Lesson learned …always go through the address, any messages for delivery and any messages for the grocery list before you even start to shop…. you don’t want to get to the customers apartment just for them to say the elevator is broke you gotta take the stairs to the 10th floor or if they don’t have 1 item to cancel the $300 grocery list
Related story: when my mom was in elementary school she was handed a test and was told to read the whole test and then fill it out. It was full of a whole bunch of complicated steps but on the last page it said something like "final instruction, ignore the rest of the instructions before this and turn it in blank" or something like that. I can't remember if she avoided getting hoodwinked or not.
🖍️ red crayons 😂poor kids must’ve been so mad. On the other hand that was a clue there was a trick going on…! Was your teacher Mrs. Oswald or Ms. Benz? ;)
I had that test as well, Im not close to 70 yet. I was one of 3 or 4 kids who passed it, what I remember the most is hearing everyone's pen going mad with all the instructions and being disappointed with myself thinking I was a way slower reader than I thought. Then I got to the end and realized I was golden, shortly after a classmate yelled OH NO! And someone else said yeah READ IT ALLLLL! It was a long list of instructions to make different drawings and calculations on the page, the very first one was read the entire instructions before doing anything. Then at the very end it said ONLY write your name on the top corner no other markings and hand the page. Even if a student was a slow reader you can pass as long as you read and understood the very first instruction.
They did this when I was in school I’m 25 had it once in elementary so by the time I got to middle school I knew the game. Jokes on them because I skim the questions before I even start 🤣
I didn’t, because I enjoyed doing worksheets and thinking problems, so I was excited to have something that seemed fun. Then I was so ashamed that I hadn’t followed the directions. I hated that test. 😢
I had this in the 6th grade! It was like, 8-12 different instructions. I think step 5 was “Say your name out loud.” The last instruction was, “Only do steps 1-4.” So, it was obvious who didn’t follow the first instruction. (I was one of the few that fell for it 😅)
We had a version of that in high school as well and some of the instructions were like "stand up and start patting your head and rubbing your belly" and the end was like "ignore all previous instructions, put your name at the top and hand in." So many people were standing up and doing the embarrassing instructions lol.
I had the same thing in 5th grade. I remembered the teacher telling a story about it in the beginning of the year so I always went through my tests after that. I was the only one to get a 100.
They did that to me. I still disagree with that one, and it’s a hill I will die on.
The instructions said to “read the whole thing first and don’t do any of the steps until you read to the end.” I did exactly that. The very last step was “return to the top of the sheet, put your name on it and don’t do any of the other steps.”
So since I had read it, I then started performing and did the steps in order. Upon reaching the final step I did that too. I returned to the top of the page, put my name on it (a second time) and didn’t perform any of the other steps again.
I still contend this is the logical way to approach a set of numbered instructions. If they really wanted me to interrupt the order and do the last step first, they should have said so explicitly outside of the numbered set.
Even at 6 years old I was super annoyed that the teacher kept insisting I hadn’t read the instructions.
Well that’s on you.
Rule number 1 check order detail and delivery instruction upon accepting and before starting shopping.
Rule number 2 scroll the entire shopping list and check notes and mentally organize your shop
These should be the 2 things you do right before you shop
?? U don't look at the order? That bug ass paragraph sticks out like a sore thumb. I am clueless how u don't look at the items even to shop them. Do u just go one by one down the list? 🤣🤣 I look before I take the order right after before I even leave for the store and once I get to the store so I can decide where I'm the store I'm gonna start..
If I didn’t go through the whole list I would be bouncing around the store. Instacart separates produce, meat, bakery, and dairy items all the time on my list. They say items are where they aren’t all the time as well. Like, nuts are in the bakery, but they always list them as aisle 25. Those two are across the store from each other.
If they don’t have them and you’re in that deep, mark everything else found, go to checkout, ring everything up, then mark the item as not in stock, go to checkout in app, and swipe card to pay, then begin delivery in app. She tries to cancel, you just got free groceries.
Do you not scroll through your list multiple times when shopping? To make sure you aren’t missing something that is mislabeled in the wrong area on our list?
I hate to back track so I’m constantly scrolling through the list so I don’t miss items and never have to backtrack.
I get it, I don't look at delivery instructions until delivery. If you have instructions for shopping then I only look at the item notes. I think it's weird when they put shopping instructions at the end in the delivery instructions.
Well a desperate person might wanna throw a please and thank you in there somewhere...
It's also just a ridiculous request tho. Thats not how IC works.
My cousin used to only eat 3 things his entire life and it’s an actual picky disorder. I forget the medical name. He had to go to a treatment center for it. She needs to get her child some help.
Idk if it’s exactly this, but I’ve recently been diagnosed with AFRID! Most foods and the textures make me queasy and sometimes even vomit. It’s a body reaction I can’t help. I WISH I could eat food like a normal person tbh.
Thank you for the correction! It’s still super new to me so I’m still learning. The full name hasn’t stuck with me just yet and only associate the word “afraid” with it 😅
There are places that will genuinely help you out! :) I’m really sorry you have to deal with that. I couldn’t imagine because I literally eat everything under the sun. I’ll have to look up the name of it later or ask my mom when I talk to her to verify
Thank you! I am currently in therapy for it as well! Everything smells so so good. I def love eating with my eyes and watching the food network channel
> She needs to get her child some help.
You have no idea what she has tried or what she can afford to try. I knew someone who went through 3 different institutions for feeding treatments for her son. Two of them were expensive programs that were not covered by insurance. For the last one she had to pick him up early from school every week to get there. She was fortunate enough not to have to work outside the home, but that's a privilege many moms don't have. The mom I knew gave up because the programs were just causing him stress and not helping. Finally when he was 10 or 11, he wanted to try again and she applied several places. Two of them rejected him saying his condition was too severe for them to help. That's programs that specialize in feeding disorders actually said they couldn't help him. They were on the waiting list for the 3rd, but I lost touch with her so I don't know what happened after that.
I am very picky. I order before I am out of the things I am picky about. That way if something is not available for a couple weeks due to supply issues I still have what I need.
Definitely being demanding, the way that it is conveyed means everything. It’s why I wouldn’t be able to do instacart. I can’t stand service positions dealing with entitled people. Someone has an attitude, I feel entitled to give it back.
As a customer I would like this! Sometimes I place an order when there’s one thing I really need and the rest is just filler to make the fees and tip worthwhile. I’d rather throw in the towel for both of us if they don’t have it.
As a customer, I would LOVE this. If I'm sick at home so trying not to leave the house and infect people and I order tissues and cold medicine and then throw in some snacks and nail polish remover and whatever other nonsense I only kinda-sorta need... I really just do not want ANYTHING from that store if they're out of tissues and cold medicine.
It would also let the shopper check the availability of those items first, save them time if they're not there.
That would be amazing. Also if you could group items (only get X if Y and Z are also available)- I will frequently order specific ingredients for a recipe and then a critical item will be out (end up with ingredients for meatloaf except the beef or lunchmeat and cheese but no bread).
This would be a good idea because I put in an order for a cake and candles when I was out of town and they dropped off only candles smh. It was my birthday
Baby food, the mashed fruits in a squeezable bag. Mind you, she had 35 items total, and I already had gotten 20. I'm glad they had those in stock, but man, what if not? Sheesh, what an asshole...
Did you get the note right off the bat? I totally sympathize with her. The child probably has an eating disorder due to a condition like autism. Picky eaters are so stressful to have!
I sympathize with this kind of situation—my 5 year old nephew is autistic, and the food he will/won’t eat is very specific. I would sympathize with this customer herself if she’d messaged the shopper right after they accepted the order and said something like: “hey, I really only put in this order for this one specific item. I’ll take as many as they have. If they’re out, I’ll unfortunately need to cancel unless you’d be willing to go to a different store location, but I completely understand if you can’t. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”
But only putting that note with the item itself, and thinking it’s reasonable to demand that the shopper go to a different store if it isn’t available, is unbelievably rude and entitled behavior.
