Instacart Reviews 215

I paid for a premium rush order. Needed by 5pm. It was to be here 4:25-5:00. The delivery time changed repeatedly, finally arriving at 5:35 pm. Delivery guy left them at door and messaged me in the apt. Doesn't even bother to knock. Never again.

This is the third time that I haven’t received a few items on my order. I’ve had refunds but this third time I emailed them and it said I will receive my refund 5-7 days. I never received the refund and I’ve sent several. No response to any of them. I googled my issue and I found answers that if you keep trying to get another refund, they think that your scamming then for money. Are they kidding me??? I am an honest person and I’m getting screwed because of their horrible workers, workers who don’t get orders right, missing items, wrong items, never on time, leaving orders at other people’s doorsteps…. Not to mention how instacart had added a fee for the time of delivery and 98% of the time your time changes and you don’t get refunded for that or even a discount. Why pay for specific times of delivery?? JUST THEM ADDING ON ANOTHER FEE AND STILL GETTING AWAY WITH IT. It makes me angry that they ignore and won’t refund my they owe me. Something needs to be done with this garbage of a company.

This is worse than getting your groceries delivered by monkeys. I'm confident that monkeys could do a better job than Instacart.

Absolute garbage. Just came from talking to them and they just ended the chat on me while I am still asking them questions. They charged me membership fees that I never authorized. Scammers!

Instacart is really starting to decline in service while the costs constantly rising.
The delivery time frames are ignored with deliveries an hour or more late.
They have become totally unreliable.

Today I placed my second order on this website. The first time, they didn't have the product I wanted, so they cancelled the order and refunded my money. But today, with my second order, I don't think I've ever encountered such terrible customer service. The product was out of stock, and the driver sent me several replacements. I replied that I didn't want any replacements and wanted to cancel the order on the website, but I couldn't because the driver was supposedly already on his way with the goods I didn't want. The driver and the website don't cooperate, and the customer service when you're dissatisfied is worse than ever. This is my last purchase from this scam website.

I decided to place my first Instacart order today because I was sick and didn’t want to leave the house. When I first signed up, I wasn’t even sure if I’d place an order, so I entered an approximate location. I wasn’t comfortable giving my exact address to a new app right away.
After deciding to go ahead with my order and clicking “Finalize,” I realized Instacart had automatically saved a completely different address, one that’s about 6 km away from where I actually live. I immediately tried to cancel the order, but instead of simply letting me do that, the app prompted me to “speak to a specialist who can help update your address.”
So I selected that option and waited about five minutes for a specialist to respond. By the time they finally joined the chat, I tried canceling again only to be told I’d now be charged a $15 cancellation fee because “too much time had passed.”
When the specialist did respond, they sent generic, copy-and-paste messages that didn’t address my issue. My very first message clearly explained the problem and even included the correct address so they could just update it. Instead, I got vague, robotic replies like “Let me check your account” and “Please hold a moment.” After waiting again, I was finally told they “can’t change a delivery address once an order is placed.”
How does that make any sense? My “approximate location” turned into somewhere 6 km away — that’s not an approximation, that’s an entirely different neighborhood. If Instacart wants to claim it’s for “security reasons,” then fine — but build a system where I can verify my identity (with ID or payment confirmation) and fix it myself. The fact that this basic function isn’t possible in 2025 is absurd.
The delivery driver themself was fine - this isn’t their fault, but everything else about the process was an absolute disaster. Between the terrible app design, the robotic and useless customer service, and being charged fees for their own system’s failures, I can confidently say this was one of the worst user experiences I’ve had in years.

After everything else, I didn't even get the main item I needed!!! It was not in the bag.

If Instacart claims to care about their customers, they should be ashamed of how broken and unhelpful their platform and support system are. I regret the service fee and tip I paid, and I will never use Instacart again.

