Instacart Reviews

I have only used Instacart twice. The first time was when I had COVID, so I decided to order a few groceries to get me through the two weeks of quarantining. My order was stolen after Instacart driver claimed she "couldn't find my house" even though I left a detailed description that mentioned to call if she was confused. She didn't try to contact me, and even when Support got involved, she ignored them too. The second time I ordered was more pleasant, but barely as Support wouldn't help the Instacart driver with his card issues. Trying to get a sucessful delivery or a refund has been a nightmare with Instacart.

My shopper, Andrea, came to my apartment complex very drunk. She was loud and abrasive at the front desk. She had someone drive her since she couldn't. She refused to deliver my groceries because she thought it was too far to walk. Which it wasn't, she only had to take the elevator up a couple floors. She left my groceries in a cart, outside of the building. I called Instacart and they would do nothing to help me. I will never use them again!

So after mistaking charging my account for 445 instead of using the gift card that's on my account they are saying it's my fault. And if I dispute it with my bank my account will be canceled. Like I did something. I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and your representatives who answer the phone keep blaming me like I processed the order when it was a representative on the phone name Marie.. I've been doing this all day long and you guys won't take accountability for the mistake you made.

The driver got lost 200 blocks away (I’m not even exaggerating. This person had 0 clue) and then cancelled my order. Then Instacart charged me a cancellation fee for an order that I never asked to be cancelled and told me my refund for the order would take 10 days. I literally used my last 40 bucks for the week for some food for the weekend. And now I have neither food nor money, plus I’m certain the driver got to keep my food. Do not use Instacart.

First order got canceled because of no stock at store. Second order got charged for items I didn’t receive. Third order got outright scammed for $254 on a $67 order. If only zero stars were an option because 1 star is giving this company too much credit. I was left mad, hungry and with no groceries.

I tried it and it was a total fail. 4 items were out of stock, two items were modified. So I went to my Foodtown app, and noticed two of the out of stock items were $3 less (each) than on Instacart. WTH? What's the point in same day delivery if you can't get what you order? They need a better way of tracking in stock items. Absolutely NOT worth it.

Charged twice for groceries that never made it to my cart. First agent canceled w/o my knowledge. Received a text. Called for a agent. She reordered w/o my authorization. I’m out a total of 235.00. Have to wait 5-7 days for refund. So no food until the refund. Reporting to the OIG of California.

I'm a disabled senior that tried this service for the first time. My first delivery was sent to wrong address, 2nd canceled saying I wasn't available but I finally got the third delivery with missing items. I then found 3 charges on my bank statement. They charged me for both deliveries and another charge I have no clue about. I've spent over 30 hours on the phone and 50 emails dealing with these people. I've received assurance from 5 agents that my overcharge was refunded and processed to go to my bank. I received a refund of 3.66. They did not refund the 168.11 they overcharged me. Because of this overpay, I couldn't pay my full rent, so now I'm being charged 25 per week late fees.

I saw while she was shopping the last item was bread. She refunded me without asking if I wanted a replacement. I immediately asked if they were out of bread. She replied “I couldn’t find the bread aisle and I already left the store”. I was home sick so I couldn’t just go get it myself. I also had a replacement for another item and she replaced it with another item that was much more expensive. Tried to contact Instacart but so far nobody has responded. NEVER AGAIN!

Instacart rules about deactivate are out of line. They deactivate you if you get a little help when clearly you're small. They randomly ask for selfies which can get some people in trouble depending on where they are and it's way too sensitive to minor changes or mistakes, and way too invasive. Selfies should only be required when the shopper is active...

Everything was great. I was very happy with it all until I looked at my bank acct. They charged $30 extra. When I contacted them it was because I added paper towels after I sent my order so they kept 15% of my whole order!!!! And said it would go back to my card in 3-5 business days! That was not right and I told them so. If you order from them, make sure you don't forget item! I was s0 disappointed @.

Doesn't matter that you select the store, Instacart allows, and coddles shoppers to override the customers selection of the store they choose and thus DO NOT GET THE ITEMS! The shopper is allowed to cancel or refund your items WITHOUT telling you! Had they had gone to the store the customer selected, they would have got the items! I was refused a Instacart manager and refused by the shopper to shop at the store I REQUESTED! Need to look into this company because they hold your money 3 to 5 days and it was their fault they have allowed their employees to do this to customers! NEVER will we use them again! This was our second time and last.

I made my first purchase with Instacart. The shopper was great and checked in with me when an item was not available. One item was missing upon delivery. I contacted them and they responded saying a credit would be issued. The adjustment was never made or received by the bank and the original amount including the missing item was charged to my account. After 3 weeks of trying to resolve it with at least half a dozen different people, providing them with the receipt and a copy of the bank posting, I have gotten nowhere. So I gave up and decided the best approach is to warn others and let them make an informed decision.

I have been using Instacart for almost a year. While my experiences has mostly been positive there have been 2 occasions that the shopper inflated my requested quantities so that my final charge did not reflect my actual request. The first time the issue was resolved quickly. The second time not so much because the shopper had increased quantities so high that it went over $300! For some reason it seems like the platform has not figured out that they need to put safeguards in place so shoppers cannot randomly adjust quantities. It also bothered me that during this 2nd occurrence that the shopper was not contacted, at least I wasn’t made aware of it. When it comes to small issues the company is usually quick to fix those issues (missing item, issue with later than reported drop off times for example). It’s unfortunate that a few bad apples have to ruin things for other honest shoppers.

First off, I want to say I tried to give this app a serious chance. My husband and I both have Covid and ordered groceries Feb 7th from Aldi and out of all the items on our list only 1 pack of ground beef was delivered. Mind you, no one ever called to tell us about our delivery, and there was no way ALDI was out of every item in that store. The driver basically took our tip, and avoiding getting any other items or making adjustments. We talked to customer service and they took the driver off future routes for us. They were generous with credits so we thought we’d give them another chance. We talked to a manager and explained our situation and that we needed food in our home. He even said we’d get our refund back in 5-10 business days. So we ordered what we could with the credits.

I placed an order for delivery. I received a text saying my order was on the way. I immediately started down the stairs and the shopper was dropping my order on the porch without ringing the doorbell. The shopper wasn't wearing a mask in violation of Instacart policy. While checking the bags I noticed some boxes that I didn't order. When I mentioned it to the shopper she immediately told me that I did. I was going to check my phone to see if I was charged. I would have kept the items if I had paid. She immediately grabbed the bag and said she would make sure I don't get charged. When I told her to wait for me to check but she jumped in the car and left. Turns out I was charged. Calls to Instacart and Kroger only resulted in a credit on my account, not a refund. Basically the shopper ended up stealing $15.00 in food that I paid for.

I became a shopper for Instacart in 2020 to help me with extra money for me and my son. They ask for selfies and I took a picture of my self and summitted it and after that my account has got deactivated saying the picture was not me and then was told that the picture wasn’t me and my account was no eligible for re-activation. I feel like the discriminating.

I truly wonder why Instacart seems like a popular app for ordering groceries when every time I’ve used it I’ve had terrible experiences. First I had to call the store to make sure they accept ebt so once I found out they did I put a whole grocery list all for it to not work on the app. To the point where they described my account over this! Literally penalizing me/ making it hard for me to use food stamps, I couldn’t even pay with a debit card after that because the app sucks so bad.

The aptitude of the shoppers is hit and miss. Sometimes you get most of what you ordered - never everything. Sometime you end up with entirely baffling replacement items (e.g., ordered breakfast sausage links - got scrapple instead!!!). The last two times, I have had to cancel the entire order because the shopper apparently couldn't find anything and kept just refunding items to the point that I would not have gotten most of my order.

I ordered with Instacart January 2022, received my order, everything went beautifully. January 19th 2022, random charge shows up on my bank account for Instacart not even the same amount that I charged for groceries previously. I did not input another order to Instacart just a random order. I called Instacart, spoke with several different people, none of them speak very good English. They will not stray from the script and they have random reasons that's why I've gotten another charge on my account. They won't return my money. Do not use this company. Extremely dishonest.

Instacart is the most GOD AWFUL company I have ever dealt with. Their shoppers cannot follow instructions, forget about delivery instructions and their customer service is absolutely HORRENDOUS. I have had numerous errors, all due to shoppers, wrong items, expired items, safety seal missing, etc. Instacart locked my account so that I can no longer get any refunds or credits regardless of the reason. Did I mention how their customer care is a joke; it it care less!! Their service should be called "CUSTOMER CARE LESS!!" Stay away at all costs. Even if you have to pay more money, USE ANOTHER SERVICE!!!!

