority batch access). All while I watch other shoppers with either a lower rating, (sometimes a 4.6 which does not qualify for “priority batch access”……) or no cart rating such as the Gold, Platinum, Diamond. I have brought this problem up to Customer service over 20 times, provided the requested documentation and screen recordings of what is transpiring with ZERO follow up or corrective action from their “tech department”…..

Second, I would think a multi-Billion dollar company would provide a higher level of shopper and customer support other than what is currently being offered. “Lost in translation” is just the beginning of the problems with overseas support. On some occasions I’ve received really good support but the vast majority of the time it is horrible. Third, the system that assigns and calculates batches is broken, period. Even third level support supervisors have stated this. On a daily basis I have to contact support for an adjustment to the order for heavy pay. Just one example is 6 cases of water and 2 cases of soda on just one order paid $2.39 in heavy pay when you calculate the batch pay out subtracting the 7 dollar minimum, estimated mileage for the balance. It appears because the customer added a nice tip, Instacart takes advantage and tries to swindle you with low batch earnings. I’m sure this in direct violation of several labor laws and id suggest Instacart correct this problem before they face a class action lawsuit by shoppers.

Fourth, there is no reward for hard work. I am on the road for 10-14 hours per day shopping 10-16 orders (depending on size) per day with not so much as a thank you from Instacart or some perk. My “daily summaries” speak for themselves. Talk about feeling unappreciated! I’d suspect their theory is “if you don’t like it, there’s hundreds more to fill your spot” regardless of the level of shopping others might provide.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly the vast majority of shoppers around me are using multiple accounts. Whether it be a girlfriends, boyfriends, friends or spouse creating a second account or even a third account and one person is using all three at a store with three separate devices. This is fraud and robs other legitimate shoppers of the opportunity to earn to provide for their family. Maybe it’s time to perform the verification via screenshot prior to EVERY BATCH. I see no other solution to eliminating this problem.

To close this chapter on this book, I’d suggest the CEO Fidji Simo and the other board members take a long hard look at what makes this business work, it’s the level of customer service the shopper provides the customer! Otherwise all they’ll be stuck with is shoppers who care for nothing except the money and working the system. There are several competitors now to shop for customers so I’d suggest taking my words seriously if you’d like to remain in the market. Now let’s see if this review even gets posted since my last review mysteriously “disappeared”……

Shoppers should be able to rate their experience with the customers to equally pair customers with shoppers based on Instacart’s rating system. I had an issue with a customer who allegedly put notes on every single item asking to not replace them but instead call them to replace items. I sent out my custom greeting as I do that says:

“Good day, my name is *** and I’m your Instacart shopper for today. As I strive to satisfy your needs I would GREATLY appreciate you rate me 5 starts if you’re satisfied with your order through and through. Any poor quality or damaged items will be refunded if you have not chosen a replacement. As replacements come please approve/disapprove them because if not the app instructs me to call the customer. Also if your property requires a code for entry send it to me because sometimes “delivery notes” don’t show. Note: ANY fraudulent claims of missing items are subject to permanent removal from the Instacart platform. thank you for using Instacart. Stay healthy”.

As you all know or may not know you can reject replacements AND sometimes you have “customers choice” replacements which I learned from one customer that those aren’t 100% accurate. Anyway this particular person was apparently upset that I wasn’t calling him for every replacement (on a triple order) on 1 items too because everything he order was in stock until I got to his three 12pk sodas that I just refunded because they were out of stock and I didn’t like his energy and didn’t care to communicate with him because I still had to fulfill 2 orders in a timely fashion. Well fast forward to dropping off his order, he selected “hand to customer” and wasn’t answer the door, as I go to ring the doorbell again he pushed his outward swinging door forcefully nearly hitting me, grabbing his stuff and slamming the door in my face. Before I left his property of reached out to Instacart support via chat through the app speaking to a rep. and explained to them the situation, they read the text deed between myself and the customer and felt he was also disrespectful and allegedly told him that his behavior wouldn’t be tolerated and if he treats another shopper the same way he would be banned. My main reason I reached out is because my score was a 4.92 (average) and I felt like he would give me 1 star because he’s mad his life isn’t going as planned. The rep assured me that even if it happened I wouldn’t be penalized because I brought the matter to their attention. Well not true, he gave me a 1 star and now my rating is a 4.84 (below average) and in Atlanta Georgia that means I’m receiving batches that are 15-20 miles away from my location for $7-$15 (often triple orders) and as a result I struggle to pay bills, keep gas in my car and keep my kids fed. Not to mention Instacart seems to ALWAYS make people who have ice cream, popsicles or ice the last drop (C) on a multiple order and you will usually drive past them to drop of A or B. Those customers will claim the item as damaged if you don’t inform them of how logistically Instacart screwed up. Once they make a claim as item damaged it will affect your score heavily and sit on your profile for 2-3 months before it gets removed yet I’ve have for 5 star ratings that haven’t affected my score positively. They will just give you the “Instacart Policy” spill about the average per 100 orders blah blah blah... bottom line, this platform was good 1+ year ago a before Covid-19 but now it’s watered down because EVERYBODY is doing it to get by ‍♂️so I’m gonna try “Shipt” before everybody jumps

Being a shopper is alright; however, all support for Shoppers is third party contractors with limited capability to take action on behalf of contractors. So, if you, as a shopper, are attempting to lodge complaints against fraud, theft, and abuse of TOS by customers of InstaCart then there is no direct line of communication between Shoppers and InstaCart. This was designed by InstaCart as a “trick” to keep business while soiling the reputation and earnings of people who work hard.

InstaCart’s ability to license third party contractors for everything from App Development, Shoppers, to Shopper Help (Support), and Trust & Safety has given the brand a sour reputation for accountability within broad Shopper Circles.

They work to keep zero accountability for those who use their services to order groceries all the while forcing contractors to interact with accounts that have been flagged for fraudulent activity by their third party customer service. This means that if an account with noted fraudulent activity can continue to defraud contractors for an undisclosed amount of time which has been recorded by multiple shoppers as something that can go on for over a month. There’s zero recourse for the Shopper and no action that YOU, as a shopper, can take to clear your name. Even with time-stamping photographs of groceries and recorded chat conversations with the customers, InstaCart will not take appropriate action on behalf of you the shopper. This has been documented across the United States of America.

Ratings System: The ratings system of InstaCart imposed upon Shoppers is not based upon 1-5 Stars and they omit the fact that it isn’t because it would not be in their favor. It is based upon a combination of 500 basis points and Shopper speeds ending in a proprietary algorithmic equated rating that’s undisclosed to the Shopper. InstaCart does not inform Customers that rating a Shopper “4 out of 5” only because they had to make some replacements due to the store lacking stock means that the individual shopper will be punished with a 20-60% earnings decrease for upwards of 6 months. Shoppers, in turn, do not know their true rating and when reaching out to find out where they stand are stonewalled due to all services being third party contracted without direct knowledge of what is happening.

InstaCart does not keep real-time information on what individual stores have “in stock.” InstaCart will send shoppers to stores with a list of items to purchase; however, the customer’s items are based upon past regional warehouse inventory and not what is in stock at a store. If a brand is no longer purchased by the Grocery Store chain but is in past inventory for the warehouses or is being phased out without being shipped to stores InstaCart will still have it available. As a result, a shopper will inevitably have to refund or replace items that the customer wanted. In most cases, the customer will rate a shopper lower for these order changes if they are not satisfied with what is coming to their door. The shopper is not able to dispute the rating and InstaCart will not take responsibility for false advertising products available in-store to customers.

There are many more instances that I could write about with the poor business practices of InstaCart here including lack of “heavy pay” for deliveries (over 40lbs and upwards of 300lbs total) unless fought for by the shopper then the shopper is flagged for requesting compensation resulting in termination; however, you have the “skinny” on how unscrupulously InstaCart operates as a business.

