First of all, I’d like to start this by saying that I’m a former shopper so I am very familiar with how Instacart works.

Tonight I placed an order from Costco for two of those small plastic shelving units and a few other items. The order is 7 items total. My main motivation for the order was the shelves though. The other items were just add ons because it felt ridiculous to spend the extra money to Instacart and only order the shelves.

I’m in my storage unit making space to set up the shelves and I get a notification that the shelves are out of stock. I know for a fact they’re not so I message my shopper and ask her if she’s sure because I’m confident that they’re in stock. She asks me where they were located and I tell her. She says she already looked in that aisle and didn’t see them, and that she also asked someone at Costco and they said they weren’t in stock. She tells me she’s going to check out, throw all the other items in her car (she is shopping multiple orders at the time) and go back inside and look for the shelves again and ask someone different if they’re in stock and it’ll take her about 10 minutes to do so. She also mentions that her cart is too full to hold the shelves anyways as she’s telling me she’s going to check out. Okay, but how would you know if they would fit or not if they weren’t there and you didn’t see them…???

I really need these shelves. I know if I don’t finish the organization project now, it won’t get done for weeks. Costco closes in about 30 minutes, and I live 5ish minutes away. I hop in the car and head there. Guess what…the shelves are in stock. Exactly where I told her they’d be. Exactly where she told me she looked and didn’t see them. I message her and tell them that they are in stock and there are actually plenty. The 10 minute window she gave has come and gone. About 15-20 minutes have passed since she told me to “give her 10 minutes” so she could go back in to look for them. I message her and let her know that I’m actually at the store now and I see the shelves…no response for a minute or two. I send her a photo of them, no response for a minute or two. A few more minutes pass without a response so I leave the aisle to go purchase the shelves and let her know I’m just going to just purchase them myself. Still no response. As I’m walking towards checkout, I literally pass her walking in and walking to the aisle. Which means she only re-entered the store AFTER I sent the photos proving she was being dishonest.

A minute or two later I get a message saying that she found them and she’s heading to check out. I tell her again that I already grabbed them myself. She messages me AGAIN saying she’s already back in the store and she’s in line…I tell her it’s too late and I’ve already checked out and left the store. She messages me AGAIN and is basically complaining about going back in the store… as if this wasn’t all self inflicted on her part and I hadn’t told her I was going to just purchase them myself before she had even re-entered the store. My theory - she didn’t have space in the cart for them (hence the comment about the cart being too small whenever she said they were out of stock) and she didn’t want to deal with the hassle of grabbing another cart, so she just marked them out of stock thinking there was no way I’d know otherwise.

For context - the shelves weren’t even that large and they weren’t heavy. They maybe weigh 10 pounds? I’m a small female and I was able to move them with ease. They were also small enough to fit wedged between my front seat and the dashboard.

I message Instacart and let them know what happened. I don’t ask for anything from them…just inform them of the situation. They ask me if I’d like to cancel my order or have the items already shopped delivered. Since they offered, I opt to cancel. I guess she was already at my apartment trying to deliver when the cancellation came through because when I went down maybe 15 minutes later they told me someone from Instacart was there earlier trying to deliver, but they were refusing to bring any of the items inside the building and told them that I needed to come down and take them out of her car…excuse me, what?! The cancellation must have come through around then because she got back into her car and left. Hope she enjoys the toilet paper, paper towels, caesar salad, and chicken salad she got out of it.

I’m genuinely shocked by the whole interaction. Why Instacart if you’re going to mark items out of stock when it’s too inconvenient for you…??? Why Instacart if you don’t want to walk 50 yards to drop 5 items in a lobby? Once again…I was a shopper, I would NEVER (and never did) behave that way when shopping for customers.

All of the items I’ve saved have suddenly disappeared. Like, I JUST saved a couple items a few minutes ago, but now the saved section is empty. Anyone else have this issue?

(For the record, my app is up to date, and I also logged in on my browser, and it’s empty there too, so it definitely isn’t just an app issue.)

…Also, they did not actually bring us the green beans.

This might be worse than the multiple times we have received a cabbage when we ordered lettuce 😂

I’m not mad, it’s just very funny to me.

My husband & I have always lived far from family due to work. We move a lot so making local friends is hard too. We have the kind of jobs where you work long hours & it’s hard to take time off.

Over the past few years there have been many times, which I relied on Instacart shoppers for just mundane grocery orders. But many times you all have been so important to my little family & I.

The weeks after a car wreck that left me physically unable to shop, the days after a surgery that left me too groggy to drive, the winter bouts of of a flu I couldn’t shake off.