Orders first started being late, then stopped coming on the same date with customer service always saying, "Due to high demand". If they have high demand why take the order. They know that they cannot service the order yet they keep you waiting with messages like, "Shopper is running late, we will be there before xx:xx" and the shopper never shows up but you keep getting messages. Another service needs to show up so! And customer service is really lip service. Now they have their bot that makes you take an extra step to even get to stock answers.

Just posting this as a PSA. Yesterday I ordered groceries from Superstore using Instacart. I am not disputing the service fee or the tip. It was the actual cost of the specific grocery items. My Instacart grocery bill was $67.28 higher than the paper receipt from the store. We paid the estimated amount, not the actual amount. No refund is possible says Instacart customer service.

I was charged $465 (estimate that Instacart says will be adjusted to actual charge within 7 days). This order, I knew the amount I was charged was crazy high and there was no adjustment! I was overcharged over $100. I looked back through my American Express charges and found this is the case every time! They are stealing our money. I will contact American Express to dispute charges. I'm horrified that they are taking advantage of all of us. It's no wonder that they don't want the shoppers to give you the receipt from the store!!!

DON'T Use This Service...scam artist. They are charging credit cards without your permission. I got scam on Feb 1st...2022...and the C.S.rep didn't offer real help. I believe it's the people that work for Instacart... Bad business. Shut them down, please...

I never signed up for a subscription!! They took $106 off my credit card without my consent! The customer service rep said that most people don't even realize they've signed up. To me and any mildly intelligent person that is misleading! The only verbiage that is right in your face says "You do not need a subscription to use Instacart." I never wanted a subscription!! I never asked for one!! The rep then tells me that they would reimburse the charge; I should see it within 3 to 5 business days! The only charge that was reimbursed was for $9.99! And to make matters worse, it was put on a Venmo card that I haven't used with this service since 2020!! That card is not even attached to my profile! **?? Never again!

Today, I placed a large order for $367.41 on Instacart. Within 25 min, I got an email saying that my order had been delivered. This was strange since I live about 20 minutes from the nearest Meijer. When I checked my front porch, there was nothing there AND I was charged $542.62 for my order - $175.21 over the original amount. When I reviewed the order, some of the quantities had increased to absurd amounts, driving up the price, & increasing the tip by $17.00. I started a chat to resolve the issue. When asked how I would like to proceed - account credit for $542.62 (yeah right), a refund in 5-10 business days, or have someone else deliver my order & refund the overcharge, I chose #3.

I do understand that it’s not an easy job shopping for someone else. That’s the reason for one star ⭐️. I used Instacart twice and I’m absolutely positive this will be the last time I use them. They never get it right and my last order was left outside in the snow by my mailbox, in paper bags for god's sake.

I ordered 3 -- (24 item each box) boxes of Fancy Feast Primavera cat food coming from Von's Grocery Store in Palm, Springs, CA. I SPECIFICALLY SAID NO SUBSTITUTING OF THAT FOOD. Well, they delivered something else. After wasting about an hour complaining about this I was told the $90.58, outrageous amount. The original cost was $53.11 plus 14.70 for other charges. Then a $22.77 appeared on my credit card. After about 45 minutes on the phone I was told I would receive 75.00 back and not the full amount. I am taking this up with my credit card company. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

I recently placed an order for $40 to have items delivered to the Long-Term care facility where my mother lives. It is 250 miles away from me. I COUNT on people doing things for me remotely, LIKE MAKING DELIVERIES OF FOOD AND SNACKS. I complained. Response was that Instacart "No longer puts names on deliveries". As a result of this ridiculous policy, the delivery sat for 12 days until I called to find out that mother NEVER received her items! Instacart offered chump change: first $5, them $10 MORE - oh my! I declined to accept due to the circumstances and that it affected both mother and I. I don't need the stress added by un-intelligent Instacart policy.

I decided to try this since Amazon now charges $10 for delivery. Not worth it at all. Just go to the grocery store. I’m not sure how they even stay in business. The website didn’t show any of the items I know they have in the store so when the shopper was finding the items almost every single one I had to substitute or was not in stock. This would have been annoying enough, however I then got a call from customer service saying that my order would be delayed because the shopper didn’t bring their card and couldn’t check out my order or deliver anything. I gave it a chance and let them put a different shopper on to check out and deliver.

I made an order and ended up with all of the items being cancelled except for a bottle of sparkling water which was also a replacement brand. Waste of time and effort. The delivery person was communicative so no complaints about them, but as a delivery service the company has some major flaws. I ended up with some very pricey sparkling water.

I am a pretty old customer, I have been ordered since this Pandemic situation. The advantages are, I can order from many different shops. At the beginning was good but nowadays, so much different than before. For instance, items missing (I got credits of course), poor qualities and wrong items. Another thing is the shopper was using Uber to take my order and she mixed up with other orders. Obviously, a driver didn't know anything so I had to contact few times. Also I realized the total amounts they took out from my bank, it's different so I sent an email again and again. This whole process is so annoying. I have to consider to use this company or not. This is my recent experience.

Updated on 01/21/2022: I went back to their site to copy my Instacart receipt for my last visit at Market Basket to show you here, and, uh oh, oh no. GUESS WHAT? MY STEAK ORDER AND MY ALLEGED INSTAROB RIPOFF HAS DISAPPEARED FROM MY RECEIPT!!!! It's gone, never ordered, never mischarged!!! So they did read my complaining email, and they made the change -- to my receipt!!! If only I'd saved it! Fraudsters and thieves, is spelled ****I N S T A C A R T ****. You are snagged!!!

Please read this since it is a pertinent health concern. Almost every single Instacart shopper that has gathered my groceries started out with perishables such as chicken, beef, salad mix, etc., even when I had 40 to 50 products on my list and most were not perishable. These products were often at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, and sometimes arrived at my home warm. I would not want to poison my family and friends with Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli, or other harmful bacteria. If a restaurant left their food at room temperature for one or two hours, I venture to say that they would be at risk of losing their business. Instacart is not worth the health hazard. Customer service told me that the shoppers can go in any order they wish in a store. No regard for the safety of their customers! When I complained, they just wanted to compensate me with a small money credit and apologize for the “inconvenience.” There was no action to educate their shoppers.

I placed my Aldi grocery pickup at 9:00 a.m this morning for pick up this evening at 5:00 pm. THEY changed the time to 6:00-7:00 which was ok and then they changed it AGAIN for TOMORROW NIGHT at 6:00-7:00. No one reached out to ask if that time worked. We usually have no problem using grocery pick up at Kroger so I should’ve used Kroger. Now I know. If I could give below a one star then I would.

A guy by the name of Guillermo who works for Instacart customer service was talking around the questions I was asking, was not giving me direct answers in regard to a refund I was asking for regarding my order I spent money on. He then proceeded to give me false information stating I would get my refund within one business day. I called back and was told refunds take up to 5 days. While on the phone with him, suddenly my card was charged by instacart for the same amount I asked to be refunded for an order I did not receive. He was giving lazy answers, not professional, did not give direct answers, and gave me false information.

Delivery person was lovely. Customer support was fine. It's the system that appears to be quite questionable. Issues include: Instacart displays items from various retailers as "available" when they are not available at all. The Instacart system does not seem to be synched with the retailer, and this creates issues. The discrepancies in my order were significant. Almost half of my items were either completely unavailable or needed to be substituted for another item, and every substitution needed to be confirmed by me. This is completely dysfunctional.

I ordered a handful of items on Instacart, none of them delivered. When I reached out to the delivery person, no feedback. Worse, each item was increased in quantity by x5. So what was a $40 bill turned into just under $200. When I contacted support I was told it would take 5-10 days to refund the account, even though the original bill was under the $50 temp charge, I was charged the full amount right away. I've yet to see a refund. Terrible business, stay away!!!

Instacart should require their workers to call out the customer's name to make sure they are delivering correctly. Even if (after calling customer service and being on hold for a long amount) Instacart gives a re-delivery, items that were low may not be available, and given that we are in the midst of a pandemic, human contact is low on several people's priorities. In my case, after realizing her mistake, the Instacart worker actually came back to my home almost an hour later to try to get the wrong items back(!), which again shows the lack of training Instacart has given their workers.

The delivery people are giving bad out of date mapping service and forbidden to use Google maps I don't know why. The delivery people run late not because of them it's the mapping service and Instacart is.

Jessica was excellent. If they were out of something she contacted me right away to find out if I approved the changes. She was awesome. She was quick for delivery and she brought everything upstairs for me.

