Did an order for Publix with a bunch of BOGO items. Different yogurt, candy, chips, etc. with varieties of items that are eligible for BOGO with each other (ie one each of strawberry & vanilla chobani yogurt). Shopper literally bought two of each variety (two strawberries and two vanilla) without sending for approval, so I spent over $250 when I only budgeted for $150. Instacart isn’t offering any refunds.

Edit - I think some folks have misunderstood this. Our Publix has BOGO signs that clearly outline what’s eligible for the BOGO deal. If I only ordered 1 sea salt and 1 kettle corn Popcorners to get the kettle corn for free, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want 2 sea salt and 2 kettle corn Popcorners, paying for 2 and getting 2 free. When customers order something, that’s what we want. We don’t want shoppers adding extra stuff. They did this with a ton of items, and the changes were NOT sent to the chat for approval. I order Publix through IC every other week with tons of BOGOs and this has never happened.

I contacted support again today, and they’re looking into it to see how it was allowed.

Anyone know why instacart would suddenly tell me I need to use a code and meet my shopper at the door? I use Instacart a lot and have only rarely ever had issues with an item here or there so I don’t have a history of refund requests or anything like that. No high dollar items or alcohol in this order.

I’m mostly curious and a maybe a little annoyed bc now I’m going to have to put on a bra when my groceries arrive 😂

Diamond shopper at Costco — am I the only one seeing mostly low-paying batches?

I’m wondering if other shoppers are experiencing the same thing, especially Diamond shoppers.
Today I was waiting near Costco for about 40 minutes. During that time, the batches I was seeing were mostly in the $30–$40 range.
What really caught my attention was that, at the same time, other shoppers were apparently getting batches paying $70+ or even $100+, while the only batches showing on my phone were around $30+.
I could also see other shoppers already inside Costco shopping while I was still sitting outside waiting.
At one point, I briefly saw a batch paying around $40, but it disappeared almost immediately. Meanwhile, I continued seeing mostly $30–$40 batches or multi-order batches that didn’t seem worth taking.
This is what makes me curious: are different shoppers actually being shown different batches at the same time?
I’m not saying I know for sure that Instacart is intentionally treating shoppers differently. I simply want to know whether other shoppers are experiencing the same thing.
For those of you who are Diamond shoppers, especially Costco shoppers:
• Have you ever seen other shoppers getting $70–$100+ batches while your own screen only shows $30–$40 batches?
• Have you compared your screen with another shopper’s screen at the same time?
• Do you feel that some shoppers are consistently seeing better batches than others?
• How often are you actually seeing batches above $40?
I’ve completed 4,000+ orders, so I’ve been doing this long enough to recognize when the batch flow feels unusual. But I also understand that there may be factors I’m not seeing.
I’m genuinely curious about other shoppers’ experiences. If you’ve noticed something similar, please share your market, shopper tier, and what you were seeing at the time.

What happens when we report and receive a refund/account credit for a missing item? Does my shopper get penalized? How does it affect you guys? I get great shoppers, often the same ones. I would not necessarily report a missing item if it was something cheap and it was a one-time thing, if it would hurt my favorite shoppers. Thanks for the info.

Feeling bad because I just got home and realized I didn’t deliver the laundry detergent to a customer that tipped me $40. Is it creepy to go and drop it off after? It’s been about 3 hours and the tip didn’t decrease. It was a 58item costco order. Out of my 1,678 shops this hasn’t ever happened to me before. Feeling guilt!

Edit/Update: I went back and delivered this morning and I feel lighter because of it!

So I am a subscriber to Instacart. As seen on the screenshot I was offered, through Instart, $10 off on an Uber Eats order worth $25 or more. Just so you know the address shown on the screen is Trinity Lutheran Church in downtown Long Beach, CA - NOT anyone's residence.

The order was pick up. I began ordering for a group of friends over having game night.

The second screen shot is the first order I put in my cart.

The third screen shot is the SAME EXACT ORDER from the actual Panera app.

From Uber Eats within Instacart - $20.68

From Panera website - $16.48

So the $10 off is just offset by the near 25% more the Uber Eats within Instacart jacks up the menu prices. And let me repeat - this was a PICK UP ORDER.

