InstacartReviews 2,492

I wish I had read all these reviews before using Instacart for the first time. I was feeling desperate about getting groceries delivered with everything going on right now, and amazon prime not being available due to so many bookings, so I was thrilled to find Instacart had available delivery windows open. I have been disputing the amount they charged to my card (a debit card, so asking the cc company to refund is not an option for me), but the only way to communicate is through their chat system. I've gotten no where. I was charged $249.99, but it should have been more like $210. I understand they upcharge a certain amount on each item, have a service fee, and a delivery fee, but I got items in smaller quantities, sizes, etc., and was literally double charged on multiple items. I did not get what I ordered. I don't want to shortchange the delivery person, and I don't think he should be punished by me taking away his tip... but I don't know how to get a refund. I've gotten nowhere with their lack of customer support. I will never use this service again.

Horrible service for many reasons. ***Check your order! They overcharge and will not refund***

1. The website offered replacement items that cost more than the item ordered, which is fine, but when I received the cheaper original item in my order I was still charged for the pricey replacement item. The receipt that came with my groceries was $204 including tax, the charge (for only groceries) was $245 including the tax online and on my credit card.
2. The website would give one price but at the checkout it would be another. For an example, Meat Pies were 1.66 online, the receipt shows that they are. 99, I was charged for the online price. I ordered two sweet potatoes which came to $2.81, the website charged me $10.98.
3. When I contacted Instacart about this, they only addressed the sweet potato weight difference and offered a credit to my account of $20. I was not happy with that solution as it did not match the overcharge that was taken from my credit card.
4. Rocio then said he would send me a refund.

'We really sorry for this inconvenience I refunded to your account the difference overcharged than you ordered.
It take 5-10 days to process depend of your bank.

Regards,
Rocio
Instacart Care

I only received $11.89 refunded on my credit card.

Needless to say, I will never use this service again. I question how often these overcharges happen in their favour without people noticing or having the time to sort it out. BBB has a long list of complaints about this service, today another one. If they just refunded me the overcharge to begin with, they would have kept a customer, the customer's friends and family would have heard great reviews instead of a warning about the company, and the public would have one less bad review to read and share on social media.

In this terrible time I appreciate all the essential workers including those in the grocery industry. Thought Instacart was the safest way to stay home and get groceries and had a good experience the first time I used the service. However, this week a shopper started my order on Monday night, pulled 14 out of 23 items and then abandoned the order. I was able to chat online with customer service who told me the shopper had an emergency (understandable) and they would try to have my order completed the next day. The next day's shopper only pulled & delivered the other 9 items. I was charged the full amount and now cannot contact anyone. My emails go unanswered - calls to the phone number immediately go to a message that says 'due to high volume the call center is closed!' What kind of company closes their customer service department in the middle of this? I feel scammed.

I cancelled my order a day before the delivery, It was for 104.37. It now has been almost a month and they never credited my visa card, I have sent at least six emails, filled out forms and have gotten no response, I tried calling a dozen times only to be put on waiting for hours and each time my phone battery ran out, I finally was able to speak with 2 different workers and gave them all the required information, They said they would pass it on. Almost a month has passed and no credit has appeared on my bank statement, I have written to the corporate office in San Francisco about the matter and they have not replied, This is the most worse run companies that I have ever experienced,

I used Instacart a couple of times before COVID-19 and it was OK but the last time I used it a couple of weeks ago I ended up getting double charged for an item that was almost $30 and I didn't notice it until just now. I knew my final bill was too much ($100 more than the store receipt of $230, including fees, tip, etc.) but I didn't know exactly what happened. I'm sure other people who have used this service many times before and had errors like that would have caught it before I did. Very annoying when things are so expensive with their service to begin with and then to be overcharged by so much makes it even worse.

