Instacart
reviews and complaints

When shopping for groceries online at Costco, my account was deactivated. Apparently the card I used did not have enough money on it. Another possible issue is that I use a VPN, and a red flag may have went up because my IP address did not match my location. In any event, VPN's are common, and should be understood by such a large company. Inadequate funds on a card are not a reason to shut down my service. I use Costco exclusively, and use social security and unemployment cards. Deactivation of my service at Costco is a hardship for me, I do not drive and depend upon online service. The imbeciles at customer service stated I had to scan and send via email my CREDIT CARD and DRIVERS license to prove who I am, dispite the fact that I provided all information they asked me for on the phone. This is harrassment. I am consulting lawyers this week to determine my position for a lawsuit. They have clearly e4xtended their authority to screw me, as well as Costco, who will loose all my business for life because of a poor decision my an [censored] at Instacart.

I have tried to go inside the store to complain about my missing items but I was told I have to contact inscart about my missing items.
I recently purchased groceries over the weekend, and it seems I ahve been missing thhings from my order, such as, Stater brothers papertowels, and various snacks. I shop at the store weekly, and this is a disappointment to say the least. I would like ot know what can be done about this, and how we can fix it because I like Instacart, but, I do not like the fact that I am missing items lately.

Thank You,
Anita Martinez

There was an incident of property damage when I was delivering groceries. I had backed into a brick wall but it wasn't destroyed. The customer submitted a complaint to Instacart and my account was promptly and permanently deactivated.

I understand I caused some property damage. but do I really need to lose my only source of income over this? I really needed this job and it's 2020 during the pandemic, loaners are giving grace periods, landlords aren't kicking out tenants but instacart is deactivating shoppers who are honest and hardworking just trying to scrape by.

I've been very happy with Instacart until today. Obviously Jacob hasn't shopped much. For 3 cans of diced tomatoes I got 3 small cans of tomato sauce. For a 15 oz tub of margarine I got 2 pounds of margarine and for Norwegian wild caught salmon I got Alaskan farm raised. Instacart refunded the money, but as a senior who is trying to stay away from Coved 19, a refund doesn't cut it. Now I have to go to a store and get these items which is why I have Instacart.

Hi I had a problem today delivering groceries to an address that was totaling wrong I could'nt even get pass the gate because the lady said that the address did'nt exist. So I called and texted the customer no answer I chatted with customer service and she said to donate the groceries or return them to the store. Meanwhile The groceries are late to be delivered I can't get ahold of anyone very frustrating and icecream is melting. Finally 1 Hour later after I hit the delivered button to return groceries finally the customer reaches out to me with the correct address and I was able to deliver groceries to them but instacart charged me a late fee which is rediculous and for all that agrivation they only paid me $6.50 what a bunch of crap who knows what shopping rating I got which clearly was not my fault

I ordered 30 cases of water. The shopper delivered 1 case and said it too much to deliver the other 29 cases. I was charged $8.99 delivery fee and $2.00 service fee. I complained to customer service and they had me place another order and gave me a credit for delivery and service. Great, except the second delivery was cancelled by the shopper because it was too much work. They stated the product was out of stock. I called the store and confirmed it was NOT out of stock. I called customer service again. they arranged for another order to be delivered an hour later. Again, the shopper texted me to say it was too much effort for what he was being paid and cancelled the order. I was hung up on twice before I got someone who told me they would have a supervisor call me back. 2 hours and still no call. This is the worst service I have ever experienced. I think hades will freeze over before I ever order again from Instacart...WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!

Instacart overcharged me over $9 in a single order by claiming in the e-mailed receipt that some of the grocery items were more expensive than they actually were. I agreed to pay a 5% service charge and 5% driver tip but never agreed to pay more for each grocery item than it actually costs. I encourage you all to demand the register receipt from the grocer. Don't trust their itemized e-mail receipt. Compare the two and call them out if there's a discrepancy. This should be a class action lawsuit.

Our order was not dropped off at our place so I called and was mentioned that re-order is placed for free and it would be delivered as soon as possible, next day morning (today) order was dropped off to our place. When I noticed some items are replaced with similar items or are delivered less in quantity; I used app and was asked to write the information. After that I received emails and had communication in couple of emails. In all emails customer service representatives apologies for inconvenience but when it comes to refund or replace they show their limitations...

I ordered breads and I was supplied different one, when I wrote how can I return it as I didn't ordered it; emailed reply is

"you can keep or donate the breads."

My whole order was not delivered! When I called Instacart they can't even get ahold of the delivery person! The phone line was bad so I had to call back twice. I wonder how often this happens and I would like to know if the driver stole my groceries. Instacart sucks.