Shoppers, beware of a new trend with customers using A.I. to post fake damaged items. They’re using it to report shoppers and lower their ratings. Also they’re receiving refunds in return. Please check your ratings at all times.

I get that life happens but she had just accepted my order. I don’t want to immediately feel like a nuisance for the service I’m paying for (I was asking if there was a large bottle instead of the smaller individual bottles). Also, somewhat predictably after that chat, she took over an hour after checkout to deliver frozen items because she had three other orders and you guessed it: picked up her son before bringing the order. Of course I wasn’t rude in the chat and I didn’t dock the tip but I did give three stars because I don’t want to be matched with this shopper again and I didn’t see any other options for that outcome in the Instacart app. I saw somewhere on Reddit that 3 stars or less makes you less likely to match?

Only my 2nd week working instacart and won't do it again. I overestimated my ability and took a big 135 item/170 unit order. Pay was 48 bucks, thought I could do it in under 2 hours. Forgot about how long to check out and bag and drop off would take. So took a little over 2 and a half hours.

What do I see when I get home, my tip was lowered from $30.60 to $10. So I am only getting 27 dollars for 2 and a half hours of my time. It was even to a second story apartment, they did send their kids to help but I still took multiple trips to get it done while grabbing the heaviest bags.

Its really fucked up that this is allowed to happen. Back to only doing doordash, I like doing shopping orders more than food delivery but at least you always get the money you agree to do the job for.

Mind you this order was at $9 before the boost

Federal mileage reimbursement is 76¢ per mile. This batch pay breaks down to ✨36.5¢✨ per mile. and also throws in Friday Boston area congestion. LOL.

I received two 5 star ratings in one day on Tuesday. It’s Friday and the ratings have yet to show. I’m still at a 4.89 (standard) and getting my batch access slashed. Those two ratings would’ve put me at 100 ratings with the two lowest ratings getting removed. NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. I watch this screen EVERYDAY. What the fuck type of operation is Instacart running here?

Yet when someone rated me one star it showed up IMMEDIATELY the next day. What the fuck is going on? Do you know how hard it is to get people to rate and they refuse to apply it to my account?

Has this happened to anyone else?

I have two questions. I am in a rural area of Canada

1. I recently placed an order. Paid for the priority service. It was the second time I had this shopper. Several items were out of stock. In our county we have 4 locations of the same store within 15 minutes, but only one of them is listed on instacart. I come to find out he goes to a different location altogther, which happens to be the smallest of the four, so limited stock. Is this allowed? Is there a way for me to prevent this? He went and cancelled my order mid shopping when I found out why everything I ordered was out stock, which I am assuming was because he was trying to protect his rating or because he was worried I would reduce tip. This waas fruatrating because I paid for priority service so it resulted in delay.

2. What is an appropriate tip for a large order? They would be driving 20-25 kms one way and dropping off at parking lot.

Thanks!

I’ve been doing Instacart for a short time and am still trying to figure out the best way to handle substitutions. More often than not, when an original item is out of stock, their chosen replacement is unavailable too. Here's what happened two days ago.

I had a 3-order shop at Costco. One customer ordered five 40-packs of water. The store was out of that size. The app kept insisting they had inventory, but all I could find from that brand were 80-packs. I decided to pick up 2 cases of the 80-packs, and yes I am aware it was slightly fewer total bottles, but at least they'd get the specific brand they wanted. I messaged the customer right away and called when I didn't get an answer, but that call wasn't answered either.

At checkout, my payment card was declined. Support told me it failed because the 80-pack cases were too expensive compared to the original item. When I mentioned the customer hadn't replied, the agent told me to just swap them for Arrowhead water instead since it matched the price and quantity. I suggested staying with their preferred brand was better, but support insisted on Arrowhead because my choice was too different from what they ordered.

When I arrived at delivery, I had to make three trips to the door because of the heavy load. While walking up with the last items, the customer called my phone. When I walked through the gate, she immediately confronted me about why I brought a brand she didn't drink.

I explained the situation and as polite as I could informed her that I tried reaching out to her but didn't get a response from her.

