InstacartReviews 2,492

I ordered my groceries from Publix today through Instacart just like I do every week. The shopper shopped my order and couldn't pay for it because the debit card that Instacart gives their shoppers didn't work! The shopper was so apologetic and it wasn't her fault at all. I reported this issue to Instacart. My order was supposed to be delivered between 2pm & 4pm today. Still no groceries and no response from Instacart as to their plan of action to make me happy and get my groceries to me. It's now 7:35pm. So disappointed in Instacart!

Horrible
I wanted to order a big order of food items from Costco for our religious organization I used instacart for delivery
1st you will not get costco 2% money back (because they are going to use their card) 2nd Out of 4 items only 1 item was delivered in correct quantity rest of the 3 items were only 10%(They were bulky) I end up renting mini truck and hiring 1 help to get it
They promise to refund full amount instead they gave me $10 credit on my future purchase
I am not going to used them again so what is that $10 credit going to do

I've been using Instacart for several months because of Covid-19 and the fact I had a difficult surgery that has kept me from the being able to drive. The service was mediocre for the most part, but my last order was so poorly handled that I will not use Instacart again. The delivery person spoke absolutely no English. I'm not anti-immigrant; that's how most of us got here. But we could not converse about substitutes. No big deal; I've never had a single Instacart let me know if there were substitutes. Somehow, I got a copy of the receipt online. I've never had one before with Instacart, so I was surprised. Further examination of the receipt revealed many items I had not ordered and did not want and were not in the order. This makes me wonder how many times this has happened in the past.

I called Instacart, and they referred me King Soopers (Kroger). King Soopers promised me a $20. & change refund. I was told it would take 7-10 days. Why should King Soopers pay me anyway? It was an Instacart problem.

After thinking about it and talking to a friend who works for Instacart, I realized why there were so many items I didn't order and didn't get. The woman who was the Instacart order BOUGHT THINGS FOR HERSELF AND HOPED I WOULDN'T NOTICE! This is a boon for less than honorable people. The friend that works for Instacart told me there are no screening or requirements to be employed by Instacart. Basically, the person who wants to do it just signs up and starts working. My warning is simply this: DONT USE INSTACART!

8/22/2020: I first contacted Instacart about a full refund on 7/22/2020, the same day the order was placed, and they finally responded today that it was "too late." The reason for the full refund is based on an emotionally abusive encounter with the driver over items the driver picked to replace items that were out of stock. The substitutions were unauthorized and the driver refused to take them back. (The driver probably thought she could get away with it because the customer is an elder/senior citizen.) The driver was mean and intimidating and showed a lack of respect or deference to the customer. The customer refused delivery on the entire order, but the driver refused to take it back. Also, although all of the text conversations were documented on Instacart's order page, they were not considered by Instacart, and the full refund was refused.

I've used Instacart several times and never really looked at the cost of each item - and what I was actually charged. Today I looked - what an eye-opener! My shopper, texted me and asked if I would like him to pick up wipes for me. It wasn't on my order, but I asked the price. He texted me a picture of the display - $13.99 each. I was shocked to see I was actually charged $16.09 on my receipt. This happened with 3 other items that were on my list and had the price on the label when delivered. The price on the receipt was $2 to $3 over what was on the label. I emailed Instacart and come to find out - they don't honor prices in the store. They have their own system for pricing. So even though my shopper did the upsell with me on the wipes with a picture showing it's $13.99 - I still have to pay $16.09. I tallied up all the overcharges and it came to over $10. Lesson learned. Never knew this is how they do business. Back to buying my own groceries

Your satisfaction will very much depend on your shopper. Yesterday i had a horrible experience with them. I am very careful to type in big, bold letters, "no replacements or substitutions " in the box marked preferences which gives you that option. My request was totally ignored on 4 items. Their markup is huge. Their deliveries are prompt. I would switch to a different service, but unfortunately fortunately they are the only service in my area.

I wanted to love this company especially since they offered a 14 day express trial, like if a company offers this that must mean a company has high regard for their services. First day I ordered my items, and as advertised delivered for free within 2 hours. I made a second order with the same result, I was very pleased. Then the next day, I was already planning my third order and was hit with a delivery fee. I thought maybe this may have been a mistake, so tried a different store and time of day. Nothing worked... Long story short I called the support line, but was met with the WORST customer service. They did not want to honor the trial period as advertised, and blamed it on the 'computer'. Like they have no power, the computer has the power which I found odd. The supervisor I spoke to, I could tell he wasn't listening to anything I was saying because when I asked if he was 'still there' 3 times, there was a delay of 5 seconds for him to get me off mute so he could say 'yes im here'. I always thought that a trial period mirrors how a real membership would be like. What I learned was that there are hidden fees even with express, and the help line isn't much help. Don't waste your money on this scam of a company.

I utilized Instacart to order grocery only ONCE and a few days later I get a $99.00 charge taken from the debit card that I used. When I called they said that I subscribed. No, I did not enter into a free trial or a subscription. Usually a company gives a customer a chance to either accept or deny a free trial. I did not get that option but if I was given the option I would have said no. I did not get a warning stating that I was entering into a free trial and I would be charged $99 if I didn't cancel. I did not agree to anything like that. Some companies are unethical and finding ways to take money away from consumers. These are critical times and customers do not need added stress.

Do not order anything through this company but if you must make sure that you call their customer service line to make sure that they did not add you to an involuntary free trial and subscription.

