InstacartReviews 2,491

This company is the absolute worst I've ever dealt with. I placed an order for my Thanksgiving groceries as it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. While they deliver window was between 11 am and 1 pm, I had still not received anything by 7 pm in the evening. I phoned and was advised to cancel my order because it hadn't been booked with a shopper/driver yet. I said that I wanted to cancel and have the money returned to my bank account immediately, when they advised me that it takes 2-7 business days to return my money. I have nothing to feed my family for Thanksgiving now and no money to purchase more groceries for this holiday weekend. This company is horrible and I do not recommend it to anyone.

FROM OTTAWA, CANADA: I signed up for the free-trial and got charged $100 for their express service UNKNOWINGLY! They took my money and refused to give me a refund because I only noticed past their one month refund policy. I only used the app ONE TIME. I am a student and their response was that they were going to refund me $9.99. What an INSULT. Do not use this app. The one time I did use it the shoppers picked the moldiest products! The worst!

If it's not shoppers who can't seem to pick non-moldy produce or follow instructions, it's constant issues with the Instacart app's inventory.

I learned from the store that Instacart is responsible for the inventory on their site, not the stores. So any problems with lack of items on the app is totally Instacarts fault.

The shoppers are untrained and ignorant. Clearly the lowest of society turn out for these kinds of jobs. I've had to request a refund on at least one item per order. How Instacart stays in business I will never know, because again, they are footing the bill for the refund, not the store.

I've had issues with everything, from spoiled produce due to long delivery times, to idiotic shoppers picking out the absolute wrong item, to shoppers not following instructions (I specify a replacement and they don't even look at it), to shoppers not trying very hard to find an item.

I have had to babysit/hold the hand of the shopper many a time, walking them through the store via the apps chat feature to direct them to each item. Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of Instacart?

Do not waste your money or time. If you want spoiled products go ahead, but if you like things done the right way, I suggest saving the 100 dollar membership fee and shopping for yourself.

They do not answer the phones nor do they take credit for something going wrong it is constantly the shoppers fault, and that being said the delete your account and say nothing about it. When you contact them they don't know why is deleted. And then get an email that you cannot reply to saying it is what it is. Which they never got the other person view. They just do stop without question. Likening said nobody picks up the phone. Some of the customer service agents won't even talk on the phone to try and get canceled.

I used this service as I was told how convenient it is. I received exactly what I requested and the young lady who did my shopping was really great. However, they took out $375 from my account when I first placed my order then took out the actual amount of $347 when the order was delivered. Now I am being told it will take 3 - 5 business days to get my $375 "hold" back. No where on there site does it says that there is a hold. All I get repeatedly from customer service is the same line about it being a hold. I want my money back! DO NOT USE YOUR DEBIT CARDS! I will never use this service again!

I signed up to be a shopper and after they ran me in circles filling out forms etc., I found out they don't even operate in my area. I've been trying to get in touch with someone for 4 days now, to delete my account. Their email doesn't work, no one replies to texts, and the people on the other end of live chat just sit there and won't answer or give any support at all. I have filed a complaint with the BBB. All I want is to remove my personal information and delete my account. There is literally NO way to do this.

Several items advertised in larger quantity, I order and, instead, received only 1 item. Very frustrating! See examples attached.

Instacart shoppers are trained with videos. I don't think you can train people to select good produce unless you have a very good video and require shoppers to view it. While I have been relatively happy with the shoppers when they are shopping for canned or packaged food, many shoppers are poor at selecting good produce. Telling them to shop like they would for themselves, as I have been advised is the advice given, doesn't work as many of these young shoppers eat mainly fast food and pizza - so they are not really shopping for themselves. Perhaps telling them to shop as they would for their Mom might help improve things. If they were trained in a class in my city, I would volunteer to teach them about produce. Things need to improve in this area. I live in Seattle.

