r/instacart

My GF and I have been using InstaCart for a couple of years now, and last night will probably be the last time, ever. I work evenings, 4pm to 2 am, and she works mornings. She placed an order for groceries, and the steak was out of stock, so it was labeled as refunded. My GF picked the groceries up off the porch and put them away, then she went to bed. The delivery driver actually goes to another store for the steaks that were labeled as "refunded", sent my GF a message asking about them to which she never answered being that she was asleep. So they drop SEVENTY dollars worth of steak on the porch an hour after the first delivery. We did not know this until I got home at about 10 minutes after 2am....

I am still mad about this, Instacart refuses to do anything, and it feels like theft IMO. This has never happened, ever, using this app, and the fact that someone can still buy things with your debit/credit card without confirming it is insane to me.

Has anyone here dealt with a similar issue? How did you get your money back? I am even messaging my bank about it, it feels like fraud.

I’m new to Instacart (only on my 2nd batch, trying to grind to Cart Stars), and I just had the absolute worst experience at Costco.

​I accepted a double batch. Customer A had 22 items (dog food, soda, etc.), and Customer B ordered 12 cases of water. It took me 50 minutes to find everything.

​I get to checkout, scan Customer A’s membership, swipe, and enter the PIN on my screen. Not Authorized.

​The cashier makes me step aside to contact support. The agent tells me to refresh the app and try again. When I ask the cashier to jump back in, she rudely rolls her eyes and makes me wait. I try again. Not Authorized.

​Step aside again. Support escalates the call, and I’m stuck on hold for 15 minutes. They tell me to try a manual override PIN (5454). By this time, they have to open a whole new register just for me because the line is backed up and people are staring daggers at me. I move everything over, try the 5454 PIN, and it still declines.

​Support decides to cancel Order A, promises me I'll still get batch pay, and tells me to run Order B. Swipe Order B... Declined.

​They ended up canceling the entire batch. They gave me the base batch pay, but removed the tips and I got zero delivery credit toward my Cart Star goal.

​I went home frustrated as hell because of how embarrassing that experience was. I opened a chat to find out what actually happened. Support spoke to me like I was an idiot, claiming it declined because of an "incorrect security PIN." Total BS. Even their backup override PIN declined! This was 100% a backend server issue on Instacart's end.

​I was planning on shopping all day, but this completely ruined my motivation. Has anyone else had Instacart cards completely fail like this?

Customer A's order was $250 and customer B i dont remember, but I wasnt willing to pay for their orders out of pocket and then wait the 30 days for reimbursement..

I bet they reassign the order as a deliver only since I did all the shopping for them.

Soooo just had a weird experience. I made a "leave at door" order, and the shopper was having trouble finding my place when he arrived. I met him outside to show him where it was.

I walked back into my house as he was gathering the groceries. I didnt immediately lock the front door behind me since id be right back out, but I did quickly run upstairs to bring a package up. Then I heard the door creek and I was like, wtf, is this guy coming in my house?!

I did panick for a moment and went down to look, he left the groceries inside by the door. I yelled "please don't open the door!" And he said he had one more round to bring. I specifically went outside then just to grab the rest, and he left.

Clearly the guy was just dropping off the groceries and left without causing harm, so I'm debating whether to report it. I don't want to ruin his livelihood. But it gave me a decent scare and just felt a lil violating--I am over here pregnant with my partner asleep. And I have a dog who didn't know what was going on and ran down the stairs, and that could've gone poorly too.

I'm a former doordash driver and just can't imagine thinking it's ok to open someone's door on delivery? I know I should've locked my door anyway and that's on me. I still am just shocked though.

Edit:

Message received y'all I guess it couldve been a misunderstanding. I'm not gonna report him, but it still felt like crossing a line to me without being asked to come in. It did scare me, I felt vulnerable when someone entered the home, especially being 7 months pregnant. Wasnt just a door open and drop right there, he did come into the hallway. I did not leave the door cracked behind me. I was just a little shaken up by it last night when I wrote this.

I guess it was an awkward interaction all around, everyone keeps mentioning it was strange I walked back in the house. He was taking a little bit getting the stuff out of the car, and I had a package at the door so thought I'd quickly run it up to get a headstart since I'd have a few trips up the stairs to knockout . I can be socially anxious and maybe this was confusing.

I just got deactivated and didn’t even receive and email explanation
What should I do?
After 5200+ deliveries and 4.97 rating and no order issues

Hello there ,

I’m a regular customer for Instacart , I have a yearly subscription with them .

