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Instacart

1.1

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Instacart Reviews Summary

Instacart has a rating of 1.1 stars from 2,486 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Instacart most frequently mention customer service, credit card and grocery store. Instacart ranks 108th among Grocery Delivery sites.

service
641
value
596
shipping
426
returns
438
quality
529

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Virginia
1 review
5 helpful votes
Follow As S.
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Terrible customer service
Terrible customer services
Terrible customer services
Terrible customer service

Date of experience: July 2, 2018
New York
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Unreliable
July 1, 2018

On every order, there is at least one wrong or missing item, which often ruins whatever meal/dish Im shopping for. About 1 in every 4 or 5 orders is a completely disaster. I once had an order that only had 2 items out of 23 correct. Ive also had serveral shoppers that were so aggressive that I refused to let them deliver to my home. I ended up deleting my account entirely. Id love for someone else to start a rival service like this as its a great idea but carelessly executed by Instacart

Date of experience: July 1, 2018
Canada
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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I placed an order, selected a time to have this order delivered and this did not happen. I was not notified of the fact that no one had even shopped for this order. My daughter recommended Instacart as being a service that made her life very easy. I selected options to check on the order status which did not work. I downloaded the app and couldn`t find out the order status. I called the number provided on the website that had my account info on and waited over half an hour on hold. I searched for another number online and called this number. An agent told me the store was not even open at the hour I called. He repeated this a few times. The agent said that the service is pretty new in Canada and maybe there are not enough shoppers. Then he told me the store was closed for the holiday the next day.

Date of experience: July 1, 2018
North Carolina
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Poor policy
July 1, 2018

They did not honor free delivery after purchasing specific products on Instacart web page!
Ben and Jerrys might appreciate me buying over $20 worth of ice cream, but this was to specifically meet the free delivery incentives.

Date of experience: July 1, 2018
Florida
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Overcharge you a lot and give you a receipt with the actual amount. Then when you call they dont do anything to help. They just repeat the amount shown on your account. Im not including fees and taxes btw. They are theives and keep stealing from customers. Its sad. If they werent like this, theyd make more business. People are dumb and evil in this world.

Date of experience: June 29, 2018
New Jersey
1 review
3 helpful votes
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We tried using instacart start this year (2018) and thought it reasonable for the convenience. The convenience is now gone. Any time saved has more than been eaten up by dealing with the abysmal system. There is no way to communicate with the shoppers though this is trumpeted as a feature of the service. We we getting the wrong items. The last order the driver was routed to a park instead of our house. Insane. They offer credits that are never delivered. STAY AWAY!

Date of experience: June 28, 2018
California
1 review
3 helpful votes
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I have been using instacart for the past couple of months and for the most part the shoppers were really nice and did a great job. The problem is with Instacart's policies. They no longer allow you to waive the service fee, so on top of the monthly/yearly subscription fee I have been paying about an additional $6 per order in service fees. I also discovered on my last order that the total the shopper paid at Ralphs, using their ralphs card, was $115 for my order. However the online total was $121, which is what I was charged, plus the $6 service fee. The customer service person said they do not honor store card discounts, coupons or promotions. So they basically stole from me and profited an extra $6 on top of everything else. As much as I love the convenience of someone delivering my groceries, I will be cancelling my service, this is simply not an acceptable practice!

Date of experience: June 27, 2018
Arizona
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Worse service ever
June 27, 2018

Horrible service, I was supposed to be charged $186 and they charged me $311. On top of that the bananas that I ordered were smashed at the bottom of the bag.

Date of experience: June 27, 2018
Missouri
1 review
2 helpful votes
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I have never heard of a grocery service not being able to return for whatever reason ( i ordered too many of an item). I asked about the policy and they said if it's not damaged they will not return. I had another incident where i had to argue with them about giving me an a mistaken item. And they said they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. So if you have any customer concerns you are just craps out of luck. I've been on the phone with them and sitting in front of the customer service desk at the store for an hour now regarding this issue. Insacart customer service is so disappointing to say the least. That's the impression I'm getting from this service. Lol. I'm switching over to Amazon Prime.

Date of experience: June 26, 2018
New York
19 reviews
18 helpful votes
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Ordered some shoprite instacart groceries which was regrettable. Was given a rotting decaying head of lettuce, perishables not contained in a cooler with ice cream delivered melted all over the place, cheese soft and mushy, several purchased items 'unavailable', given the incorrect size of an item. Only partially refunded with the remainder given as a stupid coupon: for my next shopping order". Right. The instacart for keyfood falls into the same league. Pitiful deception against consumers. Never again.