I was delivering items today which is 06/12/2020 and the items were delivered to the wrong address by mistake. So, I quickly went back to 1642 w 78 street in chicago, il retrieved that batch from the young lady gave her the right batch and proceeded to deliver the right batch to the customer at 7231 s maplewood in chicago il. Not knowing that the lady at 7231 s maplewood had already contacted instacart telling them that they didn't receive their items after I was contacted by instacart letting them know that I was in route to fix this situation and make sure that both customers were gonna get the right items they purchased. So I gave the lady at 7231 s maplewood the items and she still lied to instacart telling them she wanted a refund and still kept the items. This is just heartbreaking to know a company thinks like this! Oh I also took photos of the customer with the items in their hands and sent it to instacart! These people are crooks and it don't make sense they are doing their customers and workers this way! I took the photo through the instacart app. They have it!

Instacart delivered shopping from ACME, I noticed that the pricing on product labels is almost $1 lower than Instacart charged. So, on $100 shopping I lost $10. I am not talking about the fees and tips, which round up to another $13. This is not my first shopping with them since COVID-19, I never checked the prices, although they looked high. It is a shamefull practice of price gauging.

I placed an order at Shop Rite and Insta charged 37.19 for the items before any tip or fees. I then got a digital receipt from Shop Rite which showed the total the shopper paid at the register for my items was only 29.27$. I called and was told the store can charge an extra fee for using Insta and this is passed to the customer. This is a cost of doing business for Shop Rite and should be born by them, as many who use this service would not shop in these stores in person. This is a fee of 7.92$ for less than a 30$ order. The consumer pays a delivery fee or a subscription fee to Instacart, then a tip...why should they have to pay what should be Shop Rite's responsibility? This is price gouging! By time I paid the delivery, tip and this rip off fee, I paid over 30% in FEES! I canceled my subscription and will not shop at Shop Rite either.

I started working for instacart in March and never had any problems. But the policy that they have for the customers and the tipping is crazy and the customers have taken cold advantage of it. Just about every customer the I shopped for has taken part of their tip or all of it after I have shopped for them and the thing is I am a great communicator and I always do everything I can to get the customer what they want and they still take the tip. To me that is very unfair and insta cart allows it. Their support team claims that the customer has 72 hours to change the tip but that is not what it says at the bottom of the batch (shoppers payment page). It clearly says a customer has three days to tip on order. It does not say anything about the customer changing the tip and its not even in the contract about the tip. Saturday May 30th, I was shopping for a customer at Wegman's when all of a sudden my account is deactivated and a message said to go to my email. I looked at the email that was send by their Safety & Trust team and it stated that I was deactivated for failure to complete a delivery but here is the kicker I don't know who are what customer they are talking about because they never send any information in regards to the accusation. I was never given the opportunity to defend myself and never seen anything that showed me where I did what they said I did. I then received another message that said that your appeal had been denied and I don't even know when I filed an appeal. I feel that their practices are unethical and unfair. As a shopper for instacart we get screwed twice, once by instacart and then by the customer and it needs to stop. I attached the company's contract but I am not sure of it uploaded please let me know if you need it again. Thank you for your time and help

I have used instacart for two months now without any problems until today

I ordered $300 of groceries and when the shopper came here to deliver she refused to bring my groceries to my apartment because she said she was told she could not do this

Really because for 2 months no one has ever said to me that they could not bring my groceries to my door she left everything down the hall and up five stairs that I had to go retrieve by myself though she was able to put two cases of water on a dolly and bring that to my front door

I will never use instacart again and I will make sure that what happened to me will never happen to anyone again I will make sure that they are fully aware of what has happened to me

On 5/19/2020, I had my groceries delivered by BJ and it was an amount of $190. However, Instacart decide to charge me $225 for the same groceries. I reached out to BJ's and was informed that unfortunately they could not do nothing about it because it was in the discretion of Instacart. I believe that Instacart is ripping customers off during these times of the pandemic. Instacart should be ashamed of themselves for ripping customers when money is tight. Please DO NOT have BJ or any other facility affiliated with Instacart delivery your groceries. Instacart is a rip-off! if you are not able to get your groceries, try to find someone aside from Instacart to pick it up for you.

I delivered food order to a third floor of a senior living facility. I was let in by a man who is a resident of the complex. I took the groceries to a third floor customer. While I was at the door of the customer Instacart sent a message to take my picture because someone else may be using my identity. I took the picture of me in the hallway outside the customer door. Then a little bit later I got an email that Stated I stole food and could no longer work for them. My account was and is deactivated.