Be really careful when shopping at Costco via Instacart. Instacart marks up the price by 15%. That is why you never got Costco store receipt. For example, beef steak is $34.60 at Costco but Instacart charges you $42.39, Avocado Oil is $18.79 at Costos and on Instacart is $22.99. I had to find out this dirty trap because the recent shopper left the receipt in the box by accident. In this round, the original Costco bill was $165 while the final Instacart bill was $213! $48 dollars, on top of the service fee + tip + membership free I am already paying. Not mentioned the tax was calculated based on the final markup bill. When I confronted their representatives, all I got was scripted boilerplate-text response, saying the price is determined by Costo not them. So I challenged them: who got the markup dollars, Costo or Instacart? The agent dodged the question again, saying something like they need money to pay for infrastructure etc. NO Instacart at Costco. If you are that rich to toss away $50 dollars per shopping trip, you can send your butler to do it!

I ordered my groceries like I've done before and got the message that the groceries were delivered. Open the door to no groceries. Call to get it sorted and get transferred to the shopper I believe on accident but she basically calls me a liar and hung up on me when I said what does my porch look like then. Had to call 2 more times to get someone to actually help. While my husband drove down the road to find out groceries at the neighbors house. I am appalled at how the shopper & Instacart handled this situation. If you get Julie as your shopper beware be prepared your groceries may be delivered to the wrong address.

I have been using insta cart for awhile now and have had trouble in the past with them. They are the most unorganized, horrible customer service, and have NO listening skills. I had an order delivered today that had another shoppers stuff charged to my card. When I called they kept telling me it wasn't in my cart. No kidding! The shopper herself told me she billed someone else's groceries to my account. I will NEVER us insta cart again. Which means unless Kroger gets someone else I will not be using them for delivery either.

So I'm having a crappy week, our car broke down we literally had no groceries in the house so I decide pay the 10 bucks to have Kroger deliver my groceries. I might as well went down the street to the bullies house and paid him 10 bucks to kick me in the balls, at least I would have gotten something for my money. I get my groceries and nothing is right I have multiple brands of the same item that I was told they didn't have in stock. I ordered ice cream it was completely melted literally running out of the container melted. I preferred 7up and got Mountain Dew and ordered a steak for dinner and got sandwich meat. I call Kroger who tells me It is t their problem call Instacart. I get through to someone who then patches me through to Someone at Kroger Who is to refund my money for the items I didn't order and the ones that were wrong and right before she finalized the transaction bAm Disconnected. I call back and get the extreme pleasure of Gabriella I'm not sure where they dug this one up at but of all the jobs with this company customer service was the last one she was qualified for. Gabriella proceeds to tell me the messed up items are my fault not the shoppers from her company (excuse me) I let her finish telling me how I must have hit a button or something then she proceeds to tell me she won't give me a refund but will resend the items back out I said fine she then tells me that I have to go to the website and order them again that she gave me a credit however she didn't give me a credit for the 10 bucks so she tricked me into paying them again for their screw up in the words of Ray Zallinski the auto parts king "good job getting one by me savor it because it won't happen again kid". So here I am stuck with either paying the 10 bucks a second time and getting what I ordered or losing the credit. I will lose the credit out of principle because I refuse to repay a delivery fee to be told their screw up was my fault. I called back and asked if they had somewhere I could leave a review on their website of course they don't. Everywhere I see reviews for them none are good and more than 2 stars.

Craig the Supervisor was rude, he kept cutting us off and was unable to resolve the problem or tell us why it happened in the first place. He gave no additional information and that is unacceptable that as a supervisor, he could not add to the conversation in a productive way. He had to be reminded that I'm the customer. We had to calm him down on the phone. Additionally It's completely unacceptable that instacart would cause pending charges to my bank account totaling $500 when we did not get groceries. They tried to authorize $250 six times! And when we asked for it to be fixed, we were told 3-5 business day. This caused a significant disruption for my family and no one even cared enough to explain or offer any solution to the problem. All we were offered was a rushed apology that sounded rehearsed because every single person we talked to apologized the same way. I have never experienced a customer service issue this large with instacart. I was extremely dissatisfied and disappointed with how we were treated today, especially when I frequently use this service. I expect better. We will be using Shipt instead.

I ordered using instacart from Costco. Not sure it was expected but the delivery person left Costco receipt for $287.76. The instacart charged me $380 (after discount $360). Here are the extra charges Instacart makes which are documented and clear
- Delivery Fee ($9)
- Service Fee ($18)
- Tip - Optional
The markup on the prices is NOT documented anywhere. I initially thought Costco charges them markup however I see Costco receipt for $287.76 (around 25.5% markup). I wrote to customer care and received following response:
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Instacart works with our retail partners to offer customers the same prices as those found in the physical store as much as possible. However, some retail partners choose to set their items at a higher price point on the Instacart platform than what they offer in store. That's why you may see a price difference while shopping.
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However, it doesn't seem like Costco is charging extra (as per receipt), It is Instacart who is charging the extra but is not transparent about these charges. This looks more like fraud because they can randomly change the price and you will never realize unless and until you compare with actual prices.

If I could rate instacart a zero here, I would. I tried them yesterday for the first time. It took half the day to get through their very glitchy website to place the order. Finally, once it went through, my shopper, "Greg" was picking out my items. 1 hour past the time my items were due, he claims he just put them on my porch. Nothing. He admitted (while on 3 way phone call with corporate customer service) that he delivered to wrong address. During same call, he had the nerve to tell me to go find my groceries and deliver them myself! Explicit directions were given in the instructions. My address is on front of house. I should not have given the up front tip and was given the opportunity to remove tip afterward - which I did. I hope they actually take it off. Customer service claimed they would credit my card but the charge is still there. Worst place and service ever. Never again!