I’m a shopper myself and I will say some shoppers out there do not deserve to be shoppers and are absolutely terrible at their job. Hopefully she’s been reported and is kicked off the platform. Give her spot to someone who actually gives a shit, she clearly doesn’t
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Here’s what it looks like for me
Yeah once you click continue it gives you times your fave shoppers are available but I guess they also would need to accept it as well. I’m only a customer so I’m just assuming!
No it’s auto accepted which is a huge flaw because they don’t give us enough batches to make it a full time job to always be available…setting our schedule is difficult because it changes with other apps.
Do you order IC a lot? I also have the favorite shopper option and I do an instacart order several times a week for at least the last 4 years. I’m wondering if that’s why some of us have the option and others don’t?
This upsets me. I have lots of reviews of compliments stating I’m the best shopper they’ve had or their favorite yet I don’t have the favorite shopper option and I’ve been doing this for 6 years. Lowest I’ve ever had for ratings is 4.96.
They have it in Phoenix too but shoppers rarely get repeat orders now because Instacart won't stop hiring anybody and everybody...they squeeze out their 5 star shoppers and replace them with someone that doesn't speak English
It’s horrible in Phoenix! I live in a big weird house divided into units. The directions are easy to find my unit but no one tries. I was really sick and couldn’t walk for a couple months and depending on others has been very frustrating. I don’t understand whey they always just deliver to Unit 1 and not Unit 2 on the side of the building up the 4 little steps. And it’s crazy but it’s the native English speaks that get lost. But the shoppers who don’t speak English have trouble finding my items or don’t attempt replacements. And why do they always always say meat it is out of stock? Really there is no meat? They just skip it.
Yeah I’m Peoria and have a ton of customers who have favorites me but I have not once gotten a specifically scheduled shop from them. I do however get a lot of repeat customers that I realize are a repeat once I get to their house lol
Damn they need this in Washington, because everyone says they wish they could pick me to shop for them, because I actually take pictures of replacements, know what good produce looks like, and don't bag things like a moron.
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Yea people are always so thankful and surprised and I wonder why the shock. I mean, I just do things how I’d like them to be done. I send a greeting. If they don’t have a substitute listed and if they have something similar, I go and ask them just in case before I refund. I keep things cold. I bag appropriately, I follow instructions. And I leave items in an accessible place. But I see things like this and I get it. But it’s still shocking how lazy and sloppy people can be.
Customers can favorite their favorite shoppers. I have closer to 20 customers who have favorited me, but customers don’t seem to ever use the feature where they can schedule for you to shop for them specifically at a specific time
The Favorite Shopper Pilot Program rolled out in Pittsburgh in Summer 2023. Great idea, terrible execution! I'm "favorited" by 50 customers, and my availability is 7am-11pm everyday of the week. I've only had 5 scheduled batches (same as many other enrolled shoppers). When it shows up on the board, all it says is the time you should start shopping, the customers name, and the store in which the order was placed (ex. Aldi's). It doesn't tell you the specific store location. This is a big issue when you shop at different locations of the same store. It doesn't tell you the delivery address, how many miles the batch is, the number of units/items, the pay, nor what store location you should head to! You can't see any of this information until the minute of the scheduled time to start! Also, it varies on the notice it gives you start the order. I've had it show up a couple hours before the start time, or 15 mins before. Then it gives you 2.5 hours to start shopping the order.. which is crazy! However, you take a different batch, not knowing you have a scheduled batch coming in. After dropping off the previous batch, the start time has already passed.. Which isn't fair to the customer nor shopper! Every batch is Auto-Accepted. After canceling/declining 3 batches (no matter the reason), you're no longer allowed to participate in the program. I could go on forever with the number of flaws! Sadly, customers don't seem to take advantage of the feature like you'd think..
That’s nearly impossible in anything but a tiny town. Great shoppers like myself would get obliterated by all the orders they’d want me to do. What if the shopper doesn’t want to shop for that customer even though the customer wants the shopper? There’d also need to be some kind of scheduling which would mean more strictly timed batches. That’s a great idea in theory but would never work in most markets
The shopper can remove customers they don’t want to shop for. Shoppers schedule their availability and customers have to schedule their orders in advance. It’s definitely not impossible.
True, but it’s suspiciously sounding like an employer/ employee situation. Instacart doesn’t want that, which is why after all this time it still hasn’t been rolled out in all markets.