1-Star Review: INSTACART'S LYING, LAZY DRIVERS – ORDER VANISHED INTO THIN AIR, NOT EVEN IN THE LOBBY! PURE SCAM!Instacart, you've officially crossed into criminal territory with this bullshit! I trusted you for a straightforward grocery delivery to my address and Apt. – crystal-clear instructions: Park in the circle/ramp with flashers, hit the 3rd floor (ONE FLIGHT UP, genius), spot 'my last name' on the wall or call box, press it – it RINGS ME DIRECTLY so I can buzz your ass in. Boom, done. But no, your idiot shopper Clarencia couldn't hack basic literacy or effort. Checkout at 4:45 PM, "delivering" tease, then that cryptic crap: "White floor are you on?" (The hell? You mean the pristine lobby tiles you're too chickenshit to navigate?) I fire back instantly, but your clown ignores it, marks "delivered," and blames ME in chat: "In the lobby. I went on the 3rd floor and could not find your apartment. She stated that’s why I wrote you because I have 2 other people orders and you were not responding fast enough." LIAR! I rush down, flip the lobby upside down – NOTHING. Zilch. No bags, no groceries, no trace of my hard-earned cash evaporating into your void. It wasn't in the damn lobby; it was dumped GOD KNOWS WHERE – some random hallway, stolen by neighbors, or straight-up pocketed by this lazy individual for a "quick resale." Who the hell knows? And you expect me to chase ghosts while my food rots in limbo? This isn't a glitch; it's straight-up fraud. Perishables gone, refund roulette with your ghost support, and zero accountability for these unqualified morons who lie through their teeth to cover their lazy tracks. I've poured money into your app for years, but this vanishing act? Game over. You're a sinking ship of deceit. RUN FROM INSTACART LIKE THE PLAGUE – uninstall this trash, grab your keys, and shop like a civilized human. Zero stars? Try negative infinity. Burn it all down, you incompetent hacks!

trash Company, offered discounts that don't work. 40$ off if buy 100$ i have 120$ of groceries, nothing but groceries. and 120$ before all the fees. They offer me 10$ off a 40$ min. so then i try and use the 40$ min, and then the 10$ off coupon disappears. This company truly is the biggest bunch of BS. The grocery delivery service is ripe for the pickings if a company wants to step up and have integrity.

Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Delivery Service, Overcharges, and Unprofessional Conduct

Dear Instacart Customer Support,

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding multiple serious issues I have experienced with your service. As a paying customer with an active monthly pass, I expect a basic standard of professionalism, reliability, and respect. Unfortunately, my recent experiences have fallen far below acceptable standards.

Delivery Issues:
Orders are frequently left outside the building or on lobby benches, exposing them to theft and contamination.

Drivers often refuse to deliver to my unit, even when explicitly instructed.

One driver handed me the wrong order, refused to correct the mistake, and left abruptly while blasting music.

I’ve received rotten vegetables and moldy frozen bread on more than one occasion.

Driver Conduct:
Several drivers have displayed rude behavior, including bringing children to carry groceries—raising concerns about child labor.

A driver refused to fulfill my $270 order after I added items, and the order was reassigned without explanation.

Despite tipping generously ($10 or more per order), I’ve encountered repeated negligence and corner-cutting.

Customer Service Failures:
When I contacted support to report these issues and requested the agent’s name for documentation, the call was abruptly disconnected.

The copy-paste responses from your support team do not address the severity of the situation.

Financial Concerns:
I’ve received an email indicating I’ve been overcharged on several orders, yet no refund has been issued.

It is unacceptable that charges are processed instantly, but refunds take 7–10 business days.

The “percentage hold” for potential item additions is not clearly disclosed and lacks transparency.

Legal and Ethical Accountability:
Instacart claims no legal responsibility for the actions of contract drivers. However, as the platform facilitating these transactions, you are responsible for ensuring that drivers adhere to basic standards of conduct, safety, and legality. Contract work does not exempt your company from consumer protection laws or ethical obligations.

Requested Actions:

A full investigation into the incidents described above.

Immediate refund for any overcharges and compensation for spoiled or mishandled goods.