First, they charge you an extra $20 for "replacement items" but you don't see that small print until after the fact and they say they can take up to seven days to credit your account. My online shopping list came to $121.46 but my Safeway receipt was only $81.63. However, I was missing $16.06 worth of items totaling only $65.57. My driver barely knocked on the door to which I immediately answered (studio apartment) and she was gone leaving the groceries at the door where I saw a gallon of milk was missing! If she had waited I could have confronted her about the missing items! Trying to contact Instacart is IMPOSSIBLE! The "Help" section only directs you back to your order and there is nobody to phone. I couldn't explain the problem until they asked me to rate my driver. Their answer was to credit me $17 on my next purchase AS IF I would ever do business with them again! They did credit my bank account the $20 but not the rest of the charges so in total they ripped me off for $50.58 not charging me the actual amount of the Safeway receipt. They ignored my reply to the email I sent telling them I would not be a returning customer to use the credit they gave me and they owed me $50.58 not $17! I'll be filing a claim with my bank!

I have my mother living with me during the pandemic and I added her credit card to the account. We are rotating paying for the groceries while she lives with me. Instacart accuses me of fraud and deactivated my account and I can never ever be reinstated according to the email I received. Totally ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that I requested my money back for the express options I purchased for $99.00 no response on the status of my refund even though I have asked 5tines. I only had the service less than a month. My biggest issue is that I was not committing fraud and could never talk with someone on the phone only through email which is not always an appropriate way to get things resolved. Totally pissed at this company and all the tine I have lost trying to get this situation worked out. So unfortunate especially at this moment. If can someone can assist me with speaking with a supervisor (which I have asked via email) that would be great. To be accused of fraud when you have not committed fraud makes me very sad.

My experience has been hit or miss with Instacart and I say this as far as their ability to select produce / fresh items / meat / poultry / etc. Sometimes they'll grab you the pick of the litter, other times you'll end up with a sad bruised peach. Instacart is usually good about refunding when this happens, and truly the company has been a lifesaver during this whole pandemic. The shoppers are on the front line literally putting their lives on the line to get us our food, so they deserve more than their usual pay during this time.

Thought I would give instacart a try. What a mistake. I chose Ralph's. First it was annoying to see so many fees and such high prices on goods that I regularly buy at Ralph's for much cheaper. But, I went ahead. Then I get a notice that they are replacing 3 liquid egg whites with regular liquid eggs. Not the same thing at all. Then two other things had to be replaced. I had only ordered 12 things and 4 didn't come as planned. But, the real clincher was that when I went to unload the bag, 4 things were missing that they had listed as having been bought. There was one item in the bag that I never ordered. Obviously the delivery person got someone orders mixed up. Now stuck trying to get my money back from a place that doesn't take phone calls. All around a thoroughly miserable experience. I am going to just reject entire charge I am so annoyed by experience. Stay away.

Placed an order, received $7.18 chicken drumsticks BUT I paid for $39 organic chicken thighs. To make matters worse, the shopper got a damaged package of chicken and the raw juice spilled all over the rest of my order. Then, the shopper left me the receipt for $309 total and Instacart charged me $445! ARE THEY CRAZY?! They charged me a $136 over the order total for what?! I tried reaching out SEVERAL TIMES via phone call and email, and got no response. Once they saw that I opened a dispute with my bank, they emailed me accusing me of "fraudulent activity" AND DEACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT.

BUYER BEWARE - DO NOT SUPPORT INSTACART. THEY ARE STEALING FROM CUSTOMERS AND SOME SHOPPERS ARE EVEN STEALING ORDERS AND MARKING THEM AS DELIVERED. LOOK AT THE COMMENTS ON THEIR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT, ON TRUSTPILOT AND ON THE BBB WEBSITE! SAVE YOUR MONEY! THEY DO NOT HAVE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN PLACE AND ARE SCAMMING INNOCENT PEOPLE AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEM DURING THIS CRISIS!

