• Instacart

Instacart

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Overview

Instacart has a rating of 1.2 stars from 2,477 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Instacart most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and grocery store problems. Instacart ranks 134th among Grocery Delivery sites.

  • Service
    597
  • Value
    560
  • Shipping
    401
  • Returns
    408
  • Quality
    498
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 1.1%
Positive
1
Neutral
1
Negative
91
455
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How would you rate Instacart?
Top Positive Review

“Convenient Grocery Delivery Service”

Rekhmir S.
4/2/24

Instacart offers a convenient grocery delivery service, allowing me to shop from my favorite stores without leaving home. Whether I need fresh produce, pantry staples, or specialty items, Instacart delivers everything I need with reliable service and fast delivery. I appreciate the flexibility of scheduling delivery windows and the option to communicate with my shopper in real-time. Instacart has become a lifesaver, especially during busy weeks

Top Critical Review

“Bad customer service”

Mike K.
9/14/24

I had to wait on hold for 35 minutes before the problem with my order was addressed. The shopper delivered someone else's order. I'm not upset about that - nobody is perfect. What is outrageous to me is the time I had to spend on-hold waiting for a person in the "delivery mistakes" deptartment to get on the line. The person who answered my call was not allowed to take care of the problem, whether rescheduled delivery or refund, so I had to be punished with a long wait on the phone. When the wrong order delivered person finally got on the line, they rescheduled my delivery for tomorrow and promised some discounts or free delivery or something else because I had a hard time understanding what she was saying. For all the money I spend in a year with Instacart, I would expect far better customer service than this!

Reviews (2,477)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (654) credit card (194) service fee (172) delivery fee (136) grocery store (110)
Thumbnail of user moomm1
Pennsylvania
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 15th, 2020

I used to love instacart in 2017 when shoppers were actually staying in touch, reading your directions, and getting what you wanted or worked with you to find suitable replacements. In my recent orders this has not happened at all. No communication, unacceptable replacements if any, completely wrong items, and items missing. And then: impossible to get customer service at all. They made it impossible to get in touch with them. It used to be that one can call and wait or schedule a call, but now it just says they will be in touch. Guess what? They never are. I am going to dispute the entire charge of my last order because this is ridiculous. The people who shop and deliver are trying their best while being totally exploited. They get a small fraction compared to what Instacart actually gets. Disgusting!

Thumbnail of user erikam292
Georgia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 3rd, 2022

When the delivery driver was backing out of my driveway, he drove through my grass and ran over my mailbox I watched him jump out of his car, run around the back to look at the damage, jump back in his car and speed off. Instead of Instacart taking responsibility, they want us to jump through hoops to make a claim that will take up to 45 days. That email was sent after making countless calls and sending emails. Their first response was, they use independent contractors and they are not responsible. What?! If you use this service…. BEWARE of the IDGAF attitude.

Tip for consumers:
Don’t do it

Products used:
Food

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Value
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Thumbnail of user sherib256
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 29th, 2022

I liked using Instacart during the worst of the pandemic, the orders were normally correct and not terribly overpriced. I would have given them a four star at least.
I changed my mind today when my Mom (80) happened to notice a membership charge on her credit card for the Instacart Express membership. That we never asked for.
I got on the Chat help, and after a bit of conversation they cancelled the membership, which is why they are back to 2 starts.
But folks - check your credit cards, as I'm sure we're not the only ones

Thumbnail of user nancyf525
Arizona
1 review
70 helpful votes
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April 8th, 2020

I agree with the other low raters here! I tried Instacart today for the first time, and it was definitely a bad experience! The shopper woman made several mistakes, charged me too much, and now I have to wait up to 7 days for my adjustment from the $170 the co. Automatically charges to get started. Scary to think I won't be getting this refund because of everything else negative from today! NEVER AGAIN!

Thumbnail of user dawng553
Maryland
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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July 17th, 2023

Placing an order for my mother the other day, they put a "temporary hold" on $230. Out of her bank account. (This could take up to 7 days to be returned to her bank account)
Then, they charged her the actual amount of $187. As well from her account. How stupid is that? She should have immediately been refunded the complete amount that had been on temporary hold. I am sorry that is just total BS for an elderly women with limited experience income, and other bills to pay. What the hell instacart! That is just total crap! You need to change this policy! It is idiotic!

