InstacartReviews 2,490

I recently had neck surgery, did a search for grocery delivery and found Instacart. Terrible terrible terrible!

Instacart, never gave me the free delivery as promised for first delivery. I made my order and received a text that my order would be delayed. Not a problem I told myself at least they contacted me.
I then received a text that my order was complete and my delivery would arrive in 30 minutes, no show after 30 minutes. I called Instacart and told them my order never arrived and that they have not contacted at all. I then called Instacart and they transferred me to the shopper and she told me she was very far away and that it would at least be another 45 minutes.

When I spoke to Instacart they were no help.
Don't ever use this company!

How hard can this really be? The app is down right useless when it comes to reporting a problem which, is a common occurrence. Support is just laughable. The support people talk as if they are 12 years old! If you decide to join this company make sure you check all of your items and do not review until you see if all the items were received. I also believe the delivery people found some sort of loop hole when it comes to missing items and charging your credit card as if they were purchased. This is why you must check all of your items and report asap.

I was super excited about using Instacart but when it came time to pay via the App on my Iphone it quickly popped up a message... we do not accept prepaid cards... I have had misfortunes in my life these past few years and one was bad credit which prevents me from obtaining a regular checking account but I was grateful to find a prepaid card company in town that accepts my employers direct deposit and in turn started rebuilding my credit again but I guess it isnt good enough for INSTACART... I did find another Grocery delivery company, BURPY.com who gladly accepted my Prepaid Card and had a smooth delivery, so if Instart ever changes this awful rule about Prepaid cards and if one day I do open up a Regular Bank Checking acct I will never try to use Instacart again!... and if anyone ever asks me about grocery delivery services I will definitly oppose them to using INSTACART!

They billed us twice for something but denied it and said they actually hadn't charged us at all. Right. Finally spoke to a supervisor who acknowledged that we were correct and promised to refund (we'll see). In addition, they charged anywhere from $16.99-$20.73 for the SAME PRODUCT from week to week, which had nothing to do with the actual cost of the item fluctuating. Their billing is harder to understand than a cell phone bill. Overall it's a great idea with terrible execution. Not worth the overcharges, time spent trying to figure out the bill, and inconsistencies.

When you call, you can't speak to a supervisor. My account was deactivated because I saw a charge on my credit card that was from some company in San Francisco. I didn't realize at first that it was Instacart. It has been over six weeks now and my account has not be re-activated. I tried to use my sister's account and now her account is de-activated. I created another account and now that has been de-activated. The company claims that they send you an email to reactivate the account, but that is not true. I have never seen such a dysfunctional operation.

I made a one time purchase through Instacart for Publix over a month ago. I signed up for the free delivery promo. All went well with delivery. A month passes and I see a $149 charge in my bank account as an Instacart purchase. I immediately think it is theft from someone who used my card number to make the purchase and contact my bank who then cancels to re-issue a new debit card, and to file a dispute for the charge. A week passes and my bank returns the funds to my account and I receive a new card. This morning I receive an email from instacart stating that it has come to their attention that I filed a dispute on a charge made via instacart for $149. And they were investigating it, and in the meantime my instacart account was not going to be accessible. It had crossed my mind before that grocery purchases are usually not whole dollars, and it then occurred to me to google possible issues with instacart. I found this review blog and found others talking about their $149 annual fee. I now realize that this is the charge I had. So because they are deceiving little bastards I am happy that I cancelled my card, filed the dispute through my bank FIRST before contacting them. They can investigate all they want now, they will not be getting my money again. It is a shame because I do love Publix, but they should use another delivery service company with better values and customer service.

They suck! Working for the company sucks and being around these $#*!ers suck! First of all I would never be disrespectful to anyone that was shopping or try to run people down with my cart. I swear I will turn my cart on them and see how it feels if these $#*!ers want to run me down for CENTS per item. I bit my tongue to not beat an old $#*! down in front of my son at HEB. She was on my $#*! trying to pass me by and I stopped to let her pass by and I told the old hag to go if she is such in a hurry and she said no you go age before beauty! I said what $#*!in mirror are you looking at. I let it go because my son was with me and I let it go! Ok so now I sound like "Frozen". Lol. Just a note again I work for instacart. I will never be that way to earn cents per item. $#*! you $#*!es that will ruin a persons day because you treat people wrong and shame on you HEB or any grocery store that allows you to be in their stores. And most of all $#*! you INSTACART I DONT WORK FOR YOU ANYMORE BECAUSE I WOULD NEVER BE DISRESPECTFUL TO PEOPLE LIKE THAT AND $#*! YOU OLD LADY AT HEB. I KNOW THE MANAGER THERE AND I WILL REPORT YOUR OLD $#*!. KARMA $#*! I WILL BE PETTY AND BE ON YOUR $#*! NEXT TIME I GO TO THE GROCERIES.