Instacart is a horrible company. They don't care about their Shoppers. The reviews are true. I’ve been working for with this company for 2+ months now and by the 4th week the batches were a complete joke. How did I go from making $600+ a week with no more than 5 batches a day to barely making $50 a week? Here’s what I found out and my own personal experience:
- When a new Shopper is approved, they receive priority batches for the first 30+ batches. So my phone was receiving constant notifications as if I could accept all of those batches. I loved the options, but its misleading.
- Next, you accept a batch for $30+ (more or less), but if anything happens in the store like items out of stock or customer ask you to add on 2+ items to the batch you’re shopping for in store it effects your tip.
- Tips can’t be counted as guarantee pay that that promise when accepting batches, because of the unexpected, out of your control situations that take place in the store. So I started shopping based on the Instacart payment versus the total amount thats given to accept the batch. Instacart’s payment is the only guaranteed money you can receive.
- Shoppers cheat the system and buy batches from third party robot companies which makes it harder for honest shoppers to get work (after losing priority batches due to learning how the system works). This has made this experience a complete nightmare. Google “instacart batches” and the articles will pop up.
- You have to keep every receipt which ends up being a huge mess. If you accidentally give the receipt to the customer, you can be deactivated.
- If you deny batches and reach 15% you can be deactivated.
- The referral bonus is a joke. For me to receive $1500 (which was the promo running when I referred people) The new shopper I referred would have to complete 100 batches in 30 days. This is very unlikely that someone new would do this especially with how flaky the company is as a whole.
- Batches that pop up disappear before your eyes as you try to grab one from the third party companies. If you move too fast and accept a batch thats too far from you by accident, because you don’t have the adequate time to view the needed info, and cancel the batch, it counts against you (15% = deactivation). Why won’t Instacart fix this? Simply, because they don't care who complete the batches. They only care that the work is done for the customer. I understand, but why take 2 weeks to run background checks, and mail debit cards to Shoppers who earned it and have a system thats easily hacked?
- You can only cash out the Instacart payment instantly and not tips earned. They say this is because the customer has 3 days to adjust the tip. I’ve completed close to 100 batches with 48 five star reviews. NONE OF THE CUSTOMERS WENT BACK AND ADJUSTED MY TIP. ITS ONLY BEEN ADJUSTED TO LOSE MONEY AND NEVER TO GAIN.
- I’ve been self employed on other popular platforms and can’t work them due to waiting for the pandemic to pass. Please find another way to earn a living or extra cash. This company makes me sick to the stomach. They exploit their shoppers and delivery people for profit. The shopper loses in the end.
- The only positive about this company is the customers. They are amazing, very appreciative and are grateful for our help as Shoppers. I’m looking to become a shopper with a different company. Instacart plays with the livelihood of their Shoppers. We shop to earn a living or earn extra to make our lives better. We don’t shop for fun or earn money with the company for play. This is real life for us. Its a shame its not treated as such.

I was a very dedicated shopper with around 50+ reviews, all 5 stars, and several customer comments expressing how I gave them an amazing ordering experience.

Then the app started crashing all the time while trying to shop an order. Whatever, a slight inconvenience to me, even though it happened dozens of times per batch and I lost several minutes of my time all together per batch if you add all the time I waited for the app to re-launch and load the batch etc.. again not the worst thing ever, there are bugs in software hopefully it would get fixed soon I thought...

Then the app started tracking my location constantly, sure I understand, get the location when first launching the app, maybe once before starting the batch to make sure the shopper is at the right store, then maybe once after checking out before navigating to the customer. But no, the app check my location the ENTIRE time shopping a batch, which on my older phone (6s, with a wearing battery) it would drain from 85% to 20% in under an hour, or worse. Often where I had to make sure I did not accept larger batches if I did not have enough battery. So I had to start turning off the location in my phone settings after starting a batch then turning it on again before checking out to save battery and be able to simply finish a batch. Again another inconvenience and waste of my time navigating through settings turning off and on the location because the app constanty checks the location for no reason while shopping.

Then it got worse, now it creepily starts asking to submit a selfie photo(including instructing to remove your face covering against guideline regulations while in a store in the middle of shopping a batch), a selfie screen automatically turning up the screen brightness to maximum and essentially freezing up the entire app where you can't shop a batch or navigate any menus until you submit a selfie. (Again creepy, what creepy 1984 dystopia is instacart trying to push?). I reluctantly submitted the selfie.. so the app works for a day or so, then again, another selfie request the next day, and the next and so on. (What are you trying to build a creepy database of my face for facial recognition systems? Or some creepy deepfake generation), so then it even gets to the point where even the selfie submission screen does not even function and the camera icon is greyed out and you cannot even submit a selfie even if you wanted to be part of their creepy dystopia. I contacted chat support and they couldn't do anything about it so they escelate the case, support emails me asking for a screenshot, (suprised they didn't also ask for another selfie, and maybe some DNA submission also? Maybe some fresh hair and skin samples also?) never recieved a response from the support.

So in short their terrible app experience, lack of support for older devices with aging batteries(and I never previously had any problems shopping larger batches when the app wasn't constanty checking location or asking for selfie submissions), and their new requirements of the extremely creepy regular selfie submissions all resulted in them losing a valued shopper (atleast according to the customer's who's orders I fulfilled, who always graciously thanked me for providing great service). I would recommend you think twice before becoming a shopper and stop supporting these creepy california based companies that are voilating our privacy and pushing people towards a 1984 dystopia like facebook, google, amazon, and the rest of their california crooks. Is that the kind of future you want to live in for an extra $8-10hr side hustle? No thanks!

Before I registered to start shopping with Instacart, I thought that it was going to be great. I thought that I was going to be able to make some money and I wouldn’t have very many problems and if I did have problems, I would be able to reach out to someone for help. However, I have found out in the past two months that when you reach out for help, no one actually cares. This company has a bad habit of treating its shoppers terribly. Recently they introduced a change to the app in which if you have to cancel a batch for any reason at all (even if it is a family emergency, you got into an accident, or anything personal) you will get muted for 24 hours. That feels like a punishment for its shoppers. Why would you mute someone who is having a family emergency? That means that they cannot work for 24 hours for something that is not their fault and is out of their control. I also don’t like how you cannot see where the persons address is at immediately before excepting a batch. Because not everyone is willing to drive 30 something miles for a customer the only tips one dollar. Another negative point about shopping for Instacart, is that you get paid basically nothing if you don’t have a five star rating. And even if you do have a five star rating, there are many times when there are not good batches for you to pick up. But yet Instacart still keeps hiring more and more shoppers. It seems like the app is set up to automatically give people with five star ratings and people that have worked for Instacart longer the batches that are better and pay more money. Which is not fair to everyone. In the app a customer can also claim that their order is missing or that items are wrong, even if they clearly are not wrong. You have to scan every single item in order to add it to the cart (at times the app even makes you take pictures). So if the customer lies and reports things as missing or wrong and leave a really bad rating, it will affect how much money you’ll be able to make and Instacart will not take away the liars horrible rating. When you go to report their lie as fraud, the only thing the chat support team says that somebody will investigate. But then no one ever gets back to you and you have no idea when or if it will actually be investigated and the rating will be removed. Which again feels like punishment to the shoppers. I also really don’t like that the customers can take away their tip. Even if you give them five star service they can still choose to take away their tip. Thus, you end up with people that tip bait to get their order sooner. In summary, there are a lot of things about InstaCart that really need attention and really need to be looked into. I hope that this company will take a better initiative to care more about its shoppers, than they care about making money for themselves.

Edit: [protected] There is a new update now that prioritizes new shoppers over older, reliable and 5 star shoppers. They only allow the apps algorithm to show 1-4 batches for people. This is to trick new comers into thinking that they will always make a lot of money with ic. It is to make them think that ic cares and will be reliable. It’s not right to treat your drivers like this. After all we do for your company, you should treat us all better.

Edit: They released an update that makes you wait 30 minutes before you can see your earnings. I hate this. I liked knowing how much money I made as soon as it was available. This just seems like a sneaky way to cover up some shady things they’re doing. Makes me feel like they’re stealing our money because this company is so untrustworthy by its drivers.

What you need to know: You can’t see the delivery address of a “batch” (order) until you accept it. The miles you see when deciding whether or not to accept the batch are NOT the total miles you’re going drive. It’s the miles between your current location and the store you’ll shop. You can cancel an order after seeing where you have to deliver but if you do that often it hurts your standing, which is your ability to earn. Instacart will take an order from, for example, more than 10 miles away from the store and put it in a batch with an order that’s being delivered maybe a mile or two from the store. If you only keep one of the orders in the batch it may lower the pay to the extent it isn’t worth your time. They likely put out the distant order in the area near the delivery address and nobody wanted it—it’s a low or no tip, has a large number of items and the pay isn’t desirable for those who want to earn a decent hourly rate, has heavy items, low number of shoppers in that market, areas with big traffic issues, etc. So they pack it up with one or more orders in a neighboring community but they don’t increase the batch pay. Occasionally they’ll add a dollar or two incentive which pays for about 10 minutes of your time if you’re an organized and goal driven shopper. The client doesn’t know or care how far you had to drive so the tip doesn’t increase. If you grab just one of these “batches” you can sometimes wind up cutting your hourly rate for the day in half because of how much it slows you down, when there may be so many orders in your area you could have stayed busy without driving a 30 plus mile round trip in traffic. The app has issues, and often you won’t experience those issues until a cashier does something wrong, for example, and you need CARE to help you fix it. App issues can slow you down by an hour + which destroys your hourly rate for the day. You could take one order that should take an hour and wind up spending 2 or more hours dealing with things you can’t control. There are no app issues with finding and accepting orders. That part works well. Customers will set “meet customer” as the delivery option so you can’t leave it at the door. Then they leave or get in the shower so you get there and can’t “meet the customer”. Instacart says you have to wait 10 minutes. If they don’t accept in person then you have to return the order to the store and refund everything you shopped for and not get paid. If you leave it anyway you run the risk that they say they never got it and you have to prove they did or get charged for it . You can take steps to create proof if you’re prepared, but it could hurt your standing. You’ll see batches paying $9 for 20 items and batches paying $9 for 50 items so pay isn’t commensurate workload or distance. Read the privacy disclosures! They track you everywhere you go, they don’t honor “do not track” settings in your apps and browsers, they track every app you use, web site you visit, and your exact location 24/7. If you set location to “only while using” it constantly bugs you to switch to “always”. You can opt out of receiving all the spam from their “partners”, but that doesn’t stop them from spying on you to the nth degree across ALL of your devices that share data with your phone and letting their partners do the same! Know what they’re doing and control what you can. You are signing up to be a product they sell. They’re making money on your labor, cutting the pay they’re offering shoppers, and selling you out to literally anyone anywhere in the world willing to buy data and you have no way of knowing who is spying on you and or stopping them.