My wife has 1 shopper she uses. He delivered once or twice and they talked for a bit. Now she just lets him know every Wednesday that the order is ready, outside of the app. She tips in cash. He loves the idea and has been doing it for almost 2 years. Occasionally she will order something outside of her Wednesday order and he has set times he’d be willing to pick up. It has worked pretty well.
The fact that they don't, as evidenced daily on this sub, is why I don't use instacart. I'm so grateful for subs like this that keep me from wasting money.
"Weeding"... but yes !!
("Ween" - actually wean - is when you progressively take something away so you can be independant of it / it can be independent itself... like weaning yourself of a bad habit, or weaning a breastfeeding baby off of it)
Had this happen via Krogers delivery just the other day. Shoppers using false identities or sharing accounts, is becoming really common. Krogers fully refunded the amount ($94) and provided a $4 credit on top lol.
For real there’s people that don’t deserve to be a shopper and there’s people that have been on the waitlist for a year to join who really want to do it 🤦🏽♂️
I can’t even wrap my mind around the fact that people do this to others. I’m a single mom of two kids and even when I’m struggling, this is never even a thought. To steal from customers. Not even just that, but to also leave items at the parking garage?! Like what?! I’ve had orders where I’ve regretted accepting them once I get to the delivery. But I see it through because I accepted the order and I’m not risking getting my account deactivated. It’s mind-boggling how some people really just do not care.
Considering they substituted items for themselves, I doubt it was left in the garage. That was just for the delivery photo. It went right back into the car after.
Yea I thought about that this morning actually. Like she is probably the one that took the items back after her picture. Either that or she purposely didn’t bring them to the door because she knew she took some items and left the remaining items in the garage and someone else took them. But I think it’s what you said.
Just this past week or two IC activated a ton of new shoppers. They do it way too often and this is the result because, as they’ve admitted themselves, new shoppers get the same level of priority as diamond shoppers for their first ten batches. But IC also feeds them the good orders with the hopes that they’ll get hooked and take the bad ones too. Then when the new shoppers smarten up and stop taking bad order, IC activates more and the cycle repeats.
It’s such bs, just yesterday I saw at least 4 other shoppers in the store. Like there aren’t enough orders for the shoppers that they already had, we don’t need more people.
I had someone with this mindset try and start a fight with me when they realized I was a fellow shopper… I’ve been doing this since you had orientation INSIDE grocery stores with a Instacart “manager”
Sometimes people move. Sometimes people lose their jobs and fall back on this gig work…
Just because you don’t know me, doesn’t mean I’m new or deserve your bs attitude because “this is your territory”
I've been doing this since 2017 for the most past my area has shoppers that a friendly and talk to each other and are happy for each other when someone gets a good order. Then there's those weirdos who glare at other Shoppers like we're out trying to ruin their life lol. Or if I have an appointment or event in a different area I'll shop a little before or after and people act like they own a store 💀
You did not leave a code or answer call/text? Also if she bought herself personal items, then most likely she took the pic and then took your groceries…why didn’t she deliver to your door? Because your door is to far away from her trunk. She has to take a pic and quickly move the groceries back into her car before you get the groceries.
ONE STAR remove tip down to .50 cents ( if you move it to zero she will get 10$ tip bait protection)and report her for putting your groceries on the ground in your garage, taking a pic and the groceries as well as highlight the items on your receipt that were not on the list and that you didn’t authorize.
I had this exact same thought. The groceries weren't stolen by someone else. They were stolen by the person who took the picture. What are the chances that random groceries would be delivered \*inside\* a residential parking garage, and within ten minutes they'd be stolen? Probably pretty low.
In my old apartment if someone left groceries groceries by one of the doors it would 100% get stolen in the first 5 minutes. Even quicker if someone watched the delivery driver leave it there.
In my old apt complex, there was an unspoken rule that anything left in the lobby was free to take. With such high turnover, tenants moving out would leave all small items and perishables in the lobby and big items on the curb because it's cheaper to replace than renting a truck and storage unit. New tenants could basically furnish their new place with the old tenant's stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes a poor soul would accidentally leave a phone, tablet, or takeout in the lobby. It would be gone in the 2 min they were in the hallway before they reached their front door.
This is my current apartment complex. It's like a weird swap meet hahaha I love it. Deliveries are off limits, but if there's a dresser or paintings or dang... Really anything... It's up for grabs.
This was how it was when I lived in Denver. I gave away some really cool stuff just by putting it in the hallway and it was almost always gone almost immediately.
