InstacartReviews 2,490

The most horrible customer service. Don't even think about signing up for their membership. They send you wrong, rotten items. Many times items are missing, few times my groceries were not delivered at all. When I contacted customer service they refused to do anything. No refunds for missing or rotten items. How is it fair. They simply ignore your complaints. Waste of time and money.

I ordered ground beef but got ground beef and pork instead. Instead of refunding $47.85 which was the original price of the ground beef, they refunded $23.90 and insisted that was how much I was charged originally despite the receipt showing I was charged $47.85. Their shoppers never get orders right and their customer service is the most difficult people to deal with.

Extremely angry with Instacart at the moment. Placed an order, delivery time was changed four times and then never received the order. Phoned the rep was assured that the order would be the first one going out the next morning. Then the next morning we find out 15 minutes the order was supposed to be delivered the order was still not assigned. When I demanded to know why this was happening I was finally told they had no shoppers available in our area. If I had been told that in the first place other arrangements could have been made. Why would someone take an order, assure the customer it would be delivered when you know you had no shoppers in that area. Extremely poor service. Suggest that anyone who places an order ask if they have shoppers willing to shop for the order because they will not tell you.

I am concerned regarding the pricing discrepancies I have encountered with my recent orders at Instacart. It has come to my attention that the total amount charged by Instacart online exceeds the actual receipt total from the store. When I reviewed the receipt, it discloses the merchandise price and sales tax for a total. Instacart then charges a delivery fee, which is expected, and then you have the ability to insert a tip for the shopper. This is how it should work: within their terms, they are not the retailer, and prices are subject to change by the retailer. They use shopper-assigned cards when making purchases to reflect variable-priced items such as produce. This leads me to believe the final price is the price, not the posted price, as those change daily.

My problem with this is that it exposes that Instacart is not only not disclosing the actual price, but they are collecting excess sales tax and gauging tip calculations on the online price instead of the store receipt, which is illegal.

You cannot upcharge individuals by saying you are paying tax and then pocketing the difference. I have forwarded all the documentation, as well as the chats with their customer support, to the Department of Consumer Affairs in the State of GA. I am sure they will have something to say about this.

Lastly, Check the receipts against the charges if you see this service.

Today was the first time I used Instacart. One item ($3.55) was missing. I notified them immediately via their chatbot and soon got a live agent. Her offer was to credit my account for the value of the missing item or issue a refund for the same amount.

I explained that her offer was not good enough as it amounts to a no-harm, no-foul for Instacart. But I'm still missing a product I was counting on. My remedy is to place another order and incur more fees or get in my car and go to the store myself.

I suggested that, since I paid fees and a tip that the minimum refund amount should include a pro rata portion of these additional charges. She offered me a free month of service. I countered that I wasn't likely to be using their service again so that was of no use to me.

I suggested she have a driver bring me the missing item. In that way, even though it would be a few hours later than what was promised (i.e., my full order delivered within a specific window of time), I could live with it. She said they couldn't do that.

I did my part - I placed the order, paid the money (including their fees) and tipped the driver in advance. Instacart did not perform as promised and when I requested that they hold up their end of the deal, they refused.

It's not difficult to understand why they get very poor reviews.

My daughter bought me a $50 instacart gift card as a Christmas present, which I thought I had used until a $53 charge showed up on my credit card (for some reason my purchase wasn't charged to the instacart card but to the credit card I had to offer in case my groceries came to more than the gift card.) Then today a $105 charge showed up on that credit card for a yearly membership! Apparently there's a 14-day trial membership when you use the instacard and I hadn't canceled within the 14 days. What a scam! I hadn't even used their damn card, or become a member! The worst of it is that I'm a senior citizen on a very tight budget, and their $105 charge resulted in a $35 overdraft charge at my bank. There goes my medicine for the month.

I had an order delivered to wrong address and they were just unwilling for the longest to simply make it right. Why should customer have to suffer waiting 2 weeks for a return. I needed those items for catering and I couldn't get them. Waiting another 3 hours for delivery or a two week refund wasn't an option. It was a horrible, long first experience. They make it very hard to trust the incompetence of the employees they hire. There is no accountability and it's not ok. That was my first and last order with them! Stay away!

The customer service is horrible! Management horrible! They will make a mistake and expect you to pay for it and wait for them to correct it! No one gives the same information! No one is actually helpful. I will never use that service ever again

If there was a zero star, I would choose that! NEVER allow them to choose the substitutions, they will always pick something very expensive and NOT similar. They chose actual meat for vegan meat. Also, missing items and orders never arriving and the customer service is terrible. They do not do what they say and just say things to get you off the line. Promising credits and never giving them. Took my referral bonus because I was related to the person referring! They also charge a yearly or monthly fee then charge a large percent for service fees EVERY delivery and most stores raise their prices for Instacart, check it out on the stores website, the prices are raised.

