Instacart

Not deliver what you ordered. Yet charges you. Wrong items Customer service by phone cancelled. Xx

I ordered Instacart in the pandemic. Not something I would normally do, but desperate times call for desperate measures. They told me Thursday originally and came 5 days before that, which was a pleasant surprise. You definitely have to check the site as soon as you order, as your order delivery day and time can be changed whenever they want. You also have to watch from online as your shopper shops to make sure they are getting your desired replacements. Shopping took a few hours for my driver, and then I was able to watch him as he drove to my home. He made great time, though he did not communicate with me on the site when I asked him a question, but maybe he was busy. Some of my items did not arrive but when I added it all up, they didn't owe me any money, so I won't complain. In an emergency, it is a fine option, but I would not use them ordinarily. If you order, you have to be connected to the site at all times, as soon as you order so you can see what is going on, you have to go downstairs to meet them before they arrive by ten minutes or so so you don't miss them, and I would look very carefully at your bill. Adjust your expectations on not getting all the food you want. You also will be charged for a tip, service fee and delivery fee, I believe. Again, overall is was ok and I wanted to give them a nice review for delivering during a dangerous time.

We tried this grocery service and had a very bad experience. The delivery guy did not deliver the groceries to our address.
I had to run to the market and was stressed. Tried to call but lines were busy.
Finally got our money back. Will never use again

DEBORAH my shopper did an awesome job with the few substitutions she had to do otherwise she was on target. After reviewing my receipt everything was accounted for. I am most appreciative of her. What bothered me was that the delivery person was neither wearing a mask or gloves. In this time this should be mandatory,,, He left items at door as requested but ALL DELIVERY PERSONNEL SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR.

First order was not right and took forever to get it corrected. Since still in quarantine, tried again, once credit came through. This Second experience was much better, but still not sure if I'll use this route again. Nevertheless, wanted to give stars where due.

I ordered incorrectly and didn't realize it until too late but have heard nothing but the best from others about how great Instacart is. I plan on using them from now on and referring them to others. Carlos Andres was so sweet and helpful!

I have now given them 3 chances getting taken over 400.00 for 115.00 groceries still not received any product the foreign reps think they can take advantage of innocent people with no recourse I am caring the authoritys cops and charging insta cart with fraud on a vulnerable adult
BUYER BEWARE THIS IS AN EXTREMELY RUDE PREDGADICE FRAUDULENT COMPANY THT NEDDS TO BE ABOLISHED BEFOREVTHEY STEALNANYMORE MONEY FROM INOCENT PEOPLE
LOW DOWN NO GOOD EXTREMELY HORSE$#*! CROOKS

I like Instacart because of the convenience but I noticed something today. Two of my items were refunded but my total was the same. I looked at my receipt and noticed they had adjusted my tip so that my total would still be the same. Well, now I know I must use the rating system if I don't qant my tip adjsted but this is ridiculous.

Been using them for a little while now. Living in a city and not having a vehicle, I am able to do large amounts of grocery shopping. Where as I used to pay for an Uber or Lyft to help me get more than 2 bags of groceries home with me, now I have the convenience of having them delivered at a fraction of what I would've paid for the delivery. I did have one challenge, where they replaced sausage with ground meat, that didn't work for me because (1) I don't have pig intestines on hand to make my own and (2) nor was I going to try. I did get in touch with their support center and they were able to refund me. Other than that though, solid service, that I will continue to use.

We have been using the service for more than two years. 95% of the time - service is excellent. Like so many in a national crisis, they were overwhelmed with triple the demand almost over night. Being overwhelmed leads to hurry then mistakes and then necessary changes. Most of the negative reviews I've read show a lack of patience and immediate personal demands to be met. Does instacart need to make some changes - yes but from my overall and recent experiences - it appears they are working to meet the demand. Instacart needs to think about Longterm and their loyal membership while consumers need to be a little more empathetic in a crisis and appreciate the service this is to a community in turmoil. One thing that I think is important is to be sure their shoppers have the necessary tools to do their jobs-particularly now. The bottom line based on my experience is that the service is very good.

This was my first delivery and I was charged for a delivery. The ad said the first delivery is free. Also with the virus scare, I would have thought the driver would have worn gloves to deliver my groceries.

I have been using instacart for over a year now. I order my groceries weekly.
Never a problem until recently,. I placed my order on Friday as usual I was waiting for my usual notification that someone has started my shopping... An hour goes by... then two then 3 and so on ( with my delivery time changing without notification to me)
Long story short my groceries never came and no one notified me nor am I able to contact them.
Not happy with that

I live in a mobile home park with twisty roads. My home does not show correctly on Google maps, so I give instructions on how to find my residence. A very few times a delivery has been made to my neighbors, who are happy to hold it for me.

I've only had incomplete orders a couple of times, and one that I did not receive at all. In every case, Instacart gave me a credit. For the undelivered order, they delivered it again at no extra charge. My car does not work, and the service has almost literally been a life-saver.

I feel sorry for those that have had problems. Perhaps I'm just lucky that I'm in an area where all the drivers are good.