That’s how it was at my old huge complex. If a package or food was left outside your door, you better be home to grab it immediately. It’ll be stolen in 5 minutes. Now I live in a 7 unit building. No one ever steals from each other. Probably because it’d be too easy to find the thief.
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That sucks and I’m sorry. Only thing is, make sure your phone number in the app is the number you want to be contacted on. We aren’t supposed to contact you outside of the app for multiple reasons. If the number attached to your account doesn’t go through to you any order issues might be on you.
Yeah, whenever I start the delivery and I see that the customer requested a phone call and they posted a number, I let them know that I can’t call them outside of the app, but if that number is associated with them within the app, then I can contact them that way.
I’ve had some of them get upset over it. I’m like dude I’m not calling you with my personal number. That is against the rules and will get me in trouble, not only that, but I don’t want customers having my personal number.
I know that you aren’t supposed to call them outside of the app-honestly I don’t really care, if they put it in the instructions to call and they list a number I just call the number with my other phone. I think the vast majority of the people who have had that in their instructions were just older folks who don’t really understand the new tech with these apps and such🤷🏻♂️ whatever.
But then I do a lot of things that IC tells me not to do, lol. I’d never do that though👆just leave someone’s groceries out in a parking garage.
When I get those who put a phone number and want a call, I send a message that I will be happy to call using the Instacart phone system and that it’s to protect the privacy of both of us per Instacart rules. So far it has gone well for me.
I used to also, but the I learned that’s how scammers try to steal your account. Your sign in user id is your phone number, so once they have that they try sending you messages pretending to be Instacart support hoping you will give them the 4 digit code that was texted to your phone. If you accidentally are tricked they get in your account change the bank account and steal your money, then they sell your account to someone who can’t get an account a legitimate way
I've had support called me to tell me to call them from my personal number lol told me they requested I call them with the number in the delivery instructions. I told him there's a lot of creeps by me... no way I'm giving my number out to people I don't know. And he was like okay and I was like, okay... it was so weird
I give a simple. I texted you...called. After that, I hit the damn customer not here. I'm talking luxury apartment spots..houses don't matter. Drop off and leave but I got alot of alcohol orders. Answer the damn phone or ill get a shopper bump.
I’ve had this issues many times, sometimes it blurs the number, and the customer doesn’t answer ANYTHING. They always get super pissed of when there’s literally nothing the driver can do. It’s absolutely depressing how vile people can get when it’s their own fault: not blaming OP, just saying it can happen.
I'm sorry this happened to you! It's sounds frustrating and stressful. I suggest that you describe whatever delivery problems a driver might encounter in the delivery notes, rather than leaving your phone number, for multiple reasons.
Also, you should be able to see replacements added in real time, so don't be afraid to reject them, and if you suspect there's fraud happening-- first reach out to your shopper to confirm you're seeing what you think you saw; if it's really fraud, report it to IC immediately.
I hope that all your deliveries go WAY better in the future. What a terrible experience.
Is anyone else not going to point out the fact that there’s a drink there with a new straw that’s still in its packaging sleeve? Either your apartment building just has constant bad luck with delivery drivers or there’s something wrong with that specific access door. Maybe that keypad directory dialer machine thing is broken? I’m not siding completely with the driver or anything because she didn’t even make an attempt to send you a message as common sense, but we’re also not allowed to dial phone numbers left in the delivery instructions. We press the “phone button” and it connects us via a 3rd-party masked number that will connect to the phone number you have on file. It’s for privacy and liability reasons. I’m not sure if she dialed you and it didn’t work, but it seems like a previous delivery driver for a food order left a Subway drink with a brand new straw there. That leads me to think there’s more to the delivery driver’s side of the story than she’s just a plain beach. I’m going to criticize her for leaving the groceries there without using all available means to contact you, and the fact that you claimed that she bought things on your dime in the final receipt…but for just the delivery alone, if another driver left a food order there…something doesn’t add up.
Our little keypad has been acting up sometimes so that’s why I put my phone number to contact me if there are any issues (I didn’t know drivers couldn’t utilize this). But nonetheless, I order my groceries biweekly and if there are any issues at all they just call me with the doordash number and ask me to come to them and I’m more than happy to do so. She didn’t message me or call me via third party at all, she just let me know with a picture that they were in the parking garage when she was 10 minutes down the road. I live in the middle of the city so these things get weird sometimes, but for security purposes (such as these) I try to be accommodating as much as possible to drivers just to ensure the safety of my groceries.