Instacart was a great way to make money until they decided to do an update that left many of us shoppers without work. Instacart’s way of handling the situation initially was to tell its shoppers that there was no issue and pretty much acted like we were crazy. The company’s admins on their forum created a thread to collect feedback. Here we are still weeks after the update still trying to get Instacart to fix the problem but according to them it’s not a big issue since a big percentage of the community wasn’t experiencing this issue. So the shoppers affected are still waiting with no updates or anymore information besides what those experiencing this issue are going through. We get the run around. This company treats its independent contractors ( the shoppers) like crap. This company allows its customers to submit false claims of damaged, missing, or incorrect items without proper proof and investigation. The shopper will get basically punished for this because our ratings will drop causing us to lose work. Not to mention, even through the shoppers take enough visual proof with photos of the successful completed delivery, Instacart dismisses our evidence and solely believes it’s customers. This company has been getting cheaper and cheaper with the amount of pay per batch, and it no longer matters how big orders are, you’ll get paid poorly for it apparently. Imagine working a 30+ item order, and only get $10 if you are lucky. Not to mention the fact that this company has been allowing tip baiting. This is when the customer placed the order with a tip that is typically a high amount, only to change it towards the end of delivery to a small amount or nothing at all. Instacart allows their customers to do this. Yes, tips are to the discretion of the customer. But allowing people to mislead you to take a batch order is unfair and just awful. We get paid so much for gas mileage and even that is poor. We have to travel sometimes upwards of 50 miles one way! Imagine getting paid $8 batch pay for a 70+ mile round trip only to get paid for half of the gas…
Trust me, when you start out it is all rainbows and unicorns. That is mainly do to the fact that the company has you placed in a forgiveness period while you are starting, so even bad ratings don’t affect you. You get priority because the company wants to entice you to work for them. Then after awhile you start to pick up on things. You realize that their promotion bonuses are not “extra” but take away from your pay adjustments they give you at the end of the week. So that will affects pay bumps and gas mileage. So if you made $40 in a promotion, and were expecting $30 to come back in gas mileage pay, don’t expect to get paid gas mileage. They will deduct the pay from the “extra money” you made because they don’t want to pay you what they are tricking you with. Had this happen to me on more than one occasion now. This also go for the time worked. If you were expecting to get so much back in pay difference because what you were guaranteed to earn for the amount of time you worked, and you did a promotion that earned you that much of more, don’t expect to get a pay adjustment. This company is stingy with its contracted workers but shells out the endless refunds for “missing, damaged, incorrect items” that customers claims.
Working this job for as long as I have, I realized customers are two-faced a-holes who lie to get free things. They do not think about the worker getting reprimanded for this in anyway. They solely think about being greedy to get free stuff. Even after all the hoops we as shoppers have to go through to get a successful delivery. This company has gone down hill and unless they listen to the many contracted workers threatening to strike and quit because of the unfair treatment and working conditions, this company will only stay afloat because of the ignorant new sign ups who will only realize in their due time just how awful Instacart is to work under.

Customers saying that their order is missing items when clearly either the item wasn’t available or they didn’t want the substitution offered. Also customers will say they didn’t get their food even when you know they did because either you saw them pick it up or someone in the home picked it up for them. Either way when customers say they didn’t get their food they paid for when you know for a fact they did is fraudulent and as a shopper, you don’t have control over customers lying to the company just to get free food. So when this happens and if it happens a lot, you can be kicked off the platform. How is a customer being fraudulent to the company and towards a shopper even legal just so they can get free food? When I checkout I start at the top of the list and empty the cart as I go by the sections like meat, produce, frozen, dry, so I don’t miss anything and I know for a fact the customer is getting what they want. You also have good communication with the customer to let them know something wasn’t available so they are aware of this. They even have a receipt that is uploaded to them that the company can clearly check. When you’re on a delivery the mapping isn’t as accurate as it should be so sometimes you’ll arrive at your “address” but in reality it’s in a completely different area not suggested by the Instacart platform. So you’ll have to also again spend extra time on the delivery to get to the address the food is intended to go. Also, when you’re in the store mapping in stores which have lower class areas don’t have efficient mapping because for some reason either the store or the platform hasn’t communicated updates to allow you to have an efficient shopping experience. Also some Kroger stores have already started their reset process means that they will be moving things around the store into different locations. So that also means that the store and the platform need to have good communication with this when it happens so that you as a shopper can have a better experience and also you as a customer can get tour food faster. Also, customer service on the platform isn’t properly trained on how to deal with issues effectively and also some of them don’t speak English so now not only do they not understand common sense but you can’t understand what they are saying. In some instances you’ll have a good experience talking with Instacart Care but others they are completely inept and shouldn’t be allowed to communicate with shoppers or customers unless they fully understand and grasp what the concerns were for both parties. We all have to be able to efficiently work together to make this platform a good one and we all also have to be honest and be able to take constructive criticism when the time comes but if you’re bot being truthful about the situation being criticized then how is that helping anyone? That’s just causing problems and that’s not a good way to go about doing business. Anyway, I just felt the need to discuss these issues because now that I’m finally understanding how this whole process works, there are loopholes available for the customer to go down to give the shopper a bad rating even though you clearly had communication with them during your shopping experience. Anyways, I hope this gets addressed because in order for this platform to be successful we all have to be honest and work together not against each other. Also, customers can be like yeah I’ll give a great tip if you deliver my order and then you get everything they need in record time and even make them initially happy but then a day later they change their tip to almost nothing or sometimes completely remove it al together with leaves me losing money on entire orders so I’m wasting my time energy gas wear and tear mental health on these people manipulating the application to save themselves money and screwing the driver. How does making 7$ on a delivery that takes on average an hour to do worth it when you have to drive to the store which is sometimes 40 minutes away and then spend an hour in the store then have my tip drop off I’m literally spending money on this application not making money. Do your research before you start this platform because you don’t want to scree yourself over.

I started working for INSTACART in September and at this time the batch payments were decent and worth taking. I was extremely pleased with the flexibility and the pay. I was and still am 100% highly rated by all my customers. However, after exactly 1 month of doing INSTACART everything went downhill. First I started seeing less and less batches in areas where demand volume was known to be high. I would see other shopper’s shopping and no batches in my queue. Second, the batch payments started to decline. In some cases by 50% or more and I started seeing batches where the mileage was miscalculated or heavy pay was not added. Our Independent Shopper Agreement, section 3.4, states [Shoppers] understand and agree that if you are dissatisfied with the payment for a particular Delivery Opportunity, you may negotiate for an increase of that payment with Instacart by contacting Community Support. Instacart will consider any such request in good faith, but shall not be obligated to remit payment other than as set forth in the Shopper App. Per section 3.4 of the contract I began requesting the addition of heavy pay on several occasions where heavy pay was not included in the batch payment. Each time I requested it the Customer Care representative granted the heavy pay by adding bumps or adjusting my account usually $10 but in one instance I requested $15. However, shortly after I started requesting additional pay, the Trust and Safety team started sending me emails falsely accusing me of the following: (1) Intentionally falsifying information and/or providing inaccurate information to receive payment (2) Repeatedly requesting acknowledged orders to be canceled by customers or members of the Care team for invalid reasons (3) Accepting batches or order requests without intending to deliver them (4) Intentionally increasing time or distance of the delivery trip for false bumps I have never done any of these things. I had a 1% cancellation rate and 100% favorable customer rating. I have never falsified anything to gain additional pay. Why would I if I can negotiate a higher pay?!. The email came from a non reply Trust and Safety email address so every time I tried to find out why I was getting these slanderous emails I was sent a response email from Trust and Safety that the email was not being monitored and to go to the help section of the app. In addition there is no telephone number to reach Trust and Safety to find out more specific information about these allegations or to effectively dispute them. So I had to contact Customer Care which have some incompetent individuals who have no knowledge or authority on such matters. (Those that do have some competence are hard to come by and when you do it’s like a breath of fresh air). I spoke with several Customer Care representatives on this issue. I was told that the emails were automatically generated as a result of my bump request and that in one incident the Customer Care representative processed the bump twice on one batch which also generated the emails. But why would Trust and Safety system automatically generate and send such an email that slandered my name and accuse me of things I did not do does not make sense to me at all. It also doesn’t make sense as I did not do anything which was against INSTACART policies. I have detailed screenshots of conversations with Customer Care where they tell me that I did not do anything on my part to warrant such accusations. In fact one Customer Care representative stated, “ Please do not worry it will not effect your account. I totally understand your frustration these emails are system generated and that is why I will add a note into your profile that the bump was of heavy pay which is added manually because order does not contain heavy pay due to technical glitch.” Then in November , my account was deactivated in the middle of my last batch. I was so mad. I received an email to appeal the deactivation from Lily at Trust and Safety. I was so mad I initially told them that they would be hearing from my lawyer the same day as the email was sent. But before I could also send the screenshots of conversations I had with CustomerCare INSTACART ruled against reactivating my account. I sent screenshots of the conversation I had with Customer Care and they did not respond and stated in the app that my account is ineligible for reactivation. I am thoroughly disgusted with this company and it’s practices.