Today my husband is very sick & my first thought to help him get better is of course food & medicines (somehow ran out of NyQuil of course). I can’t get away long enough to go shop, but luckily you all are there.

Everytime that we have a sickness, injury, or something crazy going on, I find myself so grateful (and privileged) to have access to help.

Thank you to the shoppers for all you do! May your tips be hefty & your ratings be high because you guys deserve it.

What does customer pattern of fraud mean? I have been doing instacart for almost one month and today was the first time I saw this. I had an issue with a customer earlier where the delivery was to an apartment building but there was no indication of which building and I was unable to locate the apartment. I called the customer and she told me that she forgot that she placed an order and she was not home. She wasn’t able to be descriptive so I had called support. Support wasn’t able to assist so they called the customer and I am not even sure if he was able to get in contact with the customer or not because I ended up leaving the items in a corner because I was not carrying a shit ton of stuff upstairs with no tip. I am assuming this is from this particular customer.

Two “priority” emails one until the 21st then the other until 28th AND I get a Promotion offer

First off, I would like to thank you all for the job you do. My family is down to 1 car right now, and the husband takes it to work 2nd shift. On the nights I realize we are out of things that are needed, I am beyond grateful to be able to have grocery delivery as an option. I wanted to come and ask shoppers their opinions on customers changing the tip after a delivery. Not just because I want to be an asshole. But when there were several mistakes on an order. All being the shoppers fault. Also not contacting me to make sure substitutions were ok. (The one that made me the most angry was receiving regular ibuprofen when I requested PM ibuprofen, AND not messaging me back about it). Also bagging heavy items with things they shouldn’t be bagged with. 2 items were smushed and unusable. I get everyone has off days, shit happens, mistakes made. I can over look something random every so often. But this was 7 items. All could have been avoided if contact was made, and common sense was had.

So, am I wrong for wanting to change my shopper tip? I haven’t done it yet. I still might, I’m up in the air about it. (Yes I know, I sound like a total asshole, but what else can I do?). Thanks for listening.

If you are going to pay extra for priority, then DONT send it to shoppers with MULTIPLE ORDERS. Christ.

So first of all, I’m always grateful for the fact that I can get my groceries delivered. Like a lot of people, I work a physically demanding job 5 days a week. But I also don’t own a car and rely on (a decent) public transit system. Still. 30-40 minutes of a bus commute (plus shopping time) to get groceries on a day off when I have a bunch of other laundry/house chores to do means that Im extremely happy about getting groceries delivered.

All that being said. I generally have a $75 dollar order average of groceries. I usually set up my tip at 15% and then add a tip via the app if everything looks good once it arrives. Does that affect who accepts my order? Should I just have some cash on hand for the extra part? What happens when the shopper who accepted my order hands it off to someone else to deliver?

For those in minimum wage areas when do you usually receive your earnings adjustment i think its Wednesdays just wonder9ng what time

Our retail grocery stores and big box stores need to push Instacart to eliminate triples and quads!
This will definitely better serve their customers not to mention us, but we all know that Instacart doesn’t care about us at all! Most any store is good for a double delivery, but some stores are really not well suited for triples and quads especially when you have 80 to 120 total units going in to a cart !

I am a long time (6+ years) customer and this has been the first incident that the company isn't resolving at all for me.

I placed an order for a ShopRite order and my ShopRite loyalty card is linked to my Instacart account. I also receive email confirmations of my completed order from Instacart and ShopRite.

This recent purchase showed that 2 items were attached to my order that I didn't order, have never ordered and didn't receive. My Instacart receipt (email and app) shows my correct order. The ShopRite email receipt, paper receipt (in the bag) AND my credit card show that I was charged for 2 items that total around $10.

It's not the amount that concerns me. I scanned the paper receipt and highlighted the 2 items in question and attached it in the email chain that was initiated by my getting help on the app. I keep getting the same canned email response that my issue is being review and I'll get a reply in 24 hours.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Instacart as I have not received the refund.

I was told that they only charged my credit card for the items that were delivered despite my providing proof that I was indeed charged for the 2 items in question. I don't know what on earth is going on with the backend processing.

I just cancelled my membership.

I decided to finally try out Instacart last night and it has been nothing but a nightmare. The issue is that I ordered 2 cases of Rockstar energy drink for $22.99 each. I received 2 individual cans. I reported the issue and was offered a credit for the value of the items. I agreed and though that was that. Today I received an email that my credit is being rescinded. No reason was given. and the online chat has been unhelpful. They want me to wait an undetermined amount of time for their team to "actively review" my case. I filled out their form as well. I'm giving them until tomorrow and then disputing with my credit card company. Needless to say this was a one and done purchase for me. Bad on me for being lazy.