Twice I've been charged for items ordered and not received! Called immediately and Instacart claimed they couldn't contact shopper to see if the rest of the order was at the store, given to someone else?
The grocery store estimated what I didn't receive. Are you kidding me? To receive the rest of my order I would have to reorder and pay for delivery again! There needs to be a cross check before items are sent out. Is it
Worth it to hold the driver and go through your items? Grocery store offered $20
And went to $50 which still didn't cover my charges. Until or if they find a way to
Improve this poor customer service I will try
Another service. On a fixed income this is very distressing!

With regard to accuracy in orders and proactive communication I find it depends on the shopper. In one situation I placed multiple B1G1 order items from a store I shop frequently. The items were shown as B1G1 on the Instacart site for this shopping experience. However, I ordered only "one item" --- expecting the logic that most shoppers would make is to grab that other free item. However, only my one item was sent and my free item was "held back." When I contacted customer support via email they were wonderful but indicated that I "should have" requested two items instead of just the one. Satisfied with this reply, I chocked it up to "lesson learned" until I mentioned this experience to another Instacart user who said she has done this in the past... order two items to make sure she gets her B1G1 and her shopper sent four items! So it seems to me there is no consistency with the shoppers.

Also on this most recent shop I requested the bread from the baker be pre sliced and did not receive the order as requested.

I think perhaps since the shoppers are contract workers, they are chosen without our input whatever, and they are also working to produce income... the accuracy will struggle. When I place purchases on Etsy or Ebay... if I have a bad experience it personally affects the person whereas here there is a tad more anonymity for the shopper and therefore perhaps some lack of responsibility. Maybe I shouldn't but I still tip really well because I understand the business side and try to assume the best of people. I suppose the tip and the rating within the Instacart system is a way to knock the shoppers but in my case I had one shopper and a DIFFERENT driver... and only ONE place to give them a joint rating and tip.

I like the idea of the service and I find that the phone customer service reps try and come across as professional and good with customers.

But I was very disappointed to learn about the inconsistencies using the service.

I will likely only use in an emergency (like the person who needed it when she had the flu).

Support option not available. App crashes many times. Batches can be low paying. Wears on your cars for driving. Instacart updates to the old version meaning no covid questions. Internal server errors on selecting shift hours. Complaint many times to support. They didn't do nothing. No batches or nothing because of 2021 January update. Not reliable app.

This app sucks was a waste of time.

Its oversaturated with too many shoppers.

- Expects customers to reconcile mistakes made by shoppers. That's not how business works, IC.
- Does no oversight of bills. If mistakes are made and you don't catch them as the customer, the company never will. What this means is that there is no meaningful staff oversight, rendering trust impossible for all parties involved in an order. This is almost certainly by design, as the company could easily require paper bills be reconciled at HQ and promise adjustments within 24 hours, or something similar.
- Implements bribery by asking for tips up front. It's impossible for me to believe shoppers aren't shown this data before taking an order. The quality of the final order determines the tip. This process absolutely must be illegal, or made to be illegal if it isn't already.
- Ignores retail signage law and makes no attempts to convey pricing transparently. When prompted about this, the company Ignores the issue. Wonder why.
- Well known for illegal and underhanded practices with their workers, according to endless personal accounts.

This service is designed to fail, and operates solely because it fills a void. It's frustrating that the milk man was replaced with cars and premium delivery services. A rational, responsible company needs to enter this space, delivering of essentials, and compete with integrity. Any degree of improvement would knock IC out of business... and if your region isn't this bad, congrats! :) Glad to hear it. Different story here.

I expected the money that was 'held' and that it was over the amount that I ordered. However, what I didn't expect that they would then charge my account WHILE still having the HOLD out there. Now my bank account is down $156.00 for a $71.00 Aldi trip. If I had gone it would have cost me $50. I get the up charging for the convenience but it Is NOT convenient to be without any $! I have $2.00 in my bank account. I contacted the bank, they thought it would fall off overnight. It didn't. I called back and they directed me to Instacart. Second thing I didn't expect is how unhelpful Customer Service is. I got a canned answer. They told me to contact my bank even though my original reporting politely explained that I started with the bank. I wish I read reviews first!