I ordered through instacart and received my delivery on March 24,2020. All items came and there was NO problem, except 2 prepared salads for $25.00 were inedible because they were brown and soggy. I called within one hour of delivery, but because of COVID, they did not answer calls after waiting over two hours. I immediately emailed my comment. Instacart never responded. However, when I disputed the $25.00 of the original $300.00 charge. The credit card company issued a credit after seeing evidence of my attempts to contact instacart as well as photos of the item. It was only on 4/20/20, after the credit card company issued the $25.00 credit that instacart sent me an email "encouraging" me to report that my complaint was an "error." At the same time they cancelled my upcoming delivery on 4/23/20 at 6-8pm that I made on 4/1/20 as punishment. But more importantly, they DEACTIVATED my instacart account. Needless to say, their actions are juvenile, oppressive and unprofessional. DO NOT USE INSTACART!

Due to the Covid-19 virus going to the store gave me extreme anxiety. I decided to try Instacart due to this. They supposedly offer same day or next day service. Well that did not happen. There was a 4 - 5 day wait time. I made it through with what I had and delivery food until I could get a delivery. I was extremely happy with my shopper. She did a great job communicating and doing her best to get me what I wanted or an equal. I was even very happy with the fact that I was notified when she got to the store and left the store so I knew exactly when to expect delivery. She left the receipt from the store in the bags, as I expected she would. When I later logged onto the Instacart site I noticed that Instacart charged me $15.00 more for my groceries than the actual charge from the grocery store on the receipt. Where did that $15.00 go? That was on top of the $3.99 delivery fee, $3.46 service fee, $2.29 heavy order fee. I expected the $3.99 fee but not the other 2 fees. So basically I spent over $20.00 more than expected or feel I should have been charged. And still really interested in where the $15.00 went. I contacted them only to find out that the prices that the store charges are NOT the prices that Instacart charges. WHAT A RIP OFF.

It was my first time ordering, and LAST!

My groceries came in a fairly manner, and time. So at first I was so happy. Then I went to put my groceries away, and noticed my Clementines were rotted, and all black. Had to throw them ALL away in the garbage.

Then my chocolate milk was expired. It said March, 3/2020. Mind you, I received my order on: April, 20/2020. Had to throw that in the garbage as well. There's no way I'm giving expired chocolate milk to my 2-year-old. Terrible experience, NEVER AGAIN!

Complete waste of money.

BEWARE OF INSTACART, THEY ARE STEALING FROM YOU.
BEWARE, THEY ARE CHEATING PEOPLE... My grocery bill was $68 from Publix and they charged my credit card $114. I tried calling, their number is not receiving calls. I then reported this problem 4 times through their platform last week and then finally some uninformed person who would not give their name on the email sends a reply back today that they charge more per item than the grocery store. WE KNOW THAT NUMBNUT! This uniformed person sends a page full of instructions of how to find out how much each item cost... been there, did that last week. Had to call my bank to change payment and get the credit back. This is the 2nd time I have used them but WILL NOT USE AGAIN. CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE CHARGING YOU CORRECTLY. THIS IS STEALING, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. I had even signed up for express delivery for an additional $9.99 and canceled that post haste after this debacle. Many people have been citing problems with Instacart-PERHAPS THE CEO SHOULD GET INVOLVED! SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT RESOLVING ISSUES AND JUST BURYING CUSTOMERS IN RIDICULOUS EMAILS. POOR FORM INSTACART, POOR FORM.

I used the services only twice and put 4 orders. One of them was not delivered to me, but it showed it was delivered to me in my account. So, the error rate is 25% and their online system has serious problems! I tried to call the customer service of Instacart 3 times after that. As you can imagine, no one picked up the call. I then sent them a couple of emails and explained the issue I have. Of course, I got an email saying that I need to wait for 7-10 days for someone to get back to me. This is terrible. Even worse, the email I got later asked me if I had any issue with the delivery. It seems that they even didn't read my emails complaining for the no-delivery. I then had to write 2 more emails to get someone to call me. Later, a gentleman from Instacart called me claming he's a manager. He admitted that the shopper delivered the items to a wrong address. I explained to him that other companies have better tracking system. This manager even arguge with me with very bad attitude. It's to a point that I don't think Instacart is worth to work with. It doesn't have working system and good customer service at all. I am contacting the business regulatory units about their poor business practice and customer service. I tried a couple of other companies and their services are much better than Instacart! For those customers who want to try instacart, I'd say stay away from it.