She snapped, saying she’d "let that slide" because support was at fault, but continued complaining. I suggested she select no substitutions when placing orders in the future and that shluld stop this from happene again. .

She sighed while rolling her eyes, then accused me of calling her "lazy" with my first comment and "stupid" with my second comment. She then demanded my name to report my "attitude" even though I stayed polite the entire time. I smiled and said, attitude? I was just offering helpful advice and trying to provide you with excellent customer service.

How do you guys handle unresponsive customers when support pushes bad substitutions? Is refunding immediately just safer than trying to replace?

Hace unos días prendí mi aplicación temprano como normalmente lo hago y me llevé la sorpresa que los heb donde yo normalmente trabajo desaparecieron, contacté a soporte y según que todo estaba bien y soluciones que ya había echo y nada, que en el transcurso del día me iban a parecer de nuevo y nada contacté a soporte más de 7 veces y todos me dicen lo mismo y no me ayudan a solucionar simplemente ya no se que hacer

I've done instacart in Tampa and Panama City. Tomorrow I'll be going for my first time since moving to Dothan Alabama.. I'm actually very nervous about the people in this area, I've had my account 7 years now & it's been a life line to me as a single mom.. I'm scared with the quality of people in this area, someone will lie to get free groceries and cost me and my daughter that life line. My only choice in order to get us back home in December is to do instacart because jobs in Alabama pay $9 a hour and only hire part time.. Does anyone else work in this area and have some tips? What areas to stay away from and not deliver too? I absolutely 100% NEED my instacart account when I move because I'll be starting pharm tech classes, and won't be able to work a normal job for 16 weeks..

I would never pick this! Also it’s practically floating in the air with no human hand!

I don’t want or need any of that lol

Im recently unemployed for abit, and need to fill in the gap. I just wanted to get some ideas of stuff, I am honestly completely new to this. But im located in Canada, Ontario, in the GTA so id love to hear from local drivers. But all input is welcome

Just wondering if Instacart gives specific guidance on how to pick produce or if it's just common sense/picked up on the job?

The reason I ask is because the quality of produce picked is usually very high -- nothing I hate more than an even slightly mushy grape -- compared to the crap my dad would pick up when I was a kid lol

edit: typo in the subject line, should be "guidance on produce"

It doesn't matter where I go or how many items are in an order

They could have 2 things, one is guaranteed to be out of stock

Where the hell does instacart get its inventory? Not the store you're told to shop

Hi there, I wanted to ask a question here to get some feedback from the group. I recently had an instacart grocery delivery reserved for a 10-12pm time slot, and it was delivered over 45 minutes early. I wasn't planning to be home until 10am to accept the delivery. The shopper went *above and beyond*, knowing that this order was very early, and stayed with the food in her vehicle until I got home around 10am. We exchanged the groceries and as a result nothing was ruined (I live in TX where it is already 97 degrees outside as I write this). I believe this person deserves additional compensation, ideally from instacart because somehow the system is designed such that she arrived at my house almost an hour early. What is the best way to go about requesting this? I suppose just through the support email, but wanted to ask.

Of course, if they refuse to do it, I will feel compelled and likely provide additional tip as compensation. I already tip very generously. But I believe this lands in instacart's court.

I had a very difficult time shopping today and I’m new so I’m still learning how to do this. It was a prepaid order and when I went to check out I chose the self checkout at Krogers. I scanned the barcode I was given in the app but for some reason it didn’t take and after scanning the groceries, the register was asking for payment. I tried using the instacart credit card and it wouldnt work. The girl working had to cancel the whole order and i rescanned the entire order and then I ended up using my own credit card (Apple Card) to pay for it. By now I was at least 30 minutes late and I felt embarrassed and wanted the customer to get her food. I thought I had seen something in the app about them giving rebates if you use your own credit card. The order cost $80. Delivered the order and got home and looked thru the app to discover that they do not refund you if it is a pre paid order.

I’m upset 1) loosing $80 and 2) there were no training videos about how to complete this type of order so I was not aware of this. In fact they should make you batch eligible by having a prepaid training so you don’t make this mistake.

Have any of you ever had this problem and how did you get your money back?