u/Key_Release_6623

Customer puts “please cancel / don’t deliver today” in the notes and expects ME to eat the cancellation hit so they don’t have to talk to support 🙃
Just delivered this 4 lb bag of organic strawberries because the note said:

“I need this items for tomorrow instead October 7
I will do an order tomorrow I will need more things please don’t deliver today thank you”

So instead of hitting the cancel button themselves (or, heaven forbid, contacting support like a normal person), they drop the “pretty please don’t deliver” in the notes and hope the shopper reads it, stops everything, and initiates the cancel so they don’t have to deal with the app or wait on hold.

I did not slow down. I did not message. I shopped it, bagged it, and delivered it. Because that’s what the batch paid me to do.

This is peak Instacart design: force the shopper and the customer into this awkward little standoff where one of us has to be the bad guy and lose money/time so the other one doesn’t have to talk to support. Customer doesn’t want the order? Cool. Cancel it. Don’t outsource the cancellation (and the hit) to the person who already drove to the store.

Anyone else getting these “please cancel in the notes so I don’t have to” specials lately?

Update: Just got the final payout.

Batch was $37.77 when I accepted it. Customer C (the one with the “please don’t deliver today” note) must have removed every item except one before I had already started, then left the cancel request in the notes.

Final payout: $26.23

So not only did they try to outsource the cancellation to me, they also gutted the order and dropped the batch pay by over $11.

Still delivered the one remaining item.

Had a fun little support chat today about the Kirkland Signature Stuffed Bell Peppers, those mysterious packages that somehow weigh twice what the app believes they do.

Customer orders them. App is firmly convinced each package is roughly half its actual size. Naturally the customer ends up requesting more packages than anyone would reasonably need. I show up, grab the only size that exists in this dimension (they do not, in fact, come in a "smaller size"), and try to check out.

Card declines. Support enters the chat.

Instacart Agent opens with:

"I completely understand how upsetting this situation must be for you."

I appreciate the concern, but I am not upset. I am not processing complex emotions about a declined card. I am simply a shopper holding two packages that weigh 3.71 and 3.72 lbs and would like to leave the store. No crisis here. No generational fragility. Just peppers and math.

Then came the helpful guidance:

"Please scan each unit individually rather than entering the combined weight."
"Please correct the weight in the shopper app and try checking out again."

Adorable advice. Unfortunately the barcode on these things is rejected by the app, which forces a photo, after which the AI insists on total weight and number of packages. There is no "scan each one individually" button. The app has decided these peppers exist at half-weight and will not be negotiated with.

I explained the situation a few times, including:

"The customer requested 2 packages of peppers. The app thinks they come in half the weight that they are. This is a repeating issue."
"I have to buy a minimum of 3.7 pound packages. The app does not match reality."
"I cannot enter individual weights. The barcode makes me take a picture."
"I have 2 packages: 3.71 and 3.72"
"They do not come in a smaller size."
"I cannot follow your advice you pasted regarding peppers. The app thinks the packages are half the size they are. Other shoppers also have this issue. It needs fixing."

Support's closing note:

> "Thanks for the information. We'll take it as feedback."

Ah, feedback. The final resting place of every well-documented, multi-shopper bug involving actual product weights.

If anyone on the product side is reading this while the weight database continues its independent life: the stuffed peppers are not half the size. They have never been half the size. Please consider updating the matrix at your earliest convenience so the rest of us can check out without the app insisting the laws of physics are optional.

I am sitting in a Costco parking lot with a 1-5 minute batch wait. I am seeing notifications for batches from Costco and other store. Yet I see no batches to take. I contacted support. The agent said my account has no restrictions. And then gave me this blurb that does not address my issue of seeing notifications but not batches:

I would like to clarify you that getting batches will be system auto generating, but I really appreciate your time and patience, If I have an option to send any batches to you I would have sent you, as this is a system generated and it totally depends on the orders made by customers.