I placed an order on Friday for a rice bag from one of the store in Mississauga, the driver didn’t find the item so offered refund and took 3 dollars tip for travelling to location well and good , I was trying to replace it with a close match item . Driver never accepted the replacement and didn’t even cancel the order from her end I waited for 4 hours . I cancelled the order. I went on a trip on Saturday , came back on Monday for a long weekend . Saw the order delivered message on my Instacart app then I searched for item everywhere I didn’t find the item . When I looked at the photo they uploaded when delivered that’s not even my house . I contacted Instacart immediately they said they can’t give me a refund or replacement or whatever since the order past 3 days .

Even contacted supervisor of the Instacart and got the same reply . such a fraud company this is . It happened with me before as well . They don’t refund if the item didn’t deliver to your house sometimes .

They think you received but hiding . I won’t be a user anymore . Just writing out of my frustration here

One night (around 9pm) I was delivering with my mom and we had an order for a customer we see frequently. The account is for an elderly couple and under the wife's name. The wife is an active texter while shopping and generally pleasant. This night in particular she was keeping up with affirming/declining replacements and everything, no issues. We get to her house and the front gate is open + porch light is on (as usual) -- but this time, the front door was ALLLLL the way open. Neither the wife or husband was present. I waited in the car while my mom brought the groceries to the door step, and as she is setting the bags down, I hear her screaming bloody murder "NO! NO! NO!" and stomping around. Apparently the couple's two (albeit small) dogs charged towards my mom barking and, upon hearing the screaming, the wife comes out. She says "oh! this one's just a puppy, he won't bite" and shows no sympathy in addition to chuckling. My mom has a genuine phobia of dogs based on past experiences and was seriously scared. She had also only brought about half the bags up, so by now she is shaken and still has to grab the rest. The dogs were not brought inside or disciplined or anything. So my mom brings the remaining bags to the gate (roughly 8 feet from the front door) and we left. As I am driving away, she closes out the batch and looks at her earnings for the day, only to see that the entire tip for this order has been taken away. It was something like $10, and it obviously updated to show it was changed to $0. Why do this??? Genuinely cruel behavior to expose someone to what they perceive to be a threat, and then decrease their compensation because YOU cannot empathize. Not everyone likes your dogs, not everyone wants to kiki it up with them, and pet them, or be licked/jumped on by them. And absolutely put them away if they are not well-trained enough to leave delivery people alone. (We are black and the delivery was to a white couple in an affluent area).

I’m so glad I don’t have to rely on Instacart for my full-time income anymore…. They’ve have several Attorneys looking into them at this point, and I’ve always thought it’s complete bullshit but customers can rate us but we can’t rate them… especially since more and more people anymore have a chip on their shoulder and will give you a three star (or less,) simply because the store was sold out of something that they wanted… As if it’s anything that you can control. As shoppers/drivers we should be able to rate both the store and the customer…. Allowing either one of them to get away with treating the shopper like shit and/or not having their inventory correct when it all falls on us, while simultaneous offering us chump change per order, is completely unsat & pathetic.

I’ve had enough… I can’t wait until this piece of shit company is out of business.

I am chronically ill so sometimes I order from Instacart via my local grocery store. I always tip well because I used to work in the service industry. Today I ordered groceries and the shopper was nice but a little snippy about one of my replacements, whatever. She brings my order, left at the front door as I always specify, cool. I open the door to see my order along with 2 massive bags of pet food. I have no pets. I think maybe she accidentally added it from another customer’s order and leave it out incase she comes back to grab it. I bring my stuff in and review my receipt, and I see that I’m charged for $50 of pet food. I panic, thinking I accidentally added it to my cart but I didn’t, it wasn’t in the items when I checked out and wasn’t in the items I reviewed while she shopped. So she just randomly brought it, and charged me for it too. Pissed off, I pulled my tip while I was trying to get a refund. She messaged me via the app asking why I pulled the tip and I guess it timed out before I could say something. Anyways I feel kinda bad, and the app wouldn’t let me put it back. But I’m also not sure I even should if I could because that was a pretty big screw up.

Edit: I’m not shopping through Instacart, I’m shopping through the grocery store app that uses Instacart as their 3rd party. Not using the actual app.

So if you tip $5 on an order that takes an hour to complete your shopping will be done by a person who is willing to work for ~$10 an hour minus gas and depreciation. Maybe don't have high expectations for the service such a person will provide..