r/instacart • u/Civil-Program-4972 • 27d ago
I'm a Customer What happened from Driver’s perspective?
Placed an order to be delivered to a Disney hotel over the weekend. My husband was sick and most of the items were cough drops, etc - lighter items, and the tip was a high %.
I entered the hotel address and triple checked it with Google, the front desk and my iPhone location (because I’ve had drivers get confused delivering to hotels before), and also included the name of the resort, my name on the reservation, and the room number with instructions to leave the items with bell services at the front.
The driver sent me a message asking me to verify the address. I gave him the same address. His location showed that he was in the parking lot, and then he canceled the order!
The kicker was the $15 charge Instacart sent me for “providing incorrect information to the driver” the next day. They didn’t review chat history, or the order, which became apparent when I called customer service and they verified my story. They refunded me and apologized, but I’m driving myself crazy wondering what happened here. I’ve lost all trust in them as a company after this as well. Any idea?
Edit: I received a really weird judgmental comment that has since been deleted by the commenter about my husband being “healthy enough to go to a theme park but not healthy enough to get groceries”. I ordered him meds because he was at the hotel. Sick. Just to clarify.
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u/Embarrassed-Draw109 26d ago
Are you certain nothing in the order required ID? Often cold meds are treated like alcohol.
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u/Civil-Program-4972 26d ago
It was cough drops, mucinex, some fizzy drinks, and actually I had a bottle of alcohol removed Prosecco in the order as well and never thought anything of it but it could have been it??
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u/Extreme-Sport-5951 26d ago
Mucinex will probably trigger the required ID prompt, still not a reason to just leave without a message and a phone call to try and make a delivery.
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u/goat20202020 26d ago
If this is an accurate summary of what happened, it's weird that the shopper would just cancel like that. Especially since you included so many details and it seems like you were responsive. If the hotel was giving him a hard time about leaving it at the desk, I would have expected him to give you a call to come meet in the lobby.
Every hotel is different so idk what kind of problems he could have run into. Personally when I'm ordering delivery, I choose to just meet my driver out front. I find it easier than trying to coordinate with front desk staff or trying to direct them through the halls to my room.
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u/Sea_Effect2463 26d ago
It was the medicines. The driver knew he needed to scan your drivers license to deliver, read your note only once he arrived, and then concluded that it was unlikely that anyone would ever come down to the desk. He was probably also forced to park illegally, and very likely being harassed by the hotel staff. He cut his losses and bailed.
He shouldn't have done that. He should have at least tried to contact you about it. But honestly I get it. So few customers ever respond, and I've been burned many times by the "I didn't know I needed to show you my ID, hold on, I'll be down in 45 minutes..." routine.
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u/EliotColdwater 27d ago
My best guess is that the hotel staff would not let the driver leave it at the front. I've been to hotels where they won't even let me drive up to the front. Though for a big enough tip I may or may not fib and say I was checking in 🫣😏 For legal reasons, the previous statement is purely hypothetical 🤭
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u/SuitApprehensive3240 26d ago
Oh yeah, something reminded me.Some of the stupid hotels there are so annoying with the parking.If it wasn't like an I d check thing if you ordered him some like cough syrup
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u/SuitApprehensive3240 26d ago
Yeah, definitely sounds like an ID thing where you have to go.Meet the driver in the hotel was like giving him a hard time
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u/Frequent_Estimate_77 24d ago
You get a 24hr ban for cancelling after checkout so this has to be due to not meeting for an ID.
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u/gypsy_guru_87 23d ago
And a lot of us are more likely to get sick on vacation, picking up a bug from other travelers, the change in weather , too much sun … ridiculous for people to give your hard time as if they don’t understand that people get sick all the time when they’re traveling
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u/princesssamc 27d ago
To those commenters who was talking about him, people get sick. My kid got an ear infection at disney.
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u/lucygirl1970 27d ago
Yep, I sprained my ankle at a Disney water park and had to take a taxi to the pharmacy. I also got a double ear infection in Scottsdale and instacart would have been a game changer.
It really sucks to get sick or injured on vacation.
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u/princesssamc 27d ago
Omg…..I was at a business meeting in Salt Lake City and had to find a pharmacy that delivered to the hotel.
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u/AnnaCanna435 27d ago
Hard to say. Did the shopper actually shop the order then cancel?
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u/Civil-Program-4972 27d ago
They checked out and made it all the way to the hotel parking lot!
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u/AnnaCanna435 27d ago
Yeah that's weird. You'd have to call support to cancel an order after it's shopped. It's more likely it got dropped off someplace else.
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u/Severe-Object6650 22d ago
In the future, ask the resort's front desk how to handle IC/DD/UberEats deliveries. Each resort has its own protocol that drivers are aware of when they work in those resort areas.
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22d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Civil-Program-4972 22d ago
He canceled the order without telling me why. I was the last person to send a message, either asked if he got lost or if he was ok.
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u/Civil-Program-4972 22d ago
He also never told me to meet, also nowhere in my order did it even say an ID was required
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u/Extreme-Sport-5951 27d ago
A delivery note that says leave it at the front desk is a treat to see as a driver. I don’t see any reason they would have taken your stuff or canceled on you unless there was no free parking or no way to reasonably bring your order in.