THINK ABOUT THE OLDER PEOPLE GETTING ROBBED TO MAKE THESE PEOPLE AT "CORPORATE INSTACART" BILLIONS! THEY'RE STEALING OUR MONEY! NOT EVERYONE IS TECHNICALLY SAVVY! SOMETIMES IT CAN BE A MISTAKE ESPECIALLY IF YOU CALLED RIGHT AWAY TO FIX THE PROBLEM!

On Jan 4th 2024 I purchased food from Food Lion on Instacart. Why? Cause I was sick didn't want to leaves out the house & told my husband before work " It's ok I'll just Instacart" to make sure I feed not only him but my 2 sons that work long hours coming home hungry & my daughter that was home with me…

That I order $50 something dollars for something quick "Tacos" & still didn't get everything I asked for. However when I received everything and I look on my account to make sure they didn't charge me for what I didn't receive to find out that $72 was taking out which was cool cause
Cause I will receive my balance from my order within 7 days.

But then I saw a $99 for a membership "I NEVER AGREED TO"! I called for then to tell me I can't get my money back. I asked what happened? They said I pressed something. So then I said if I did it,. It definitely was a mistake cause I only used this service 3 times ever in our lifetime why would I spend so much on something I don't use often?!

To me saying OK! It was an accident and since you have my $72 KEEP THAT! For shipping whatever just give me my $99 cause I don't want the membership! Especially NOT FOR FREE SHIPPING! AND CAUSE I DON'T USE YOUR SERVICE OFTEN IT WAS CONVENIENT CAUSE I DON'T FEEL WELL AT THIS TIME!

And not only that before I checked out why didn't y'all make sure I wanted this $99 extra charge before ordering my things? Cause I would have said "NO"!

No answer! That's why this needs to STOP! It's tooooo much going on today to have honest ppl like me just needing a service that so "great & with convenience" to take money from innocent people like us!

Arrived to our destination with 4 hungry children and far away from any grocery store. I put my order in and it was charged but never delivered. They then told me to cancel and reorder but that would have cost me a ton in fees and exchange. I had to talk to 10 different people to get someone to do their job and resend the groceries without me having to pay again. The shopper did an awful job for substituting and bought a totally wrong size of an item we really needed, he clearly can't tell the difference between an 8 and a 12 so no wonder he shops for groceries for a living. They have no refunded that item even though I have, again, spoken to many 'customer service' people. Can you even call them that when they are unhelpful and can't do their jobs either? Absolutely worst experience even with a delivery service. Ruined the beginning of our vacation as I spent many hours trying to fix their mistake. Also spent ton extra in food from quick service places as I had no groceries. DONT USE INSTACART IT IS AWFUL!

One day I wanted to sign up for instacart, and I was informed I had an existing account. I wasn't aware of this, and could not access it. I never noticed any charges. I gave up on my online shopping that day and forgot about it. A couple years later, my grocery store offers online shopping and grocery pickup. This is the only way to use their digital coupons so I try it out. I apparently have to sign up for instacart to make use of this, and I signed up for the free trial. I go to check out (and my FREE pick up through instacart would have actually been charged by the store anyway, had it worked). There was no way to checkout or add payment method. I don't know how instacart thought they'd be paid after that free trial. I immediately cancelled as it did not work. I kept receiving alerts that my free trial was ending. I found it difficult to reach customer support, and the man was rude. It's as if asking people to run off script is too much trouble. The man couldn't find my account, and I explained this had been an issue and I did not want to be charged. He finds the recent account and explains it will not be auto renewed. I ask to speak with a supervisor and repeatedly get put on hold and given excuses and then hung up on. For my past accounts, the only way to prevent them from charging I would need to contact my financial institution and possibly close accounts. Instacart cannot look up accounts without the phone number or email associated with that account (and sometimes even then they cannot locate them). They will also inform you that they have many thousands of customers and you and the many negative reviews don't matter. Somewhere I still have an instacart account being charged to some other account that's probably an old credit card that should've been paid off and closed... Be careful with instacart.

Dont ever use instacart. I ordered 198$ worth of groceries. THE INSTACART SHOPPER WENT INSIDE KROGERS, SAID THAT EVERY SINGLE ITEM I ORDERED WAS OUT OF STOCK AND SUBSITUTED THE ITEMS FOR ITEMS THEY WANTED. THEY ENDED UP CHARGING ME $225.00 FOR RANDOM CRAP THIS PERSON CHOOSE TO GET INSTEAD AND THEN NEVER SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE WITH ANY GROCERIES! THEN INSTA CART TRIED TO SAY THE PERSON WENT TO THE WRONG HOUSE.