Instacart is, as you likely know from either the commercials, previous experience, or word of mouth, a relatively easy way to make a quick buck in most urban/suburban areas of the US.

In my first few months using the app I was able to enjoy a very controlled and flexible work environment despite the pandemic conditions in my area. The pay was comparable to, and occasionally better than, my previous job, & I could see myself improving as a shopper, driver, and as the primary person a customer dealt with during a grocery order.

Prior to ever starting, I had seen the same critiques you’ll find under the reviews of all the major delivery apps: once upon a time, pay was much better, massive influxes of new shoppers could clog up the system, updates and app UI could be clunky at times and could even derail batches here and there.
I saw the merits of these as I became familiar with Instacart, and have generally operated as the shopper who will double-check, send the extra picture, search for the on-duty store associates, etc. in order to give customers the experience I’d want if I entrusted my groceries to another person.

I’m not willing to discourage potential shoppers from behaving in this way - I think it would do us all well to be able to expect good service.
The problem, of course, lies in the disincentives: -Depending on your region, you may or may not have the chance to look over a batch before having to accept it or have it taken.
-Items necessary to do this job safely and effectively, such as insulated bags, are sold by instacart rather than offered/reimbursed for. I’ve seen more Shoppers browsing produce/frozen foods without these than I’d care to recount.
-Support is extremely thin. There’s no other way to put it. Updates in the last few months have made it a little bit easier but for newer shoppers it can be a scavenger hunt accessing a live representative when you need them most. In nearly every case I’ve come across, Support reps mean well but have very few things they’re able to do. They can cancel batches, offer stipends, & reach out to customers- that appears to be it.
Any complex situation is likely to be above what they’re permitted to do anything about and poor ratings/fraud reports are infamously poorly handled by Instacart.
-Instacart operates with a general distrust in the shopper. Though cancellations are made to hurt Shoppers’ ratings, in cases where they may need to initiate one on an active batch, they do not have the power to do so.
Fall and Summer 2021 saw the rise of fraud reports as a viable way for customers to get free items, as no-contact dropoffs did not (and still do not) instruct careful documentation of every single grocery item upon dropoff (and receipts do not count in these cases). Be ready to take numerous pictures at the doorstep OUTSIDE of the app, as in-app photos do not save to your camera roll.

Finally, the ratings system is extremely bare-bones, and in my opinion, this is the most dangerous factor for potential Shoppers to be wary of.
The system goes like this:
At the end of a batch, customers are prompted to give feedback, including a number of badges (similar to Amazon) and a rating on a scale of 1-5 stars. They then are able to report items missing, report poor communication, replacements, item quality, & make further comments.
For Shoppers, the badges (such as Good Communication, Helpful Chat, Extra Effort, etc) are anonymously shown when you finish shopping for the day, and the ratings from your last 100 batches (not last 100 ratings) are tallied together, visible within the app. Your single lowest rating is automatically removed from the calculation, and any further ones can be appealed in the case of app outages, weather extremities, and other extreme external forces.

Your ratings can not be appealed and will not be removed for any other reason, including things out of your control: the store you were assigned did not have the same selection as the non-Instacart location the customer typically shops at, or prices within the app no longer reflect the prices in-store, or a store is facing staff shortages and has no on-duty deli workers or cashiers, etc. Arbitrary low ratings beyond the first one will affect your score for your next 100 batches at minimum.

No matter how good of a system you have, no matter how well you bag, store, and organize multi-batches, no matter how good your replacements or communication is, you are always two ratings away from falling under 5.00 and facing a considerable decrease in available jobs & a significant drop in pay.

As far as ratings are concerned, since Instacart is unwilling to be a factor, and Shoppers can only do so much, you’ll just need to be lucky to do this long-term. For that, I wish you the best of luck!

I’m actually new to Instacart Shopper. However, based on my experience thus far, I must say I love it. This may sound bias because I love helping others, and I also have over 10 years in customer satisfaction and experience, but because of my passion in helping others, it’s a rewarding service. This App makes things so smooth and easy to use so there really isn’t anything to not comprehend. Now, some little features can improve. For example: I love how in many of the grocery stores I shop in, they have indications on the App of what exact Aisle each item is and whether it is to your left or your right, this gives us the shopper an opportunity to not only help with our speed in customer satisfaction, but get us a better rating score. The only issue though is that not all stores are this specific for example: Price rite isn’t this detailed and this can be a bit of a downer, so this is where you’ll have to reach out to an employee for assistance on many of your items. Now, this may be also something Instacart has not control over because whether a buisness updates it’s technology is something that is entirely up to the buisnes owner. However, I feel if they are doing buisness with Instacart they should at least make efforts to upgrade because it will most definitely help us and thus making more customers happy to get their deliveries quicker. The only other thins is merely a suggestion. We are providing a services to our customers, therefore, we as shoppers need to be identified by our customers just so we don’t appear as some random person showing up at someone’s home. Now, I know uniform isn’t required for drivers, but I’m suggesting this changes and here’s why. I personally am use to wearing some kind of uniform, so I purchased a hat and shirt with the Instacart logo, as well as a sign that say’s “ Delivery in progress” on Amazon. Now, I went out of my way simply because I want to make customers feel safe in knowing who I am especially children. We don’t want to frighten anyone’s child. I so far had an experience where I went out to deliver an order late at night and a young teen child from the home I was delivering to got sort of spooked because a stranger had pulled up to there home asking for a particular individual, and of course I was doing this to be certain I was in the correct address. Now, keep in mind the young child has no idea who am I or why was I asking for in this case, her mother. I than identified myself, which than the parent came out to get the order and she was very happy and satisfied with how polite and curtious I was thus precise because I’ve gotten everything on the order correctly. So, yes Instacart does let us know to identify ourselves anyway we can and to be polite and introduce ourselves to the customer etc. All great things we as shoppers should already obtain in best practices, but may I suggest to Instacart to try and have at least a hat and t-shirt available to drivers who deliver to avoid instances like these especially when many of us are still shopping late at night delivering orders. This will not only looks good and represents who we are and what we are doing, but also you’re not gonna appear like some creep at night looking for a particular home address having folks around questioning your intentions. Other than that, I thoroughly am enjoying this service, and I stress safety as well because I am a father of five children and protective as can be. Customer satisfaction is a goal of mine daily and although we want to get the job done fast, we must be safe, make others feel safe by them being able to identify us as we approach their homes because we all know children are curious and want to be able to say, “hey mom, dad, the delivery person is here, I know because it says Instacart on his or her hat and shirt”. Some of you might even say I’m going over board with this because the parent or adults have the app to let them know, but trust me this can go a long way. At the end of the day folks we are providing a service representing a company so let’s look the part. Hey, I love this gig and I hope this review was of some help to anyone who is already a shopper and to those who are just joining in. For anyone doing this type of work, just an fyi, remember we are dealing with other people like ourselves, some will be difficult more than others, just think of yourself and how upset you be if your order was done incorrectly or if a random person just showed up at your doorstep, we are not perfect but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our best in providing great customer satisfaction. Anyhow, instacart I love the App and the service, I was a customer and still am before becoming a driver, my wife loves you guys but please consider a dress code for delivery drivers with some sort of sticker bumper or sign you can place inside your car like Uber or Lyft does, and if we must purchase it give it to us at a discount and fair price. I’m no genius but this is a very helpful strategy in my opinion. God bless and keep up the good work guys.

When you call instacart’s customer service number it will tell you that it is a Disconnected number. Although when you shop for instacart and they need to reach you they will call from the same number that says is disconnected? Seems very weird to me. I can’t seem to be able to contact them but they can contact me? Also, the scanner doesn’t always work, it will tell you an item is incorrect when it is indeed the correct item. Instacart has horrible communication with its shoppers. Only during a live batch is when their customer service becomes communicative.

