Instacart Reviews 11,834

I placed a grocery order through Instacart from Kroger. The shopper completed the shopping and arrived at the gate of my home. I have clear delivery instructions on my account explaining how to access the gate, including using the call box. However, the shopper did not follow these instructions.

Instead of using the call box, the shopper only sent messages through the app. I responded promptly and opened the gate three separate times, but the shopper never attempted to enter or complete the delivery. Despite having access, they remained outside and ultimately canceled the order.

After canceling, the shopper left with the groceries. From my understanding, in canceled orders, drivers are typically allowed to keep items, but in this case, the cancellation was caused by the shopper’s failure to follow instructions and complete delivery. As a result, I paid for groceries I never received.

Instacart then charged me approximately $16 in cancellation fees, even though I was available, responsive, and actively trying to allow access for delivery. This is unacceptable.

I attempted to resolve this issue through customer service:

I contacted Instacart via chat twice and was disconnected both times.
I called customer support, but my issue was not resolved and no refund was provided.

Additionally, I canceled my Instacart membership due to this experience, but they refused to refund the remaining balance of my annual membership.

I also have video evidence showing that the gate was opened multiple times and the shopper did not attempt delivery.

This situation reflects extremely poor service, lack of accountability, and unfair billing practices. I expect Instacart to correct these charges and address this issue appropriately.

I wish I could give it a zero.

I am writing this review due to repeated issues with false or misleading promotions and poor overall service. With Instacart

I placed multiple orders expecting a Buy One, Get One (BOGO) promotion to apply, as it was clearly advertised. However, the promotion was not applied at checkout, even though I followed the expected process. After reaching out to customer support, I was given a generic explanation that did not resolve the issue or take accountability.

To make matters worse, I was offered only a $5 credit as compensation. This felt like a complete slap in the face considering the time, money, and inconvenience I experienced. Is this truly how Instacart treats its customers?

Beyond this issue, there are ongoing concerns that many customers—including myself—have experienced:

Orders arriving with incorrect or missing items

Shoppers ignoring messages during the shopping process

Receiving spoiled or rotten food items

Still being charged service fees while dealing with poor service

Feeling pressured to tip drivers despite unsatisfactory experiences

At this point, I strongly encourage others to review their past and recent orders to see if they’ve experienced similar issues. Customers deserve transparency, fairness, and quality service—none of which I feel has been properly delivered in this situation.

I am requesting a proper resolution, including fair compensation and accountability for misleading promotions.

I was charged 84.99 for a order that the driver delivered somewhere else for 15 items. I called and the reordered I only received 9 items which weren't charged but they billed me for the 15 items of 84.99 . I called their people spoke to 3 different people and they still charged me the 84.99 . I will not use them again for this store

As a instacart delivery driver I was fired from my job without any real explanation. SHUT THEM DOWN COMPLETELY. This app is one of the biggest fraudulent companies ever existed. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to work for this company unless you want to be treated unfairly. This app sends you to make deliveries in the strangest and scary looking places and when you let them know of your fear they show no empathy. Half of the reps are working from home and the never sounds professional. Some sounds half sleep and others have loud noises in there background. Take this app down please. Instacart treats drivers unfair and sending us all around the city for unfair pay. We are not protected from fraudulent customers. Some customers would order and get their order delivered. Then turn around and say the items from the order was not there. Instead of the company checking to see what happened they would blame the drivers. I did not like the experience of working for this company. Let alone I have unlike health and heart problems and still work to provide for my 3 children. Now I have to find another trusted app to work for. So this week I work on Monday for $78 😫 and Tuesday $24 didn’t work on Wednesday but got deactivated on Wednesday. So I reached out to the company asking why and that they weren’t clear as to why. I have a 2% cancellation which is excellent. That shows that I accepts and completes all orders. I also have a 98% customer rating on this app so yea help me understand . I only eat kosher foods and we damn sure don’t shop a lot of kosher foods for customers on this app so I’m just like ok another fake app that hired me then fired me now how my information and social security number to sell to other third party agency. I want to sue these people

Unfortunately, someone gave me an instacart gift card. The site is terribly designed, and a huge waste of time. Customer service is atrocious. I will never, ever, use this vendor again.

