InstacartReviews 2,486

I am reviewing my first Instacart trial here because the site doesn't give you a way to review the service without it being a review of your shopper. I was hoping to find an easier way to shop since our local store is a big frustration. Instacart has its own set of issues though. The delivery did not come in the delivery window, which made me have to adjust my schedule. Several items were out of stock at the store the shopper picked, but not at my closest local store. The vegetables all came loose in a brown paper bag that was wet and tearing at the bottom from the moist veggies, and the vegetables (all thrown in together) were quite hammered by the time they were unpacked. Also I have no plastic bags at home so had to wrap broken heads of lettuce and kale in plastic wrap to put in my fridge. The very worst samples of vegetables were picked: a package of tomatoes that were liquid inside and on the verge of spoiling, a small, hardened red pepper, a cauliflower head that was about 75% green stalk with only a 3 or 4" head, and a tiny pineapple that is about two weeks away from ripening. The bananas and the iceberg lettuce were forgotten, but I did get a big green cabbage that I did not order, but the root end was already grey and slimy in its packaging. Instead of refunding me for the skipped items, Instacart says they will discount my next order. The coupons I usually get at my local store are not reflected in an Instacart purchase either. Using Instacart seems is just swapping one set of problems for another, but not solving any hassles overall.

I have had an instacart account and had fairly good luck (other than the ridiculous mark up.)
I was notified by Instacart that my account was frozen due to a "fraudulent" claim on my account by BOA. I did not make a fraudulent claim. I have called and emailed instacart to no avail. I am told that "they will respond with an email at some point." However, they charged me my membership fee even though they will not let me use my account! The customer service department told me that they can only send an email "up the chain" and that they cannot resolve issues. So, I have no instacart account and I'm continuing to pay for one!

I bought an annual delivery service for $99. Cancelled it after 3 months due to how expensive the food is from Instacart, but they would not pro rate the refund. That is unheard of! PLUS, today I received a text from them that my credit card had been charged $800. I did not place an order! I immediately called my CC company and terminated the card. Next call was to Instacart. Told them of the fraud and suggested they stop the delivery immediately. At that moment I got another text saying the goods would be delivered in 2 hours. They had plenty of time to stop it - and did not. Received another text 2 hours later saying the goods had been delivered. Who knows where? The fraudsters had changed my email address and delivery address so I could not get into my account to rectify things. How did Instacart allow those changes to be made? Bad security systems, that's how.

If I could leave a 0 I would. First time user. One store, 27 items... nothing difficult. My order was to br delivered by 6:35pm at the latest. Got an email that it would be late 7:00-7:30pm. Bear in mind I was waiting on groceries to cook my family dinner. 7:30 came, I went to get fast food. Contacted them via email and they couldn't help me. They told me to call customer service. Customer service couldnt even contact the shopper. I asked for a refund and it will take 5-7 days! I live paycheck to paycheck and that was my grocery budget. They offered a $10 credit but Ill never use this company again.

I understand there are always human error and even computer error! But I have ordered instacart four times and twice they have screwed it up. Did not try to rectify it. I got no call back from instacart supervisor or corporate. They cancelled my order today which took me two days to make from Kroger. I will never use this business again. They do not conduct themselves or expect their employees to conduct themselves professionally. There customer service skills are the worst I've ever seen. Beware I hope this company goes out of business.

If I could give them 0 stars I would. Horrible customer service. Deactivated my account mid purchase, have no reason why, call the help center told me to submit an email, and wait 2 hours and it will be resolved. Waited 2 hours called back in my to find I was given the wrong information in the first place. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. No ability to fix problems. DO NOT USE INSTACART! Still no date and time when account will be unlocked to get my groceries.

It's true that Instacart charges more, often a lot more, for items than the grocery stores do, but I was WILLING to accept the costs in exchange for the convenience. That premium, however, should also mean that if SOMETHING IS WRONG, that the customer should have the confidence to know that Instacart will make it right. THEY DON'T, THEY WON'T, AND THEY REALLY DON'T CARE. You mean NOTHING to them. NOTHING.

I recently purchased two one pound containers of crab meat from Wegman's using Instacart. I was heading out on a week long vacation and didn't have time to do the shopping, so I was glad to have a service like Instacart to help me out. I was heading to a very rural area without cell service and wifi, and my parents had asked me if I'd bring some crab meat since they can't get it where they live.

After arriving, I unpacked the crab meat from the cooler and noticed that the expiration date on the bottom was APRIL 2019, and it was already late October of 2019, so the meat was SIX MONTHS EXPIRED! Each tub, at Instacart prices was $30, so we're talking $60 worth of expired crab meat. Clearly, the Instacart shopper didn't check the date, and by the time I did, I was 500 miles from home with no way to remedy the situation.

Upon returning home 9 days later, I went to the store to make a return. I was told that since it was Instacart, I'd have to contact them and do the return through them. I immediately contacted Instacart and explained the situation. THEY REFUSED TO REFUND THE COST OF THE EXPIRED PRODUCT BECAUSE, "IT HAD BEEN MORE THAN SEVEN DAYS SINCE IT WAS PURCHASED."

So, it didn't matter that their shopper delivered expired product to me. It didn't matter that the product was SIX MONTHS past its expiration date. It didn't matter that I was unable to attend to the matter while I was away. It didn't matter that I was a loyal customer that got grocery deliveries every week. It didn't matter that my elderly parents could have gotten seriously ill from the expired product their shopper delivered. NONE OF THAT MATTERED AT ALL.

