Gregg S.

First let me start it off like this I am a shopper for instacart with a five star rating. I am very careful to follow all requests from the customer and as professional as possible however I can't say the same for some fellow carters. First things first when we go to the store we handle everything so how I start my day is I wait in my lot for an order to take. Once I pick the order you have to drive to that store it could be 30 min away they don't count that time or distance. When we get to the store about 90% of my orders there is some sort of problem with. They either don't have that item in stock or no longer carry it or they switched packaging so even tho it is the same item and brand it won't go through because it's new packaging. The toilet paper and rolls right now are incredibly hard to find the one the customer order especially if they are picky and want NO SUBSTITUTES. You gotta understand when we get there usually they don't have everything u want it's not our fault it's the store and instacart for not updating there items and inventory timely. I can't tell u how many times I've spent going in stores looking for an item they do not even carry. Shoppers deal with alot and if you think instacart pays us well they do not. They only pay us per trip for gas and wear and tear if even that. We rely on tips and too often the tip is very low like 2 dollars so by the end of the hour I worked I did one order and made like 5 to 7 dollars for an hour. I am not trying to be ungrateful as I still will deliver the orders the same as I would with a big tip. I just wish customers realized we only get paid with tips generally. The platform is very confusing for the shopper when something goes wrong and literally over 90% of my orders go wrong. The item is out of stock or that brand or the item is discontinued or a different size and the customer writes please do not contact for substitutes makes it that much harder to please the customer. Please keep contact with your shopper and communicate you have to understand when we go to the store it's not waiting for us usually very rarely is there just a delivery order it's usually full service. So we have to drive to the store find all the items pack them all up deliver them and bring them to your house nothing is handled for us. So when I go there and they don't have what u want I have to contact you and if you say please do not contact me for subs which it says alot idk if it's generic message or not but then we have to cancel that item when instead I could contact you to find something suitable for you. We are human and different so it's hard to please someone else with absolutely no communication. Items are out of stock frequently or not the same as they show the shopper. Not to mention the biggest thing we are timed every order is timed and not just order but every single item is timed and on our screen we have an average time per item that does affect our star rating and it does affect the quality and amount of orders we receive and since insta prioritizes the time aspect so hard we are under slot of pressure at all times from the moment we push accept to the time we push finish order. So while we are looking for an out of stock item or a item that no longer exists we are getting timed and stressed out especially when we can't even get in contact with the customer to try and remedy the situation. Also the more time we spend on an order the more orders slip away from us and the less money we make in a day. That's why I think alot of shoppers suck because they don't do good under pressure like some of us do. I focus on quality before anything else even if my time is affected but others don't. On average instacart pays us 7 dollars an order and 90% of the time I have to drive about 20 min to the store 10 to 20 min to the customer house and also however long it takes to shop for the order. It's stressful at times and time consuming but I love to help others but please understand we live off tips and when they are low it can make it even more stressful than needed. Also this happens so much that when I get to a customer's house they look at me crazy like who the heck are you and tell me I didn't order anything only for me to contact customer support and they call the customer and they did place an order or it was the wrong address or someone placed an order as a gift and didn't inform the recipient. This job is way more stressful than necessary and when I do door dash which is like half the work because all u do is pick up the order and take it to customer people generally tip alot more than when I do instacart and again have to do the entire thing from start to finish a typical tip for that is 2 dollars and that can make a shopper feel unappreciated or underappreciated especially when things start to get stressful such as missing items / different items in stock but the customer does not want to be contacted. I have not done this and never will but I understand why some of my fellow carters switch to a different platform or are more picky about orders. Just to be 100% honest as a top 5 star carter I get to pick orders first and I usually skip ones with anything under a 5 dollar tip just because the time and effort spent on the order versus the money and appreciation. Some customers are very rude and do not tip at all even sometimes. I have yet to have a customer add an additional tip after the fact. And the other thing is rn it is a pandemic and that doesn't seem to affect anything and actually before all of this people actually seemed to be more generous with tips. Hopefully this has cleared se confusion as to why u have cancelled or subbed items ESPECIALLY FOR TOILET PAPER/ NAPKINS/ PAPER TOWELS ETC... if you don't believe your shopper feel free to check the store because I'm not lying when I say about 90% of my orders are stressful and something goes wrong the other 10% of orders are miracles and very nice and easy but still low pay from instacart. Were not paid more because the order is bigger let's say u have 20 cases of water insta throws an extra 3 dollars for a heavy load that's it. For example tho I had two orders offers for 9 dollars a piece each involved 7 from insta and 2 dollars tip one was for 2 items and one was for 16 way bigger items same place same pay but less work for one of those so I chose the 2 item order. Please be kind to your shopper they deal with alot for unfair wages but it's the only job available for some of us at the moment and we are struggling hence why we work for insta to begin with. Thank you all stay safe and be careful.