Instacart is such a terrible app for the driver. Even if you have a car that is amazing for gas, the instacart pay will not suffice enough to even cover you gas and the if there’s no tip in a lot of cases drivers will lose money taking an order of 80 km for 35$. If I’m driving 80km that’s a total of 160km back and that like 30$ of gas so I make 5$ doing this order. So garbage. Half the items the barcode doesn’t even scan so you lose points in quality if your order. The pay is trash, the application is horrid. If you have the choice to work at McDonald when you get your licenses or do instacart you will have much easier time working there. Instacart average pay minus gas consumption is less than 15$. Instacart is worse than DoorDash uber skip etc. instacart doesn’t benefit anyone don’t use app to drive and if you want your groceries done properly without application issues don’t use instacart.

Horrible service and Very poor customer service from Instacart. I contacted support on March 23rd because I couldn’t activate the Peacock subscription included with Instacart+, and after opening a case I’ve received no response for weeks.
They advertise this benefit but don’t deliver it, and support simply ignores you. Extremely frustrating experience.

Product descriptions are unclear or incorrect and there is no way to rectify issues. Good luck trying to find a live customer service agent to help. Live chat doesn’t go anywhere and they do not make their customer service phone number available on the app.

I never used instacart but they keep charging my visa. When I have my credit card cancel the charge they bill me on the new card. I never subscribed or used them. This is very inconvenient to have to keep calling my credit card to remove these fraudulent charges and issue a new card. My credit card company tells me this is a recurring charge. I've filed a fraud complaint hoping to put an end to this foolishness

Wouldn't be a bad service if the shoppers could understand the delivery time window. Times are picked by the buyer, example: I picked 3pm-6pm so I would be home for the grocery delivery. My order was delivered almost 30 minutes early and the perishables sat out in the 75+ degree afternoon until I got home from work......

Instacart..... teach your shopper how to read!!!

The store had a promotion: buy 2, get 1 free. So I ordered that item. In the special notes, I requested that my free item not be forgotten. They didn't deliver it. I was told I should have ordered three, as indicated on the store tag, not on their website. I explained that if I were at the store, I would not have needed them to deliver it, and asked why it was not on the site where I ordered it. I asked for the total price to be adjusted or for it to be delivered. They were rude and told me to be bad, but they will do nothing about the issue. I will never use them again. I will take a cab if needed.

I've been using it once a week for two months now. There's a huge mark - up on many items. One needs to be specific about expiration dates. Very high "Service Fee" on top of monthly membership fee. If using PayPal, you'll be charged double the total for up to six days while it's being processed.

On the other hand, refunds for any problems have been quick & generous. Shoppers have mostly been polite & helpful.

InstaFRAUD!!! Let us start there. The Instacart shopper figure out a way to overcharged my card. When I contacted Instacart to get this resolved and explained what happened with the shopper, the customer service representative was not compassionate, understanding or helpful in trying to research how this Instacart shopper conducted fradulent charges on my account.

A company trying to be a company, run by kids. Input code, rejected. I am very experienced with computers, this whole organization is sub par. Avoid. They are over stocked with non-English speakers. All they ever say is YES. To everything. This is a lesson how a good idea with terribly wrong. And wrong, and wrong...

my order was canceled because they said the store was out of all my items, all of them different. what grocery store is out of soup and jelly? my last order was hours late. is there a way to get a refund on a membership? this service is a joke.

I will never order from hyvee again as they use this delivery system. My order was sent between 8-9 am when they showed up at 7:40 and I was asleep they returned my groceries. The way the setup appears the individual will still get the tip that was allocated for the delivery when I pick it up.

I signed up for the free 14-day trial just 5 days ago and just because I signed on my website browser at my job at the same time I signed on my phone, the scam artists of instacart decided to flag me making me wait two days out of the eight days I have left! This confirms my decision of keeping them which would be a big huge NOT!

After paying the membership fee for a year to gain access to free delivery I realised they add fees to cover the free delivery. So no real perks at all. Also after having for a few months I started to see I could order with the expectation of a delivery time (lets say 5:50pm) then the time would change to 7:45 pm with notice that your items will arrive later than expected. Then if your delivery time is hours off original and it doesnt work for you, you pay a cancelation fee $10. Not your fault but theirs and no other options. Not a good service and not customer service friendly which is wild since its based on fees of customers

The driver forgot cat treats, and Instacart refuses to refund me. That’s literally fraud.

The worst customer service ever. Not at all helpful and the customer care service dept representative was rude and refuse to reach out to the Aldi shopper for me. I received an email that my order is ready for pick up, once I arrived not 1 item had been shopped for. Not only was she RUDE but she hung up on my face. I had to walk in and speak with Mngr. Carlos. Who was very helpful and offer to do my order for me as I waited. Location-Aldi Milford CT(Post Rd) I thank God for beautiful souls like Carlos