I am so done with Instacart

[Anonymous]

I delete or reduce the tip if they make mistakes. I also contact instacart if my order is wrong and they refund the item. I've mostly switched to prime delivery though. Once my items were dropped off at the wrong house. I contacted amazon and also deleted the tip. I feel like that is the only way delivery will improve - they need to work for it and not just get tips for poor work.

[Anonymous]

That's weird. I had one issue with Instacart in the three years I've used it. But I live in DC. I don't use it for everything, but as a single mom without a car, it's been a life saver.

[Anonymous]

I have ordered from Instacart at least weekly for over a year and the errors that you speak of are uncommon, also whenever I have had issues they have either redelivered the item to me or refunded me immediately. Maybe you need to change your settings so that the shopper can contact you if there's a change or replacement? I don't use it anymore as their online inventory needs serious updates.

[Anonymous]

Last time I ordered they substituted some dairy products with LACTOSE free products.

[Anonymous]

I love it. The communication is awesome and they require approval of substitutions. Never had an issue.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had so many issues with Instacart too! These other posters who haven’t must have been lucky. I dealt with missing items and poor substitutions for a while. Some shoppers communicated about substitutions while others really didn’t. And several times, major items were missing with no explanation. The final straw was when, twice in a row, my shopper showed up hours after the delivery window ended with warning or explanation. Never again.

Prime Now is a little better, and Fresh Direct is great if you have the time to plan ahead enough.

[Anonymous]

I've used Instacart 5 times and 4 out of those 5, something has gone wrong with my order (incorrect items delivered, driver not being able to find my building, non-approved substitutions for items). The last time I placed an order two weeks ago, the shopper canceled 4 items on my order as being "out of stock" (peanut butter and diced canned tomatoes? you're telling me there were none in the entire store? yeah....ok) and one as "dietary restriction," which was completely wrong--I'd never listed an allergy or other restriction for that item. I have no idea where that came from. Then he delivered it to the wrong apartment! Instacart support was apologetic and arranged for a replacement delivery within 2 hours, which turned out to have the items the previous shopper had labeled as "out of stock." I'm pretty sure the last guy didn't even look on the shelves.

Switching to Peapod this week and have a delivery scheduled for this afternoon. I hope it does work out. It's hard to get out and shop with an infant and the delivery service was a godsend.

[Anonymous]

You all know you can request no substitution or pick a specific replacement for an item, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have ordered from Instacart at least weekly for over a year and the errors that you speak of are uncommon, also whenever I have had issues they have either redelivered the item to me or refunded me immediately. Maybe you need to change your settings so that the shopper can contact you if there's a change or replacement? I don't use it anymore as their online inventory needs serious updates.

OP again. On my last order, I ordered 6 half-gallons of milk and got 1. I had a substitution marked (as I did for each of the dozen items I wanted), but the shopper got 1 half-gallon and didn't get the substitute or even text me. That was just one example of multiple screw-ups on what was a fairly simple order (all basics, nothing exotic or hard-to-find). I didn't get charged for what wasn't delivered, but neither did they offer to redeliver, and I emailed back and forth with customer service multiple times because it was so aggravating. If they'd offered to redeliver, that would at least have been something. But instead all I got were platitudes and canned responses. One particularly obnoxious line was "it's always disappointing when items are out of stock." For God's sake, I know for sure that one of my two milk choices was in stock -- it always, always is, and if push comes to shove you can ask the people who work dairy for help.

The errors I've been experiencing used to be uncommon, but they are now common for me for where I am and where I'm shopping from. For some bizarre reason Amazon Prime doesn't recognize my zip code, and I haven't tried Fresh Direct so I don't know what that's like, but Instacart has failed me too many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you need produce just forget it. I wondered how anyone found such bad produce at Whole Foods. Terrible. Then that you can’t return it to the store makes it worse.

Prime now will refund immediately no questions asked or need to take it to the store

[Anonymous]

I’m really shocked that some of you are having such a bad experience. In 6 months of using it weekly, I’ve only had one instance of getting the wrong item and Instacart refunded me immediately. It has been such a lifesaver for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have ordered from Instacart at least weekly for over a year and the errors that you speak of are uncommon, also whenever I have had issues they have either redelivered the item to me or refunded me immediately. Maybe you need to change your settings so that the shopper can contact you if there's a change or replacement? I don't use it anymore as their online inventory needs serious updates.

OP again. On my last order, I ordered 6 half-gallons of milk and got 1. I had a substitution marked (as I did for each of the dozen items I wanted), but the shopper got 1 half-gallon and didn't get the substitute or even text me. That was just one example of multiple screw-ups on what was a fairly simple order (all basics, nothing exotic or hard-to-find). I didn't get charged for what wasn't delivered, but neither did they offer to redeliver, and I emailed back and forth with customer service multiple times because it was so aggravating. If they'd offered to redeliver, that would at least have been something. But instead all I got were platitudes and canned responses. One particularly obnoxious line was "it's always disappointing when items are out of stock." For God's sake, I know for sure that one of my two milk choices was in stock -- it always, always is, and if push comes to shove you can ask the people who work dairy for help.

The errors I've been experiencing used to be uncommon, but they are now common for me for where I am and where I'm shopping from. For some bizarre reason Amazon Prime doesn't recognize my zip code, and I haven't tried Fresh Direct so I don't know what that's like, but Instacart has failed me too many times.

It sounds like the shoppers are taking advantage of the bad customer service and the fact that they are off the hook as soon as they deliver so they are prioritizing speed over accuracy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you need produce just forget it. I wondered how anyone found such bad produce at Whole Foods. Terrible. Then that you can’t return it to the store makes it worse.

Maybe they buy it at giant and swap it out, that would save a ton of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've used Instacart 5 times and 4 out of those 5, something has gone wrong with my order (incorrect items delivered, driver not being able to find my building, non-approved substitutions for items). The last time I placed an order two weeks ago, the shopper canceled 4 items on my order as being "out of stock" (peanut butter and diced canned tomatoes? you're telling me there were none in the entire store? yeah....ok) and one as "dietary restriction," which was completely wrong--I'd never listed an allergy or other restriction for that item. I have no idea where that came from. Then he delivered it to the wrong apartment! Instacart support was apologetic and arranged for a replacement delivery within 2 hours, which turned out to have the items the previous shopper had labeled as "out of stock." I'm pretty sure the last guy didn't even look on the shelves.

Switching to Peapod this week and have a delivery scheduled for this afternoon. I hope it does work out. It's hard to get out and shop with an infant and the delivery service was a godsend.

This is what always happens to me -- items marked as "out of stock" that I know are never out of stock. It drives me nuts because I know it's not true.

[Anonymous]

One of the things that I have struggled with it that most of the produce items that I pick are substituted for the organic version - at a higher price.