Thumbnail of user jennifera693
Georgia
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
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September 25th, 2022

Used them a lot and it has gotten really bad. Yesterday received 25% of my order and two bags of someone else's groceries. Instacart would not remove heavy order fee, delivery fee nor service fee. One out of 3 bags were mine. I'm done

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Thumbnail of user suzannem1095
New York
1 review
5 helpful votes
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August 9th, 2023

Was noticing pricing differences on Aldi and Aldi express. The whole idea of express is to save a little money but you jacked up the prices for express. When I first started using Instacart there was maybe 10 to 15 cent difference than shopping at the store. Now is as much as 80 cents more on most items. Then you cut your shoppers pay. What a greedy company!. If I had another choice for shopping I would drop Instacart in a heartbeat. I am a disabled senior.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user lauriep564
Oklahoma
1 review
4 helpful votes
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May 15th, 2022

I gave them a good try. I shopped 5 different stores about 20 times total. Out of that I had one positive experience. Missing items, damaged items, poor quality picks. Once I got a gallon of milk as a replacement for a half gallon. That was bad enough but the expiration date was the very next day. The shoppers just simply do not care. They are just trying to earn a tip with zero effort. Use anyone but instacart!

Tip for consumers:
They are not geared to shopping in detail. It you expect their shoppers to shop like you would, go to the grocery yourself. They are great for canned good and nothing else.

Products used:
Grocery shopping service

Service
Value
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Thumbnail of user andreww1433
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 15th, 2021

Not only did the delivery driver put my food out on the curb Instacart decided they would withdraw $205 from my account for $135 worth of groceries. I'm done getting robbed my non American companies. This is the first step of many to come

Thumbnail of user arlenew97
Florida
1 review
0 helpful votes
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January 27th, 2022

I needed a lot of products so I was online for Instacart at Aldi's grocery for quite some time. After spending all that time I try to get the $30 promotion that they had offered me on an email. It would not come off so I called Instacart. I don't have her name but the girl who helped me was very patient, apologizing frequently. No matter what she told me to do the Instagram website would not take the $30 off that was promised to me. This took over two hours and then she disconnected me. My order is no longer in my cart.

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Thumbnail of user deannaa151
Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 11th, 2022

Don't waste your money. Unreliable, always payment problems, f up orders, not in stock etc. they delivered something today when I ordered something Friday and the guy went to Costco to get my order and used Apple Pay. What company doesn't know they don't

Thumbnail of user christyp72
Virginia
3 reviews
1 helpful vote
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August 10th, 2021

I placed an order with Instacart and bought some groceries online at Publix. Never received the delivery, so I reached out to them to request a full refund. The photo the shopper took isn't even my house! After all of this, my account was deactivated wrongfully and they won't reactivate it, nor refund me the $101.44. That isn't right!

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Thumbnail of user idam35
New Jersey
3 reviews
17 helpful votes
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January 24th, 2019

1. They will not allow you to change store locations. So, if your store doesn't carry the inventory you need, then "too bad" says Instacart.
2. The shoppers are lazy. They don't even try to communicate intelligibly with customers if they need to replace an item for you.
3. The delivery drivers are so/so -- most are on their phones NOT checking other orders, but listening to Youtube, checking Facebook, etc. Unacceptable.

Hire yourself a private shopper and save all the junk fees that Instacart adds to your bill.

Thumbnail of user hansonu
California
8 reviews
19 helpful votes
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August 5th, 2013

Instacart gives you awesome and cheap grocery delivery from major supermarkets. I don't have a car so picking up heavy things like olive oil and bags of potatoes can be a real pain. But with Instacart, if you spend over $35 it's only $3.99 for delivery in under two hours during regular store business hours. And you can get it even faster for more money (I've never done this though). I don't think it's available in every city yet, but if it's available in your city, I'd definitely give it a try.

Thumbnail of user fredz31
Arizona
1 review
2 helpful votes
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July 12th, 2020

We have used Instacart several times for curb side pick up with great success. Because of the recent increase of corona virus activity in our area, we tried the delivery service with our local Fry's / Kroger grocery store... HUGE MISTAKE. In short, our little 8 item $64.00 order was not only never delivered, but on investigation, we learned the original items were ALL marked "out of stock" and 49 NEW items were unilaterally added to the order adding up to $196.00 and the order marked delivered in the Instacart system. Instacart says they will refund us plus a $20.00 inconvenience credit, but we are left to wonder if the person who changed our order has our credit card information and the groceries that were misappropriated from the Fry's store. The Instacart persons we interacted with (3 of them) sounded like idiots under pressure. Buyer beware!

Thumbnail of user matthewp382
Ohio
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 14th, 2020

The website is hard to use and the customer service is poor. They can't even keep two different orders straight. Someone with good business skills please start a competitor to this poorly run company.