So beware. If you need a grocery delivery service, then honestly, I'd look at a different source. Instacart is not worth the risk if they are unwilling to consider legitimate customer complaints.

Instacart's markup is outrageous - I tried using them a couple of times - and then realized the unbelievable audacity of their pricing - they typically ad 30-50% markup to the price of what you would pay in the store - I mean, that is crazy! (Pricing is set by Instacart, not the store). For example, one of those orders was from costco. A bag of mandarins that cost $6.49 in the store was $9.79 on Instacart - a 50.8% markup. There didn't seem to be a consistent pattern to me in how much the markup was, but generally 30% at least. (Verified in a store visit just 2 days later.) Furthermore, they add a 5% tip to the order! (Aren't they able to pay drivers out of their gigantic markups?) That basically means average markup of 35% including tip. I guess in an emergency if someone wanted to use them they just need to realize they will be paying 1/3 more.

This should be clearly disclosed and explained. What a ripoff.

Decided to give Instacart a try. Placed the order at 3:39PM with a 1 hr delivery time. Called customer service at 5:50 PM and was told the order was picked up and would be at my house in 10 min. As you can see this was almost 1.5 hrs past scheduled delivery time. Call back again at 6:20PM and was told the order was not picked up yet and the person picking up the order was not even at the store. Decided it was easier to go to Publix to pick up the items my self. DON'T waste your time on this worthless service.

This is the second time i've tried this service after being a loyal shipt user for 3 years. I tried this instacart service twice because i needed items that i couldn't get with shipt. I've been a shipt shopper for 3 years without an issue, today was the second time i tried your service and it was a complete nightmare. First the shopper picked a store to shop at that was not my preferred store so products i ordered were not for sale at the store he chose. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with a supervisor and i was told it was resolved and the shopper would be stopping at the correct store on his way to pick up the items that were missed from the wrong store. I check my account an hour later to see that my order was canceled without a text or email so i wasted 3 hours of my life dealing with a bunch of incompetent employees.
They made me re enter my order and start again so of course you deduct the $127 for a second time out of my account, i'm told i'm getting a $40 credit on the order after waiting 22:40 minutes on the phone to speak to instacart who then looped kroger into the call. I call back because it looks like my order was getting cancelled again so i call AGAIN and speak to another incompetent supervisor who tells me he's looking for another shopper and tells me i don't have a credit for $40 on my account when i asked him to verify it would be used on this order. So we have to call kroger YET AGAIN, and finally was taken care of ONLY after i made the supervisor email me that i would be getting this credit.
I WILL NEVER use you terrible service again... two horrible experiences is enough for me. This shopping experience took 6 hours today... that is absolutely ridiculous. No wonder Whole Foods dropped you, your entire company is a $#*! show.

The first time I used Instacart the shopper never brought all of my items but I was charge for it. The second time I use Instacart the shop or use cursewords at me and left my groceries on the floor spread out in my hallway. The third time I used Instacart the shop or called me and told me that Card would not go through. This is confusing to me because Instacart charges on my credit card in the shop or uses whatever card Instacart provides. I am now sitting here for 30 minutes not knowing if my groceries are coming or not.

I chose one star because there is no minus 10 stars. They attempted to deliver my order earlier than my order had stated. Then, they tried to charge me 15.00 for not being available! They then told me I couldn't get my order but I would have my money back in 5 days. It has now been 10 days and no refund. DON'T DO IT! This business sucks and they are using my money in the meantime. If I don't get my refund by Monday, October 21, I am filing complaints with every agency that governs them! I will update then!

They said our order would be delivered within the stated time frame, by 9:40pm. They later changed it to 10:15pm. When the clock got past 10:30, I started messaging them (that is another challenge) and got a text back that it would be delivered by 10pm THE FOLLOWING NIGHT. That is more than 24 hours later than the original time that they agreed to. I could have crawled to the store and back in that time.

Do not waste you time with this loser service. It sucks big time.

I lived in the South, I saw Instacart ads everywhere, I signed up, went on a wait list and never got another message from them. 1 year later, I moved to the North, Instacart ads everywhere, but I can't see if there are any jobs in MY AREA because my account is stuck on this year old wait list bull$#*! and won't let me access my profile to update my address. I try from a computer, it sends me to the app, I try from the app and it suggests a site that no longer exists. I use the chat support and the guy tells me he has to get another guy "higher up" to get it done. I can't even delete my profile, which at this rate is all I have any interest in doing with these fools.

How "high" do you have to get for any of this to make sense?

This company is the absolute worst I've ever dealt with. I placed an order for my Thanksgiving groceries as it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. While they deliver window was between 11 am and 1 pm, I had still not received anything by 7 pm in the evening. I phoned and was advised to cancel my order because it hadn't been booked with a shopper/driver yet. I said that I wanted to cancel and have the money returned to my bank account immediately, when they advised me that it takes 2-7 business days to return my money. I have nothing to feed my family for Thanksgiving now and no money to purchase more groceries for this holiday weekend. This company is horrible and I do not recommend it to anyone.

FROM OTTAWA, CANADA: I signed up for the free-trial and got charged $100 for their express service UNKNOWINGLY! They took my money and refused to give me a refund because I only noticed past their one month refund policy. I only used the app ONE TIME. I am a student and their response was that they were going to refund me $9.99. What an INSULT. Do not use this app. The one time I did use it the shoppers picked the moldiest products! The worst!