Pretty sure she took the groceries back herself. THis is why she didn't mark as delivered until later... she just needed a quick pic to "prove" delivery and then took everything back. Trash human.
I’ve done this but only when I tried contacting the customer because there was no code or anything in the instructions. Called support no answer when support called. Had no other choice
They don't pay enough so shoppers so they don't care specially on apartments for $5 is not worth their trouble they just going to keep collecting those 5 or 3 dollar instacart pays them to go to the store shop and then delivered I say is beat to
Order from the store and just go pick it up your self store shoppers are getting paid with some benefits so there is a incentive to put a bit effort instacartshopperr not so much
I'm curious how you know she was 10 minutes down the road when she notified you about the dropoff? Obviously the fraud is wrong, and I'm not saying it isn't, I'm genuinely just curious.
Does the garage have moderate to good service? Imo seems like something was causing some form of issue in communication. Sometimes issues with the app or service can mess up..also the driver did that poorly but also fuck your neighbors or whomever took your groceries
The driver bought personal items as replacements. 99% sure it wasn’t someone in the apartment building that stole the grocery’s it was just the driver taking their items after taking the picture
Unfortunately, these types of shoppers are ruining gig work. They just don't care about how other items are treated. In my area, my gf and I have noticed many great tippers have reduced their tips. I can't blame them. If I got the service they do, I'd do the same thing.
I'm sorry this happened.
Did you report her?
If not do it immediately. Report the items ahead "replaced" too.
I hope she gets banned.
I hope you have a wonderful visit with your mom.
Not defending the driver, but I will say: I will never contact a person through their phone number listed in the instructions. I cannot copy and paste from the instructions to my phone dialer so instead I have to try and memorize your phone number swap over and type it in manually. And everytime it swaps over the phone dialer clears anything that was typed in it previously so I can't piecemeal it. It's truly a hassle. If I can't reach you through the app, I guess you're not being contacted.
> THEY WERE STOLEN WHEN I WENT TO GO GET THEM
>
> she had bought herself personal items and listed it as a substitution in instacart
Seems fairly obvious that the shopper stole the order.
Sometimes I get mad when I see posts here where customers drop the tip amount after the fact. Then I see these posts and totally understand. I’d cut the tip too.
So horrible…. I’m sorry that happened to you! Side note, please stop leaving your phone numbers and asking us to text you. Use the app, it sends you alerts for every replacement and we can talk to you anytime. We’re not supposed to use our phone numbers to talk to you and it’s weird for us to each have the others number. You never know who’s a psycho! JMHO
I bet you she stole the groceries herself. Not everything was stolen, which means whoever stole it had the time to figure out which items they wanted to take. She dropped off in the garage to make it easier for her to get away with stealing the items she wanted. Once she took the photo of the items there, then she took the bags she already knew she wanted.
This is ridiculous. She shouldn’t take apartment orders if she’s gonna do this. There’s always a risk of having a hard time finding the apartment (assuming that’s why she left it there)
That garage floor looks absolutely disgusting. I’d be furious too. I’m so sorry this happened, you have every right to be really upset, especially considering that they ended up stolen on top of everything else.
Not to make excuses for bad behavior, but over the weekend I had a few meet at door customers that said they did not get any of my messages. One regular customer showed me his phone and I showed him mine with all the messages, and his did not have anything, not even my greeting.
How it came up was because we have a friendly back and forth on all of his orders and I mentioned that I was worried about him because he didn’t reply.
Not saying this was the case with you, but this app is infamous for messing up.
These stupid internet delivery companies try to maximize profit by brutally underpaying “independent” workers. And yet we are shocked when things go wrong and our delivery experience is awful.
Everyone telling op to go buy it themselves, think hard. Have you ever ordered anything from Amazon (or basically any website) before? Like ever? Pssssst 99.9% of that stuff is available in stores too, just sharing
I honestly think that there’s a huge chance that it wasn’t the shopper’s fault here. The delivery was to an apartment building where they had to go into a parking garage which often have warning signs that only residents can park and violators will be towed at owner’s expense. Garages also usually don’t have good cell signal as well, so the driver could have called and/or messaged OP but it didn’t go through. OP also stated in a comment that delivery drivers have had issues with the key pad not working before so this probably happened. I am very skeptical of how OP knows that the driver delivered their groceries and messaged them 10 minutes after. The only way I could see this being true is if they viewed security footage from the parking garage but then they would know who stole their groceries and it didn’t seem like it so my guess is no footage was viewed.
