InstacartReviews 2,486

Instacart uplifts all items from Costco almost 20%... on top of the service fee and on top of the tip. Their "Price Terms" only generically state that the prices will be higher than at the warehouse. I assumed it would have been maybe 5% at the most. I think it is deceptive that they don't disclose such an outrageous markup. Plus, the 15% tip I added was against the mark up cost. My Coscto receipt was $379 but I paid Instacart an additional $160! Never again!

This company is not customer focused. They prioritize their corporate greed over good customer relationship. If you place an order, check carefully for items missing. They purposely make it extremely difficult to report missing items and request a refund. Also, they have a company-centric, highly flawed system whereby the Instacart shopper texts you if they decide to substitute something else when an item you originally selected is not in stock. When you receive the text it comes ONLY with a "approve" button (no "refuse" option, I'm sure this is on purpose). Then, even if you don't approve it, you get the substitution. Why? Because they don't want you to be able to deny anything--they make more money that way. All of the substitutions on my order were MUCH higher priced items that I didn't want which makes me questions if all these original items were really unavailable or if they just wanted to get me to buy higher priced items so they make more profit on the 15% mark-up. When you originally order, they do allow you to arduously choose "no substitutions" for EVERY item (one at a time) in order to avoid any substitutions. Be careful--this company is bad news from an ethics standpoint. Also, once you have a problem, there is no immediate way to connect to Instacart to report the problem on your original or delivery confirmation. It says "Report a problem" but that only leads to a rating of the shopper/driver on a 1-5 scale (with no way to SOLVE the problem). Go to Instacart's website and it is nearly impossible to find a way to report a problem on that site. You have to Google and get the contact info. From a source published outside the company. I'm sure this is all purposeful too as they hope you'll just give up and not work to demand the refund for missing items.

Straight up robbery. They charged me $40 over My total cost after tip and service fee along with me needing a refund of $11.00 because it was the wrong item... I'm so frustrated because after kindly asking I demanded a refund because they said they'll only refund me $3... $3? Like is this a joke? They stole $40 from me and offered me $3. I'm appalled...

They don't typically give people receipts, all you have is what they give you on their app for reference... well they gave it to me by accident and I'm frustrated and I think everyone deserves to know that instacart is screwing them over with major over charges... it's not a small service fee or a small up charge to your item... no they charged me $10 extra for each of my items basically.

My receipt was $155.00 -my refund of $11.00 + an $8.00 tip and $3.00 service fee... I got charged $198.00 and they refused to refund me.

Sad thing is that you don't know you're getting a vet charged till they mess up and someone gives you a receipt by accident. I'll never be shopping with them again and I plan to spread the word over and over.

Hello world,

I ordered dinner items that consisted of 2 steak. All the other items at this point does not matter if you can not have the main entree.
I received a reply saying they were going to refund me the steak I picked. I replied back to say replace like my other 2 items that ironically was not there with another cut of steak. 5 minutes later I received a reply that my shopper is checking out with a refund for my steak. No other adjustments can be made at this time!
I replied to my shopper refund the whole cart cause what am I going to do with sides. She replied to take it up with instacart. Well here I am!
Why would the shopper think to proceed with these senseless items. Its clearly that all these items go together. A protocol for these type of situation should be for someone to reach out with a courtesy message.
I actually went to the store and found all the items I NEEDED IN THE EXACT SAME STORE!
The whole point of this app is useless if I have to do the shopping.

Instacart has been helpful but not very customer service responsive.
Lately they are giving shoppers 2-3 orders to shop during your pre- ordered shop: delivery time that in effect let's your items sit for hours in cart and then your order can get delivered 1.2 or 3rd in a car that's often placed in back of trunk. Lately Ivevtried to tell the shopper to not do this as my ice cream comes as milk and frozen items defrosted. I want my order picked and delivered in the time frame promised. App should allow for my choice. I've left instructions for shoppers to not allow this but Instacart puts limits on shoppers cancelling. I can note many ways to address this, but bottom line is customers are last, customers spending $15,000. A year with Instacart are getting defrosted food. It is not a shopper issue who are dedicated, hard working members of our community but a company that needs to address the worst issue delivery companies can have, warm or cold food paid for at a premium.

I used Instacart recently and was not pleased. For one, I ordered at 5:10. I was supposed to get the order by 7:15. I got it at 8:15.
For two, the system was glitching our on my end and the Instacart employees end.
I revised my list and still ended up with the unrevised version because apparently it didn't update or something on the shoppers end.
I told them about the issue and their best offer was they can give me free delivery on an order of 35$ or more. Which before I even downloaded the app, there was a pop up saying "if you download the app you get your next order of 35$ or more, delivered for free" So basically, I would have got free shipping anyway. So there was absolutely NO COMPENSATION for being an hour late AND not getting the right stuff because the app was "glitching".