Clear documentation of your policies regarding driver conduct, delivery standards, and financial holds.
Your site will automatically try to charge a yearly fee when signing up. The site always has the yearly subscription pre-selected, with tiny lettering, and if you miss it, you might end up spending half your rent on delivery membership fees.

Another company that should not be trusted.

I joined instacart+ on March 4 2025. Everything went well for the first few months, if you disregard the company’s high services charges, markups, and other fees, but I was ok with paying all of them, as that is what I signed up for and agreed to.

Fast forward a few months, I made an order for my mother who lives in another province and who suffers from Alzheimer’s/dementia and which is why I got the service in the first place. The order was accepted and all was good. A few hours later I was sent a text that my order had been canceled. I later received a document stating that fraud had occurred on my account and instacart needed a copy of my driver’s license and credit card to unlock my account. I called customer service, which is another hellish story on its own and was lied to many times, about my account fee being refunded, which is wasn’t, about supervisors calling me back within 24 to 48 which never happened on several occasions and so on.

They said the only way to unlock my account is to respond to the document they sent me. Driver’s license, credit card and so on. I never opened the email fearing a scam.

I said, but you know it is me as you have my text, my phone number my credit card, which I have used several times and which does not believe any fraud has been committed and the order is going to the same address as it had before and I have never disputed past orders. Oh and it was a same day Costco order and Costco is unaware of any fraud on my account and has my picture to boot. Nope only the form will unlock the account. So I asked to speak to the fraud department, which was denied. I asked for a refund as they could no longer provide the service I paid for again denied.

A month later I tried for fun to use instacart to send my mother an order and see if my account was unlocked. Funny enough the order went through, but I had to oay extra fees like delivery and other fees, because my instacart+ membership was still locked, so I called back.

Instacart froze my instacart+ membership, kept my yearly payment due to some sort of fraud which they cannot discuss, but trusts me to use instacart, Costco same day and the same credit card I have always used.

Everything was the exact same, but for extra charges Instacart was ok to do business with me.

This has to be illegal, but I am not a lawyer.

I even asked to only have my mother’s address as the only address to delver goods and only using one credit card. I even played the sympathy card of m e living far away from my mother and her illness, nothing. All they said was they were not set up to do what I wanted.

In my opinion you would have to be insane to send instacart government I.D. And your credit card because that is their policy.

Lost my yearly membership fee and will try UBER eats next.

As an aside, check your bill very closely, as I had chicken appear on my bill that I did not order. Customer service acknowledged the mistake, apologized and as a customer service gesture told me that driver will be taken off my account. He won’t be fired or reprimanded, but he will not deliver my orders again, as I am assuming I caught him adding an item to my order for my mother and then keeping it. Only one item, very sneaky and suspicious.

please do not ever buy the membership, 2 yearsn a row they have billed me for it, the assure me it will not happen again, again happens in 19 hours.. terrible at not adding items to your cart you do not want

I ordered 11 items to be delivered from Costco today at a grand Total of 140.00. This involved tip for the delivery person and when I got the order, the entire order was I called their customer service and asked to have a complete refund and I would go with something else. They kept me on hold for over half an hour before telling me that they could not do that that was not in their service manual. I told him the how’s it going, Western? Thank you.y had two choices either refund my money and I would find somebody else to do business with or I would contact my credit card and dispute the charges I have disputed the charges and then I also informed them that I would be putting documentation online for them Just some more information this is the third order in a row or something has gone wrong and I’ve never had them deliver the completely wrong order I will not be renewing my premium membership

I have been using them for over a year today the shopper needed me to sign for a high price item, NO PROBLEM but I missed him by a minute,saw him pulling out of my driveway just ignored and left 😡
Got on Instacart help bottom line 24/48 hrs when someone from the specialist dept will contact me via email
In the meantime $239 of mine tied up
I have to go get the groceries and the carpet cleaner which is for my work place needed tomorrow and pay for it again
POOR SERVICE is being kind

Instacart two years a Public Company
Current Market Capitalization: As of August 8, 2025, Instacart's market capitalization is estimated to be between $12.87 billion and $13.54 billion, depending on the source.