Also, upon delivering you don’t get to see who your delivering to, (Just a name is given) which is a safety concern for me. They can see who’s coming to their door but we are almost blind when dropping off deliveries. Customers can be VERY rude and leave bad reviews due to items not being in stock and place blame on the shopper (Not the shoppers fault that the store doesn’t have what they ordered stocked).

Tips are usually good but there are people who order through instacart that don’t tip at all especially on big heavy orders. Customers on the app usually have 3 days to tip on the batch you completed. If the standards of that customer isn’t supposedly “met” they will remove the whole tip or almost half resulting in almost a half pay cut on the whole batch. I believe when a customer tips they shouldn’t be able to take that tip back after they’ve revived their items. Sometimes shoppers spend 2+ hours on a batch just to make $16 or possibly even less. If customers don’t tip, your only making $8 a batch because that’s what they pay for you drive time.

Instacart will have you working in a specific zone but will constantly send you batches 45 mins to 1+ hour drive away knowing the server will kick you off due to not arriving at the store in time. Instacart should be more communicative about how long you have to drive to a store.

There is no way for people to identify us as Instacart shoppers. They have material sold on their website for purchase, but they don’t help at all. I purchased a T-Shirt with a carrot on the top left of the shirt and retailers/cashiers still didn’t know I was working with instacart until I told them I had an instacart order and I have barcodes for them to scan.

You will also have customers who will not communicate with you at all while you shop for their groceries. I feel as if you put an order in and somebody is going to shop for your items you should HAVE to communicate with them regarding any replacement of any item the store does not have. This results in a customer recovering their groceries and reviewing the shopper as a 1 2 or 3 rating due to them not receiving the items they ordered or due to the replacement not being okay. If they were communicative while the shopper was shopping for their groceries then that would have never been the problem. Now the shopper takes blame and gets a bad rating just because they wouldn’t communicate with anyone.

Also, when you replace/refund items in the shopper app it will lower your tip the customer gave you because the store doesn’t have that exact item. It will say something like, “order adjustments affected tip amount” That again, is NOT the shoppers fault and the tip should NOT be affected due to our service is still being fulfilled. Because an item is not in stock that is not the shoppers fault and the money being given to the shopper should NOT be influenced due to the retailers fault.

As I said above, the customer has 3 days to tip on the batch. I don’t see why they would need that long in order to give a tip. This results in the shopper not receiving their tips for a whole day. They allow you to cash out at any moment but it’s only what instacart has paid you for a batch not tips included.

An Example:

you just finished your batch and are out for delivery. The customer hasn’t communicated with you at all during the shopping process. You’ve just arrived to the address given for delivery and it’s downtown in a very high building (living on floor 9), or in an apartment complex’s that require’s a door code to be able to enter the building. Although your order has multiple heavy items (24 packs of soda, (4) 12 packs of soda, and about 20 bags of groceries). You ask the customer, “could you meet me outside because I cannot find your apartment building?”. Still, no answer. You are required make almost 6+ trips up to their apartment to drop off groceries. Or be forced to click “customer is not available”. Most of the time they are heavy items. This will take you FOREVER and it’s very frustrating. Your doing everything for this customer.. shopping for their groceries, struggling to find an address, struggling to communicate with the customer due to them being silent to sent messages. Just for them to review you as a 3 star rating just because they didn’t receive the item they ordered and it’s a replacement. They would have known that if they would have communicated to know if the replacement was okay, or the shopper could have refunded the item for them if the did not want a replacement. Some people will pick replacements on the app and then get mad when their item is replaced. Also, customers will pick “no replacement, refund my item” and then get mad when you refund their item because they would have liked a replacement? You just can’t win at all.

And this is why I believe you should be able to review the customer as well. If the customer was rude or doesn’t communicate with the shopper it should show on their profile. The shoppers aren’t given fairness at all. They take all blame even when the retailers are mostly to blame for not having things in stock/out on the floor for purchase.

I had forgot to scan an item and already scanned the receipt before I noticed so the app directed me to go the second store except I needed to go back to the cash out screen to cash out the item I forgot to scan so I contacted chat and for ten minutes I tried to explain this to the agent and they were telling me how to add on items to the order while I’m sitting in line causing chaos in the store. So I rated him a 1 star as it was horrible service and he couldn’t comprehend anything I was saying (I had this same agent earlier in the day and he could not help me but was more generous with a 4 star, this was a bigger deal to me as I’m in line cashing out). The agent retaliated by canceling my $55 order. Reached out to chat and social media being told I would hear from a team to be compensated for batch pay and still haven’t. And on top of that my account was shut down for 24 hours because I “canceled” after checkout even though I had nothing to do with it. There’s no help for shoppers. Just awful how the shoppers get treated. 5 star shopper with over 1300 orders and will sit in major parking lots for hours before getting a batch even halfway worth it. The only shoppers happy are the part timers or newbies who get all the good batches. In my area DoorDash pays $16 an hour plus you keep all tips. It’s far more consistent money. Guaranteed $200 a day if you work ten hours. I work 14 hours everyday for Instacart and don’t even come close to $200 unless it’s a weekend. Then I will just maybe hit it. Instacart needs to make shoppers schedule like DoorDash so that there’s actually orders/ a reason to consistently work. The full time shoppers are the ones that know where every item is at and talk to the store workers for items in the back. But we’re also the ones that get pushed off the app. The company is just embarrassing.

STILL NOT FIXED AND NO RESPONSES WHATSOEVER FROM MAPLEBEAR! IM CURRENTLY SEARCHING FOR NEW NON-IOS CELL SO I CAN HEAR BATCH NOTIFICATIONS AND GET MORE WORK! THIS IS JUST ANOTHER WAY COMPANIES PROVE THEY REALLY DONT CARE. THX FOR NOTHING MAPLEBEAR! Here’s another review. I do so many to show how important this is not having notification sounds! Please maplebear fix the sound notifications! I miss out on picking up orders as I don’t hear notification from app when new batch is available. This is the most important part of this app. I started work with instacart using android app version so I know how the app is supposed to work. Please please please fix this. (My review of instacart would be higher if the maplebear app worked properly. As a matter of fact my review was higher when I had non-apple phones.)

I’m still begging. Please can’t you fix notification sounds that don’t consistently work? Actually they rarely work! As a shopper these sounds are of UTMOST importance. While I’m having to remember to keep looking at my iPhone instacart app for possible new batches to earn my living by, Android phone owners are already shopping the orders I’ve missed! Please. I’m already looking at new phones and iPhone is not one of them. This is the main reason why. Thx.

REALLY HATE THAT IPHONE APP VERSION DOES NOT PLAY NOTIFICATION SOUNDS AS ANDROID APP DOES. IF IM NOT WATCHING APP EVERY SECOND I MISS MANY BATCHES! PLEASE PLEASE FIX.

Love and appreciate the work. Really appreciate the work especially in a time where economy is terrible. Can’t find work in my field especially paying a living wage. Thank goodness that instacart is here.

App makes it easier but iPhone version stinks vs Android. Instacart, I’d love to help you get the grocery lineup right. Just say the word and I’d do for free. Thanks! (Also have many suggestions for updates...)

I have been with Instacart for over 6 years and for some reason the shopper's support as well as the way they treat their shoppers is declining! Today for instance, I was on my second batch. I shopped at Restaurant Depot, in the freezer for 30 minutes to get 5 boxes that were over 30-40 pounds each. I load them in my car and head to drop off. I get a text and message on the app that a rep named Diana was about to call me. As I pull into the parking lot to drop off the order she calls. She tells me that the customer on wanted one box of fish, instead of two(even though the app says 2 clearly). She then proceeds to say that she will remove me from the batch to send another shopper to get the same items that I currently had so the customer didn’t have to pay for the box of fish they no longer wanted. I attempt to tell her how long I have been with Instacart and that the customer can simply decline the second box of fish and they can refund her for it. I also asked how would I be compensated for shopping this batch that she was removing for no reason. She advised me that I would be compensated then Diana hung up! Immediately I get a notification from the app that my batch was canceled and how canceling batches can effect my rating and risk of deactivation. But at this point I’m beyond confused because I never asked for anything to be canceled. Then I get a email and notification from the app that my account was suspended. Now this is just one of the many recent incidents I have had with them and they all occur at the worst time ever. I am currently unemployed and needed to make money today desperately. I am a loyal shopper, platinum cart shopper and I cannot believe I am being treated this way. I reached out to support both by phone and chat with no help in return. It’s almost like they don’t care. Meanwhile I was never compensated for the batch that was removed and now I can’t even shop. How is any of this my fault?

