InstacartReviews 2,486

I love Instacart and have used them for years and years. It recently came to my attention by a flyer a delivery person put in one of my bags. Before you complete your order click on the service charge and default it to $0 otherwise you will be charged. This doesn't go to the delivery people only tips do. You have to do this every time you place an order. The customer service team did do a great job refunding me over $500 in service fees. My rating is only reflective of this deceptive annoying practice. It should be taken off there system entirely.

I ordered from Whole Foods in Swampscott, MA today on Instacart. From the time the delivery person pulled my perishables ($80 worth of meats and dairy) out of the refridgerator/freezer, and got to my house, it was over 2 hours. I asked the delivery person if my food was kept in a cooler (the site markets that they use coolers) and he replied "no". All of the meats were in a bag, in his car, on an 80 degree day. He told me "what's worse is they (his management? Dispatcher?) told me to first deliver in Andover (45 minutes away)... My food would have been sitting in his car for over 3 hours.

I called the Health Commission, and they stated that delivery services are not regulated...

So I tried Instacart today for the first time ordering groceries from Publix. It was free delivery because it was a promo. The catch is the Service Fee which no where says can be adjusted to zero if you wish. I thought it was a tip. Nope. They are charging you to pay the deliverers a measely $4 a shop and they keep 96% of the rest of the charge! Then they ask you for a tip. I thought the "service charge" was a tip.
Never again. I called customer service who said she would refund me the $17.14 but still do not see it on my charge card. I feel really sorry for the deliverer. He was a nice guy and texted me for clarification when the item I ordered was not available.

This is for the new Instacart delivery service Fairway is offering. We decided to try it and it was a nightmare. We ordered 20 items. They did not have 5 of them and did not want the substitutes they proposed so they gave us a credit. When we were unpacking the items we received we noticed that 6 of the items were missing out of the 15 they should have delivered. Since it was about 11:00 at night we said we preferred a refund instead of waiting for the items to be delivered. So after paying about $15 delivery fee/tip and not receiving 6 items they charged us the total amount. They do not want to refund us the money for the items we did not receive until we order again and then we will get a credit. There is no way I am using Instacart service again - it was so painful.

My goodness what an overpriced disaster. My shopper substituted items for twice the price. I went from organic salad dressing to Kraft? Who the hell does the shopper think would want Kraft salad dressing over organic? Also I ordered 2lbs of ribeye steaks from Publix at $16.99 a lb and received 2.5 lbs, an $8.49 difference in what I wanted to pay. Then the shopper has the audacity to complain to me about how the company keeps the service fee and doesn't pay him enough and complain about a tip. I don't care that you hate your job... If you don't like it talk to the company, not a paying customer. And lastly let's talk about the value of the service. Amazon offers the same type of service for $17 a YEAR, while instacart is at $149 a year, plus service charges, invalid substitutions/incorrect items, plus a tip? Save your time and money and skip this terrible service. Wish 0 stars was an option.

If I could give this 0 star I would. The service is absolutely HORRENDOUS! This is our third time using Instacart for our Fairway order. The first time there were many unauthorized substitutions. I called customer service and was directed to v. mail where I left a message with my callback number. I never received a call back. There were minor issues on our second order but, we decided to give instacart another try not so much because we thought the service is great but mainly because we got use to the convenience of online grocery shopping, before Fairway outsourced their delivery service to instacart. This, our third week, many items are missing, eggs, orange juice, spinach, plus substitution that we did not want. This is a major inconvenience for our busy family.
We will not this service again. The convenience of shopping online is just not worth the aggravation of getting the order filled with mistakes and omissions.

Today I decided to try Instacart for the first time. It will be the last. The deliver time was 4-5pm. At 4.20pm i received an email saying at the order was delayed and would arrive between 5-5:30pm. At 5:27pm they said it would arrive ~6:10pm. At 6:15pm they had not arrived yet so I checked my mail. I found an email sent at 6:04pm saying that "your order is here" and one at 6:08pm saying that the order had been cancelled because they could not locate me. I find it hard to believe that there was a a serious attempt at delivering my order. We were home waiting the whole time. There was no call to our phone nor the buzzer (which goes straight to my phone). When I read the email I tried to see whether there was a phone number where I could reach either the driver or customer service but there was none. Not only am I extremely disappointed as I needed the produce for dinner tonight, but the email claims that I will be charged $15. I am very dissatisfied by the service.

I was being charged delivery charges when it was supposed to be free delivery. Took forever to get refunded, not to mention, a lot of emails and calls. The big one was them running my card without authorization for $149.00 for a membership I declined from the get. I had already put in writing via email, they did NOT have authorization to use my card. I had to call and make them delete the card info while I was on the phone. Never again will I use this company

I've been using Instacart for years. I have a few horror stories, but nothing like what I experienced today. First, the shopper canceled one of the items that was the reason for my order without offering a replacement, even though the store stocks at least 5 other similar products she could have substituted. As I was attempting to contact her via the chat feature, she closed my order so that I could no longer contact her. When the order arrived, all of the ice cream was melted and spilled in the bag. Instacart customer service said they would send someone over with new ice cream. That person inexplicably spent 15 minutes sitting in her car 2 blocks from my house (she said she couldn't find the address), and by the time she got here, THAT ice cream was melted too. She said Instacart no longer gives shoppers insulated bags for your groceries!

I purchased a Groupon for $40 worth of groceries as a first time customer with instacart.com. I had never tried them and thought this deal would be a perfect opportunity to see if I liked them. When my cart had over $40 worth of food in it (as indicated by the bright red total at the bottom of my cart) I proceeded to check out and was charged over $40. Upon delivery I expected my emailed receipt to be less than $1, but it still showed I was being charged the full amount. I called customer service where I was told they wouldn't honor the deal because my subtotal was less than $40. Which was not clearly marked anywhere on the Groupon or their website. The bright red numbers are what had my focus for the price. I entered my special code and instacart.com said it had been applied, even though it hadn't. Customer service was rude, the website was misleading, and I can't utilize the Groupon I purchased because I'm no longer a first time customer. I feel violated after this experience. Instacart.com will never receive my patronage again and I wanted to let folks know that they have some rather shady practices (and I didn't even get into the price gouging and shady replacements they tried to give me!). I will not recommend them to ANYONE at any point in the future.

Do instacart shoppers have to be so rude? They all have their headphones in and race running through Costco against the flow of traffic and don't care who is in their path. They are all so annoyed that you are traveling at a normal shopping pace through the aisles. Sorry I'm not a young, single hipster on a deadline to make money while I shop for groceries. It's just me and my toddler picking up our regular goods and trying out samples like everyone else. At least I know to watch out for the green t-shirts and ear buds charging my way!

This place is a total ripoff! They tried charging me 30% over the price per item besides charging a service fee! And to top it off, they kept the drivers tip! They cancelled my orders and deactivated my account, then my husband made his account and half of the order was cancelled and half not. They deactivated his account as well and when I called they tried to give him a credit for future use on a deactivated account! NEVER AGAIN! Thieves!