Hmmm. It's a shame (and a bit scary) to read so many negative reviews. I just used Instacart for the first time and had no problems (as far as I know, although I will be going over my next bank statement to make sure they didn't charge me twice.) I don't mind paying a little extra for groceries because of the convenience. However, I gave it four stars instead of five because it appears they don't treat their employees well. A five percent default tip is ridiculous. The default tip should be 15%, the typical tip amount. I gave my shopper a 15% tip on your website and also gave her a couple of extra dollars when she arrived. Your workers need to make a living. Perhaps all the negative reviews are reflecting how you treat your shoppers, If you don't care, why should they?

The shoppers have always been great and helpful. The prices that Instacart charges are a bit high for me. It would be nice if they could cut some of the charges down.

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.

I am new to Instacart but overall am very satisfied. I called Instacart and gave them my loyalty card number so I am able to get the store sale price. It is a learning experience. I try to write specific instructions so the shopper will know exactly what I want and what not to substitute, if any. I have had a few mistakes but have always found Instacart customer service to be fair in adjusting for the mistakes.It has it's issues as far as finding exactly what you want but have found that it can save me some money because I am not picking up extras that I don't need. I have limited mobility and overall have found Instacart delivery to be a blessing.

Linda D.

I love Instacart; most of my personal shoppers have been great, and the ability to give instructions about replacements when items are unavailable gives me optionS I don't have with Fresh Direct or Amazon Fresh. And they are fast! Two minutes after I place the order, I get a text that the shopper has begun. My food usually arrives within the hour. My only complaint is the MARKUP, which is incredible. So far, I have used Instacart only when I am ill and unable to shop myself. An example: a $65.00 grocery bill will result in a $95.00 charge on my credit card. If Instacart prices were more reasonable, I would use it routinely; in fact, I think better affordability would result in Instacart revolutionizing grocery shopping. The future is online purchasing, and it can't come soon enough for me. Going to stores is a waste of time.

Instacart charged me for groceries they did not deliver. I had to go to, Publix with my boyfriend and purchase the coffee I ordered the following day. Not very pleased with them.

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.

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!

After my first experience with instacart, I was totally against them; but after talking to their service people, I decided to give it a second test run... this is also because I really like publix and was also hoping to give whole foods and the liquor store a try. I ordered 60 items from publix and this time, I noted that they had an area to make notes about possible replacement choices, so I filled in what I wanted to replace and what they should not replace if out of stock. When I got to the end, I noticed that they had the automatic 10% that was ready to put a 27 dollar fee on my charges, as well as my 5.99 delivery and optional tip. I remembered the service person said that I could option out of the 10%, so I did and where it asked for a tip, I put in the amount 10 dollars. I also avoided all the offers for free delivery which gets you into a yearly contract; so I finished with the 60 items at 287 dollars, a delivery fee of 6 dollars, a 10 dollar tip and 5 dollars taxes. I made the list out last night; but I opted for a delivery of 12-1 pm the following day, so I avoided express delivery fees. Instacart said they put a pending amount some 40 dollars over the amount I had charged; but I will watch that.
Today the delivery man came, he was very nice and insisted on doing on the lifting himself, I appreciated that. Unlike Amazon fresh, they put everything into the plastic bags that look like they have been recycled, so my bread and particularly my sub sandwiches looked like they had rolled under a few heavy items before coming to me. Of course, since they don't use ice, the cold things were sweating... God I love Amazon Fresh and their square bags with dry ice... ah well, I did love that I got my daughters kern nectar, my fresh cut bakery bread... which Amazon doesn't have and my daughters publix french toast sticks plus alot of things only publix has. Now, some folks ask how they do this... how do they do it so cheap... well, here is my theory: I notice that many items appear to be things that would have been taken off the shelf for little problems: dented cans, overly large fruit that doesn't fit in bins, baked bread loaves that are too large for their bags or sliced too thin... they take stuff that publix would not ask regular price for and then they tack on anywhere from 45 cents to 1.00 on each item. So a shop that I would have paid 199 dollars for if I had gotten dressed, used my gas and taken my poor bad leg around every isle of publix; I paid 287 dollars for. So, when instacart cries that they don't have enough money to pay their poor drivers, so they want me to give them 10 percent, I still say... no, pay them like Amazon Fresh does. I am happy to give a bit of a tip; but really.
Okay, so here is the other bit of information: if you take advantage of several stores offered by instacart at one time, you still pay a fee for each store; so I decided that I will try whole foods another time and do a whole delivery.
All in all, I have decided that I still like this service, they are improving; but I still prefer Amazon Fresh with their pristine, fresh products, and perfectly turned out grocery bags.

I'm visiting my out of town boyfriend and I don't have a car. I needed to do some grocery shopping because our diets are different. I decided to Google grocery delivery and found this. They honored my coupon, I got the $10 off and free delivery, Maria substituted two out of stock items very appropriately and I was given the choice to approve, choose another item or cancel. Delivery was scheduled for 10 - 11 a.m., and she was at my doorstep at 10:25. She was very friendly.
The only thing I wish I'd done was notice which stores offered the in-store price; the store I chose had quite a mark up. I know for next time, though, and depending on delivery cost would definitely use again in my home town of Atlanta. Hopefully the service will be as good there.