My husband lost his job on July and started doing instacart shoppers, everything was so well, he reach 5 stars and started having better batches. He was doing the shoppings with a better time and all customers were pleased with his job. He meet some other shoppers and some of our neighbors also tried to do some earnings for living after all was going on and some of these acquaintances told him something about bots and people hacking accounts. I have no idea if somebody can make fake accounts since you need a drivers license, social security and pass a background check in order to sign up a Independent Contractor Agreement and about this last thing, out of the sudden this week the Instacart Trust and Safety Team (Support) deactivated my husband account because according with their available information he failed to deliver some customers groceries and that was a breach of this Agreement. He never failed a delivery, he is not a thief or irresponsible, he is a very hard working man, a nice man, a very enthusiastic and honest person. I have checked online and read this few reviews and I really don’t understand how a “support team” just support whatever customers that hadn’t pass a background check to use the instacart app to request theirs groceries says about a person that spends time and gas and go miles away to deliver their things just decided to say that they didn’t get them and nobody talk, they chat to say that are going to call him, never did it. No appeal, no opportunity to contact the customers and see if someone else is using my husband account. They don’t have a digital protection for the shoppers and now, beside playing with our family finances we are worry about my husband personal information on their records or somewhere in their web! A lot of shopper are not happy lately but the need to make incomes to pay for our own food and housing and cars we are using to delivery is that awful advantage in the hands of those who manage, develop and/or own these apps

I’ve been doing Instacart for two years I have almost always maintained a five star rating low cancel rate double diamond. It doesn’t matter. Right now I’m averaging $60 a day. The cherry pickers get to keep picking. I have no idea how that works? They are not the backbones of your company. They’re taking the prime batches every single day and nothing else. Mostly, they just shop at Costco arrogantly, knowing that they will get the best batches. I am in a very tight knit shopper group in my neighborhood. We all talk throughout the day share what we see and our earnings. There is a huge variance and no one knows how the algorithm works? true that the new shoppers get the best batches. There seems to be some type of weird reward system for the bad customers that claim they don’t get their items or claim that they are damaged It’s like Instacart only cares about punishing the shopper not the customer? There are so many ways to improve this mostly Batch offerings need to be fair and not let the same people only swipe high value batches day after day, while the rest of us get lowball, ridiculous Batch offers that would actually mean we are paying instacart to shop the order!
Where I live gas is over five dollars a gallon! Almost all the batches I see are just too low paying to accept. I just don’t understand the business model… I’m too good honestly to be working for them. They don’t deserve me. I provide 10 star communication and service. I am a professional shopper that has been in the industry for almost 10 years. This is my career in a sense because I do it full time but I can’t anymore so I’m looking elsewhere because it’s taking a toll on my mental health working for a company that doesn’t care.
The only theory I figured out right now is Instacart wants me to go away so they just won’t offer me any batches with absolutely no just cause. If Instacart chooses to reach out to me they’ve had my email they have my phone number I would absolutely love to talk to someone who cares about how bad my last year plus has been on your platform.

DON’T WORK FOR THIS COMPANY! THEY STEAL YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND THEN FREEZE YOUR ACCOUNT AND KEEP ALL YOUR FUNDS. I literally had a guy from the company call me and tell me an order wasn’t delivered that I had just dropped off, he told me I had a flag on my account he had to remove because of it and I needed to read him a confirmation code. I did so because he knew the customers name, address, the store I got the items from and and the time I picked it up. After I gave him the number the line went dead. I was immediately locked out of my account and couldn’t access the app. I called instacart and they told me my account had been hacked and that it happens “All the time” they then told me to fill out a form and that in the meantime they would lock my account. I filled out the form and 24hrs AFTER reporting my account being hacked someone changed my debit card on file and emptied my account. They did this while the account was supposedly “Locked” and now all the money is gone. To top it off you can’t talk to a single person at instacart about fraud or theft, that department only communicates through email and all they really do is send the same emails a million times asking you to fill out information you already have because you already filled out that exact form. It’s been over 48 hours and I still don’t have my account back. I have no money and I’m sure I won’t be getting it back. When I called this morning and spoke with the “highest department at instacart” she asked if I filled out the form yet and told me “I probably should fill it out again” I asked if they even got the first two forms I sent with screenshots attached. She said she had no idea. I asked if I could speak with anyone who could tell me they received it. She said no. This is unbelievable. What other company won’t even speak to you when your account is hacked and hundreds of dollars are stolen. How is it days later and I’ve gotten no call, text, email or even a confirmation that they received anything I’ve sent them. This place is the worst app you could pick to make money on, DONT DO IT!

I LOVE Instacart and working for them. However, awhile back my cancellation rate went above 15% because I had a very unreliable vehicle. So, when I would accept an order, go out to my car and try and start it, it wouldn’t start. This lead me to cancel way more orders than I normally would had I had a reliable car. They suspended my account. I was told I could appeal it and possibly get the suspension lifted from my account if I talked to Trust&Safety and state my case. I emailed them over 4 times pleading with them. I had all 5 star reviews, my times were excellent, the only thing was my cancellation rate and I was working tirelessly to get that down only to open my app one morning and see that I could no longer use it. This has caused a major issue for me, especially during COVID. There is little to no income coming into my house because of this. Flash forward to now and I’ve been giving every excuse and not a single chance to state my reasoning for having such a high cancellation rate. I was told they would email me about 4 times, that they pushed my inquiry up to the top of the list to be taken care of, that they would call me, blah blah blah. Nothing has been done. It’s really sad to see this is how someone who worked their tail off for a company gets treated when they are down on their luck. One of the support specialists even said he would "transfer me over to Trust&Safety" only to disconnect completely from the chat. I found out from the next support specialist that they have no way of transferring shoppers to Trust&Safety and to just be patient. Well I think since it’s been around A YEAR now I have waited long enough. What a shame. I thought this app and the higher ups would have a little more compassion for their shoppers especially during a time when we are risking our health and safety not to mention the health and safety of our family members by going out and shopping and delivering people’s groceries.

Rant over. This probably won’t help me but at least I feel a little better by getting it all out, and maybe I will get lucky and actually get the much needed help I have been trying so hard to get.

...Unfortunately, I really don’t see that happening.

As low as $2.33 base pay for batched orders. They will pay as little as $2.33 (or less?) per order if the customers tip. We are not compensated for driving to the store, yet they give themselves a discount in paying us if we take multiple orders at the same store. The base pay frequently doesn’t even cover our costs. We are completely reliant on good tipping customers. As shoppers during this time, we are literally risking our health and safety and their business has exploded; yet Instacart has decided to use this time to take advantage of us and fill their pockets. The workload and time for a shop typically takes an hour or more driving to the store, shopping, waiting and line, loading the car, driving to the customer and unloading the car for as little as $2.33 a delivery. Tips are to insure proper service, and help us make a decent living, not to undercut our pay and make us struggle. Due to expenses, we NEED to make significantly more than min. wage. Not significantly less than min. wage. We do not receive benefits, are not compensated for our costs such as depreciation and gas, have no health insurance, 401k etc. The only way I make a fair wage is by ignoring every offer below 15 and more than 40 items total. (I will not shop an 40 item order for $15 however) If there are more items or a double order it must pay significantly more. I barely shop due to these unfair practices and Instacarts lack of transparency. Also, we are workers not volunteers. Don’t let them fool you into thinking you are doing good for the community. (Shipt used/uses this type of persuasion) We are providing a service and are not being compensated fairly for the amount of work, risk, and costs associated. In addition to this, right now there is no way for a shopper to get help while on a delivery, no chat or ability to email that I can find, or it’s missing. (The little headphones at the top right) The only way is if the customer is not available and you wait for 6 minutes. This cannot happen, there are too many issues that we need assistance with. With the low pay, no support as a shopper, no risk pay during a deadly pandemic, and Instacart’s lack of transparency and shamefully low base pay I am ashamed to be a shopper. Please share this.

