InstacartReviews 2,490

Watch out for unapproved continued charges to your credit card after using Instacart. I decided to give the site a try. The food was significantly overpriced and decided not to use them again, but months later, I discovered a $140 charge on my credit card, which, after calling them, turns out to be an "automatic renewal fee" for free deliveries. This was certainly not clear when I used them the firs time, and after a search of my online account with them, there is no mention of this charge. From It's hard to imaging that this is legal. It's safer to stay away and not get extorted.

First time free delivery but right away at checkout they try and add on a service fee of 10% that is not the tip. This is a fee to assist with the company to pay an hourly rate to their shoppers. After many texts my order arrives on time. On time is for the 1st star I gave this service. Two out of four items are delivered. I notice as I am putting away the frozen dog food that it is frozen solid. In the window it appears freezer burnt. I check the date on the package and it is over a month out of date.The driver has left, I call Instacart and to their credit no long hold. They offer to replace the food, I request a pickup as I don't want to give them another chance to screw it up. Instacart tells me to throw it away and they will refund me the money.So I complain a little longer, hang up, and throw the bag away. What a waste of time and money. The 2nd star is for the customer service rep who offered many options and listened to me complain. I will never use instacart again.

They have a promo for $10 off your first order plus free delivery. You can send this offer to friends. NO WHERE on the email does it state that you must buy $35 in groceries to get the promo first time buyer discount of $10.

At the very end, in TEENY TINY script, in a place that people are unlikely to notice it reads

All offers subject to Instacart terms of service

That's where the $35 rule is. It has been effectively hidden. It's not anywhere else.

Great.

I would have had further use for this service as the items I would have been buying on a regular basis are only available at one store in an area inconvenient for me.

But no. This is the end. Clean up your act, people. You lost two customers pulling this crap.

It looks like there are some legit complaints on here but if InstaCart charged exactly what your grocery store charges, how would the InstaCart profit? You dont expect them to provide this very convenient service for nothing, do you? Their yearly membership averages out to $3/shopping trip if you use it once/week. That is not enough to pay the driver... much less the technical, administrative and executive salaries. I agree that InstaCart should be more transparent in their pricing and drivers' pay. I would easily pay 10% of my bill for the service. Maybe even $5 flat fee for driver + 10% of bill? I was very confused as we have "but one get one free" here at my grocery store and InstaCart doesn't reflect that... so I have to buy 1 and make a note to shopper that it's a "BOGO" to get a 2nd one. Little tricks to help the system. It took me 5 shopping trips and talking to the drivers to figure out what was going on and how the company makes money. I knew it seemed too good to be true and I uncovered how they are working in those extra pennies. I don't blame them... just wish it were explained. I am very willing to pay for a service because I'd rather take a bubble bath than cruise the aisles at a grocery store!

We also are new to using them and was surprised they charged us more for items that arrived clearly marked for less on packaging. We called and they stated we are paying their prices NOT the store prices and that seems to be totally unfair and a rip off. They state they charge and initial fee of $130.00 and will adjust that price after products are delivered. That in itself should have been a sign for us that something isn't right. I've never had a company charge me more before receiving an item. So to have to pay more on items clearly marked down is totally inappropriate.

I used Instacart for the first time because they were offering free delivery. I don't drive so difficult for me to shop in-store. The delivery guy was very nice and delivered on time and I have no issues with him. I found a grocery receipt from Ralphs for $84.59 and yet Instacart have charged me $106. That's a mark up of $22.31. I know their web site states that the prices may be higher than in store prices but it doesn't tell you by how much. I feel like I was totally ripped off. I would have been better off using Vons and paying $6 for delivery or even using Amazon groceries who deliver for free if you have Amazon Prime. The lack of transparency is what gets me the most. Nobody likes to be taken advantage off. Instacart need to tell people upfront how much extra it costs to use their service ie 5%, 10% and not just rip people off after the event. A vague statement on their web site is simply not enough. So angry.

I used them for 12 months and the service was great until December. They auto-renewed my membership which was supposed to be $99.00 but they double charged me. I asked them to take one of the $99.00 off and then they cancelled my subscription. I was home bound and was trying to get groceries and none of their reps could help me. They finally reinstated the membership at $149.00 but that was still a mistake. I found another company so I cancelled everything. Tonight I just looked at their site for possible delivery times and they charged me again for $149.00 yearly membership! I didn't click on anything remotely saying I wanted to be a member. I have now been on hold with them for 30 minutes. Update, they were able to cancel the membership they just charged me and the customer service rep was very nice and quick.

I ordered form Instacart for the first time yesterday. I picked out about $50 worth of various items ranging from produce to pasta to cat litter. I placed the order and had my delivery set for 6-8pm. Around 4:30pm I started getting alerts from the shopper (who was wonderful) that items were not in stock. When I clicked the link, I was given options for substitutions. Annoying, but fine. Well, as it turns out the substitutions were not in stock either. I asked the shopper to cancel the order as it was literally turning from an order to 15 to a small order- bananas, milk, honey, and ginger. The items I actually needed were not available - onions, miso paste, noodles, cat litter and there were still a few other items she has not found. I was not about to pay for shipping and delivery for bananas, ginger, milk, and honey. I mean, $5 for the shopper and delivery charge for items that cost that much? The shopper very nicely agreed to cancel. However, I did call Instacart around 5 to confirm that the order was cancelled - I was on hold for about 5 minutes and it gave me the option to press 1 for a call back which I did (and confirmed my phone number). I also sent an email (which had a response time of 2 hours per their site). That was over 16 hours ago and still no response. In addition, I sent a follow up email this morning as I want to be sure I will not be charged any sort of restocking fee etc... Once again, no response. I will NEVER use this site again as items are not in stock with no substitution and their customer service is abysmal.