First and last time I ever use Publix on-line delivery service. Their default policy around allowing substitutions without customer authorization is downright criminal. Half my order was substituted. Order a cheese pizza and get a meat lovers pizza. Sorry if you're a vegetarian, Publix was out of cheese but still wanted to ensure they get your money. Oh, one more thing, meat lovers pizza wasn't on sale. Sorry customer, you should've specified no substitution on each item you ordered from us. I'll never set foot in another Publix's store as long as I live!

I've used Instacart once - yesterday - and haven't decided if I'll use them again, but many of the issues cited by customers below are avoidable.
1. The members fee is if you sign up for their Express service which provides free delivery. It states on the website that Express membership is $149 / year.
2. The service fee is optional. It does not go directly to the shoppers, and probably is a slush fund for the company, but you don't need to contribute. You can change or zero-out the amount during checkout. I learned this the hard way, but their customer service was happy to remove the fee for me after the fact.
3. The shopper you get is a total crap-shoot. Mine was good, it seems others may not be. Part of the problem is the bad website. For Fairway there were a lot of items listed that my nearby store did not have. Luckily my shopper sent replacement options in a timely manner. Maybe she missed some things that were there, but on a bill of $180 there were three replacements (that I approved), 2 totally unavailable, and 1 mistake. So even if it was the shopper's fault, I can hardly complain given that 25 or so other products were done correctly and arrived on time.
4. The service fee does NOT cover the delivery people, who are different from the shoppers. Please tip directly for delivery!
5. Customer service has been great to me -- perhaps I've just gotten lucky. They refunded fees that they didn't need to, and they are delivering to me a single loaf of bread that was mistakenly replaced with another similar one (the shopper's mistake).
As I said, I may not use them again. There are problems like not being able to get less than a whole lb. of lunchmeat, or getting exact amounts of produce one might like. But, on a very rainy, hot day when walking 28 blocks with my granny cart was an unwelcome idea, they did a pretty good job.

Their customer help is terrible! I ordered through them and included on my list 2 artisan cheeses from the deli 1/2 lb each. The weights were adjusted up to. 61 (no big deal) and. 79 on the most expensive one (that's kind of a big difference), and I had no input on these adjustments and had to, of course, pay more. Then, both of the cheeses were left out of my grocery bag when it was delivered. When I contacted instacart, they didn't refund the money for the missing groceries instead offering instacart credit. When I said that wasn't acceptable that I wanted my money refunded for the groceries I didn't receive, I haven't received a reply.

You place you order - you get notifcation that something is being substituted - before you can even click on the notification, there are 2 more notifications that the person is done shopping, has checked out, and you can no longer "chat" with them! Total BULL$#*!! How the hell did you make it from the health food section all the way to check out and get through the line within 1 second? That is impressive. Call customer service to complain - they say they can note your account to check with you first - THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF BEING ABLE TO CHAT WITH THE DRIVER! So that they can make sure what they are subbing in is ok! Will NEVER be using their service again and I highly recommend that you don't either.

They treat the shoppers like $#*! and do not care for their safety. They will take orders in very risky areas without any concern for the safety of the shopper. I once received an order for a budget suits in Dallas that was located on the side of a service road next to a strip club and liquor store. There were people hanging out watching mu every move. I couldn't help but to think if it was after dark how much more dangerous this situation would be. In addition to this they often overcharge the customer which gives the customer a bad experience and leads to them taking it out on the shopper. Customer often confront the shopper when they are unhappy with unapproved charges to their account. To make matters worse they force the shoppers to replace out of stock items with poor selections the customer do not want rather than refunding their money. The customer then gives the shopper a poor rating and will not tip them. They will force you to fill several orders at one time rather your vehicle is large enough to properly accommodate such large orders. I've had 3 orders assigned at once from Costco totally to over 56 items. They do not offer any compensation for the wear and tear of you car and if you get a ticket they tell you its you issue even though the accept orders in undelivered zones. Your only choice is to walk a long distance carrying a large order leaving your vehicle unattended. You pay changes and they do not pay you what they guaranteed. They will make changes to the app that will force you to shop at one particular location even though you may pass several location on the way to one store that does not guarantee if the item will be in stock. They have not order restriction for apartments on 3rd and 5th floors. Someone can order 30 bulk items from costco and will have to struggle to deliver under these circumstances while trying to avoid any injury to your body. Even after lugging all these bulk items up 5 or more flights of stairs they customer still does not tip because they have been charged additional fees and think that money comes to you rather than the company. I have had customers demand a physical receipt due to being charged a higher price that what actually rang up in the store. They will try to force an order through 2 hours ahead of schedule even when the customer explained they would not be home until that time. You get to the home and have to wait or take the items back to the store just to re-shop the same items later. Most definitely shady business that does not care about the shoppers or customers.