Thumbnail of user michaelr2207
Illinois
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 27th, 2020

Luckily the man who delivered the order left the receipt from the store that I could shop at. Every item was more expensive which Instacart charged me than what I would have paid if I shopped at the store myself. Then they add charges on top of the hidden price increases. I always use Visa to pay for things because I can dispute the charge which I did. Not the whole order but just the difference between the store receipt and the Instacart charges. Don't use this rip off service. Look at all the negative reviews. Cancel your account and save money!

Thumbnail of user reng5
California
1 review
3 helpful votes
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July 12th, 2018

I used instacart ONCE and then a month down the line, I noticed a $149 fee on my credit card - no email, no receipt, no order confirmations were sent which would have triggered me to cancel earlier. Unfortunately for me, the point at which I noticed the charge on my credit card was too late to get a refund. We can sit here and say someone should read the terms and conditions clearly but what I'm taking issue with is that they didn't have the decency to notify me that they executed such a high fee. I doubt that their success will last with these sort of practices, it has made me mistrust them entirely even as I'm being forced to keep my membership. Add insult to injury, when I got in touch with their customer support, the agent responded with a one liner pointing me to the terms and conditions. Awful and borderline fraudulent on their part.

Thumbnail of user enricod13
Canada
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
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May 13th, 2021

The drivers do not look the due date on all dairy products i phone two twice to head office about 16 pack yogurt what i buy yesterday from walmart / Instacart will expire in 8 day's woman from head office did not care so much, i will get my friend to shop for only dairy products

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Thumbnail of user charliew170
Kansas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 23rd, 2021

They totally screw by short changing virtually every order payment they offered you at the beginning. They will tell you 2 miles and it ends being 15 or 20. How does a company get away with being so dishonest?

Thumbnail of user kats196
Canada
1 review
1 helpful vote
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February 26th, 2021

26/02/21

I joined a 2 week free trial with Instacart. Worse service ever my order was 50% mixed up. The delivery guy just dropped groceries off on porch, never rang doorbell or knocked on door, no call before delivery to say he was 10 minutes away. I emailed to explain what was wrong, their 3 day email return reply did not even address the issue at hand. 4 more emails, and all I received was a credit for something I did not order. To further add to this hot mess, they billed my credit card $121. For something I'm not even sure of. When I called to request they put money back on my card, I was informed they could not!?
Never have I dealt with such incompetence. After 4 hours 3 phone calls, I think ( not sure thus is resolved). I would hot even give them one star but I had to. I do not recommend this service.

Service
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Thumbnail of user nikkia13
Massachusetts
1 review
2 helpful votes
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October 9th, 2016

I have now used three times, twice from fairway and once from Costco. Each time has been awesome so I was so surprised to read the reviews. Great communication during shopping and good selection of replacement items, very pleased.

Thumbnail of user samt95
Florida
1 review
2 helpful votes
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November 10th, 2017

I wanted to give this delivery a try because of my disability issues and my relatives were currently unavailable. I was ready to give a $20 tip since it was my first time but it turns out this company is a complete waste and utterly disgusting. I wish I could give it zero stars honestly. I ordered groceries from my local store and everything went smooth until they began delivering my order. The female driver was a complete $#*! with no amount of respect whatsoever and lack of sense and sympathy. They cancelled my order due to impatience without even informing me with a call or text. Please everyone do yourself a favor before using this service... don't. Just don't use it. It will add more years to your life, trust me.

Thumbnail of user vics24
Indiana
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 15th, 2018

This worked for us twice. My husband travels for work often without a car so I thought this would help. We were fine until Texas. He was in Beaumont, and for some reason drivers in Huston kept picking up his order and trying to deliver it to the same numerical address, but in Huston. My husband tried three different times because he really needed a few medical items and had no way of getting to a grocery store. Each time instacart charged him for delivery but he didn't receive anything. When he complained they said they still had to pay the driver, so no refund. HOW is it OUR responsiblity to pay a driver that picks up an order that is tagged for a different city!? Either there is a MAJOR scam ring happening in Huston or the drivers are as dumb as a box of rocks. Either way, we are calling our bank to get the charges reversed. $95 is RIDICULOUS! If each trip is $15 and we only had 3, that is $45... what is the other $50 in charges? Stay away from this service!

Thumbnail of user meeras6
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 23rd, 2018

They not only have a poor communication about changes to service plans. But also have the worst customer service reps to answer calls. Most unpleasant experience in all of retail shopping. Will never recommend them or return to instacart.

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Instacart delivers groceries from local stores in two hours. Choose from stores like Whole Foods Market, Target, Costco and Petco. Try us today for free.

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