Instacart-Get Grocery Delivery 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.

Compare store receipt to Instacart charge

I loved Instacart so much when I first tried it that I signed up for the annual delivery subscription to eliminate all delivery fees. Great $99 investment. I just pay a little extra to tip the driver through the app and I never have to visit the grocery store again… YEA!, However I did notice after a few months that the Store receipt was regularly 25$ - 30$ more than the Instacart total after correcting for adjustments and substitutions in the order. I called and spoke to customer service twice and confirmed that Instacart does not honor store prices and in fact sets their own to maximize profit. The original store receipt will always be included with your grocery delivery so make sure to check the total amount paid to the store and compare it with your final Instacart charge after substitutions and adjustments are made. For me the difference is about $200 per month, but we eat a lot of expensive organic produce. So just know that you’re paying $99 for the annual membership, but also for the inflated grocery prices. In my case since I pay my house cleaner $20 per hour it’s cheaper to have them do my shopping and the additional benefit to that is they can also enter my loyalty number at checkout so I can get my discounted fuel points directly from the store since in Alaska the Instacart drivers get the store points for the purchase.

I’ll still use it a pinch, but know it costs more than the annual fee and driver tips.