I use Instacart for purchasing meats from Restaurant Depot. Not sure if it is the shoppers or the entire organization but not only do I receive items not ordered or missing items. Sometimes after order is completed, I receive a cancellation notice along with a email stating that I will be charged $15.00 for cancellation. This is the 3rd time this has occurred with the cancellation. They do not give you a reason why it was cancelled and tell you they are sorry, please reorder.

The Boost program with Kroger is awful. It is outsourced to Instacart. You have to use it right away to see if you like it because there is only a 7 day refund policy once you sign up. The company that runs this program is not Kroger and the delivery is not free because you will still pay a tip. Also, you CANNOT use coupons. I was 2 days late with my request to disenroll so I'm stuck having to have paid $59 and no delivery service. Don't enroll!

Don't order wine on the Instacart's website if you need your wine to be delivered in a timely manner. I placed my order on December 28, 2021 and was given a delivery date of December 30, 2021. I was hoping to receive the items in time for New Year Eve. On December 30, Instacart indicated that my order will still be arriving on December 30, 2021. How is my wine going to be delivered on December 30, 2021 when it did not even have a shipping label from FedEx yet on that day.

I have to order online groceries for my elderly parents, every time there was an issue with the order, and whoever the shopper was did not take out the time to look for items I ordered. When they were actually available in the store. I plan to discontinue my service, and not recommend it to anyone.

I made a purchase that I was going to pick up from the retailer. I paid the full amount of purchase, and then Instacart charges my credit card ten dollars over what I paid for the Item for some sort of holding fee until I picked up my already paid for item on the date that I was told to by instacart.

I started using Instacart a couple months ago. First few orders went very smoothly. They were promptly delivered and everything I ordered was there. But all good things must end I guess. My last like 5 orders have been a mess. Deliveries that were expected to be delivered within 2 hours, don't arrive until many hours later. When the order does arrive, it's missing items. Almost EVERYTHING I try to order somehow ends up being out of stock when the shopper tries to buy them. Weird that I have gone to the store right after the shopper tells me the item is out of stock, only to find it. I won't be using Instacart in the future!! I suggest people who choose to ignore the reviews and decide to use Instacart, check over your order really well once it's delivered. It's become a pattern for them to charge for items that were ordered, but were not delivered.

I was an Instacart shopper. I spent 2 hours shopping for a Deztiny, we talked the entire time, building a great rapport. I would show her what was left on the shelves because it was the beginning of lockdown. After I delivered more than $250 worth of groceries she claimed that I did not deliver them and she received all of her groceries for free. In order to process the drop off the map must read my location, I reported everything but nothing was looked into. I delivered gallons of water, more than 50 lb bags of dog food, so many sodas. Sad how a customer can lie to get free groceries and I lose my job. Good Riddance.

The amount of money the shoppers make is insulting. I drive at least 15-20 miles to shop. You're timed on how long you're expected to shop which is unfair because a lot of items are out of stocked and need to be replaced, which takes more time. Corresponding with the customer adds more time as well. Sometimes you deal with customers that are rude before you start shopping only so they can not tip, it's a game to some. You can be in the store all day shopping for 90 items and only get paid about $35 bucks, only to cash out $25 while waiting 2 days later for customers to approve their tip they offered up front. This would be a good side hustle if the pay was more. Gas is over $3 per gallon. The miles you drive to shop and deliver is crazy.

Second order in a row - was told product was out of stock. Sent someone else back up to the same store and product was available on the same day. Seems like the shopper just didn't want to take the time to look. Wasted two delivery fees of $9.95 each. Won't be using their services anymore.

If you are looking to work for a company that has absolutely NO support for their employees then this is JUST for you! NO phone number or email; they say that they cannot disclose an email through chat and you can forget about asking for a phone number for shopper support. There's NO SUCH THING!!!! What kind of company doesn't have a phone number??? There's the first red flag!

I have seen how this shop from home workers go into stores flying in the stores isles disregarding other's safety. Constantly grabbing products from the store shelves and dropping them on the floor, damaging the merchandise and leaving them on the floor spilling and walking away.

I work occasionally for Instacart. It’s a rip-off company. They started out paying Ok rates, not that great. As they started to have more drivers, they started eating away from our rates, slowly, slowly, and cut corners on our experience. Their rating system sucks as well. Even when you have 5 stars, they take away from them, we can’t rate the customers, and they rip us off with tips. They literally steal our money. There are still stupid desperate people out there who would take anything to make a living. They’re a bunch of crooks who have no mercy on drivers. Not only that, their support sucks, you can’t phone them if you encounter a problem(no phone number) and to find help, is a total waste of time.

They helped me find my stockings and pantyhose which I had a problem before them... Thank you Instacart... I love my stockings and pantyhose!!.. I wear them every day! They made great replacement items when needed.

My attention was drawn to my porch before 7AM by a delivery person who was gone before I opened the door to 6 bags of groceries blocking my stairs. I am not an Instacart subscriber, but I know the store the bags were from. The store told me they could do nothing, that the mistaken delivery was made by Instacart. I phoned them, and after much ado was told someone would retrieve the groceries. I cleared a path down my steps and went to my appointment. When I returned 4 hours later the groceries remained.

The last time I used Instacart, the experience was so horrible, I called customer service, forced them to delete my account (they were very resistant and I had to ask firmly three times before they complied) and uninstalled the app from my phone. Then time passed, and my head told me my experience was so horrible that if that was the status quo of how Instacart treated their customers, they wouldn't be in business anymore, so what I experienced had to have been an anomaly. In a moment of weakness (I just wanted some Diet Coke without having to put on real pants for the love of God), my husband used his account to place an order and the Exact. Same. Horrible. Customer. Service. Happened. We're talking exact.

Ordered from great grocery store with delivery via Instacart - they delivered $120 groceries to WRONG apartment. Would/could not replace groceries as they are 3rd party vendor - refund took 3 phone calls and 36 days.

I've been doing this for nearly a year now and it is just getting worse and worse!! Nobody wants to tip! They expect you to shop for 50+ items and then travel 8+ miles to deliver. Instacart only pays the shopper for mileage not the time spent in the store! So you figure 50 items is well over an hour in the store. On top of that the stores are out of so many products. Then you have to message the customers about replacements and refunds and you're lucky if they even answer you! It's so frustrating! These customers expect you do them a service and then offer no tip! You tip your food servers and hairdresser and everyone else... Why would you not tip someone that is doing service???

In the same week I ordered a cake for my mother it never came however the shopper marked it as delivered! I ordered wine. It was supposed to be here by Friday. It was pushed back to Sat and now Sunday. This unacceptable!

This is the email that I sent to Instacart, which summarized my complaint, in response to them stating that my account is restricted and I cannot receive refunds or discounts:

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SERVICE, THE WORST DELIVERY SERVICE AROUND! DO NOT USE THEM! I made an order. It was supposed to be delivered within 90 minutes. I ended up waiting 5 hours only to discover the order was never coming. The shopper, named BERNADINE, in San Francisco stole all my groceries, $80 worth, and never delivered them to me. She lied on the Instacart app and said she delivered it but she never did.

Beware of Instacart shopper "Tyler P" in Tempe/Phoenix, AZ. The guy claimed that he could not do substitutions because I was not using the app (total **--One does not need the app to have substitutions); then he attempted to "substitute" items for himself and charge me for him. In other words, he put things for himself in the cart including two half-gallons of orange juice, two boxes of Jimmy Dean's breakfast sausages (which he accidentally delivered to me), and a nice pack of vanilla ice cream sandwiches which he probably was hoping to enjoy in his car ride over to my house. Not only that, but he opened and ate from my box of Clif Bars. Needless to say, I called Customer Service and plan to take this man to court.

Started shopping at 11 am, groceries were delivered at 11:15 pm! Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that cost $3.33 at The store was charged $4.40 and they delivered the wrong flavor. Four of the items never arrived. There were three substitutions I never authorized. The service was supposed to be free as a first time customer, I was charged fifteen dollars service fee. Could go on and on. Would not use them again if they were free and will advise all my friends not to use them. Beware!

The service is okay, but there's always something you have to refund: bruised banana, lemons that are unusable for being dried out or all rind, instead of orange juice sending me another product. And these was all items the shopper didn't mention as problems as she was shopping. Then this morning Instacart has the nerve to send me a message that they received too many complaints from and won't give me any more refunds. Well, la De da! Maybe they should make sure their service runs well. Done with them!!