So you're saying that through your GPS tracking I did not deliver the items that each customer purchased even though I've had such a great record the whole time that I have been doing this for you guys? Not one complaint has been made against me in that regard. I've never stolen food. I just took screenshots of the GPS data that you guys have in your system showing that I was there and I placed the stuff there. And seeing that proof that I did in fact deliver food there, you've deactivated my account. I have been so grateful for the opportunity to provide this service through instacart. How funny is it that I have completed well over 100 orders I'm sure, have a great rating, work in law, have a great character, have great morals, have a wonderful personality and yet all the sudden the past few days Instacart is saying that items are missing? where is your proof? Because, honestly, I know I delivered to the address provided. Even my tracking shows that I was there. So pray tell, why would I waste all my time and energy running from store to store to store to store to provide the service to someone, then use my gas to drive to their house after I've completed shopping their order, just to drive away with their items? That's absurd. Maybe y'all provided the wrong address. If this is instacart's way of trying to get people out of providing this type of service through their company, is not a correct way to do things. To slander or defame, imply or even punish someone for something they are not even remotely guilty of, then that's something to be ashamed of! I've taken pride my entire life in being an upstanding person - I volunteer all the time for the church. I volunteer for the youth ranch over here. I'm always doing something community-based. I teach 18 Bible studIes. I teach catechism courses so the kids can get their sacraments at our church. I donate my time, energy and food to elderly and disabled people. I do that because I want to & because I love it - because that's what God has placed on me and you guys are going to sit here and imply that I'm doing something completely against my grain and against my character. Please issue payment for everything that I've done through this date immediately.

I placed an order through Instacart on May 14, 2020 from my local Publix supermarket. I was charged a service fee of $4.38 and then an additional alcohol service fee of $2.00. When you place the order, you have the option of declining acceptance of a service fee but I have no objection to paying a service fee. However, I was not advised of an additional fee for delivery of an alcoholic product. Had I known this, I would not have ordered the product through Instacart. I only ordered a 6 pack of beer I use for making chili. I can order alcoholic products through other means and not pay an additional service fee.

My complaint is that I contacted their help desk through online chat wherein I was met by rudeness, delaying tactics and completely wrong information, refusing to transfer me to a supervisor and then via email wherein all I got was a lot of nonsense from this company who kept changing the name of the person emailing me and not addressing my issue what so ever. They quoted nonexistent order numbers and changed this based on who was now emailing me. I never received an email from the same person as a follow up. It just kept going round and round and round over several days with Instacart refusing to address the issue and really came across as harassing tactics with no intent to be of any service. They also delivered an incorrect product and claimed it would be refunded and I have still not received a refund. When I realized contacting Instacart's customer service was not going to work, I tried calling their corporate headquarters and only got a recording claiming "No Routes Found." I called the number again in case I mis-dialed and got the same recorded message.

They charge premium prices above what you would pay in a supermarket, service fees, delivery charge, tip and I have no way of knowing if the delivery person ever gets the tip. I always increase it above the 5% and give 15%. I would expect Instacart to have reliable customer service, be willing to assist consumers courteously and honestly and they just give you the run around and offer no resolution. Something is very wrong with this picture. I also order from Walmart. I am charged a reasonable delivery fee and that is it. I can pay a tip by choice. I have wine delivered by Walmart and I have not been charged any additional fees. I had a product issue and was able to actually speak to their customer service and the matter was immediately resolved. There is no excuse for Instacart's unprofessional behavior, their harassment via email and their dishonesty.

I went on line and discovered there are many complaints lodged against the dishonest tactics of Instacart, not only from consumers but their employees.

I just wish to register my very poor experience with Instacart and I would not recommend using Instacart to anyone ever again. A trustworthy organization would not behave in this way. And while I do not know this with certainty, it appears their customer service dept. is outsourced to a call center in a foreign country given the misuse of the English language in their chat and email communications and customer service reps names like Sahil, Mohammed, Padmajda, Mahesh, Lakshmi, Shavani, Betsaida, Luz, Marielle, Jeffrey Cabahog, etc. By the way, I did not receive just emails from the 10 names above but quite a few more all over the additional fee being charged of $2 and none of them ever addressing the issue. Clearly it was intended to harass me.

At at time in life when the whole world is experiencing such a frightening uncertainty about our futures, the only thing that can be said to such a disreputable company like Instacart is

SHAME ON YOU! May Karma hold you accountable!

I ordered 36 items feom Stater Bros. grocery. When you place an order you are given the opportunity to request a substitute if your item is not available. I always give my choice of a substitute for each item. This time I had 8 items delivered incorrectly. One of the worst is the pork chops. I ordered sirloin pork chops @ .99 per pound. They picked pork chops @ $4.99 per pound as such I paid 14.99 for chops instead of 4.99. along with a number of other errors on items ordered. I also have a note on my orders to knock hard and please wait until I get to my door. I am handicap and 79 years old. I gat a call advising that there was a bunch of groceries outside of my door, and 3 cases of water at the bottom of the stairs. I can't get ddown stairs by myself. Someone should make them pay when they make careless mistakes or are just careless.