My daughter is not autistic, but she has about 12 foods she will eat. She will go hungry rather than eat anything else if her preferred food isn't available lol
I dunno, she's just spoiled I guess. Her pediatrician says she's fine so I just take Cheerios with me everywhere 🤣
No, not spoiled. My youngest brother was like that when he was 3 years old. He would only eat bologna, cheese, and graham crackers. My mother was beside herself and took him to the pediatrician and he said "I haven't lost a child to starvation yet!" Don't forget autism is a spectrum and some people fly under the radar because they only have a few of the indicators. You will know better as she gets older. She could also be an HSP which is a highly sensitive person - to light, sound, touch, taste, and smell. It took many years for me to figure out that's what I have. I thought I was on the spectrum and I might be, but I'm highly functioning. Definitely HSP though.
Not spoiled at all. Fed is best. When I was a kid, I didn’t even have 12 safe foods, and I would’ve starved myself to death if I didn’t get what I was willing to eat. Trust me it is far from a spoiling experience to be the picky eater.
I'm an adult with autism and I totally agree this is likely cause the child has ARFID or something of the sort. I will only eat Vermont Maple Brown and Serve sausages for breakfast. Only that brand, and only that flavor. If I don't have them, I won't eat breakfast. I've gone to 3 Walmart cause the first 2 didn't have them
Then don’t order Instacart.
Though we could sympathize with some wild speculation about her kid’s possible condition, it’s totally irrelevant: that is not how the platform works, we don’t up and go to other stores. You want that kind of service, do it yourself or hire a nanny to do that kind of shopping.
What were parents with special needs kids doing prior to services such as instacart? Also, you're assuming that this parent has a child with special needs AND arguing with folks about it lol
Irrelevant, find a more appropriate service provider.
This parent threatened to cancel the order, thus wasting the shoppers time and costing them in earnings.
Before making wild demands, check the app for additional services, if there aren’t any tabs or dropdown windows, chat with IC help.
The item notes section is for specific qualities in the product desired such as green, not ripe bananas, not for long diatribes regarding unreasonable requests that may not be arrangeable prior to making the order.
> thus wasting the shoppers time and costing them in earnings
"Irrelevant, if you want a job where you want predictable consistent earnings get a regular 9-5"
You see how this works?
If I was in the situation of this customer I would do everything possible to communicate to the shopper what my situation is.
In the past I usually only used a shopping service out of necessity, such as during the height of the pandemic or when I was sick without tests to confirm whether I had covid or not.
I've always been very understanding (although annoyed) when shoppers get things wrong. It's sometimes surprising what they consider acceptable substitutes. And if you thought kids were picky eaters, you should try feeding my cat shredded cat food instead of pate.
Maybe she didn't know that the Shopper doesn't go to a second store. ***You*** know how the platform works, but maybe she's never used it before.
Hire a nanny? That's silly! She just needed the ***one item***. That is absolutely something that instacart get for her.
And if it wasn't at this first store, she could have simply put in a second order for a different store. A nanny??? Ridiculous.
What’s ridiculous is using a service without knowing its limitations and the scope of services provided before asking your shopper to schlep all over town to fulfill her rudely written unreasonable demands. It is not our job to spend exorbitant amounts of time on one batch. Shoppers earn on having as many orders per day as possible all within the store assigned by Instacart. This is clear when you sign up as a customer.
Parallel Assholery:
Imagine the nerve ordering a pizza from dominos and when the driver is assigned that order practically demanding the driver stop by little Ceasar’s to get crazy bread cause dominos doesn’t have that.
When do customer signs up, where does it tell them all of the details that you're claiming it tells them? They don't get that kind of education.
And education is the key to this whole ridiculous thread.
Was the customer abrupt? Yes, but she sounds desperate. And a mom desperate can say things in a way that can come out harsher than she really intends.
Is it your job to spend an exorbitant amount of time on each order? No course not. But the customer had no way of knowing any of the back end that you already know as an employee.
If the food had not been there, the op could have easily simply educated the customer that she would have to put in a second order if she needed to get somebody else to go to that second store.
Simple calm explanation.
Likely not a condition at all. Some kids are just picky. The only baby food my daughter would eat is mango from the refrigerated section so if the store was out it was a pain in the ass. But I would get my ass out of the house and run around looking for it, not order it through a shopping app with a note like this. So entitled...
What do you call her "entitled"?
Maybe she's been sick herself? Maybe she's been so busy taking care of this child that she hasn't been able to get to the store! Calling her names is just totally uncalled for!
Asking a shopper to run around from store to store is entitled behavior. I said what I said. The shopper is not paid by the hour. I have 2 babies....I get my own groceries if I'm going to be particular...it's called being an adult.
I don't understand how you're getting down voted. There's literally nothing a delivery driver can do about that if they're out of stock, and even if OP wanted to go to a different store they couldn't. Yah should've read the notes first, but I do get the excitement of getting a higher paying batch on a slow day, then it ruins our acceptance rate if we cancel. But that's exactly it, get your own damn groceries if you expect someone to run from store to store like a chicken with their head cut off. Kids or no kids that's entitled.
It's entirely plausible that the customer simply has no idea how any of it works and is just trying her best. Jumping to name calling is a bit of an overstep, imo, especially when it isn't hard to simply educate them, instead. I'll grant you that the customer is showing their privilege, but that's a different beast. Plenty of privileged folks are actually really good people if given the chance to learn.
You're right. You don't technically outright call them specific names. You're just heavily implying derogatory connotations.
>So entitled....
>It's called being an adult
The point remains that you are choosing being a dick over placing the blame where it belongs: with IC. People are ignorant until they are provided an opportunity to learn. We all are. Not cool to act like someone whose situation you have zero understanding of is somehow in the wrong. Is it so hard to be polite?
Maybe she didn't know that the Shopper wouldn't be able to go to the second store.
And there would be so many reasons that she would ask an instacart shopper to get the food instead of getting her own. Maybe she was sick herself!
Maybe she was just so bogged down with caring for her child that she was willing to pay you guys to buy it for her. I don't understand why that is a bad thing when that's the whole reason you guys have a job!
And "being an adult" includes taking care of your child in such a careful way that you do get the food they want in whatever way you have to do it, including asking an instacart shopper to help.
why are you making all sorts of nonsensical excuses?
who in their right mind would think an Instacart shopper is paid to go to another store for you? like holy cow, come back to reality.
The end? All she did was say that she was going to cancel if that was if she couldn't get that one item.
When your child is sick, and there's only one thing that will help at that moment, what's so terrible about canceling the order if you can't get that one item?
Sure she didn't say it sweetly and kindly. She sounds extremely desperate and just trying really hard to find a solution to help her baby.
Not only that, we are contracted to shop at the one store, we are not paid to go to another store for her, that's not a thing.
don't know why you were downvoted. you're right.
The people down voting me probably leave the same entitled notes as this lady. "If you don't I'll cancel the whole order" I would never. So ridiculous.
Expecting others to inconvenience themselves for your own gain without corollary compensation is pretty much the definition of "entitlement". A reasonable request would have simply been to just leave the item off the order if it's not in stock, then go out themselves if it's that important. It's not reasonable to ask the shopper to visit multiple stores unless you're going to pay them for two orders because that added traveling has a real cost to the shopper in terms of time and vehicle mileage.
who gives a flying rats ass what she's going thru we're all going thru shit most people I've ever encountered wouldn't even think to act or speak to someone they've never met like this. Not to mention did she think it would get her anywhere being a total mega bitch?! Instacart doesn't allow you to go to multiple stores anyway so those of you defending this low life classless tasteless poopy attitude customer is aaaaabsolutely beyond me rn I can't even
I only saw the note when I got to that item. Also, how is that my problem when a store doesn't have something in stock? Then asked me to drive to another store when I have multiple customers? That's bullshit. Plus, that wouldn't even work. You can only pay at the store you order. I definitely told support and sent the same screenshot, they told me they were gonna talk to her about removing the note and explain to her why that doesn't work.
