Instacart: Groceries & Food 12+

Great service, one time issue only

I love ordering from my phone. The cost of delivery and tip is worth me not having to leave house and put miles on my vehicle or deal with aggravation of crowded stores. The closest Publix is about 15 min away so I’m already committing to at least a 30 minute drive. I only had an issue one time - I ordered things for dinner (it was about 5ish). I should have ordered earlier but I didn’t know better. It was about 2 hours in and no one started working on my order. I called IC to see what their policy was and what the recourse was if my groceries didn’t come. The lady said “then it will just come tomorrow”. Which of course was unacceptable since it was dinner and I work for a living and wouldn’t be home. I ended up going myself and, as I was in Publix, someone started working on my order. My fault, I had forgotten to cancel it. I told them right away obviously through the messenger system. But, I’ll just always remember that ordering sooner is better. I wish there would have been a way for someone to say “no one is available for 2 hours, fend for yourself!” Keep in mind I live in a small city, mostly rural. I’m surprised we even have this service here. I love ordering groceries on lazy days!!! I also save some money from not going in the store and getting things I don’t need. Thanks IC!

Developer Response ,

Thank you for taking the time to rate us!- Iris

Great way to earn money but very one sided

I love shopping for Instacart. It’s a great way to make money quickly however, this app/ company is VERY customer driven. Your shopper rating determines your earning potential and it’s not fair at all. Customers can lie and say items are missing from their order or that the order is missing all together and you as a shopper receive a lowered rating. Customers can also give bad reviews and rate 1 star for things out of your control. The lower your rating the lower your earning potential. The lower your rating the more likely you are to get the batch’s NO ONE wants like the low or no tip orders. Disputing the claims don’t do anything to help even when you take your pictures and attempt to text the customer when items aren’t in stock and the customer doesn’t respond. It’s very easy to have your ratings drop and harder to get them back up. The lower your rating goes the more likely you are to have your account deactivated. Instacart needs to fix this and make it harder for the ratings to drop. Anything below a 5 star review drops the rating as well so you HAVE to get 5 stars everytime. But I guess until enough of us shoppers get on them about this it will continue to happen bc hey the demand for this huh job is high so they don’t care if they lose a shopper however many shoppers care if they lose this gig job. Anyway just wanted to give anyone out there a heads up on the inside workings of this app to make a sound judgement and be aware.

Always an issue

Okay so I started Instacart before the Pandemic started and was over joyed with the amount of money I was making in a short amount of time. I liked it more than DoorDash. That was within the first few weeks of being a shopper.
After I would have a whole bunch of issues and glitches making my orders take longer and more difficult to do. The year 2020 I had an order that was roughly $500 the app glitched and erased my profile just as I was on the way to deliver the items and it took the Customer service hours to even do anything that could help. There was an order before that where the app glitched and I was sitting at the customers house for hours waiting for a resolve.
Fast forward 2021 I use the app under my moms information and didn’t have a single problem with the app except for bad connection here or there. I try to reapply (because the app glitched and deleted my account) under my own information again and was already having issues like it wouldn’t let me update my phone information. I tried to get a rep and they seemed helpful but then I couldn’t get to the chat to answer any questions. I finally get to the chat and had to start a whole new chat with different people who weren’t even able to help.
It’s all been a headache and very disappointing. It seems they’re doing all these updates but not fixing anything that actually matters.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! We'd love to look into this issue further for you. Please send us a private message (Facebook) or a direct message (Twitter) with details about the issue and your account information. We'll be happy to assist you! -Jina 🥕