Can you believe it has no support for consumers at all!
In 2024, when Costco opened in San Juan Capistrano under the name Price Club, my wife and I became Executive Members. They have Costco's direct support, but it can only be used for the stores' internal solutions. Now that Costco issued a new Executive Member Card to me because mine got lost, there is no way to enter the new membership number at Instacart, and we cannot have home delivery for an order held for more than three days in the queue.

This is a real abuse that a Publicly Traded Company just serves and kisses up to their big contractors and to hell with the consumer. It's time for us consumers to voice our concerns loudly about publicly traded companies' disregard for us!

Instacart attracts customers by presenting free delivery offers, subsequently enrolling them in an annual membership costing $111 or higher without their consent. No email address is available for customers to reach a supervisor.
I communicated to them that I did not consent to this payment and that I have no intention of utilizing their services, thus I am requesting a refund. They are notably uncooperative regarding the process of refunding my money, despite understanding that I do not utilize their services. This reflects a lack of integrity in their business practices and a failure to maintain transparency.

Please take note accordingly and refrain from using this service.

Hopeless. Insufficient. Zero interest in problems with their app. Disastrous implementation with the Costco.ca "Same Day" menu for instant delivery. Problems get told to call Costco. Costco says clearly that all shopping, delivery and billing are Instacart. Phone number for CS at InstaCart answers with English and Spanish options--do we know where the office is located? I used the same day option on my Costco app, I have 13 years of correct data on the app. I ordered same day and before delivery it was cancelled. No reason. I re-ordered and was home waiting. I used the app to tell the driver I was waiting. Cancelled. I called CS and spent an hour. Instacart wipes all comm on the app when an order is cancelled so there is no record of the chat or the problem or the photos I was sent. So Instacart then charged a 10% cancellation fee saying the driver sent me pictures and tried to call. I said I was using the costco app for messaging and that is now completely erased. They understood that is what Instacart does but refused to fix it, fix the bad phone number, fix the delivery or refund any fees. I spent an hour or more and went through the app problems and why it is going to cause more problems if not fixed. It isn't fair to drivers or customers. I asked why can't CS simply refund the $16, re-order the Costco same-day order and confirm proper address an phone details. Instacart refused. Instacart then refused to raise it further to another level saying that anyone with ability to refund $16 was not available on the phone. I said I would dispute with VISA so just remove all my personal data that Instacart has and do not contact me ever again. Instacart refused, saying Costco has to do that and I would receive another email from Instacart about the cancellation decision. In the end, I did extract a Case # after asking a few times. I am sorry for the rep, she obviously was not able to hang up and was being coached and the real failure is the supervisor listening and unable to do anything. It lost a first-time client forever for $16 (Canadian). Dumb company. Stay away. There are better options with more direct access to solve issue. I am on the phone now with Costco and it is clearly interested in the event. Costco would be served by not associating with companies that have terrible CS history. Just look at Trustpilot to see the sampling. Cut the cord with Instacart.

2 items ordered were on sale, however, i was charged the non sale price. I contacted customer service and they could see the sale price but said they could not give me a credit, not impressed. As a senior every penny counts and this was not something I DID WRONG but instacart. I do ALL my shopping with instacart and you would think they would want to keep their customers happy, but this is not the case.

Items were missing, unordered items were delivered, items were damaged. Item suggested for replacement were not even related to original item.
Delivery was late.

After being a paid member who uses the service infrequently, I tried to place an order last night and got an email saying my order was cancelled and account deactivated. Told me to upload my driver's license/credit card info, which I did, and got an automated email saying that the decision is final and my account cannot be reactivated with absolutely no reason why. Talked to 3 different customer representatives now who have been no help, telling me that they can't do anything and my annual membership fee will not be refunded, and that the decision is final. Is this a joke? They suspect fraudulent activities on my account when they are the ones who are acting like crooks treating customers with no respect at all. Only giving one star because the customer representatives I have talked to were nice.