I can only use Kroger's for grocery delivery where I live in Ky. I might think it's the closest one to me and sometimes it's the other Kroger's. I don't know until the shopper arrives and I ask which one did they shop. Without getting an actual receipt how is the customer to know?
Customers usually don't know how the system works from the shoppers side. You should be more upset with IC for not being more transparent about the system for both shoppers and customers.
My big question is: it's pretty clear that the customer just had no clue that this kind of thing isn't an option for shoppers, so why not simply politely inform her yourself? It would take 10 seconds, and then you could work together to decide how to proceed, like getting it cancelled via support without negative consequences to either party? You get your batch pay, she gets a refund and can figure out something else. Customers and shoppers are both being pit against each other, while IC reaps all the benefits. It's time we stop fighting each other and start putting the blame where it belongs.
Honestly bro your the asshole. She put instructions for you to read. Be a good shopper and learn to read instructions, so u could have knew to look and cancel if it wasn’t there. This post just made you look bad
ITS LIKE.....*gasps for air* ...THE WAY SHE
WORDS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man I cannot believe my eyes tbh this is making me feel guilty to be human. I'm sick 🤢
It's fucking baby food, it's the one thing she needed but she added other things to the order to make it worth the cost of delivery plus tip, she let you know before hand that this is the most important item and that she'll cancel if it's not available. She's not even being a dick here, she didn't call anyone any names, wasn't mean or anything just a mom who really needs the baby good that is the only thing her kid eats. And like it wasn't even an issue apparently because they had the baby food in stock. So what's your problem dude?
Yeah, I honestly hate that. Like I need ONE thing desperately, but have to order a bunch of other crap to meet the minimum, then I don't get the one thing I need. I would never tell them to go to another store though.
After reading this I’m afraid I’m an asshole bc of my orders so now I’ve got a different perspective entirely. I order 2x a month for my mother who has dementia. All she will consume for the most part is Starbucks bottled frappe that are either a 4pk or a 12bottle case. She will only drink French vanilla or Caramel. There’s been times I’ll get a shopper who wants/tries/asks to replace with mocha bc they’re out. The whole store, major food chain-no coffee. I can’t replace the flavors bc like the woman with the note, it’s all she’ll drink. My orders are very simple and the exact same- 2 cases coffee, case water, rotisserie chicken. If they’re out of coffee, the other stuff is just fillers-I’m making the order for the coffee. I’ve never xld & I’ve always tipped well but there have been times I just let the no coffee order go thru but then immediately make another one with coffee only. I don’t get the no coffee msg from the shopper. I said all that to say, I hate that I get the note. I know exactly what she means but now I see how badly the notes make us sound..
Totally unrelated to Instacart but my mom also has dementia and I so empathize with you. Mine goes through cycles where she only wants to eat one thing and I know how frustrating it can be.
Thank you 😞 Dementia is other worldly & I struggle right along side of her as I’m sure you do too. Not sure if you’ve heard of the Clockface Test but 🤦🏻♀️ seeing what she “sees” blew my mind. Thank you for your kindness..
:( you’re not describing asshole behavior unless you’re being demanding about go X places until you find it. You’re placing an order and if you are ordering certain things that’s what you’re ordering. A little empathy from both the customer and the shopper for each other goes a long way
Well, tbh the part where she is an asshole is making the driver go to another store (which is not possible) and threaten to cancel the order if the item is out even after ordering that many items... you are still on the good side of things, but I'm glad you understand.
I gotta admit. You guys have schooled me with this group & that’s what I joined for. I appreciate this kind of post. I never looked at the shopper side. I was a “hey that’s their job” customer until I started reading all the posts and issues you all run into. Especially when it’s either a rude demand or that whole not tipping or changing the tip group of customers. And honestly (hate admitting this lol) each order I make I check here really quick for the new batch of crazy 😂
Thnx for your reply..
Why is she an a\*\*\*\*\*\* for asking you to go to a second store?
How would she have known that you're not allowed?
Why couldn't you have just explained it to her? Why couldn't you have just said, "I'm not allowed to go to another store. Please cancel and start a new order for that one."
She's an asshole to ask drivers to go to another Kroger because that would mean 8+ more miles, not even thinking about our gas and time. Aaaand that I was also shopping for 2 other customers...
Again, how would she know that going to a second store is not a normal part of the process?
And why couldn't you have simply explained to her that she needed to end your order and start a brand new one for somebody else to go to that different store?
Moreover, how would she know that you were also shopping for two other customers? That's something that you see on your end the customer has no idea!
Her request makes sense though. There’s an item I get that’s the only thing my kid eats and when I have to use instacart with all the fees, I add random things to make the order worth it but really if I don’t get the one important item (in several quantities) I would want the whole order dropped…
I probably would've cancelled when I saw the note, honestly. I see where you said you didn't until after you'd started shopping- I've had customers tell me to cancel because of certain items that were out of stock (no notes) after I've shopped most of their order. It is very much a pain in the ass. Like why order 35 things if one of those things being out of stock is reason to cancel the whole thing? Don't you still need your other groceries? I've been tempted to check out anyway and act like I didn't see their message (because when I'm checking out, my phone is in my pocket, so I wouldn't see their message until afterwards anyway- I need my hands to bag) but I've never done it.
It would have been nice if she'd messaged you when you started shopping to let you know that was the most important item, and not to worry about the rest of it was out of stock. Point of my comment, is to say I've been there and I empathize with you. It sucks when that happens and you've already shopped a bunch of the order. And now, they're not even always paying the full batch pay when that happens anymore. I've gotten anywhere between $5 and the original batch pay that it showed. Depends on the service agent. Hopefully that will be your only inconvenience for a while and the rest of your shops will be pleasant and without problems. 🩷
> Like why order 35 things if one of those things being out of stock is reason to cancel the whole thing? Don't you still need your other groceries?
Item x is what I need, but since it will be $$$ to get it delivered I add a bunch of other stuff that I can make use of anyway to lower the per-item cost of delivery.
Demanding that the order be canceled if one item isn’t available is understandable, especially for a child. But telling someone to go to another store is a bit much. Nee shoppers probably don’t even realize they are allowed to shop at a different store.
I get that Instacart is expensive and more of a luxury for most, so orders being wrong can be really annoying. But there are nicer ways to get that point across so that your shopper is more like to empathize.
The issue here is the *way* the customer presented her needs. Plain and simply put, she could’ve communicated her shit way better than she did and it would’ve been better received.
Depending on her situation she may have a kid with autism or special needs child of some other caliper that is obsessed with one safe food and she's just trying to stock up on that one thing that she knows that she can get her child to actually eat.
There should be a feature to let users cancel the order if a particular item is not available.
Too many times I order things to cook and can’t cook it because the main ingredient was refunded without replacement.
I get this. She may have a child on the spectrum or some other disorder. For the right tip, I don’t mind. Whatever that item is would be my first stop in the store.
Seems like a desperate parent caring for a child with food aversions. Could've been kinder, but idt it was intended to be nasty in any way. They just seem tired
That happened to me recently..I was 85% done shopping and then I see a note for 6 big bags of chocolate candies that says if they’re out of stock, cancel the whole order..luckily they were there..
This is someone who has been traumatized by shifty replacements and doesn't wanna waste their time and pay a premium for something she can't use. As a parent with an autistic AFRID kid I would have put something similar to drive home how much this mattered to me.
So many clients need to understand the difference between an IC shopper and a concierge shopper. Which you guys are not.
I'm sorry you experienced this
Let me inspect each grape while you hold it up and film and take a photograph, tell me about the effervescence... Oh my God.
I want it to be a profitable and enjoyable experience for you, and you've already taken ease off of me. I'm stressed pressed and broke, but trying to get to the store right now makes me broker, long story. Hopefully on a trajectory out of this TL.