Date of experience: June 21, 2018
California
1 review
4 helpful votes
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Hidden Charges
June 17, 2018

My total was $174 for the food including the $5.99 delivery fee. I was planning on leaving the driver a good tip until I noticed that instacart charged me $230. They took $56 extra dollars just "in case" they needed to substitute other items. I cancelled the whole order and was told it could take 3 days for me to get my money back. I have a broken foot and can't drive, now I can't feed my family

Date of experience: June 17, 2018
Colorado
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Overcharged
June 15, 2018

They will over charge you for everything and then in the middle of the night charge you 149$ for their membership even though you read that trying it would be free, I have broken leg and not job now and now even worse cause I have no money

Date of experience: June 15, 2018
Germany
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Worthless crap
June 15, 2018

I ordered some ensure for a sick friend that just got out of surgery. I paid over $100.00 for them to shop and deliver within an hour.
I included my friends phone number and clear instructions for the delivery person. Over 4 hours later and nothing. I checked on line and it states delivered. I tried to chat with the delivery person and the system states they are shopping for the items but It was after midnight by then.
I tried to make a complaint and the site doesnt work.
When they do get back to me theres a run around about they will rush my order. My friend is weak from not eating from before the surgery and now about to pass out. Next they emailed, the order is on its way and will arrive in minutes. Total *** I am thinking of taking them to court for this.
Never again! I will be sure to spread the word DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE!
Reason of review: Problem with delivery.
Monetary Loss: $105.

Date of experience: June 14, 2018
Washington
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Angry!
June 14, 2018

I spent over a couple of hours getting set up on Instacart and placing my first order. Everything seemed like it was progressing well. I even received a text letting me know that I could add items to my order up until 4:30PM. They were scheduled to arrive between 5-6PM. I received another text saying they would not delivery my order until tomorrow night. I had surgery a month ago and am beginning to run out of supplies. I can not drive for another 3 weeks. I thought this seemed like a good idea. The customer service person said -- sorry about that. They will not be in business very long if this is the way they treat their customers. After reading other reviews, I now need to worry about my account I used to purchase my groceries. Yes, stay away from this company.

Date of experience: June 13, 2018
Texas
1 review
3 helpful votes
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FRAUDULENT SERVICE
June 10, 2018

I used Instacart one time. It did what they said they would do. The lady delivered my groceries was nice enough. But then my bank card starts getting hit with little charges before a $149 charge appeared today! I never used them beyond that one time. Got tired of being put on endless hold dealing with them, so I called my bank, which had to deactivate my bank card. How many of you has this happened to?

Date of experience: June 10, 2018
Mexico
1 review
3 helpful votes
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My first couple deliveries werent bad, but the third was horrible. Claimed that over half my items were out of stock (tortillas and pickles out of stock?), the few items I received were sustituted poorly or incorrect (got 5 pounds of bruised organic apples when I asked for 5 regular apples, and paid $15 for them) and then when I totaled all my charges from my Instacart receipt, there were several mistakes that were not resolved after a month of arguing with customer service... Even after a couple good runs, the last experience was so horrible I will never use them again.

Date of experience: June 8, 2018
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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I decided to use instacart but they didn't have over half of the items I chose, so I canceled the order. By the time I canceled they were already an hour late to deliver. Terrible!

Date of experience: June 4, 2018
Florida
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Horrible
June 2, 2018

Told me my card was declining. Couldnt process the order. Called bank and confirmed the charges. $315. Order was placed. A few seconds later got an email saying they are cancelling the order! Called and they said the money will be refunded. No food and -315 in the account. Scam scam scam scam scam

Date of experience: June 2, 2018
Nevada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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I decided to try the service today hoping it would save me time from having to go to the grocery store and pick all the items needed for a week or two of cooking. While at work I received notifications that several items were out of stock and would be refunded. I logged on and was able to select similar items rather than be reimbursed. The person doing my shopping was very polite and informed me that they would go to a second store in search of my items, however upon checking out at that second store I was contacted that their payment method wouldn't work. This was my first time using this service and had already paid online for my items so I told my shopper that I wasn't sure what I could do. He decided to pay out of pocket and hope to be reimbursed later. Despite all that frustration of constantly having to check on items, I was feeling pretty good. I was still at work, and my delivery was scheduled between 5 and 6 p.m. My fiance was at home when the order arrived, and called me shortly after. It was then that we learned that both the salmon and chicken on my list were missing. This seems strange because the chicken was one of the items that had no problems and was added to the section on the website of found items. The salmon had been placed under the section of replaced items, and my shopper had assured me that he had found a similar item. So I'm not sure if those two items were left at the grocery store or in the delivery van but I have canceled my 14 day free membership and will never use this service again. Horrible experience. Saved me no time and actually increased the trouble and stress than if I had just gone myself. Also horrible business model to have a tipping service just for the delivery person, since if an order was messed up by the shopper person and the client is pissed, I doubt they'll leave a tip (even if all errors made had nothing to do with delivery person).

Date of experience: May 30, 2018
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
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P*** poor
May 30, 2018

Lovely idea until I got texted to death with constant updates. I kinda wanted to let someone else do the shopping and take a nap. Nope should have paid attention. My written instructions were not followed. I got over ripe avocados, small eggs, potatoes that were not looked at for cuts and junk. Just junk shopping. I took all the stuff back and luckily the driver was new and didn't know to keep the receipt. So the real tacky thing done was all the substitutes were for cheaper stuff. They did not intend to refund me until I stomped around a bit. And that free 1st delivery... Doesn't happen. And I find out these drivers are paid very little. They expect big tips to make it. So I'll just keep doing my own shopping. And all the substitutes for cheaper not refunded products where there at Whole Foods when I went back.

Date of experience: May 30, 2018