WHICH IS TOTAL BULL$#*! CONSIDERING WHY IN THE HELL WOULD A SHOPPER SUBSITUTE CAT LITTER AND CAT FOOD FOR A HOUSE THAT YOU DONT EVEN KNOW HAS A $#*!ING CAT.

TO BE CLEAR, I DONT HAVE A $#*!ING CAT.

$#*! YOU INSTACART AND THE INSTACART SHOPPER. 4 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS AND IM OUT $225.00 UNTIL INSTACART GETS OFF THERE $#*! TO REFUND ME MY MONEY. MEANWHILE MY 4 CHILDREN HAVE NO $#*!ING FOOD TO EAT BECAUSE WERE WAITING ON A $#*!ING REFUND.

$#*! YOU!

Terrible service - just tried to make my first insta cart order. They denied it - for security reasons they said. Here's why it was denied: it was 30.00 off 100.00 and they dont want to honor that. Ask me to upload personal info (pic of DL and CC) If the7y dont want my business that works for me! Do not use this company.

Instacart purposely over charges customers. Several items on the app were actually cheaper in store. One item the shopper purchased was a reduced item which had the price on top of the bag. The beef I purchased also had the price listed on the package. Which was two dollars cheaper than what was listed on the app. Instead of Instacart, crediting customers the difference after checkout they keep the money on the products they've intentionally marked up. So not only do they charge for delivery, a service fee, and tip. They secretly increase the prices of the items to collect additional fees. I wrote to their customer service, and their explanation was terrible stating all special offers are not available via the app. Which makes absolutely no sense! At the end of the day the shopper/Instacart paid less for the item that I paid for yet I'm still paying full price.

I received a promotional email from Instacart purporting to offer $40 in discount on a purchase of $80. I made the purchase, but did not receive the advertised discount. When I wrote Instacart about it, I was told that I was ineligible for their discount, because the retailer had added a discount of their own. (Instacart's fine print for their promotion states: "Offer may not be combined with any other sale, promotion, discount, code, coupon, and/or offer.")

The retailer's discount was $2.

Rip off.

The last three times that I have ordered from Instacart I have specified on every single item - no substitutions, refund only - and every time I receive substitutions.
This is a bait and switch to get the consumer to pay for items that they don't want.
Every time I have to call and waste 45 minutes explaining how Instacart ignores its customers orders, and that I want a refund for those items.

I even have on the notes NO SUBSTITUTIONS.

What do I have to do to get exactly what I order - and no replacement of it is out of stock?

Obviously this is intentional as it has happened three times in a row.
Terrible terrible customer service.

Instacart sent me an offer for $40 off an order greater than $80 expiring on December 10th. I assumed that this meant that the offer expired at the end of the day on December 10th as is standard practice. Instead, the offer expired as soon as the date changed. So, in reality the offer was only good through December 9th. I contacted Instacart about this deceptive offer and requested an equivalent replacement offer to make up for the confusing way in which they expire offers. They refused. I will never order anything from them ever gain.

Service sucks unless you have 3-4 hours to wait on prepaided food it would be bad or cool by then. I went from 30 min to one hour to 31/2 hours

I placed an order through Instacart today and when it asked if I wanted to join Instacart + I agreed. I wanted the monthly subscription but was charged the annual fee.

I immediately started a chat and told the rep that I want a refund for the difference. Zeeba said that I needed to cancel the membership and even provided details of how to cancel it. I verified that I would automatically be refunded and she said yes.

After cancelling I noticed it said I still had plus until December 9th, 2024. I also noticed I didn't receive an email stating I had cancelled or that the refund was being processed. So I asked her how long I need to wait to see the refund as their refunds are usually instant for me (when they don't have an item, when they're refunding the authorized amount prior to charging the actual bill amount etc.). Zeeba advised I wait 5 to 10 days for the refund.

I told her I need proof now and that I need my money back asap. We then spent about 20 minutes going back and forth with Zeeba constantly repeating that the refund was processed and that the delay is due to my bank. She then tried to get rid of me by asking me to contact my bank instead of her and she even became rude.

I asked for a manager and, of course, there were none available. After about another 10 or so minutes of me repeating that I want a manager, she then told me I'm not eligible for a refund. Again, this is after telling me to cancel & 20 minutes of telling me the refund had been processed and that it's my bank causing the delay.

Instacart is a horrible company that upcharges everything, takes more than they're supposed to and then, just to further screw you over, won't refund you even when their employees tell you incorrect information and blame the banks for a refund being delayed. I don't understand how they're still in business.

As a single Mom, this has truly screwed me over and I will try my best to make this situation known everywhere possible. I hope they go out of business.

I also have screenshots of the entire chat with Zeeba. Which she ended while I was still waiting for a manager.