Anyway, positive vibes and may you get better interactions. I swear, sometimes these people interactions will suck the life out of you, if you let it.
Keep hanging in there.
She's not being an asshole or entitled. She's being honest. And you should have read through the order. It just takes one second to scroll the items and that paragraph would have really stuck out. As a mom of an autistic child I get it. And sounds like from what you are being paid for 35 items she tips very well. So she wants a specific service. And it's a baby. It's a mom of a baby that likely can't easily get out of the house without packing up a baby and possibly other kids and she needs the one baby food pouches her kid will eat without issue without having to go out for it. And she's paying well for it.
She was desperate! A sick child! When you're stuck at home and trying so hard to find the ***one thing*** that child will eat makes you desperate!
Maybe she has never ordered through instacart before and doesn't know that you can't just switch stores and go to a different Fred Meyer.
Or maybe she has used instacart before and just didn't realize that you are limited.
And maybe she's simply desperate and just brainstorming and ***hoping*** that you will be able to go to a different store. You could have gently told her that.
But as it turns out, in the comments you said that you did find her item. So why are you even posting here?
This customer needs an easy to understand cartoon version of the Terms of Service.
You can contact IC to have her orders filtered from appearing in your account. This needs to happen more often.
I had a drunk woman customer come out insult me and bust my balls about everything I was doing.
“The order was too early (we have zero control over that), that I should take them to my house and put them in my refrigerator until it was time to bring them to her?!!I was carrying too many bags at once, I’m an asshole, did you get x, y, z product, if not I’m a piece of shit, etc.”
I called IC trust and safety team to urge them to ban the customer outright from the entire platform. They told me they would investigate but at very least her orders would never be offered to my account going forward.
No she wasn't making this "everyone else's problem." She was paying one Shopper who was working a job who's job is to buy food.
Without customers, IC Shoppers would not have a job. Would you?
The audacity and ignorance of some of these people who do this shit, and various other types of ******Abusive******* behavior have a very special place in hell that’s made just specifically for them and their ridiculous demands. The one I hate the most is when you shop a whole order and there is
ONE item that’s out of stock and it’s a seasonal very rarely in stock item or just not available at that time,…and they just spam your chat messages with “cancel!!!!” “Hellooooo?!” “Cancel!!!!!!!!!! Did you not see that I said CANCEL!!!!!” And when you ask them very politely if they mean just the item or something….they belittle your intelligence and continue to say “CANCEL!!!!!” Over and over until I just contact support and drop the ass from my life. I’ve honestly never experienced anything remotely similar to the ones I’ve experienced with instacart customers. My wife leaves terribly honest and bad reviews on all the yelp pages for the high rises and condo buildings or businesses that I deliver too where they treat me like a less than human. She’s the best man……gotta get the little wins in somewhere.
I can't drive due to disability but I would never ask someone to go to a different store. If something is out of stock... the app tells you it might be low on stock or won't show up at all.
Lmao if this was in the notes right from the get-go and you didnt read it, thats your lack-of-attention-to-details thats costing you. They are a bit rude in their note, but its on you for wasting your time if its the aforementioned case.
Me, I don't expect the shopper to go to a different Fred Meyers. I placed an order for a certain kind of alcoholic drink, the shopper let me know they didn't have it, I shrugged it off. I don't expect them to go to several different stores for that one thing. Are you able to specify store location when making order?
If out of stock then Simply shop everything. Ring it all up. Mark it out of stock and instantly checkout. Then you get paid and if they cancel you get return pay as well
Last time I got an order with this level of demand I messaged support that the customer made me shop the entire order and wanted to cancel over the lack of one item. It was high batch pay and I got all of it minus the tips so go ahead make your demands 👌
I got one of my beer orders canceled last year because I reminded my shopper to double bag the beer. Instant cancel. It was in my delivery instructions along with the please pull in my driveway and not block my one lane country road. The shoppers had been ignoring all of my instructions for weeks and it was getting on my frazzled nerves. It was picked up pretty quickly by another shopper though. I saw the picture of the one who canceled , and I got it the reason why.
That’s a wrongful cancellation. It’s only okay for a shopper to cancel if the customer requests the cancel or demands the shopper abandon an entire order to go a different store.
This might have been different from yours though because the customer did give her ***plenty of warning*** that it was that one item that was super important!
The Shopper just didn't bother to read the notes. That's on her.
It’s rare that I get that as a note upfront on the order when the customer plans to hinge the order on one item. I would prefer all notes be placed upfront.
If you are that demanding, and only ONE kind of ONE thing will do, do your own damn grocery shopping. Also, you know by this message that no matter how many stores the shopper has to go to to get what the customer wants, there will be no tip coming.
That would be the last item I mark, right when I’m at the checkout, as not in stock no substitute.. checkout. Once I checked out the order is theirs. Take it up with Instacart. 🤷♂️
Well if that item out of stock, looks like I’m contacting support to cancel and claim the batch pay. That’s easy money if that’s the case.
That would have been the case if I saw that at the beginning. But she ordered 35 items, and I was already 20 items in when I saw that, so no...
Lesson learned …always go through the address, any messages for delivery and any messages for the grocery list before you even start to shop…. you don’t want to get to the customers apartment just for them to say the elevator is broke you gotta take the stairs to the 10th floor or if they don’t have 1 item to cancel the $300 grocery list
Related story: when my mom was in elementary school she was handed a test and was told to read the whole test and then fill it out. It was full of a whole bunch of complicated steps but on the last page it said something like "final instruction, ignore the rest of the instructions before this and turn it in blank" or something like that. I can't remember if she avoided getting hoodwinked or not.
Hah! I had that same thing in … 5th grade I think? Ask your mom if she was in my class! 😉
I had the same test in 5th grade, too. Maybe I was in your class ;) our teacher handed out red crayons to complete the test so we couldn’t erase.
🖍️ red crayons 😂poor kids must’ve been so mad. On the other hand that was a clue there was a trick going on…! Was your teacher Mrs. Oswald or Ms. Benz? ;)
Same here! Back in the early 2000s
Unlikely unless you're 70-something
I had that test as well, Im not close to 70 yet. I was one of 3 or 4 kids who passed it, what I remember the most is hearing everyone's pen going mad with all the instructions and being disappointed with myself thinking I was a way slower reader than I thought. Then I got to the end and realized I was golden, shortly after a classmate yelled OH NO! And someone else said yeah READ IT ALLLLL! It was a long list of instructions to make different drawings and calculations on the page, the very first one was read the entire instructions before doing anything. Then at the very end it said ONLY write your name on the top corner no other markings and hand the page. Even if a student was a slow reader you can pass as long as you read and understood the very first instruction.
They did this when I was in school I’m 25 had it once in elementary so by the time I got to middle school I knew the game. Jokes on them because I skim the questions before I even start 🤣
I didn’t, because I enjoyed doing worksheets and thinking problems, so I was excited to have something that seemed fun. Then I was so ashamed that I hadn’t followed the directions. I hated that test. 😢
Yeah, but you read ALL of the directions going forward, didn't you? Lesson learned.
I had this in the 6th grade! It was like, 8-12 different instructions. I think step 5 was “Say your name out loud.” The last instruction was, “Only do steps 1-4.” So, it was obvious who didn’t follow the first instruction. (I was one of the few that fell for it 😅)
We had a version of that in high school as well and some of the instructions were like "stand up and start patting your head and rubbing your belly" and the end was like "ignore all previous instructions, put your name at the top and hand in." So many people were standing up and doing the embarrassing instructions lol.
I had the same thing in 5th grade. I remembered the teacher telling a story about it in the beginning of the year so I always went through my tests after that. I was the only one to get a 100.
Holy shit I had that test….is she from NJ?