I have used this service for grocery delivery the past couple years, with option to waive service fee. The customer pays delivery fee plus tip. I just relocated from Florida to upstate New York and trying to use this service they will not allow me to waive the service fee, nor would they reimburse almost a $10 service fee. Between service fee, delivery, and now a very little to no tip to the person that did all the work shopping, this is a very poor service to refer to any senior citizen, or anyone that needs groceries on a weekly basis. Sadly I will not be able to use this service only rarely due to almost $20 just to get groceries delivered with all the fees. Shame on Instacart for taking away from the hard workers who now will not get a tip or very little causing continuous overturn employee/independent contractor. Being that I’m an advocate for seniors, and due to this experience myself, I will be advocating and marketing the community not to use this service.

I was charged first if all my shopping was 211.00 then the shopper couldn't find all my needs so the bill should of been 182 $ they took 250$ out of my account! By the time I tried getting it all looked after I ended up paying 240 for a 182 dollar shop?! I been wondering if I should do another order? Deciding against it then last night I was charged 103.95$ at 3:45 am. I never ordered anything so I had to call my bank. They frauded my account!!

I am an Instacart regular customer since 2020. I have not had too much of difficulty with the service until yesterday. I was given an option of free delivery but my delivery came 36 minutes late. I was informed by Instacart that their shopper could not scan meat, like that is my problem???? I had to throw it away. Ok you gave me a refund but there obviously was someone at the store or your shopper who tampered with the chicken because I received it loose in germy plastic shopping bag. All I have to say is I am disgusted and may never recover and I am really thinking do I want to pay these people tips at all. Just buyer beware there will always be some type of drama and your money is best spent elsewhere. I felt as if like someone really did not care if we get sick.

Instacart is a bad company. It is a crapshoot when you order using Instacart. In my experience, I estimate that one out of every 12-14 shoppers are enthusiastic and professional. The rest are rude, difficult, argumentative and have horrible attitudes from the get-go. They are unprofessional, ghost you on text messages when you ask questions, substitute your preferred items even though you have checked the "no substitutions" box, make excuses for not getting items you order even though the items are available in the store, (I call to check), and more than once I have had shoppers walk away in the middle of the order, angering the store staff when carts of groceries have been abandoned in the store. As one of the good shoppers told me, "Some shoppers just quit on you."

Horrible service. Wasted 1 hour of my valuable time on hold with customer service... For all the blunders they did, I get, "We are sorry. We will refund"... I don't care for your apologies, learn to get your act together, don't try to pin the blame on the customer. They cannot tell if I placed the order and made a late change (which I did not) or not! The shopper missed my items (or the system sucks) and they want to pin it on me. Would never use this service again if they are the last ones on this planet.

I was using Instacart long before covid existed. While it has been convenient, the shoppers have frequently picked wrong items, delivered damaged items, not delivered items I was charged for, and delivered orders that smelled so strongly of smoke, I had to unpack the bags outside. Twice they have delivered my order to the wrong address and left someone else’s order at my door. Multiple times they have arrived much later than the requested delivery time.

We have used Instacart throughout the pandemic. For the first time, I checked the receipt from the supermarket and found it to be about $85. Instacart had charged us $120! When I wrote them for an explanation, they refused to answer. Five times they sent back the same form email directing us to the supermarket website for details…which had no answer to my question. What a scam! We were regular customers but will never use them again.

There tried to scam you into adding a credit card, even I have clearly stated that I am not interested in their service. I am a businessman myself & I understand, every business is out there to make a profit, but I don't like their business model. When the item is on sale, you are not getting the sale price, and on top of that, there has added a fee, on top of what the supermarket is selling them for.

I am NEVER using Instacart again, and I advise everyone else to avoid them. My girlfriend and I just arrived at an Air BNB, and we needed groceries. We waited FOUR freaking hours for our order, which was eighty dollars (even though they charged us one hundred dollars). Eventually, the order never came, and we had to cancel the order. At this time, everything closed, and we went to bed hungry. Thanks, Instacart. You screwed us over. Big time.

This is the worst company I had to deal with! The service is bad and quality is bad! Missing products from your order and cheap quality.. Also I just found out and I have to say no one informed me of this before, that they are putting an hold of a much higher amount on your credit card! They are claiming they refund it and that it takes up to 7 business days to go back on your account? What is is? If I spend an amount you charge me that amount no more... Please beware of this! I canceled my account immediately and I will never deal with this company again!

I am disgusted with the number of items that were not available. Further, Some of the choices that the young lady was probably forced to choose from while she's checking. I remember a time when I would go to the store and there was never an item not there. Even as an adult, I run at least 98%. Now that there are delivery services I get a high fee for service. A delivery fee, and an expectation for a tip. I'm not sure what you're offering, but I'm not happy. I need you to understand something. If I order a cheese pizza, it's more than likely because I don't eat meat. This person brought me two extremely small pepperoni pizzas. I ask for jalapeño peppers, I'm getting banana peppers. Last week, the guy left whole milk. I don't understand the issue. But, I want what I ordered, when I place an order. It's extremely difficult to understand why I'm paying for a service and not getting a service.

Routinely takes orders for products not in stock then charges a cancellation fee. Placed order from their website based on their product availability. Items not in stock but charged a late cancellation fee. Complete scam.

HORRIFIC. OVER AND OVER. No matter what store you choose and what day/time of the week - Instacart will screw you over! Constantly late with your order and I mean HOURS not minutes. AND then they will give you a "credit" to say they are sorry and you will NEVER see that credit. Not to mention the $9 service fee and $4 delivery fee which you will not get back even if you get shafted on delivery. LASTLY, they will always substitute something MORE expensive than what you originally ordered. Sometimes double or triple the cost. AVOID AT ALL COSTS - HORRIBLE COMPANY. Why are they still in business?

Once again, Instacart fails. I was sent a $20.00 off coupon, clicked on the link in the email provided, it took me to the store I always order from which the email said the coupon was good for, met the additional requirements it said I had to meet in order to use the coupon and voila, the coupon failed to apply. I contacted customer service and they gave me the same old run around offering instruction on how to use Instacart as if I wasn't already using it. These people have serious issues.

Ordered items from Aldis and was charged more than what receipt had said. This was a $20 difference. Was told that they are allowed to charge more, so I guess I will not be doing Instacart again. That is a lot for someone on SS.

Quite possibly the worst customer service I've ever dealt with. I had a fairly small problem that should have been an easy fix and the customer service was completely incompetent, rude and unhelpful. I ended up closing my account not even because of the initial problem but because of just how terribly I was treated and how horrible their service was. Also note that they will keep all your private personal information forever. Once they have it they will never fully delete you from their system.

Back in August I ordered groceries from Kroger to be delivered by Instacart. The driver delivered to the wrong address. I contacted Instacart when they didn't show up well after when they should have. The customer service person verified they were delivered to the wrong address. He said they would give a full refund for the groceries, delivery fee, tax, and tip. It has been well over 2 weeks and all I have gotten is the refund for the groceries and that was from Kroger. Instacart has yet to refund all of the other. They are a rip-off from the word go. This could even be construed as electronic fraud on their part. Will NEVER use them again.

Shopper delivered $5. Of product for a $10 delivery fee. She did not contact me for substitutes. Had to make another order for another $10. I want a credit. She was absolutely stupid. Couldn't find my house either. All shoppers find my house.

Everything was fine until they STOLE 104.00 from me & I got the runaround all day yesterday & still have yet to received a refund or a supervisor call me back. Use them at your own risk smh. They don’t need to be in business at all.

This company is an opportunistic company ceasing on the COVID pandemic. They do what they want, when they want. They add fees, they overcharge for the food, deliver cheaper food and bill you for the more expensive food. When you call their service department, in some country, not the US, all they keep repeating is "We appreciate your business", "We want to do everything we can to make it right for you", but do nothing. They will offer you $5 for your trouble, when it cost you $50 and the food doesn't arrive for 4 hours or not at all. They are hanging on by a thread and charging fees on top of fees to keep going.

However, at least 30% of the time there's a problem with Instacart. The Shopper takes the wrong item, forgets to bring things, makes a last-minute substitution and then checks out before I can approve it, etc. I have spent hours and hours on the phone with customer service resolving problems with my orders. There is definitely a mismanagement issue, shoppers are not trained, shoppers want to fill as many orders as possible to increase their daily wage at the expense of doing a good job, and inadequate training of the shoppers resulting in issues for the customer. Instacart charges too much money for items to justify the time spent by the customer to fix issues. I'm moving over to Whole Foods, just can't take this anymore. Instacart needs to get their act together.

