Instacart: Groceries & Food 12+

Instacart is great for those who are in need of shopping assistance. It’s very convenient, but the fees are through the roof. I’m frustrated because I had to pay an extra fee for my groceries to be delivered around 8:00am when I ordered them at 4:00am in the morning. The time slot started at 10:00 am, and there was a fee to choose the 8:00am slot, whaaaat!. I was ordering for breakfast time, i don’t get that. I’m not paying to have it delivered at 8 when the delivery time should have automatically started at 8am because of how early I shopped, and if ever you’re not able to cover a full tip, because of all of the other list of fees that are added, it is suggested that if there is no tip, your groceries are less likely to be picked up by shoppers. Is that the whole reason for the service, is to provide that delivery service. Also I wished that I could choose my shoppers, because I’ve gotten expired food several times, but I have had a couple of good shoppers who I wish I could choose to shop for me when I need certain things, the service can be improved. The service has its good and bad sides, I’ve just been disappointed too many times maybe. I haven’t given up yet because it’s so convenient. But the fees are beyond! and other things should be changed to be more fair for customers….just my opinion and experience.

My little town has recently been added as an Instacart delivery destination. For this, I’m immensely grateful. I’ve found the app easy to use, costs reasonable and shopping/delivery services wonderful. However, I am using Apple to sign in - which causes a lot of glitches (e.g. I can’t access any support or assistance without using Google, Facebook or my personal phone number). I am no longer willing to share these directly with any vendor, nor with Instacart. Related to this, though I’m totally open to signing up for a year of Instacart membership, I’m not willing to do this unless I can manage this subscription from within IOS subscription services. I no longer grant *anyone* the ability to charge my credit cards on a recurring basis. If I can’t manage it within IOS settings, I won’t sign up. It’s very unclear how Instacart plans to let me access and control my membership, so I signed up for a trial to find out. Since I see nothing related to Instacart in my IOS subscriptions, I have to assume the expectation is that they’ll plan to hit my credit card or method of payment when I order a delivery (ApplePay). I wish this were otherwise, as I do love Instacart as an important and much-needed service in my life.

I’ve used this app over 10 times and the last time i refused to use it again. The service has always been great, loved all the shoppers. The last time they showed me the prices of the individual items and i was okay with it, they also showed me the delivery charge, the tax, the tip, and the service charge. Everything added up and i was fine with it. Everything i put in my cart was picked up by the shopper, there were no replacements or refunds or item changes. When the order was done the item prices magically went up so my purchase was $10+ over what i was expecting. Its never done that before and i didnt order anything special. I tried to email them and asked them why the prices mysteriously went up and they said it was service charge and i tried to tell them the service charge was already added in when i agreed on the prices. Email after email was the same reply, it was a service charge. They already add some service charges into the price if the item, thats why they’re higher online than in store then they add another service charge at the end. Which again i was fine with paying but then they charged me extra when they shouldn’t have and all i was getting was robot responses saying it was a service charge. I understand there might be some higher prices in the store but that doesn’t make every item price go up $1-$2 after you agreed to pay the price they told you.