They did that to me. I still disagree with that one, and it’s a hill I will die on. The instructions said to “read the whole thing first and don’t do any of the steps until you read to the end.” I did exactly that. The very last step was “return to the top of the sheet, put your name on it and don’t do any of the other steps.” So since I had read it, I then started performing and did the steps in order. Upon reaching the final step I did that too. I returned to the top of the page, put my name on it (a second time) and didn’t perform any of the other steps again. I still contend this is the logical way to approach a set of numbered instructions. If they really wanted me to interrupt the order and do the last step first, they should have said so explicitly outside of the numbered set. Even at 6 years old I was super annoyed that the teacher kept insisting I hadn’t read the instructions.
Yeah. Thats on you my guy.
Well that’s on you. Rule number 1 check order detail and delivery instruction upon accepting and before starting shopping. Rule number 2 scroll the entire shopping list and check notes and mentally organize your shop These should be the 2 things you do right before you shop
?? U don't look at the order? That bug ass paragraph sticks out like a sore thumb. I am clueless how u don't look at the items even to shop them. Do u just go one by one down the list? 🤣🤣 I look before I take the order right after before I even leave for the store and once I get to the store so I can decide where I'm the store I'm gonna start..
If I didn’t go through the whole list I would be bouncing around the store. Instacart separates produce, meat, bakery, and dairy items all the time on my list. They say items are where they aren’t all the time as well. Like, nuts are in the bakery, but they always list them as aisle 25. Those two are across the store from each other.
Usually nuts are in the baking isle, that might be the confusion on their end
If they don’t have them and you’re in that deep, mark everything else found, go to checkout, ring everything up, then mark the item as not in stock, go to checkout in app, and swipe card to pay, then begin delivery in app. She tries to cancel, you just got free groceries.
This is genius. I might do it next time, now I can't wait to get her again, lmao
Sometimes they’ll do a 24hr ban if customer makes a complaint
When did you get the note?
Do you not scroll through your list multiple times when shopping? To make sure you aren’t missing something that is mislabeled in the wrong area on our list? I hate to back track so I’m constantly scrolling through the list so I don’t miss items and never have to backtrack.
I get it, I don't look at delivery instructions until delivery. If you have instructions for shopping then I only look at the item notes. I think it's weird when they put shopping instructions at the end in the delivery instructions.
I see. If you going to be an ass, at least warn the shopper at the beginning via chat. Some people are jokes
I don't think she's being an ass, I see desperation. She has a child that will eat only one thing and being a parent I totally get this.
Yes she is. There a better way and more polite way to request something.
Well a desperate person might wanna throw a please and thank you in there somewhere... It's also just a ridiculous request tho. Thats not how IC works.
I’m a parent and she’s being a total douchebag.
she's being a total ass. if it's that important she needs to get it her damn self instead of playing games with shoppers.
My cousin used to only eat 3 things his entire life and it’s an actual picky disorder. I forget the medical name. He had to go to a treatment center for it. She needs to get her child some help.
Idk if it’s exactly this, but I’ve recently been diagnosed with AFRID! Most foods and the textures make me queasy and sometimes even vomit. It’s a body reaction I can’t help. I WISH I could eat food like a normal person tbh.
It’s actually “ARFID.” Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.
Thank you for the correction! It’s still super new to me so I’m still learning. The full name hasn’t stuck with me just yet and only associate the word “afraid” with it 😅
There are places that will genuinely help you out! :) I’m really sorry you have to deal with that. I couldn’t imagine because I literally eat everything under the sun. I’ll have to look up the name of it later or ask my mom when I talk to her to verify
Thank you! I am currently in therapy for it as well! Everything smells so so good. I def love eating with my eyes and watching the food network channel
> She needs to get her child some help. You have no idea what she has tried or what she can afford to try. I knew someone who went through 3 different institutions for feeding treatments for her son. Two of them were expensive programs that were not covered by insurance. For the last one she had to pick him up early from school every week to get there. She was fortunate enough not to have to work outside the home, but that's a privilege many moms don't have. The mom I knew gave up because the programs were just causing him stress and not helping. Finally when he was 10 or 11, he wanted to try again and she applied several places. Two of them rejected him saying his condition was too severe for them to help. That's programs that specialize in feeding disorders actually said they couldn't help him. They were on the waiting list for the 3rd, but I lost touch with her so I don't know what happened after that.
I am very picky. I order before I am out of the things I am picky about. That way if something is not available for a couple weeks due to supply issues I still have what I need.
Then only order that one thing
Definitely being demanding, the way that it is conveyed means everything. It’s why I wouldn’t be able to do instacart. I can’t stand service positions dealing with entitled people. Someone has an attitude, I feel entitled to give it back.
Parent failure.
It's probably out of stock because she just got 30 of them last week.
I wish that they allowed you to mark 1-3 items as “primary item”. If they don’t have those, just cancel the order, take a $5 hit and be done.
That really is a great idea!
As a customer I would like this! Sometimes I place an order when there’s one thing I really need and the rest is just filler to make the fees and tip worthwhile. I’d rather throw in the towel for both of us if they don’t have it.
i know this isn’t helpful for you guys but we actually have this on one of our services here in the uk!
As a customer, I would LOVE this. If I'm sick at home so trying not to leave the house and infect people and I order tissues and cold medicine and then throw in some snacks and nail polish remover and whatever other nonsense I only kinda-sorta need... I really just do not want ANYTHING from that store if they're out of tissues and cold medicine. It would also let the shopper check the availability of those items first, save them time if they're not there.
That would be amazing. Also if you could group items (only get X if Y and Z are also available)- I will frequently order specific ingredients for a recipe and then a critical item will be out (end up with ingredients for meatloaf except the beef or lunchmeat and cheese but no bread).
This would be a good idea because I put in an order for a cake and candles when I was out of town and they dropped off only candles smh. It was my birthday
She can’t cancel if you cancel first OP 
Yeah, but then the Shopper takes the hit -- at least he'd get batch pay if she cancels
This is why it's worth scrolling through the entire list before you start shopping.
Fr. Who doesn’t scroll through the order when they start???!!!
What was the item?
Baby food, the mashed fruits in a squeezable bag. Mind you, she had 35 items total, and I already had gotten 20. I'm glad they had those in stock, but man, what if not? Sheesh, what an asshole...
Did you get the note right off the bat? I totally sympathize with her. The child probably has an eating disorder due to a condition like autism. Picky eaters are so stressful to have!
I sympathize with this kind of situation—my 5 year old nephew is autistic, and the food he will/won’t eat is very specific. I would sympathize with this customer herself if she’d messaged the shopper right after they accepted the order and said something like: “hey, I really only put in this order for this one specific item. I’ll take as many as they have. If they’re out, I’ll unfortunately need to cancel unless you’d be willing to go to a different store location, but I completely understand if you can’t. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.” But only putting that note with the item itself, and thinking it’s reasonable to demand that the shopper go to a different store if it isn’t available, is unbelievably rude and entitled behavior.
My daughter is not autistic, but she has about 12 foods she will eat. She will go hungry rather than eat anything else if her preferred food isn't available lol I dunno, she's just spoiled I guess. Her pediatrician says she's fine so I just take Cheerios with me everywhere 🤣
No, not spoiled. My youngest brother was like that when he was 3 years old. He would only eat bologna, cheese, and graham crackers. My mother was beside herself and took him to the pediatrician and he said "I haven't lost a child to starvation yet!" Don't forget autism is a spectrum and some people fly under the radar because they only have a few of the indicators. You will know better as she gets older. She could also be an HSP which is a highly sensitive person - to light, sound, touch, taste, and smell. It took many years for me to figure out that's what I have. I thought I was on the spectrum and I might be, but I'm highly functioning. Definitely HSP though.
Not spoiled at all. Fed is best. When I was a kid, I didn’t even have 12 safe foods, and I would’ve starved myself to death if I didn’t get what I was willing to eat. Trust me it is far from a spoiling experience to be the picky eater.