I used this service before. Was happy with it until my last delivery. I was ripped off. Customer service did not want to help. Called Publix's Corporate Office. spoke to dead ears. I ordered extra item because they were BOGO. Never received my BOGO items. I also ordered Boars Head Deluxe Ham sliced very thin layer of 3 slices then papers in between, and 2 1/2 lbs packages of Boars head cheese. Well the ham was all stuck together no papers in between, cheese all stuck to together the same. They ripped me off on you BOGO items. I cannot write my review on their FB newsfeed because they blocked me. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SERVICE.

I will NEVER use this greedy company again. AWFUL!! First of all, they have more fees than any other delivery service out there. I ordered about $315 worth of groceries, and in the end, my total was $385!!!! Service Fees, Heavy Lifting Fees...etc. Insane. THEN to top it off....not only did they charge my card the $385, they then charge a SEPARATE fee for $425. Overdrew my account and bounced my rent check.

I placed an order for Gluten Free oven ready lasagna with the specific instructions NOT to substitute another product (due to allergies). What was delivered was whole grain product-loaded with gluten and unusable. I contacted the company about the over $20.00 purchase, requesting that they return to pick up the incorrect product and refund my money. I was told they would give me a credit of $14. on a future order! I told the company I wanted a FULL credit back on my credit card and to pick up the product as we cannot use it - no response. If I could give them zero stars I would. What a scam!

Lots of items I was charged for were missing. Some items were damaged and others priced higher than when purchased online. They were late and ice cream was melted and perishables questionable. The worst was customer service- no apologies, no effort to get items missing delivered. I got hung up on. Finally got a call from a supervisor hours later. Only solution offered was a refund for items missing in 5-10 days. Amazon would have tried to make it right and resend the items. Second time I use them. First was better but far from right. I canceled my membership. They wasted my day. Over six hours of my day went to this below par operation.

Placed an order 4 days in advance selecting a specific day and time a lot as instructed. 30 minutes before the delivery time slot was set to expire they still had not even started the order. Called them and was told that they don’t honor the time slots or orders. If a shopper happens to be available and picks up the order it will be fulfilled, otherwise too bad. Terrible terrible business.

I’ve LOVED using Instacart and recommended it to all of my friends until today. My groceries were guaranteed to be delivered today by 8pm and as the shopper was checking out “an issue occurred” and she abandoned my order- being obligated to wait for the “next available shopper” which wouldn’t deliver the groceries to cook my family dinner until 9:45. I prayed about it and calmed down, patiently waiting- at 9:39 I got an email stating my order was rescheduled until the next day at 1 pm. RIDICULOUS! I had to drive and buy fast food for my family’s dinner. Completely dissatisfied, inconvenienced and confused about why a shopper abandons an order after check out?

I occasionally shop in grocery stores myself but in a pinch I need delivery. The prices are so different online vs in-store. More expensive on the Instacart website and they charge for heavy items like apple & cranberry juice, very discouraging. Is the shopper getting the extra money that's charged for the "heavy item"? Instacart is taking advantage.

We have food allergies and were looking for our favorite gluten free nuggets. Placed an Instacart order and rep tried to swap them with another brand that's not safe. Replied to her text to return them, that swapping them out for another brand wasn't okay. She confused us with another order at first but then seemed to understand. No product/order ever arrive so thought all was good but now we have a charge on our card that Instacart refuses to refund. They'll offer credit or a free month exclusive account, but won't refund.

In long term care health settings, there is Federal regulation for not providing services promised "FALSE DELIVERY OF SERVICE". This company promises quality service but delivers stress, disappointment and a waste of money for the customer. I feel I have been taken advantage of Instacart in the current environment. Experience specifics: Items in stock are reported "Not in stock", delayed delivery resulting in warm meats, molded fruit, expired items, no delivery notification. Going forward, I will not repeat my mistake of using this company.

Be careful when you use Instacart.

I'm actually really surprised about my experience with Instacart/Costco. I have used Costco's instacart many times and have not had any problems until today. When I realized they mark up everything. I only know that because the shopper sent a picture of my item, then I noticed the price difference. I did chat with a customer service rep about the price difference. "Diana" says policy producers. "Price difference is for service/delivery fees and technology platform fees." $3 to $4 mark up on 10 items is a big freaking fee. I wouldn't be mad if they were up front about their fees.

I used this for the first time. My lettuce was brown, the mushrooms rotten when I opened the package the first day I got them...threw many things out. I'll shop myself. The shopper appeared to just throw things in without inspecting.

Soooo this is like my 60th order and it was a horrible experience. It's already weird that Instacart likes to charge $30 extra dollars every order. So my shopper first of all was shopping so slow bc they allowed her to get two batches at once. I waited as patiently as possible and was informed that my time had been pushed back a whole hour and only 3 out of my 12 items had been shopped for. THEN I get a notification stating it's going to be another 45 mins, I am a little more upset at this point but I try to keep my cool bc mind you the whole point of me ordering at 11am is to get my delivery in a timely matter. NOT have to wait all day, THEN I get a message that my order will be a little later bc the shopper is having a issue with the other customers order at the check out line.

Instacart is a scam, I ordered groceries from one of the local stores. My receipt from Instacart was $271 and the actual receipt from the store was $221. When I finally contacted customer service, they referred me to the store's pricing rules. I stated, this has nothing to do with the store, because the overage is going to Instacart not the store. I also pointed out, the tax, fees, and tips are based on the high number not the actual price. So I paid an additional $50 to Instacart, about $10 in fees, and about $12 in tip (I don’t mind tipping the shoppers) when they all should have been lower. This is fraud and misrepresentation, and it should be investigated!

My first experience with Instacart occurred in August, 2020. I used a credit card ending in ** to purchase some items from CVS which were delivered. I did not use them again for anything inasmuch as I have other resources for my shopping assistance. On February 23, 2021 I received an email from Instacart asking me how I "enjoyed" their free Express membership (no delivery charge), and stating that the "free trial Express membership" was going to expire on February 25, 2021, and telling me that (1) my card would be charged $99 for one full year of Express membership services (meaning that would pay no delivery charge on any order for the entire year). The same email went on to say that they had every intention of "automatically" renewing my Express membership on the same card I used on that single purchase I made in August, 2020 on February 25, 2022.

There is a specific coffee item that I love which is difficult to find. I was able to locate it via Instacart at a store in a nearby city and placed an order for a number of units plus a couple of $2-$3 items to lessen the cost of delivery down to $4. When the driver delivered my groceries and the receipt arrived I noticed that they delivered my miscellaneous items but my coffee was out of stock. I ended up paying an additional $10 ($4 delivery plus $3 of a service fee plus tip) for no reason whatsoever to get $10 worth of items that I really didn't need delivered at my home. Customer service was no help and said that they are working hard to ensure that the stock shown is reflective of the stock available but 24 hours later my out of stock coffee is still shown in stock at this specific store. I use Amazon Prime with Whole Foods all the time and this has never been an issue.

Surprised to see so many bad reviews, I have had good experiences. Sometimes I have forgotten to order something and I text the shopper and they are very good natured about looking for it. I choose replacements when I put in the order. If they can’t even find my replacements I have several times had shoppers send me pics to see if I would like something similar they found.

If you get paid a certain amount per batch why can Instacart put 2 batches together and not pay you for both? Also, why isn’t the full mileage calculated from our homes because that would make a big difference and add 5-10 miles extra each trip that you don’t get paid for.

It has been my experience during the COVID-19 shelter in place that Instacart was seemingly useful given the times. However, the more I used the company to support my aging father, the more I realized I wasn't paying attention to the inconsistent service and questionable work ethic by company representatives. More often than not, depending on the driver/shopper for my order, would I even receive quality goods. Often produce was spoiled, overripe or incorrect. The vehicles are also at times sketchy, with more than your shopper in the vehicle and it feels unprofessional.

I have used them several times and their drivers are great but Instacart is horrible. I will lay out my issues with them one at a time...

I placed an order with Instacart and bought some groceries online at Publix. Never received the delivery, so I reached out to them to request a full refund. The photo the shopper took isn't even my house! After all of this, my account was deactivated wrongfully and they won't reactivate it, nor refund me the $101.44. That isn't right!

I ordered and paid for The Prisoner wine for $51.99 a bottle, but they didn't have it in stock. The default wine, Josh Legacy, was only $15.99. The delivery guy brought it without a receipt and I was still charged the full amount. Talking with customer "CARE" has not helped at all. They won't refund the difference. I even paid extra for the expedited delivery, and it was LATE. And I tipped $20.00 for the delivery person on the app ahead of time. So I paid $88.83 for a late $15.99 bottle of wine, and got ZERO satisfaction from Instacart's customer "CARE" person Shreya. NOT USING INSTACART AGAIN!