It took my shopper 1 hour to get my groceries to me and I live 5 miles from Publix. She wouldn't call me or text me. I could see her driving around on the GPS and was so frustrated because I couldn't contact her. It was my first and last experience with Instacart. My shopper just pulled over to the side of the road for 30 minutes and sat there, I was so frustrated and mad. Then when she FINALLY arrived she wasn't physically fit to climb the stairs and my neighbor had to help her bring my groceries up. My milk and eggs had been in her trunk the entire time. :/

You never know if you'll get a good / bad shopper and possibly all of the products. MOST importantly they add a Service Fee of 10 %... this is separate from a Tip! When I noticed it on my final receipt and called, they said that this is to pay the drivers. Why do I have to pay your employees? If I get good service, I would pay a Tip. This is not ethical in my opinion. True--- I should have noticed it upon check out, you can "waive it" and take it off... but when you're moving fast and selected your delivery time fee, your not thinking that there are additional hidden fees.
Instacart doesnt share their company profits with me, so why should I pay for their drivers or any of your employees! If i get good service, I will gladly pay a good tip... Period. Shame on you! I won't be using the service again.

I am very disappointed with how dishonest this $2 billion company is. When I research more it turns out this company treats its worker badly and often decrease the wage of its front low worker who actually does most of the labor. I have firsthand experience on how bad the customer service is. I have a home in Boston Area. The boss Bear booked the room for his worker Daniel via Airbnb. After the rental period expired, Bear stopped communication. I later found out he had terminated his relationship with Daniel. He never communicated anything.

In January 2017, Daniel kept begging me to let him stay and he will get a co-worker to come and rent out more space. He ended up leaving in the middle of the night after 21 days. He owns me one month rent worth $1150.

InstaCart have not taken any responsibility. Do NOT deal with this company, it is unreliable and untruthful.

I started working for this company a few months as a part-time to help pay for college tuition. At first I thought you can pick up own hours it's fantastic easy I have great customer service perfect match. After a few weeks their apps start kicking me off shift for various reasons -not accepting an order within time, they have me driving 30 miles for $8.00 I got stuck in traffic I was penalized. Their apps is the worst cannot indentify customer requests. Management is the worst if you can't pick up more hours since they are using your car to make a profit -you are screw they will find ways to get rid of you with reliability treats. You become a slave they will send you places or locations no parking in downtown you will endure tickets. They don't care about you the customer or employees. I did a great job shopping for my customers at end they terminated my account because they couldn't use me or my car they eager to advertise delivery within an 1 hour not true. They have no drivers to pick up those orders.

They charge a service fee which does not go to the driver directly, which looks like a tip that is not a tip. To tip drivers, you need to go specifically and click on service fee, change it, and tip the driver. Additionally, there are frequent errors in shopping as well as order "rescheduling" at the last minute. They advertise same day delivery and have you schedule times, however they often can not find a driver. You can order 6 hours in advance and be notified during or after your order was supposed to arrive that it can't be delivered, and you are given no recourse. For those who are homebound and/or are counting on this service, it is a huge problem. When we called to speak with customer service you could hear them smirking as they pretended to care that they messed up.

I recently used instacart for a couple of weeks after spraining my ankle. I did about three or four orders and there was an expired item in every single order. I got expired lettuce twice, a loaf of bread that had already expired, and pound of salmon that was beyond rancid. Each time I have to write an email to customer service and ask for a refund. It's really annoying that their shoppers don't check the expiration dates. It's a waste of time and money since you're paying a convenience fee + tip.

Well this is my second review, the first one i said i was not going to use instacart again, but i did,
I placed an almost $200.00 order for COSTCO, i have a business executive account with Costco, but after placing the order i realized, IM NOT GETTING MY COSTCO credit, instacart is useing there card and taking everybody's costco point, if you know anything about Costco and you have an executive account you know that you get a check at the end of the year that basically pays for your membership and sometimes even more and the only way you get that is if you use your card and Shop there frequently will instacart is taking everybody's points so imagine the check they're getting at the end of the year.
So I called instacart customer hotline and they were no help they would not help me at all.
So again for the second time not happy with instacart the delivery people are very nice though

I spent several hours researching grocery delivery sites because I'm unable to walk due to a severe knee injury and finally settled on Instacart as they promise same day delivery. So I spent probably another hour logging on, shopping, creating all my items and so on only to find out that they do NOT deliver within one or two hours it won't be until nine to 10 o'clock tonight, it's noon now and I'm starving. I would've just went with Vons but they can't deliver until tomorrow unless you order by 8:30 AM but I think their prices are a lot better. How disappointing to go through all that trouble only to find out it would be nine hours from now before I could get any toilet paper and am out of paper towels as well! I guess I'll have to resort to coffee filters. Thanks instacart