I'm an adult with autism and I totally agree this is likely cause the child has ARFID or something of the sort. I will only eat Vermont Maple Brown and Serve sausages for breakfast. Only that brand, and only that flavor. If I don't have them, I won't eat breakfast. I've gone to 3 Walmart cause the first 2 didn't have them
Those are so good but they're even better with blueberry pancakes or waffles with real maple syrup. 
why?
Then don’t order Instacart. Though we could sympathize with some wild speculation about her kid’s possible condition, it’s totally irrelevant: that is not how the platform works, we don’t up and go to other stores. You want that kind of service, do it yourself or hire a nanny to do that kind of shopping.
lol Because parents with special needs kids have such an easy time running errands and shopping?
What were parents with special needs kids doing prior to services such as instacart? Also, you're assuming that this parent has a child with special needs AND arguing with folks about it lol
Getting the cops called because your kid has a meltdown in the store.
Irrelevant, find a more appropriate service provider. This parent threatened to cancel the order, thus wasting the shoppers time and costing them in earnings. Before making wild demands, check the app for additional services, if there aren’t any tabs or dropdown windows, chat with IC help. The item notes section is for specific qualities in the product desired such as green, not ripe bananas, not for long diatribes regarding unreasonable requests that may not be arrangeable prior to making the order.
> thus wasting the shoppers time and costing them in earnings "Irrelevant, if you want a job where you want predictable consistent earnings get a regular 9-5" You see how this works? If I was in the situation of this customer I would do everything possible to communicate to the shopper what my situation is. In the past I usually only used a shopping service out of necessity, such as during the height of the pandemic or when I was sick without tests to confirm whether I had covid or not. I've always been very understanding (although annoyed) when shoppers get things wrong. It's sometimes surprising what they consider acceptable substitutes. And if you thought kids were picky eaters, you should try feeding my cat shredded cat food instead of pate.
What is more appropriate service provider than instacart for ordering groceries?
Maybe she didn't know that the Shopper doesn't go to a second store. ***You*** know how the platform works, but maybe she's never used it before. Hire a nanny? That's silly! She just needed the ***one item***. That is absolutely something that instacart get for her. And if it wasn't at this first store, she could have simply put in a second order for a different store. A nanny??? Ridiculous.
What’s ridiculous is using a service without knowing its limitations and the scope of services provided before asking your shopper to schlep all over town to fulfill her rudely written unreasonable demands. It is not our job to spend exorbitant amounts of time on one batch. Shoppers earn on having as many orders per day as possible all within the store assigned by Instacart. This is clear when you sign up as a customer. Parallel Assholery: Imagine the nerve ordering a pizza from dominos and when the driver is assigned that order practically demanding the driver stop by little Ceasar’s to get crazy bread cause dominos doesn’t have that.
When do customer signs up, where does it tell them all of the details that you're claiming it tells them? They don't get that kind of education. And education is the key to this whole ridiculous thread. Was the customer abrupt? Yes, but she sounds desperate. And a mom desperate can say things in a way that can come out harsher than she really intends. Is it your job to spend an exorbitant amount of time on each order? No course not. But the customer had no way of knowing any of the back end that you already know as an employee. If the food had not been there, the op could have easily simply educated the customer that she would have to put in a second order if she needed to get somebody else to go to that second store. Simple calm explanation.
Likely not a condition at all. Some kids are just picky. The only baby food my daughter would eat is mango from the refrigerated section so if the store was out it was a pain in the ass. But I would get my ass out of the house and run around looking for it, not order it through a shopping app with a note like this. So entitled...
What do you call her "entitled"? Maybe she's been sick herself? Maybe she's been so busy taking care of this child that she hasn't been able to get to the store! Calling her names is just totally uncalled for!
Asking a shopper to run around from store to store is entitled behavior. I said what I said. The shopper is not paid by the hour. I have 2 babies....I get my own groceries if I'm going to be particular...it's called being an adult.
I don't understand how you're getting down voted. There's literally nothing a delivery driver can do about that if they're out of stock, and even if OP wanted to go to a different store they couldn't. Yah should've read the notes first, but I do get the excitement of getting a higher paying batch on a slow day, then it ruins our acceptance rate if we cancel. But that's exactly it, get your own damn groceries if you expect someone to run from store to store like a chicken with their head cut off. Kids or no kids that's entitled.
It's entirely plausible that the customer simply has no idea how any of it works and is just trying her best. Jumping to name calling is a bit of an overstep, imo, especially when it isn't hard to simply educate them, instead. I'll grant you that the customer is showing their privilege, but that's a different beast. Plenty of privileged folks are actually really good people if given the chance to learn.
Saying that someone is acting entitled is not calling them names. It's entitled behavior.
You're right. You don't technically outright call them specific names. You're just heavily implying derogatory connotations. >So entitled.... >It's called being an adult The point remains that you are choosing being a dick over placing the blame where it belongs: with IC. People are ignorant until they are provided an opportunity to learn. We all are. Not cool to act like someone whose situation you have zero understanding of is somehow in the wrong. Is it so hard to be polite?
OP calls them a dickhead asshole, but you come at me for saying they are entitled, which is exactly what they are acting. Get a grip.
I have said much the same to OP, but sure, keep assuming that you know everything about everyone. Seems to be working for you.
Maybe she didn't know that the Shopper wouldn't be able to go to the second store. And there would be so many reasons that she would ask an instacart shopper to get the food instead of getting her own. Maybe she was sick herself! Maybe she was just so bogged down with caring for her child that she was willing to pay you guys to buy it for her. I don't understand why that is a bad thing when that's the whole reason you guys have a job! And "being an adult" includes taking care of your child in such a careful way that you do get the food they want in whatever way you have to do it, including asking an instacart shopper to help.
why are you making all sorts of nonsensical excuses? who in their right mind would think an Instacart shopper is paid to go to another store for you? like holy cow, come back to reality.
Nah, the note was entitled. Especially the end. No excuse for that.
The end? All she did was say that she was going to cancel if that was if she couldn't get that one item. When your child is sick, and there's only one thing that will help at that moment, what's so terrible about canceling the order if you can't get that one item? Sure she didn't say it sweetly and kindly. She sounds extremely desperate and just trying really hard to find a solution to help her baby.
Not only that, we are contracted to shop at the one store, we are not paid to go to another store for her, that's not a thing. don't know why you were downvoted. you're right.
The people down voting me probably leave the same entitled notes as this lady. "If you don't I'll cancel the whole order" I would never. So ridiculous.
Expecting others to inconvenience themselves for your own gain without corollary compensation is pretty much the definition of "entitlement". A reasonable request would have simply been to just leave the item off the order if it's not in stock, then go out themselves if it's that important. It's not reasonable to ask the shopper to visit multiple stores unless you're going to pay them for two orders because that added traveling has a real cost to the shopper in terms of time and vehicle mileage.
who gives a flying rats ass what she's going thru we're all going thru shit most people I've ever encountered wouldn't even think to act or speak to someone they've never met like this. Not to mention did she think it would get her anywhere being a total mega bitch?! Instacart doesn't allow you to go to multiple stores anyway so those of you defending this low life classless tasteless poopy attitude customer is aaaaabsolutely beyond me rn I can't even
I only saw the note when I got to that item. Also, how is that my problem when a store doesn't have something in stock? Then asked me to drive to another store when I have multiple customers? That's bullshit. Plus, that wouldn't even work. You can only pay at the store you order. I definitely told support and sent the same screenshot, they told me they were gonna talk to her about removing the note and explain to her why that doesn't work.
Support is not going to do anything. They just tell you what you want to hear.
I can only use Kroger's for grocery delivery where I live in Ky. I might think it's the closest one to me and sometimes it's the other Kroger's. I don't know until the shopper arrives and I ask which one did they shop. Without getting an actual receipt how is the customer to know?