Thanks to Instacart I have a lifetime supply of Drano. At least I was able to stop the most recent mistake, which was a bottle of wine 5x the cost of the one I selected that was out of stock, but also not the one I put on the replacement list. I honestly don't know why they bother asking you to select your preference for replacements. The shopper tried to blame the wine mistake on their app. Like most companies, the people on the front line have to take the brunt of the blame. I do believe their app is flawed.

I had deliveries that were mixed up by inability of shopper to communicate with office on charges, items, etc. They were not allowed to call us while shopping. They had to use some confusing app. I was often overcharged. Charged items I didn’t receive. Overcharged on some. Terrible to their delivery people who they tried to blame problems on! Right as the COViD scare broke out they took advantage of these poor girls. This is what I saw, not what they said. They were glad to have a job. One poor girl was in tears. I was there and heard their lies. A year after I cancelled this sloppy service, they tried billing me a renewal fee. Look at their reviews and see how they are manipulated by them to look authentic. They are so bad I pay a friend to shop for me at Publix rather than use Instacart.

The customer service rep was empathetic to my situation and I applaud her for that. She was given a difficult task since I was livid about my experience with Instacart. I created a curbside pickup on Friday. After seeing a pickup time that was too late I chose Saturday morning. I kept the order PC window open so I could keep updated on that order. The bar never moved! I opened the phone app and window was stuck on a 'we'll notify you' window. Pickup scheduled for 10-11 AM. By 10:45 I went to Aldi and was told by the manager that they haven't had curbside for over a month! And that Instacart does not allow notice on their site. So...there is no way for a customer to know the service does not exist. I consider that a form of fraud. Advertising a service that is not provided. Again, I'm fine with CS but as far as Instacart I will not use unless totally necessary in the future.

The customer service department said they would deliver between 1 and 3 then 8 then 11:45. Rude, hard to understand and liars. Ruined our vacation and caused us to spend more money on take out food because we didn't have our groceries. Why take the order if you can't fulfill it and they didn't even let us know.

I was a Instacart subscriber for a number of years. I recently had major surgery and was planning on using Instacart to pick up groceries for me. When I tried to set up the delivery, I was not able to get it to work so I called the company. They told me that my account was being reviewed (they said it was a routine review) and that I would not be able to use the account until they completed the review in several days. I have never been delinquent in payment and do not know why the review was taking place and I received no notice of the review. I told them I had just had surgery and was relying on them to deliver groceries to me. They refused to fix it so I could order groceries and I ended up having to drive to a grocery store even though I had just had surgery. I have terminated my account since they clearly are not reliable.

I use Instacart all the time for work and home. The idea is great but application is kind iffy to say the least. Not once have I ordered and not had to return or replace something. Today I ordered four items - one item did not come in the size advertised in that store, the other was out of stock so I canceled the other two items. In past orders, I've paid for expedited delivery and had shoppers accept my order then later it will be reassigned to someone else and after all that it's no longer expedited and for sure they don't have everything advertised. Like one of the other reviewers mentioned, I've had good luck with Costco orders but Safeway, Metropolitan Market and Fred Meyers is always a crapshoot because you know what is listed online is not what will be available when the shopper goes to shop.

Instacart is ok for fast limited number of goods like Costco, but for other groceries who have long lists of many different types goods like Foodsco, Safeway, and virtually all other supermarkets, Instacart is very unreliable. I ordered specific meat and fish products from Foodsco's website twice and twice, the shoppers said they weren't available even though they were stated as available on the websites. My main reasons for shopping at these places were for those 2 items. I would also be given other items that were replacement/substitutions and/or unavailable.

I ordered an item. They did not have it in stock. Without asking my permission, they delivered a different item. I do not want the different item. I want my money back. I tried to fill out their complaint form. It would not submit. Go figure.

To whom this may concern: I beg of you'll to stop this before somebody get hurt if not killed. On the black market there's hackers that has hacked into Instacart app. I have been working for instant cart for over a year. And the app shows no batches NOW well after contacting them without any help, answer or no solution. I start doing my own research I found out that the orders has been sold to those who using BOT so they steal. Legit shoppers batches and they go to another shopper who paid for the Bot. They then have their family and friends help them. So they send them to go deliver the orders and they move on to the next order.

I placed a small order with this company and the deluge of emails started. First they said that it was set, then they said that it would be an hour late, then a day late, next they said that my order was canceled with no reason given, but my money would be blocked for 5 business days. I called them on their senior line and was told that my idem was out of stock but my money was on hold for 5 business days and I would not be notified when the block is taken off. I would not attempt to buy anything from them again or recommend them in any way.

Instacart is a good idea, but the actual product is lacking in many ways. Both the desktop and mobile apps are clumsy. It takes far too many clicks to reach your goal; it's cumbersome to choose replacement items or to designate them as no substitute and limits on choices for replacements is illogical; rating a shopping experience also doesn't allow you to be specific unless you file a complaint. If you are a choosy shopper, it definitely won't save you any time. There are so many fees, and most items are up-priced, so it's hard to know what the actual cost of the service is. They also put a generous hold on your account when you complete an order, so it requires a lot of checking and follow-up to be sure the final charge is accurate.

I kept getting password reset emails from Instacart. I never initiated a password request. I contacted Instacart via chat. The agent said that someone would contact me in 24-48 business hours. Two weeks later, I got a response ONLY after filing a complaint with the BBB. It is now three weeks later and they verified that an unauthorized user tried to log into my account. I have deleted the app and have no desire to ever use their services again. The service was so-so. Had a driver steal two boxes of protein bars. I had another driver tell me that half of the items on my list weren't available and refunded half of my list. I had to drive to the store myself and found all of the items. I got an apology and a $35.00 credit that I couldn't use. Now, after almost being hacked and experiencing the nonchalant attitude from Instacart, I will definitely not use them again.

At times when you accept a batch it skips straight to the order. It did this so I started shopping and then when I tried to contact the customer about an out of stock item the batches disappeared. I was working on a double order.

Have had two bad experiences with Instacart. The first was a delivery from Publix that contained chilled and frozen contents that had melted or warmed up beyond 60 degrees. My loss on that was over $20.00 and was only compensated for $9.50. Ice Cream, Milk, and ground meat were lost in that debacle. But today (12 Jun 21) they somehow topped it. I had a delivery scheduled for Noon to 2, and got a text at 1158 that they were shopping the order. At 1445 I contacted Instacart via chat, and got the run around for about 5 minutes. I had my order page open and the scheduled delivery was Jun 12 Noon-2.

Instacart is supposed to save you time but in reality it waste your time. Half the time the "so-called" shoppers would buy the wrong items, or they would say the store was out of what I wanted because they don't want to spend the time to LOOK for it. Many times I went back to the same store they shopped at to get the milk I needed when they said the store was out of it and I would find it right on the shelf. I tried it during the Covid Pandemic to avoid crowds, but I cancelled it once I got my vaccine. It is a waste of time and money. The only thing the shoppers care about is how much you tip them.

The Instacart is an awful company. I would never use it again. I ordered supplements and received a notice that they were ready for a pick up the next day. Because these supplements were important to me, I immediately drove to the pick up location that was an hour away. When I arrived, I was given supplements that I did not order. When I stated as much, the woman told me that they did not have the supplements that I ordered but that she could recommend some replacement. Had I been told that the supplements I ordered were not in stock, I would have canceled my transaction and saved myself two hours of driving. This was the second experience that I had with this company. The first time, my order was delivered to someone else and I had to request a refund of the item that I needed on a short notice.

Wife out of town. Just sign up for Instacart trying to order grocery and they want to 24 to 72 hrs. verify the account, when you have no transportation and need to get groceries. Very Bad Company practice.

I disagree with the policy above that you have to give at least one star. This company deserves no stars to be honest. Every time I deal with Instacart I have to wonder what part will be bad. Today it's that for a month I am to be charged no delivery fees but lo and behold there they are two of them then God knows this time if they will bring me all of the items I have listed and they are a very poor excuse of a delivery company.

Buyers beware!!! I had a horrible experience with my Instacart order that I placed last night! I believe instacart are scammers! Immediately after I placed my order of $16.76, I immediately screenshot my order that stated, "Your Mastercard card was temporarily authorized for $17.60. Your statement will reflect a final charge within 7 business days of order completion". AFTER WAKING UP THIS MORNING, I CHECKED MY INSTACART ORDER AGAIN, WHICH NOW STATED, "Your Mastercard card was temporarily authorized for $30.00. Your statement will reflect a final charge within 7 business days of order completion".