I ordered from Costco using Instacart. Compared package prices of meat items to what was charged on my credit card. I was charged anywhere from a 42% premium on one item down to 5% on another. Average premium charges on meat products was 24%. Don't know about rest of order since there were no package prices for anything except meat. Tried three times to get Instacart to explain their premium policies but never got an answer. Do not use Instacart! They will charge you huge premiums and you won't be able to tell how badly you got screwed!

Instacart is gear more toward the consumer than the shopper there is no fairness in them if the store produce is not the greatest the shopper is at fault if the consumer order the product and don't like it when shopper pick the best from whats to choose from. A consumer lie say they didn't receive a item and did and the shoppers prove they received the item. Instacart still will drop the shopper rating so they don't get batch. Instacart need to change those bad policyd
M

It's really sad that these shoppers apply for a job they have no interest in doing remotely well. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I use them, I have an issue. Normally, the shopper will give me non-organic food but charge me for the organic food. Sometimes things are left off and I'm still charged. Often if I order 2 of something, I get one of them but am still charged. Today I was over-charged for things to the tune of $25 and it's highly irritating that it continues. Furthermore, I NEVER get refunded the money, they only credit the instantcart account so that I'm forced to use them again to "get my money back." If I could just get one good order, I'd be done with them forever.

We have used Instacart several times for curb side pick up with great success. Because of the recent increase of corona virus activity in our area, we tried the delivery service with our local Fry's / Kroger grocery store... HUGE MISTAKE. In short, our little 8 item $64.00 order was not only never delivered, but on investigation, we learned the original items were ALL marked "out of stock" and 49 NEW items were unilaterally added to the order adding up to $196.00 and the order marked delivered in the Instacart system. Instacart says they will refund us plus a $20.00 inconvenience credit, but we are left to wonder if the person who changed our order has our credit card information and the groceries that were misappropriated from the Fry's store. The Instacart persons we interacted with (3 of them) sounded like idiots under pressure. Buyer beware!

My biggest issue with Instacart occurred yesterday. I order chicken. The package of chicken had a price of $16.61. It was a reduced price of $11.68 to be used right away (which I appreciate the shopper doing to save me money). When I checked my receipt Instacart had charged me $19.35! That was a $7.67 increase. It took me 2 emails and a phone call and arguing with them to get an adjustment! They kept saying online costs more. I said they could have at least given me fresh meat. I will never order from them and am warning people to check their receipt carefully. This was not an error - it was robbery. The receipt picture shows after they finally made the adjustment.

I used instacart one time and I will never use them again. They are the textbook definition of skimmers. So I order groceries from Kroger my total was $126.71. When my driver or shopper arrived they brought my groceries and had the receipt in the bag. So I noticed that the checkout price was $100.36 so that's roughly about $25 difference from the price that I've already paid them for the groceries and do you know that instead of charging me the difference of what they paid instacart kept that additional $25 never mind the fact that I pay delivery fee tip the driver and they did not care that I had a problem with them helping themselves to money that they were not entitled to at that point so needless to say I will never again use instacart. And I will not ever recommend them to anyone else that I know

I have used Instacart since they began. I understand they have to make money and have grudging agreed to pay inflated prices for the convenience of grocery delivery, however the quality of their shoppers has gone way down (shoppers think an appropriate substituion for salmon would be swordfish, for example. I mean, they both start with S so I guess that makes sense). In the past when I had an issue with an order, it was taken care of right away. Now I have to repeatedly call and email, and get different answers every day to the same question. I'm really disappointed and will not be using them in the future. Too much competition to deal with a company that doesn't know what its shoppers are doing or what their customer service people are saying. I gave it 2 stars becasue the app is convenient, but no longer worth the headache.

Try asking your instacart shopper the your grocery receipt. They will not give it to you "per policy". Instacart doesn't want you to see the HUGE grocery markups. The company is devious and treats their independent contractors like garbage. When Seattle tried to pass a hazard pay, in the middle of a pandemic, for Seattle shoppers, IC released a statement threatening Seattle residents that their access to IC's services could be in danger. We're talking about a company who is one of the biggest profiteers with Covid. IC met their 2025 goals within the first few months of Covid. Aproova is now a billionaire who does not want to pay their contractors hazard pay. When Seattle passes the hazard pay Aproova filed a lawsuit against the city of Seattle. Why? He's a greedy dog. Please stop using IC's Horrible business, stop putting money in billionaire pockets. Download a better ethical delivery service such Dumpling. You can zip code search a personal shopper from that app and support a local small business owner.

I have called customer service to complain how ridiculous batches i see on my screen last 2 months. I have lots of screenshots "Funny " and customer service said " Its a system calculates." And I say BS
For example $8 (18 items 32 units) 9 miles
Top of that I will drive on toll ( coast is $8.50)

I will put milage on my car
I will burn my gas
I will pay for toll
I will shop 30 mnts and deliver at 1 hour
Basically Instacart says " let me rape you little bit. "
One another $21 ( 27 items- 41 units) 26 miles
Hahahhaha if i get thaf batch i must book hotel as well I cant comeback in same day
So Instacart basically is ridiculous
UNREALISTIC
Lunatic crazy company
F*** that brothers dont even think about it