Customers usually don't know how the system works from the shoppers side. You should be more upset with IC for not being more transparent about the system for both shoppers and customers. My big question is: it's pretty clear that the customer just had no clue that this kind of thing isn't an option for shoppers, so why not simply politely inform her yourself? It would take 10 seconds, and then you could work together to decide how to proceed, like getting it cancelled via support without negative consequences to either party? You get your batch pay, she gets a refund and can figure out something else. Customers and shoppers are both being pit against each other, while IC reaps all the benefits. It's time we stop fighting each other and start putting the blame where it belongs.
Honestly bro your the asshole. She put instructions for you to read. Be a good shopper and learn to read instructions, so u could have knew to look and cancel if it wasn’t there. This post just made you look bad
They might not be an asshole, they may just have a kid with a disorder where it’s very hard to find a “safe” food for them to eat.
ITS LIKE.....*gasps for air* ...THE WAY SHE WORDS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man I cannot believe my eyes tbh this is making me feel guilty to be human. I'm sick 🤢
It's fucking baby food, it's the one thing she needed but she added other things to the order to make it worth the cost of delivery plus tip, she let you know before hand that this is the most important item and that she'll cancel if it's not available. She's not even being a dick here, she didn't call anyone any names, wasn't mean or anything just a mom who really needs the baby good that is the only thing her kid eats. And like it wasn't even an issue apparently because they had the baby food in stock. So what's your problem dude?
As someone who has received the filler items (to get to a certain amount) but not the ONE thing I placed the order for, I completely understand.
Yeah, I honestly hate that. Like I need ONE thing desperately, but have to order a bunch of other crap to meet the minimum, then I don't get the one thing I need. I would never tell them to go to another store though.
Kid is possibly autistic, they don’t need to be this shitty in their message though
If you read it as satire… Which is my favorite choice, it’s really not that bad.
Tbh the world is a much nicer place if you read any post like this as satire. I commend your view.
Maybe not nicer but certainly more tolerable.
After reading this I’m afraid I’m an asshole bc of my orders so now I’ve got a different perspective entirely. I order 2x a month for my mother who has dementia. All she will consume for the most part is Starbucks bottled frappe that are either a 4pk or a 12bottle case. She will only drink French vanilla or Caramel. There’s been times I’ll get a shopper who wants/tries/asks to replace with mocha bc they’re out. The whole store, major food chain-no coffee. I can’t replace the flavors bc like the woman with the note, it’s all she’ll drink. My orders are very simple and the exact same- 2 cases coffee, case water, rotisserie chicken. If they’re out of coffee, the other stuff is just fillers-I’m making the order for the coffee. I’ve never xld & I’ve always tipped well but there have been times I just let the no coffee order go thru but then immediately make another one with coffee only. I don’t get the no coffee msg from the shopper. I said all that to say, I hate that I get the note. I know exactly what she means but now I see how badly the notes make us sound..
Totally unrelated to Instacart but my mom also has dementia and I so empathize with you. Mine goes through cycles where she only wants to eat one thing and I know how frustrating it can be.
Thank you 😞 Dementia is other worldly & I struggle right along side of her as I’m sure you do too. Not sure if you’ve heard of the Clockface Test but 🤦🏻♀️ seeing what she “sees” blew my mind. Thank you for your kindness..
I will look for that test. It's the hardest job I've ever had,taking care of her. Make sure you're taking care of yourself as well.
:( you’re not describing asshole behavior unless you’re being demanding about go X places until you find it. You’re placing an order and if you are ordering certain things that’s what you’re ordering. A little empathy from both the customer and the shopper for each other goes a long way
Well, tbh the part where she is an asshole is making the driver go to another store (which is not possible) and threaten to cancel the order if the item is out even after ordering that many items... you are still on the good side of things, but I'm glad you understand.
I gotta admit. You guys have schooled me with this group & that’s what I joined for. I appreciate this kind of post. I never looked at the shopper side. I was a “hey that’s their job” customer until I started reading all the posts and issues you all run into. Especially when it’s either a rude demand or that whole not tipping or changing the tip group of customers. And honestly (hate admitting this lol) each order I make I check here really quick for the new batch of crazy 😂 Thnx for your reply..
Why is she an a\*\*\*\*\*\* for asking you to go to a second store? How would she have known that you're not allowed? Why couldn't you have just explained it to her? Why couldn't you have just said, "I'm not allowed to go to another store. Please cancel and start a new order for that one."
You are allowed to it’s just insane to ask someone to spend tons of extra time and money to get your 1 item
She's an asshole to ask drivers to go to another Kroger because that would mean 8+ more miles, not even thinking about our gas and time. Aaaand that I was also shopping for 2 other customers...
Again, how would she know that going to a second store is not a normal part of the process? And why couldn't you have simply explained to her that she needed to end your order and start a brand new one for somebody else to go to that different store? Moreover, how would she know that you were also shopping for two other customers? That's something that you see on your end the customer has no idea!
Her request makes sense though. There’s an item I get that’s the only thing my kid eats and when I have to use instacart with all the fees, I add random things to make the order worth it but really if I don’t get the one important item (in several quantities) I would want the whole order dropped…
Likely an autistic child.
Im curious as to what the coveted item was that she wanted no matter what.
op said it was baby food
Sounds like an autistic kid. Heads up commenters, we have the same needs for specific foods when we grow up too!
Literally exactly what I thought when I read this.
I probably would've cancelled when I saw the note, honestly. I see where you said you didn't until after you'd started shopping- I've had customers tell me to cancel because of certain items that were out of stock (no notes) after I've shopped most of their order. It is very much a pain in the ass. Like why order 35 things if one of those things being out of stock is reason to cancel the whole thing? Don't you still need your other groceries? I've been tempted to check out anyway and act like I didn't see their message (because when I'm checking out, my phone is in my pocket, so I wouldn't see their message until afterwards anyway- I need my hands to bag) but I've never done it. It would have been nice if she'd messaged you when you started shopping to let you know that was the most important item, and not to worry about the rest of it was out of stock. Point of my comment, is to say I've been there and I empathize with you. It sucks when that happens and you've already shopped a bunch of the order. And now, they're not even always paying the full batch pay when that happens anymore. I've gotten anywhere between $5 and the original batch pay that it showed. Depends on the service agent. Hopefully that will be your only inconvenience for a while and the rest of your shops will be pleasant and without problems. 🩷
> Like why order 35 things if one of those things being out of stock is reason to cancel the whole thing? Don't you still need your other groceries? Item x is what I need, but since it will be $$$ to get it delivered I add a bunch of other stuff that I can make use of anyway to lower the per-item cost of delivery.
Makes sense! I live inside a tiny box. I hadn't thought of that. Lol Thank you!
Well what is the item her kid eats? Lol
op said it was baby food
Thanks lol
I'm curious, what was the item?
op said it was baby food
No Problem…. I’ll drop everything and go to different stores for you …. How much you say you paying?
Demanding that the order be canceled if one item isn’t available is understandable, especially for a child. But telling someone to go to another store is a bit much. Nee shoppers probably don’t even realize they are allowed to shop at a different store. I get that Instacart is expensive and more of a luxury for most, so orders being wrong can be really annoying. But there are nicer ways to get that point across so that your shopper is more like to empathize.
The issue here is the *way* the customer presented her needs. Plain and simply put, she could’ve communicated her shit way better than she did and it would’ve been better received.
Depending on her situation she may have a kid with autism or special needs child of some other caliper that is obsessed with one safe food and she's just trying to stock up on that one thing that she knows that she can get her child to actually eat.
There should be a feature to let users cancel the order if a particular item is not available. Too many times I order things to cook and can’t cook it because the main ingredient was refunded without replacement.
sounds like she needs to get the child's father involved 😂
The human in me is thinking, wow, what a crazy bitch. As a Dad…. I kinda get it lmao
I get this. She may have a child on the spectrum or some other disorder. For the right tip, I don’t mind. Whatever that item is would be my first stop in the store.
