Instacart Beware

[YoungatHeart7]

Instacart: The membership is $99 and you have to cancel within 3 months to get a full refund.  If you have Instacart, it will automatically renew unless you call their headquarters to cancel it.

First of all there are some honest drivers doing your shopping, but the ones who are not can be the biggest pain and Instacart will do nothing to deter them. 

Missing food from your order happens quiet a lot at Instacart.  Even though you need the item, you will have to order over $35 to get your item hopefully in the next order you make.  The only thing Instacart will do is remove that drive from ever doing your shopping in the future.  The second thing you can choose is not to tip them at the end of your order, BUT if you look closely at the bottom of your receipt Instacart already give them a tip from you.  I just found out you must call Instacart back immediately and have them remove the extra tip. 

I'm on a low sodium diet and I need all my groceries.  This month I place my order which totaled 14 items; I order a 10 lb. bag of oranges. When driver deliver my groceries she gave me only 1 orange and keep the 10 lb. bag of oranges.   Instacart blames the stores.  Not true, the stores have cameras above the register and bagging area, so they see anyone who may need reminding or retraining.  Plus, the cashiers are very carefully not to mix the groceries.  

I finally canceled the service and Instacart refused to credit me $33 for remaining 4 months. They stated I had 3 months to cancel, l but nothing was ever missing until the 4th month.  We are credited but the issues remain.  Instacart doesn't care about its customers. If you go on their website you can read the complains and there are additional complains on the Better Business Bureau website too.

I sincerely hope someone starts a Class Action Sue against Instacart.  They already lost in the courts this year when the drive filed on them. 

[jm42795370]

Multiple tries and several operators later, I finally solved the problem.  I received a $100 instacart gift card as a gift.  I then tried to credit the gift card number to my account. The number on the gift card said it was invalid.  I called the Instacart operator who repeated the number and after several minutes, she said it should now work.  Again I tried the same number but I saw the message that the number on the gift card had been redeemed.   I called again and was told the credit was in my account. I then found that on 5/27/2024 a gift card had been redeemed by the Instacart operator to another old account that had an expired credit card, an old yahoo email address that I don’t have access to, and there is no activity on this account. I did not even know there was another account.  I tried to transfer the correct credit to my account because of their mistake but they said they could not and since I could no longer access the Yahoo email, then I can’t access this account. Another words, I’m out of luck.

I finally found an Instacart operator that would look at my old link account and help me place an order. She said I had 2 old grocery list, 1 from Aldi for $106 minus the $100 credit leaving a balance of $6 and another 1 from Costco for $86 with a $100 credit which was free. So I said I would like the Aldi grocery list. She then said my balance with Visa was invalid and I told her because it has expired and gave her my active one. She said she could not accept it over the phone but had to open my account to add it which I could not access. I then said use my Costco list which was free and I did not have to use my expired Visa. She placed the order and said it would be delivered on 5/28/2024 between 11AM and 12 PM. I had no idea what was on the list that I had made long ago but considering the problems I had faced, something was better than nothing.

I waited for the delivery, but the time came and went. I called Instacart and was told my order had been canceled and my link account was deactivated but my primary account was fine. I don't have idea why. I was then told I would have to complete a form that could be sent to my Yahoo account to reactivate the account.. I told them I could not access the Yahoo email and they said there is nothing they can do. It doesn't matter what I do, they only place obstacles in my way.

Again I called a different operator and was told my account was deactivated but they would send me the form within 24 H and I verified my charter.net email. I could be wrong but I don't trust it to be sent but I could be wrong.

It has been 24 H since the Instacart operator, Mallela Vannuru, promise to email me the reactivation forms. I didn't count on her honoring her promise, but I'm a little surprised because she seemed so willing to help.

After another exchange with another Instacart specialist, I have waited 48 H just special Instacart agent, Korrapadu, asked and nothing. He empathized with my problem and said he would immediately email the forms to my charter.net address. I was instructed to open up my input and spam folder but there was nothing. OK then, he then said my linked account would be reactivated within 48 H and a specialized team would email the solution to my problem. That never happened.

I worked as a General Manager for Hilton Hotels and problems occasionally occurred, especially when my employee made the mistake, but I tried to minimize a bad guest's experience and resolve the problem, that was my purpose. This seems my problem is being passed around and no one is willing to step up and solve my problem.

I have been fooled again. It is obvious that Instacart operators and special agents are only told what to say by the management but was never given nor taught the power to solve any problems, Unfortunately, it is a disservice to guest as well as employees, that is how they learn problem solving skills not parroting words of management. It should be called a complaint line not a help line. I guess I will have to plea my case to Sam's Club and my credit card company.

After thinking on it for a while, I have finally learned principles and fair play does not compare to a companies profitability when policy is concerned. I should have carefully listened when numerously operators and agents said “i would like to help but unable to” while other operators stay on script and repeat what they were taught to say. I hope it was an honest mistake but I have to say, why in the world would someone redeem a gift card to an account that was no longer active, that never had any activity on it, and to an account whose email was probably inactive anyway. When the mistake was made, it would be easy to transfer the credit to correct account, it happens all the time, but because of the profitability policy, that could never happen. Why was the Costco grocery list the operator had paid for was mysteriously canceled and the account deactivated. It is because of profitability. Finally, why were there 3 operators never able to email the reactivation forms to my charter.net email. Once again it is a profitability policy. The idea of grocery delivery was a good one, especially for the elderly unable to drive, but Instacart has a lot of financial issues and I have been reading a lot of horror stories reviews. They have a tendency to lower their principles for profitability which is never a good thing but doesn't everyone. I have now accepted the idea that the gift card problem will never be resolved and I will never buy anything from Instacart again. I understand looking at the big picture, it's not very important, but it was important to me and is just the symptom of a bigger problem.

[jm42795370]

Instacart has a bad reputation for not responding