They don't do verification if you mess up. They lock your account until you submit government ID and Credit card pic so they can verify the credit card is yours. That's not their place. Theirs is to confirm I simply placed an order. My credit card company protects me just fine. Oh! If you were expecting to feed the kids, they may have to wait up to 48 hours while you argue with their logic....even if you submit to their unwarranted requests. Keep your government ID and credit card details to yourself. Every other online service I use, uses a verification process (email or text or phone). Not these guys. They think they merit our personal info.

Terrifying experience. Delivery driver was asked to leave items and I would get them when they were back to their car. The man took pictures of the items being left but continued standing outside. I assumed he was confused so I went to the door and he tried to come in and said "more tip". This man also did not have a mask on. I told him I've added a tip at the checkout, which I did. My dog tried to get out and got in his way from coming inside, I got the door shut and locked immediately. He began beating on the door and yanking on my door handle. The man stayed outside my door for 15 minutes.

First of all, I would like to state that a very high percentage of the deliveries I have received via Instacart were faulty. I would receive substitutions for items without being asked what I would like as a replacement, they have skipped items that were in stock, and my favorite one: they substitute flavors at their own discretion without asking. That's like ordering chicken but receiving fish, or ordering a strawberry ice cream bar and receiving mango. On one occasion the store manager PERSONALLY delivered an item to my house that was in stock WHILE the Instacart shopper was at my door. I try to avoid all deliveries now and have them deposited to the trunk of my car by the grocery store instead.

A girl driver, in a dark blue civic, with dyed hair, and a baby seat in the back? Seriously? Flicked a lit joint in my car window after I accidentally cut her off. She actually delivered down the street from me after that. Are they really hiring people without drug testing them? I don't know how Instacart works, but this can't be right.

I have used Instacart shopping and delivery service 6 times since last year. Only 2 of those were successful. The Shopper either could not find common items or replaced items with something completely different than what I ordered. Like replacing spinach with asparagus or a whole pie in place of a single slice. Not to mention that items are replaced even when "no substitutes" is selected. My last experience was on 4/18/21. On this event, my order was delivered to an unknown address. Instacart customer service refused to provide an instant credit and stated that my refund should appear on my bankcard in 7-10 days. Now I'm out of an additional $120 when they could have easily issued the credit to my account for immediate use. This service has proved to be a waste of my time and money.

$99 was deducted from my checking account for the express service that I did not request, because I paid my regular bills my account is overdrawn and I was charged a fee. Extremely disappointed as nothing was stated that this would be done. If this is their practice it should be stated where you can see the information. I would never have used knowing that I would be set up for a year subscription! I deleted the account and my debit card. BEWARE!

Their system is seriously going thru a path of destruction. Beware of making a mistake trying to log in into your Insta account, because their system will automatically create a new/multiple accounts with ANY type of personal info you give them, YIKES! Also, they are erasing and typing wrong info on your account; I was a customer beginning 2020, and the system now says I was a customer in 2019 (I have my bank records to prove otherwise). NO ORDERS from 2020 up 'til now appear on my account, but I placed several of them! Their customer service agents will not connect me with a supervisor or higher rep. to try to solve the problem; they just keep going around & around blaming me for their faulty system.

Yesterday I shopped for three Instacart customers on a batch order. At the register I realized that I had misplaced my instacart credit card. I was tempted to cancel the order, but decided to text help on the app and was told that I could purchase for these customers with my own Mastercard and would readily be reimbursed for the three customers' orders. I didn't want to leave these customers in the lurch, so I went ahead and purchased their items on my credit card. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Totals were $47.07, $23.16, $63.81.

This is now my sixth time reaching out. I’m reaching out on behalf of my husband. He is unable to contact support because his account has been wrongfully deactivated and no one has replied to all his emails! The five other people I talked to said that they passed the issue onto their team and that we would hear back via email and it’s been days now and we haven’t heard anything. A customer complained and said their groceries smelled like smoke which isn’t possible because we are a smoke free home. I just a had a baby 6 weeks ago and I no longer am able to do Instacart but prior to my child I used the same car he is using to deliver and never had any complaints!

I used this Company for 7 months and thought it was great up until today. I arrived at Publix during my pick-up window, had received several text about my order saying David V was working on it then another saying it was ready for pick-up only to arrive and with several Publix associates telling me no order was found but 175.00 had already been placed on my account (3 business days). I left with no groceries and a hold of funds on my checking acct. On the phone with them 1 hr. 5 mins., with no explanation to how this happened.

Today I placed an order through Instacart and my food was not delivered. I was told that the driver delivered the food to the wrong house and that I could not get a new grocery order tonight and that I had wait until the next day or 5-10 business days to get a refund. The customer service team, unlike Door Dash, is poor and seemed insincere. I had just signed up for the free delivery membership. I cancelled the membership and will never use this service again.

Yesterday, I placed an order and received ground turkey and sour cream that had been marked down on clearance because the expiration was approaching. I was charged the regular price, so obviously this company is not charging the actual sale price of the item from the store, but not disclosing this anywhere. Today, I received an app notification today for a promotional $30 off of an annual express membership. I "clicked" on the notification to follow the link but it took me to the sign up page with no discount applied.

Instacart is a terrible waste of time. Tried it for the first time today with 2 large store chains. Never received any deliveries and now I am out more then $200 for groceries that I never received. I have to wait 5-10 business days for a full refund when they took money from my account as soon as I made the orders I never received. Please people do your own shopping, instacart is a lousy alternative unless you have time and money to throw away.

I have had to use Instacart a lot since the start of the pandemic. I look forward to going back to in-person shopping. While Instacart is convenient, almost every time I have shopped, I either got an item I didn't ask for (as in, someone else requested the item and it was given to me by mistake) or one of my items was missing. Also, the shoppers substitute my requested items with items I didn't approve of and didn't want. I have complained to customer service and gotten refunds, but they never mark down my complaints, so the mistakes keep happening. The service is too expensive to be this dysfunctional.

I am so frustrated! I love Sprouts, but their only delivery option is Instacart. I tried Instacart for a while but every single delivery had a problem and my last delivery before I cancelled never arrived. I should've known they are terrible when my first delivery was mainly meat products and I'm vegan. I tip really, really well because I so very much appreciate what the people who are delivering are doing. I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming Instacart.

Order system: I selected the Costco Items, but no order button or order selection. Had to call Instacart and person placed my order. Delivery: delivery was supposed to be noon to 2 pm. Around 1:30 pm I got a text that said I was next on delivery. THIS WAS A LIE. I got another text that said my delivery would be by 3 pm. THIS WAS A LIE. I called Instacart at 3:40 pm. Nathan said they were short of shoppers and a shopper had been assigned. So the order was not even out for delivery. Terrible shopping experience! Cancelled the order and complained to Costco customer service. Told them to use a reliable delivery service.

I just posted a review of their service on their page and they promptly deleted it. My review detailed how we've had many negative issues with their employees in the past of stating that the groceries we ordered were out of stock or did not exist. Tonight was the final straw for me... After the umpteenth time that we had this issue, I finally decided to handle it myself. About 20 minutes after we had our groceries delivered, I went to the store to verify that the items the employee said were missing/out of stock were indeed not there. As expected, I found ALL of the items that were claimed to be gone (and it wasn't just one or two items that they said were out of stock, but an entire list).

I order some stuff from BJ's. Delivery done by Instacart. I report some box of GoGo squeeZ are open. I file report. They say, "You get your refund back in 10 days of $29.98." We have email conversation about that with help dept. I did not get my refund back after 12 days yet.

I placed an order, texted with the shopper while she was shopping, got a text that my order was on its way, then a text that it was delivered. No delivery. It took 3 hours of phone calls and the shopper said she delivered it. All they offered was re delivery 6 hours later and free delivery on my NEXT order. I got a refund. (Will have to watch my statement for that) It was nearly impossible to get customer service help. I used the online chat and phone calls. So much for saving time. I now also have to go shopping. Hope someone enjoys my dinner,

I live in Pittsburgh PA area. I have used Instacart 5 or 6 times. I am very pleased with them. They do a great job. I usually order between $45 and $60 of items. All the people who have shipped for and delivered my groceries were great. I think it helps to order $100 or less. I have had no problems getting the items I want. I always go to the notes area on each item and give them an alternate. This really helps. It also helps to be on the app when they are shopping if they have a question. Thank you instacart for helping me by providing this great service!