Horrible for both customer and employee (I’ve been both).
They don’t respond to customer service, infact so negligent people are reaching out through comments instead of private message. check their Instagram page comments if you’re weary. They send employees out of town with no guarantee of work, I’ve been sent out to San Jose from Monterrey just to sit around for literally 3-4 hours with maybe 11-30 dollars earned if I got lucky, most of the time none at all, so it’s just wasted gas and time. My issue isn’t so much with the no half decent income for employees but more so reaching out to people that need customer / employee help. They lack contacting customer / employee at all, my friend actually got her groceries stolen during Covid from an employee (Yes an employee, they purchased her groceries through the prepaid card they give you, and selected the “delivered already” option and dipped. No harsh feelings, giving the benefit of the doubt if you’re stealing groceries you probably NEED it) that’s not the issue, the issue is reaching out and giving her money back which never happened. This was about 3-4 months ago and they still have not given her $173.51 back, let alone even respond or look at the inquiry (she reached out through social media comments as well, even if they read your PRIVATE message they don’t respond) and she when she commented, they also never responded to that either.
I don’t know what’s up with this company maybe they’re going through it because of Covid but taking a look at the comments it seems this has been a consistent issue. Theres no excuse to send employees hours away for not even minimum wage (if you’re lucky), and not return money for orders that never came. Just don’t do it. Support shipt or other alternatives instead, they’re not the best but definitely more engaged with their customer service! Not sure about the employee aspect though so be careful! Don’t get conned like my friend I did, Im never a Karen, like at all. I work customer service and I know the struggle, but this is just ridiculous and unfair, I’d hate for others to experience the same especially during this time of struggle. It’s a head ache, not reliable. Sorry for my ramble but transparency is key. happy shopping y’all! Get some takis for me haha

I used to make sure to accept orders where the dollar amount I'm paid matched closely with the item numbers. The more items- the more stress, the more time spent in the store and working on one order, forsaking other orders, the longer to check out and pack up and deliver. For 38 items? I should make around $30+. I used this metric for about a year of shopping and delivering for Instacart and was very happy. I was an amazing shopper, if I do say so. I was communicative with customers and polite, I tried very hard to locate items - ALWAYS asking an associate when I failed to locate the item or found the shelf empty. I never marked "Can't Find This Item" just because I was tired of looking for it and wanted to be done shopping- as I suspect many shoppers do. I packed things up consciously. I was FAST- in my shopping, my decision-making, my walking, my driving. I was friendly to customers and store employees. I made Instacart look GOOD. Then Instacart started PLUMMETING their compensation level. What a bad look. Appearing greedy to your employees is myopic. I stopped delivering once those 38-item orders where I'd be driving 15 miles only paid about $9. Who is accepting that order?! People who can't find jobs elsewhere probably, due to bad attitudes and low work ethic. Want to pay what only desperate people are willing to accept? All you'll have as employees are desperate people. If you want good employees you need to value them and compensate them in a way that reflects that. By paying so poorly Instacart has become just purely disrespectful to their employees--- in this time of skyrocketing inflation and gas prices they paid a THIRD of what they used to. No doubt they think this a clever way to increase their profits but they'll lose business when people see that ordering Instacart now means only receiving half your items and poor replacements bc the only shoppers left don't care- as I have personally experienced over the last year or two. I have also completely stopped using the app for my own grocery deliveries due to these repeated experiences. Investing in your EMPLOYEES and valuing them and treating them well gets you better employees and better customer satisfaction and then better profits. That's just business 101. Very disappointed in this company.

It’s sad I really liked instacart but what they did to me was wrongful. They deactivated my account wrongfully and I want to put this out there in hopes they change their messed up ways.

First off when I got my instacart shopper app there started being a glitch with my account I would be at the stores shopping for orders when all of a sudden the app would randomly cancel my order because it thought I wasn’t at the store but I was indeed at the store and I shopping for the items. I contacted support immediately sent picture proof of being at the store and told them what had happened they ensured to me they notated what had happened then a few days later this happened again and one time it happened when I was driving to the store stopped at a red light this made my account above the 15% cancellation threshold I complained nearly everyday stating how support claimed they would fix the issue remove my high cancellation finally they got lazy and just said do a ton of batches to get that completion rate down I believe we fixed the problem so it won’t affect future batches and we wrong a note so your account won’t be deactivated. So I believed them I did as many batches as I received I did a good 45-75 batches my wrongful cancellation rate did not even go down by 1%! I complained they said just keep doing more I accepted every order my app would get still would not go down at all! Support promised I wouldn’t get deactivated and just to keep doing batches it would eventually go down so I did that unfortunately it never went down but I did everything in my power. Well one day I accidentally left my wallet at another store and didn’t realize till I was about to check out! Called the store realized it was there contacted insta cart they told me to go get my wallet so I could pay for the order promised my batch would not be canceled and promised that it was ok I also confirmed with the customer she was ok with it as well I went to the other store came back even checked in with the customer and instacart when instacart canceled the order and deactivated my account. I complained several times on the support line on the chat line on customer care line and to the appeal line after appealing everything they permanently deactivated my account I feel this is very wrongful

I have 479 apps on my phone right now and Instacart Shopper is unquestionably the worst. I have never seen any app that manages to make every single update worse than the last, from introducing new bugs constantly that are often never fixed to creating a worse user experience with every change, the shopper app does everything it can possibly do to get in the way and make doing your job harder.

Good user experience is about empowering users, reducing friction and increasing by productivity, Instacart’s designers invert these things and happily call you an idiot over and over and over again while doing it. Do you really need to tap past three or four screens telling you to organize multiple customer’s items separately every. single. time you shop a two or three customer batch? I figured that out hundreds of batches before. It’s even worse now that there’s a new bug that causes the batch state to reset frequently while messaging customers and reminding me to do it three or four more times. Thank you for thinking I’m an absolute idiot who can’t learn.

Oh, and accessibility features are an absolute joke too, buttons are unlabeled everywhere — try turning on Voice Control and try to navigate the app, just once, please — this is forgivable single developer 1.0 app, not on a mature app with entire development teams.

It isn’t just UX and accessibility problems either, somehow they manage to make performance worse constantly too, I have literally the fastest phone you could buy one year ago but the map on the new (terrible) dashboard regularly hammers the CPU and even scrolling through the shopping list for the first time on a batch is choppy. Oh, and this gets reset too whenever the messages bug happens and the batch state reloads. At least it’s all gorgeous, obviously that’s what the designers are putting their work into rather than figuring out what actually empowers us to shop faster, serve customers better and bring in more profit for Instacart. Thanks for treating us all like idiots and finding creative new ways to make the app worse every single time.

# Honest Release Notes
- Made the app worse. - Found a new way to insult shopper’s intelligence. - Introduced many new bugs. - Maybe fixed one or two. - That’s one sexy looking new button, we can’t wait for you to see it.

Newest app updates are terrible. Not only have there been constant and continuous unresolved issues with the app causing inoperability of the phone camera, when the camera does work is the screen side only. What’s worse is that when scanning items there is a steps to skip the scan and take a picture (found under the can’t scan or find barcode) that you have to “okay” your way through making shopping take more time than necessary just for a photo of a black screen. It gets worse because this complicates satisfying alcohol orders causing you to have to return alcohol and be comped far less than you’d have made on the order with the tip and that doesn’t account for the rating and review damage done. Now we have to “go online” and then see a mere fraction of the amount of orders that would normally be available especially to a 5 star shopper like myself. The ability to not have to go on or off line and have access to select batches should we like to beyond the Covid questions is unnecessary because we are independent contractors we should have full freedom and autonomy to see batches and not select them or see them and select them. Changing to the go online instead of muting notifications is an overreach. Instacart needs to start attending to its systems and making sure that those systems are operating effectively. Instacart also needs to make sure that they are actually providing support for its shoppers as opposed to restricting their ability to attain support to IMing outsourced agents in the app that often times are only responding with prescripted responses and allow for servicer support to be able to take place over the phone. Also there needs to be better auto responses to emails especially emails from shoppers seeking support or clarification regarding emails they receive about issues they are unaware of. There needs to be better time management with the amount of time it take to conduct thorough research when customers make claims about shoppers and that then affects the shopper negative in their rating. Ratings should not be allowed if negative unless they have been examined and authenticated. Shoppers should not be subject to any punitive measures without due process as that is illegal says the constitution therefore adequate teams should be created to satisfy this issue.

I’ve been working hard every single day and doing my best to stay a five star shopper but because of the app and the customer being complicated rating bad I’m not able to get any batches anymore. The app does not have everything marked correctly and customers take advantage of that to get free things and rate you bad for it, customer rate you bad for the littles of things even when you communicate it with them and they act as if it is your fault that the store does not have what they want. I find it absolutely ridiculous that bad ratings can not be removed when a shoppers whole ability to get batches depend on that. The shopper support should be able to remove bad ratings from customer manually because it’s just not right for shoppers who work so hard not to have work anymore just for a customer who is not understanding or in a bad mood rate the shopper poorly. When I shop i always make sure to talk to the customers before doing anything new but some customer are just complicated and the app is not the best sometimes and messed things up and I end up getting bad ratings for things that are not my fault... when I speak to shopper support they tell me that they can’t do anything about removing it even though they know it’s not my fault... how is that right? This app based getting batches on high ratings but doesn't look to help the shopper who’s been hurt by false ratings quickly. It’s quick to get bad ratings and doesn’t take much of them for a good shopper to get below a five start, but it takes forever to get back to a five star and they don’t get any support for the app so that they can go back to seeing good batches. I’ve been trying to get back to work after the app messed up on me causing/and a few customer rating me bad and when I talk to the support all of them keep telling me the same thing to wait and just work on batches to get my rating up... but how am I supposed to do that when I can’t see any batches in my area, I went from seeing high batches to seeing little to no batches and the ones I see are miles and miles away that could not even cover the gas to drive to. The shopper support said its not my fault yet nothing is being done to help me I’ve talked to them and waited for a week plus but nothing has been done to help me. Ive been working way to hard especially in this COVID times and now I can’t get any batches because of ratings that are not even my fault... this app just does not care about the shoppers who are working hard everyday and risking themselves to shop for people.

IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO READS THE REVIEWS FOR APP IMPROVEMENTS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF SUGGESTED CHANGES MADE BY SHOPPERS. IT WOULD HELP ALL PARTIES REGARDING APP ISSUES. Thank you!

1) there needs to be a set time that customers have to respond. they’re finally replying while I’m checking out or while I’m putting in the address to deliver groceries then getting mad cause they can’t edit the order but I waited forever. I go above and beyond for my customers and always communicate through the app and majority of the time I get crickets. also while delivering and I can’t find the address because it’s not the right one or it’s missing apartment building or number. 2) few of my customers have been leaving me standing, sitting around or wandering around looking for their place in the cold (cause it’s winter now) whilst not answering their phone and now I’m trying to get ahold of customer service only to now have to sit and go through the robot first. it’s annoying but I don’t leave a bad review for my time waited or the annoyance allot of the time and I still get false bad reviews on not getting what you wanted…you have to reply while I shop or be I’m taking too long because you didn’t put your address in right and I’m waiting for you to answer me to figure out where to go. 3) rating and gas system set up is a joke. 4)way too many customers talking back tips even after you did the order without any problems…it’s tip baiting to do the order. not getting enough money for batches anyhow. bath pay should go up if the customer lives far from the store or if we ran into trouble with the order. 5) some stores in my area don’t have the right items on the isles the apps says it’s on so it makes me wander all over the store looking for it which takes longer and I go over the goal tinder to get everything. that needs to be fixed. I will be back to alter my review of I run into anything else or if I see improvement.

4dec- updated review

1. I’m a platinum cart shopper and I love this app for making quick cash on side but the only customers a lot of the times that are leaving the reviews are the ones who are leaving bad reviews but I definitely go above and beyond and I always leave messages for customers on refunds and replacements and what not…that affects me because I want to be able to utilize the cash back for gas perk but I can’t cause my rating isn’t a 4.7 at least. it doesn’t take many reviews to go below a 4.7. I don’t think that feature is fair.

2. I keep seeing my compliments left by customers changing going up and down. Nothing should ever go down especially after weeks of having the compliments. customers can’t take back compliments. I know because I shop on instacart too. there’s something wrong with that feature.

I started shopping in October . not too many shoppers, plenty of orders. I stayed busy from the time I left home and lost track of time most days! the pay at this point had already been decreased drastically but customer’s were more appreciative and tipped well. it’s only gotten worse. instead of finding a good balance, Instacart has decided to hire hundreds of thousands of more shoppers on board when orders have plummeted since Covid is less of a threat and we are suffering from inflation and other things. tips have gone away mostly. mileage has tripled. and to throw a cherry on top of this disaster, Instacart starting batching together 2 store shops for the SAME price. there aren’t enough orders to go around the way it is and they start doing this….. can’t even keep count of how many doubles and triples I see going in OPPOSITE direction. they have zero consideration for the customers in this case. but above all they have zero consideration for the shoppers. especially the ones who have been in this for a few years or more. I’m in a few Facebook groups and see EVERY DAY people being unfairly deactivated. seeing the false claims from customers that they never investigate is just downright wrong. nothing I hate more than giving my time and efforts to someone for them to report items missing or damaged when I treat everyone’s order as if it were my own. tip baiting is a HUGE problem too. the good days of Instacart I would say is over for the most part. customers are fed up with the unnecessary charges at checkout and can’t afford it. customers are sick of getting disrespectful and careless shoppers. shoppers are sick of the workload versus compensation for the job itself. I’m not sure WHY an order that has 3 items and another order that has 90 units is still a $7 batch pay. I hope whoever created the algorithm rolls their ankle. 90% of the app updates are useless and end up making something else not work correctly. the latest thing is the gold/platinum/diamond cart tiers. I am currently diamond with 5 stars. I see barely any orders. WHY IS THAT? diamond is *supposedto have priority access to batches. 5 stars is supposed to be the best! as a customer you’d want someone experienced and well rated to do your shopping correct? instead this company PUNISHES you for it. can’t win anymore. too many new shoppers drying out the pool for us who have been around a while. DO NOT count on this gig because of the inconsistency. also just for the sheer fact that they can and will deactivate you at any time and barely anyone wins their appeal to be able to shop again. they make their support agents use sentences already made up too. if you ever need help it’s almost impossible to get exactly what you need because they will not stray from copying and pasting what they are expected to.

Update: I received a response to this review about 7 or 8 weeks after posting it.

“ "We’re so sorry about the trouble you’re having. Please reach out through the Instacart Shopper app so we can assist you personally. - Meme"”

Clearly, they didn’t read the review. They are telling me to do precisely what I reported as impossible in the app. What an apt nom de plume for this service agent...

I accepted a batch that included orders for three customers. Shortly after I started my shop, I received an agitated message from the customer C. The doors of her care facility are locked at 7:45, and if I arrived later than that she would not be able to receive her groceries. It was 7:15, and I told her that I had three customers to shop for, and I was certain I could not get to her location by 7:45. I told her she should cancel the order.

I proceeded to shop for the other two customers. I had no idea what process was involved with canceling an order or part of a batch, but I thought there must certainly be a way to resolve the issue. I finished shopping at approximately 7:40 or 7:45 and C’s order was still active. I couldn’t find any way to cancel her portion of the batch, so I began refunding all of her items. When I refunded the last one, I received a message that said, “you have refunded all of C’s items. Now you must call Instacart care to cancel her order..”

I spent the next 20 minutes feverishly searching the app for a way to contact Instacart care. After reading the help section on contacting them, I discovered that the button that allows the shopper to contact Instacart (image of a person with a headset) had been removed from the app. Meanwhile, the store closed, and I was no closer to being able to complete the order.

I understand that these are extraordinary times. however, making it completely impossible for a shopper (brand new shopper at that) to contact the company in case of complications that absolutely cannot be resolved through the help topics is unconscionable. I wasted two hours of my time away from my family trying desperately to scrounge together some kind of income to feed them and pay our bills: two hours for which I will receive nothing. The tone deafness that can lead to such a policy decision is shocking. It seems logical shoppers currently working on a batch should be the highest priority of an overtaxed service department.

This is my first day delivering for Instacart. I was incredibly thankful for the opportunity to make money when both of my other jobs are completely shut down by the Covid crisis. Now I doubt the intentions and ethos of this company. The corporate obliviousness that would leave a partner who is trying to serve its customers completely alone on an island with no guidance and no support is catastrophic.

I hope you will make this right. I want to believe in your good intentions.

I recently changed my number and I an already logged into my account on the app. I tryed to change my number. It ask to send a code to either your phone or email, and sense my phone number is no longer working I used my email. But every-time I sent the code to my email I never received it. I talked to a team member from instacart and I explained ut to them that I was not receiving any email when I try and request my code. They told me to keep tryin and it it don’t work to contact google customer service, and I contacted google and they said everything was fine with my account. And then I said let me just see if I need a update I found that my app needed a update and I updated it. And then tryed again and still I did not receive a code . I then contact them a Second time and they said the same thing to me and that was 2weeks again. Then they emailed me and told me they can’t update my phone number for me . And I thought to myself if this is customer service they should be able to get in my account and help me. Any other accounts I have like DoorDash or ubereats I’m able to get help with anything I need but instacart can’t help me? They told me to go on the internet and login but like I said before I can’t login on the internet because it asks for my phone number they us no longer on so I can’t get a code. I tryed to make a new account but I did not know if I make a new account I would not be able to use it because I have a account already open. I then contacted instacart customer service a third time to se if I can close my old account and make a new one because I could not update my contact. I explain to the instacart team member again everything I tryed for the last 3 weeks. That I an not receiving any codes to my email. They told me I can’t make a new account because I still have that account and even if I close the old account I will still be unable to use the new account and I was not understanding that. I then told them how come if you customize service and I have you all my information, why can’t you update it for me they did not have a reason witch is crazy because any customer service for any app or so can get in to your account and help you with anything you need. They then told me that they with review everything and that they will definitely help me change my number. And to wait for a email. I thought I would get help and be able to start working again on the app. But again they sent me a email saying they can’t help me update my phone number and told me to go on the internet and try from there. I can I get into my account from the internet if my phone number is no longer working. I have a new number I told them. At this point instacart do not care about there workers an don’t care about helping them get in there account if there is any changes to phone numbers or emails.if anyone else is having this problem please report because this will help get them to do there job. I will be doin a review online to about this on google on instacart. Com and any other place that I can to let people know don’t waste your time on tryin to work for them if they can’t help you with your account. There are more other apps and ways to make money. So sorry for anyone else that is goi. Though this