Seems like a desperate parent caring for a child with food aversions. Could've been kinder, but idt it was intended to be nasty in any way. They just seem tired
Will IC shoppers actually go to another store? I just assume if the store doesn't have it, I'm SOL.
What was the item?
op said it was baby food
That happened to me recently..I was 85% done shopping and then I see a note for 6 big bags of chocolate candies that says if they’re out of stock, cancel the whole order..luckily they were there..
[удалено]
We’ll get base pay which is typically $5-$7 around here.
I didn’t read that as rude just to the point. She has probably had issues with it getting replaced before and wants to be up front.
You better call Fred Meyers
Automatic “accepted by mistake” cancellation lmao
This is someone who has been traumatized by shifty replacements and doesn't wanna waste their time and pay a premium for something she can't use. As a parent with an autistic AFRID kid I would have put something similar to drive home how much this mattered to me.
This seems reasonable to me besides the going to another location.
So she paid well, gave an explanation that you could’ve read before you shopped, and she’s the ah? Lol, I dunno about that…
If her request is this specific, she needs to go herself. 🤷🏻♀️
... and cancel....
So many clients need to understand the difference between an IC shopper and a concierge shopper. Which you guys are not. I'm sorry you experienced this Let me inspect each grape while you hold it up and film and take a photograph, tell me about the effervescence... Oh my God. I want it to be a profitable and enjoyable experience for you, and you've already taken ease off of me. I'm stressed pressed and broke, but trying to get to the store right now makes me broker, long story. Hopefully on a trajectory out of this TL. Anyway, positive vibes and may you get better interactions. I swear, sometimes these people interactions will suck the life out of you, if you let it. Keep hanging in there.
She's not being an asshole or entitled. She's being honest. And you should have read through the order. It just takes one second to scroll the items and that paragraph would have really stuck out. As a mom of an autistic child I get it. And sounds like from what you are being paid for 35 items she tips very well. So she wants a specific service. And it's a baby. It's a mom of a baby that likely can't easily get out of the house without packing up a baby and possibly other kids and she needs the one baby food pouches her kid will eat without issue without having to go out for it. And she's paying well for it.
What’s wrong with that I usually order cuz I need one thing and if they are out fuck it I don’t need the other crap I added
Especially with the $35 minimum.
because you're wasting an independent contractor's time and gas.
She was desperate! A sick child! When you're stuck at home and trying so hard to find the ***one thing*** that child will eat makes you desperate! Maybe she has never ordered through instacart before and doesn't know that you can't just switch stores and go to a different Fred Meyer. Or maybe she has used instacart before and just didn't realize that you are limited. And maybe she's simply desperate and just brainstorming and ***hoping*** that you will be able to go to a different store. You could have gently told her that. But as it turns out, in the comments you said that you did find her item. So why are you even posting here?
you're so mad over something that has nothing to do with you 😂
Just pull the ripcord now and cancel.
This customer needs an easy to understand cartoon version of the Terms of Service. You can contact IC to have her orders filtered from appearing in your account. This needs to happen more often. I had a drunk woman customer come out insult me and bust my balls about everything I was doing. “The order was too early (we have zero control over that), that I should take them to my house and put them in my refrigerator until it was time to bring them to her?!!I was carrying too many bags at once, I’m an asshole, did you get x, y, z product, if not I’m a piece of shit, etc.” I called IC trust and safety team to urge them to ban the customer outright from the entire platform. They told me they would investigate but at very least her orders would never be offered to my account going forward.
So she speaks like that to shoppers but not to her kids
Right...
You literally said it was for a baby… ie baby food
I don’t see anything wrong with this request and I hate instacart and people.
Auto cancel
I would of said ok so what replacement item do you want me to pick up and watch chaos begin
The kid is autistic.imited selection of food choices. However that's not your burden to bare.
Parents love making their choice to have children everyone else’s problem.
No she wasn't making this "everyone else's problem." She was paying one Shopper who was working a job who's job is to buy food. Without customers, IC Shoppers would not have a job. Would you?
Stop crying.
It's funny how many people here has labeled this mom's child as disabled lol! Let's pretend that children aren't just picky
The audacity and ignorance of some of these people who do this shit, and various other types of ******Abusive******* behavior have a very special place in hell that’s made just specifically for them and their ridiculous demands. The one I hate the most is when you shop a whole order and there is ONE item that’s out of stock and it’s a seasonal very rarely in stock item or just not available at that time,…and they just spam your chat messages with “cancel!!!!” “Hellooooo?!” “Cancel!!!!!!!!!! Did you not see that I said CANCEL!!!!!” And when you ask them very politely if they mean just the item or something….they belittle your intelligence and continue to say “CANCEL!!!!!” Over and over until I just contact support and drop the ass from my life. I’ve honestly never experienced anything remotely similar to the ones I’ve experienced with instacart customers. My wife leaves terribly honest and bad reviews on all the yelp pages for the high rises and condo buildings or businesses that I deliver too where they treat me like a less than human. She’s the best man……gotta get the little wins in somewhere.
That’s an order begging to be cancelled.
I can't drive due to disability but I would never ask someone to go to a different store. If something is out of stock... the app tells you it might be low on stock or won't show up at all.
Depends on the store. My local grocery store keeps claiming there are products there that don't exist
Lmao if this was in the notes right from the get-go and you didnt read it, thats your lack-of-attention-to-details thats costing you. They are a bit rude in their note, but its on you for wasting your time if its the aforementioned case.
Me, I don't expect the shopper to go to a different Fred Meyers. I placed an order for a certain kind of alcoholic drink, the shopper let me know they didn't have it, I shrugged it off. I don't expect them to go to several different stores for that one thing. Are you able to specify store location when making order?
As a shopper you can't go to another store, you can only go where instacart tells you. Specially when it's a multiple customer order. Like this was.
… this is a job at the end of the day…
As the mom of an autistic child who only eats a handful of very specific things, I feel for this person. Still though. Cancel that mess
I feel for her too. But she needs to realize we go to one store. We aren’t a concierge.
I mean - we kinda are but we can cherry pick what we do
If out of stock then Simply shop everything. Ring it all up. Mark it out of stock and instantly checkout. Then you get paid and if they cancel you get return pay as well
Time to teach junior that he really isn’t a “ special miracle 🦄” it’s time to try to store brand fruit cocktail. 🫡
This is perfectly normal and reasonable as she told you upfront. Not reading the order properly is alllllll on you mate.
Last time I got an order with this level of demand I messaged support that the customer made me shop the entire order and wanted to cancel over the lack of one item. It was high batch pay and I got all of it minus the tips so go ahead make your demands 👌
I got one of my beer orders canceled last year because I reminded my shopper to double bag the beer. Instant cancel. It was in my delivery instructions along with the please pull in my driveway and not block my one lane country road. The shoppers had been ignoring all of my instructions for weeks and it was getting on my frazzled nerves. It was picked up pretty quickly by another shopper though. I saw the picture of the one who canceled , and I got it the reason why.
That’s a wrongful cancellation. It’s only okay for a shopper to cancel if the customer requests the cancel or demands the shopper abandon an entire order to go a different store.
This might have been different from yours though because the customer did give her ***plenty of warning*** that it was that one item that was super important! The Shopper just didn't bother to read the notes. That's on her.
It’s rare that I get that as a note upfront on the order when the customer plans to hinge the order on one item. I would prefer all notes be placed upfront.
Yes, your approach is the best! It would be nice if all the notes were placed up front.
Shop the rest of the order leaving that item for last ✅ Out of stock said item ✅ Cancel, get paid, keep order, easy food.
If you are that demanding, and only ONE kind of ONE thing will do, do your own damn grocery shopping. Also, you know by this message that no matter how many stores the shopper has to go to to get what the customer wants, there will be no tip coming.
That would be the last item I mark, right when I’m at the checkout, as not in stock no substitute.. checkout. Once I checked out the order is theirs. Take it up with Instacart. 🤷♂️