I started using Instacart shortly after the pandemic started (about April 2020). I read the pricing policy as directed by them when I pointed out the glaring difference between their receipt and the paper receipt. Essentially what they're telling me is that an Instacart shopper can use a Plus Card from Kroger and get the discounts, but I can't. This I already knew from previous experience.

I don’t even want to give 1 star. I don’t even want to give 1 star. It took multiple emails to get a refund on two items. At first they would only offer a credit. They pocketed the tax which is based on a percentage spent, they did not reduce the tip (which is a percentage of the total so obviously that should have decreased) and their service fee which is always 5% of what I’ve spent on past orders. They tried to explain what the service fee was for which doesn’t matter when it’s computed on a percentage of the total purchased. They lied and said the tax was refunded so, I did the math for them and they still maintained it was refunded. I’ll be reporting that to the appropriate entity. They refused to refund a mere $5.14 and opted to lose a customer that has been loyal throughout the pandemic spending almost 600.00 (which is a drop in the bucket for them but a ton of money for me). I’ll move onto a different service.

I have used InstaCart a number of times since signing up two or three months ago. The experience has been a mixed bag, but good enough and convenient enough that I have stayed with it. Until now. PROS: Generally workable website; efficient and timely shoppers; unfailingly polite online customer service with mostly good follow-through (until now). When there has been an issue with the shopper's product selection, I have considered it a part of my own learning curve to explain more explicitly in my order what I do and do not want, regarding both products and prices. And the one time a shopper ignored my "do not substitute" instruction, InstaCart was more than fair in refunding me.

I shopped at Instacart once. I ordered 4 cases of essentia water. When the shopper got to Costco he said they did not have essentia and therefore I opted for Fiji. When I received the order I got 4 cases of essentia. The bill was 202.00. I immediately called Instacart and they said they refunded me 92.81. I went to my bank today and they never refunded me. I filed a case in small claims court.

I was in chat for a half hour and still got no resolution to my problem. All I wanted was a copy of my receipt with all the item listed I bought from Wegmans. Eventually she told me I would get an email. Sent wrong info. I just got the order today but it should show up somewhere! Unreal.

I used them for the first time in early December 2020 for a $28 order. It worked out just fine, but I missed seeing people and getting out, so that was the only time. Then, on December 23, 2020 my card was charged $99 by instacart. No number to call, no way to contact them. I live on my Social Security and it is Christmas time! I admit, I was really angry. I called my credit union, they had to cancel my debit card and send me a new one and then refunded the $99 to me immediately while they go after Instacart. USAA is a first class Credit Union. Instacart had better get their act together.

I completed an order with Instacart online for items from Stop and Shop. After receiving the items, the receipt from the store indicated that the amount was $128. However, I was billed $152 from Instacart before the tip or fees. When I spoke with an Instacart associate, they indicated that their price is different from the retailer. This is deceptive and should be illegal. If the item is on sale in the store, I should get the sale price and not overpay by $24. I understand the fee and tip for the service but do not understand or appreciate the price differential.

A man was able to pose as a woman named “Barbara”. He was able to accept my delivery order, have access to my card, and he pretended to shop for my groceries. I say pretend because somehow, he shopped a large order in under 10 minutes, got all items no substitutions, and added $150 to my order under an item called “Prim”. He then checked out and delivery was pending. When I seen my $250 order was now over $400 I reached out to him and he switched my delivery to delivered.

Member for 1 year, 100 % of my orders had correct order and correct replacement. Not charged for higher priced items by shopper. I prefer to say no replacement to avoid back and forth correspondence. Cons: Never get sales prices. Min. of 2$ EACH item more than price in store. $50 in store is 80 Instacart. I sometimes have to take the hit $. But the shoppers in Alsip IL area are GREAT. I don't want to give shoppers in my area a bad reputation. When I needed it they came through. Also I tip really well.

I ordered from a small local grocery store. The shopper said there was only one turkey breast left. He sent me picture of it. I got charged for 3 different breasts. None the prices were the same as the price on the breast I received. I had several items missing. Replacements were done with more expensive items when I asked for them to not be replaced at all. I was given a credit for those items. However the next time I placed an order the order went through using my credit and put over $130 of my money on hold at the bank. Then the order got cancelled within a few seconds.

Sneaky & misleading "promotions" encountered today over Thanksgiving. Untrained CSRs - all in S Africa and the Philippines - there no option for N American CSRs, and you are likely to WAIT ON HOLD AN HOUR as I did today if you try to escalate even a simple question. Buggy & untested software - you MUST check their arithmetic...See their litigation history elsewhere on the net... AVOID trying to use any large promotions >$15. Forget about customer service, since there are NO native-english-speakers, and their accents are VERY difficult...The management is practically begging for more-professional competition!

Instacart DEMANDS that you review each shopper. IMMEDIATELY. ON THEIR SCHEDULE AND CONSTANTLY. If you just want to shop, you will get pop ups. LOTS of pop ups. Pop ups on pop ups on pop ups. There is no "ask me later" or "not now" or "no thanks" option. You will be required. REQUIRED, to rate your experience, or you can deal with a pop up every 15 seconds as you try to shop. If you contact customer service, they tell you to update your browser, as if updating your browser will make instacart suddenly give a flip about customer service or the instacart experience. Amazon delivers. Walmart delivers free over $35. Don't subject yourself to Instacart harassment.

The shopper couldn't find my items and replaced them with an $8 pound of gouda from the deli. I didn't order anything that resembled gouda cheese! I didn't order anything from the deli. It cannot even be returned. And I absolutely detest gouda! I also marked NO SUBSTITUTIONS! You can't even complain to Instacart or get your money back. This was an expensive mistake I will never make again. I didn't even get the items I most needed so I had to order curbside at another store immediately following this colossal mistake. Guess all I can do is warn other people to stay away from Instacart. Giant ripoff!

I placed an order with InstaCart for a grocery delivery. Besides getting charged an additional $15 service fee without being aware of that fee in advance, I was upcharged on several grocery items. For example, with some deli items that were clearly marked with the price based on weight, I was charged a higher price. The same happened with other items, such as a package of chicken - the package was clearly marked with the price and instacart charged me a higher amount (at least 20% higher). I wrote a complaint to the company, but they are not responding to any of my queries.

I have ordered three times in the last 6 months. Due to working from home I thought it would convenient, however, all three times the was at least one thing that was not right. One time I ask for stew meat and got a whole London broil. This time I ask for skinless chicken thighs and got Bone-in with skin. I always say no substitutes and even had a note about it in being skinless. Now I had to go back to the store and get the item I needed, which is hardly convenient. Won't be using them again.

I was incorrectly charged $ 99.00 for a subscription fee. I cannot get the issued resolved by their customer service dept. Just a runaround and excuses. It has been almost 1 month with no results. Terrible customer service.

I'm a business owner and thought that Instacart would be a solution to one of my problems. No, it created more. Of the eight items 3 were correct. When I complained, the delivery person left a fake review for my business. When it was finally settled, I was given a credit instead of a refund. When I tried to use my credit, of the things brought, I had to spend more money to be able to use the credit and then the order didn't have the only thing that I wanted it to have in it. DON'T USE INSTACART. They hire the bottom of the barrel, and you will have to remove fake reviews if you're a business.

After having paid their insane fees, and having been told SO many items they said were in stock, that they were not-my last order with them contained 12 items, of which I received 3. I had ordered from a certain market that specializes in healthy foods. Since, I was becoming a non believer, I went to this market to chat with their manager, and look to see if indeed those foods were out of stock-they were all available. Further this manager told me they had stopped service with Instacart 2 weeks earlier, because of this exact same thing, yet I had just received 3 items (of 12) from the that morning.

I told them the spelling on my middle initial is wrong and I can’t fix it online. There’s no spot for it. Only have the first and last name issue and they reply to fix it online and can’t seem to get it.

If I could give less than one star I would. I've been a user for about three years now I think? Maybe a little longer. This service was recommended to me because I'm currently disabled. I am fighting Lyme and Babesia Disease. I can't always leave the house and need help getting my groceries. In the beginning I would get a correct order in under an hour. Now, forget about even getting it in the standard 2 hours, much less getting the correct order. They just can't keep employees.

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.

Instacart has responded to my concerns and have fully resolved the issues at hand to satisfaction. I'm very pleased! I’m grateful for my parents as they will feel secure continuing to use instacart as they were hoping since their service enables them to stay safely at home during this pandemic.