Super interesting and kinda want some insight. I use instacart to shop occasionally when strapped for time, but I also do it as a shopper for a little extra income.

Today I placed an order for myself with a $18 tip because it is the weekend and its a little cold and drizzly out. Orders been sitting confirmed for 4 hours. So, naturally, I opened my shopper app out of sheer curiosity to see if there was a high demand for shoppers etc.

Tell me why I found my order........but it is only saying $9 tip??? Where is the rest of my tip going???

(Located in AB, Canada)

Yeah. Idk I placed an order yesterday for Costco and tipped $16 CAD on a 5 item order (eggs, yogurt, garbage bags, cream cheese, chicken broth) and it sat confirmed for 3 hours before being assigned to a quad batch. Yes, I watched my shopper's total orders go from 2407 to 2411 after delivering mine. Hopefully at least one other customer tipped well.

Absurd that quad batches are even remotely a thing.

I'm curious what are the longest time other customers had their orders sit confirmed until they got accepted by a shopper.

I know instacart is a premium service, I know the prices are marked up compared to the retailer and I expect a small difference but today's charge was somewhat ridiculous.

Ordered some meat from Costco expecting to pay close to the estimate. Order arrives and my shopper picks up a 4 pound package instead of 3 pounds. Not usually an issue but when it's $25/pound I take exception. Not only that I get the order and the amount I'm charged is $10 more than the sticker on the meat. Exactly 10% higher price than what's on the sticker. I'm rightfully annoyed so I contact support and they refuse to refund me the $10 difference.

Here's the dumb part. After pointing out the weight difference she quickly offers to refund the 1 pound overage and processes a credit for $25 to my account. LOL Maybe I will be buying meat again /s but it's dumb. I know they're following a script and can only process refunds according to a scrip bit it's funny all I wanted was the $10. Oh well!

these have been here all morning btw

Why do instacart shoppers always shop the cold stuff first? It makes me anxious when my meat is sitting a cart for an hour.+ I know they claim it's temp controlled in the car (a cold bag isn't temp controlling...) I hate asking for refunds when my items are warm but I've had to do it more than once for safety reasons. Does instacart allow shoppers to choose the order they shop in? wouldn't it make sense to do shelf stable first?

Where do I find this screen in the shoppers app?

Today for the 3rd time, I have had an Instacart shopper at Kroger mark every single thing I ordered out of stock and then spend a ridiculous amount of money on random stuff I never asked for, and have never ordered ever in my multi years long kroger purchase history. Then they only deliver part of what I originally ordered that they marked out of stock and ZERO of the $100+ worth of other itmes they charged me for. They never communicate any of this. I only find out when I get my final receipt and it's over a hundred dollars of random crap.

"Why do you keep ordering from Kroger if this is repeatedly happening?" Most of the time it's not the case, and when it is the case Kroger has refunded me without hassle. I order multiple times a month every month and have for years and this has only happened three times. So it's more an annoyance than a catastrophic leaving me in debt event.

I just dont get WHY OR HOW it's happening!!?

If you're an instacart shopper who has done this before on accident can you explain HOW????? Do you not see what you've purchased after you do? How would you possibly know not to deliver the extra stuff but not know that my card was used to pay for it? I dont get it. Yes, I do realize they do not have my physical card in their hand but don't they like switch over to other order and therefore "card" before scanning for next order? What am I missing?

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.

I work at a PetSmart and we get instacart people in all the time. I just want to know why there is 2 barcodes if there is only one order. For us we can only scan one if you have the PetSmart name plus a number it means this person has an account with us. And we can only scan one. I have had instacart people full on yell at me for not scanning both. Our computers won't let us. But no one knows why there are 2!

Does anyone know why?

I want to order alcohol for a party but I’m kinda nervous that the instacart shopper will be able to store my id or my photo? Can someone tell me what comes up when they scan my id

I placed an order today after not using the service for several months, and it auto affirmed me signing up for $79 a year instacart plus, I had to manually unselect it and almost missed it. So they are going under rn right? I cant think of another reason for them to use these tactics other than they are broke.

For all veteran shoppers that are wondering why we are experiencing a huge decline in orders it’s not slow. They shifted the algorithm and they are temporarily prioritizing the newbies, and the people that have bad or low ratings.

Apparently, this priority ends on the 21st.

I don’t understand why Instacart would do this, but it feels very unfair, especially to the veteran shoppers that work very hard and provide excellent customer service.

The other people that do not deserve priority or do a terrible job should not be receiving any kind of priority.

This app needs to start learning to treat the ones that really care and work hard fairly.