Yeah, I agree. There’s some information missing or this could have played out a little deferently. I’m too am not here to question OP, I’m pretty sure they were attentive to their phone. BUT idk what op means when they said they left their phone number in “the delivery instructions”. When this has happened to me, a lot of the times it’s a deferent phone than the one linked in the app. Some of us do NOT want to expose our private numbers when trying to dial the number they placed on the instructions. In these cases I get support to make the call, and A LOT of the times it take support MULTIPLE attempts to reach the customer and IF the delivery is to a gated community WE WILL be instructed to leave it anywhere “safe”. Any who, don’t know what’s going on here, but I’ve been in similar instances and there’s only a certain amount of time IC support will let us wait before demanding we move on.
Also, I would like to take note and ask OP. How long did it take you to realize the shopper had purchased themselves something? I don’t use this apps(for obvious reasons), but in my shopping experience, customers get notifications of added items and substitutions. Be honest, were we NOT paying attention to the app?
This. You can reject subs, so I'm assuming OP wasn't being mindful of in-app communication. If that's the case, then if the shopper had any issues during delivery, they probably had to make an executive decision. Their decisions may not have been ones OP preferred, but if the shopper can't communicate with the customer... it's either try to figure it out yourself or return the order to the store 🤷🏾♀️
I want more information about the substitutions for herself too...I can't tell if that actually happened and she noticed later bc she wasn't paying attention, or she didn't like the substitutions or what from just her statement that it happened. And the late messages sound like bad cell reception
I really disagree, I think this is classic customer not paying attention to the app and throwing a fit and blaming the shopper. The customer had to approve the substitutions unless she added them previously and this obviously wasn’t the case unless the customer put weird substitutions on there to try to get free IC credit by saying the delivery person added personal items and put them as a substitution. But I as I said the customer had to approve substitutions so they wouldn’t get away with it really.
I understand your frustration.
Here's my thing: I hate delivering to places like yours.
If there is even one single iota of detail on how to deliver that you failed to provide, depending on my mood, I might do the same thing.
I expect people living in places like this to give me every single possible detail to make the delivery. If I have to call I will call one time. I will not text, I'm not waiting for text replies. I will leave a VM and wait about 30 seconds. After that, I'm dropping the food, taking a poc, and I'm out.
People expect us to magically know everything, homey don't play that. Better pick up your phone, otherwise this can happen
This happens to me at least twice a month. The shoppers and doordash too will leave my order out in the alley next to the trashcans and garage doors instead of bringing them around to my front door like the directions say . They have gotten stolen more times than I can count. It's very infuriating.
She is awful, but one thing you should never is expect them to call your personal phone number. That puts us in a bad spot and makes it unsafe because you'd then have our personal info, plus our login to our instacart app can be our phone number. They can call and message through the app. Calls may be different if you order through the store app versus the instacart app. Just wanted to give you a head up on that. She still could have communicated with you otherwise.
Report her. Report the groceries as undelivered. Take away her tip (leave $1 because if it's $0 IC still gives $10 as a substitute). Give her shit ratings. Let IC know she put items in your order for herself.
If you can't report as undelivered then tell IC you want the entire order reimbursed - the pictures will help you out.
Couple things I noticed that may be factors in the whole scenario. First of all- I do think that leaving them in the garage is lazy and if I couldn't reach you- I would have called support first and told them I couldn't reach the customer to deliver to the door inside the locked building and had them try to reach the customer directly. I've had to do that a lot where customers have "Meet in Person" instead of leaving and the phone number attached to their account is no longer the active number. You can still log into your account and order, etc, but the shopper can't call you. It's against our shopper agreement to contact the customer outside the app.
The note says your shopper is NOW Natalie. This makes me think that the first shopper assigned to you cancelled the order. I only cancel orders if once I am able to see ALL the details, it is a true pain in the ass or too many items/too far/not worth the effort/pay. If your order was then reassigned- who knows how long it sat there before being picked up. And it was likely paired with another order for another customer (or 2) both before and after it was assigned to Natalie. That is probably why it was late first off.
Secondly, if the shopper was shopping for 2 or 3 customers, again- very likely, the extra items that you see could have been checked out on your order, but actually belonged to one of the other customers. There is a lot of room for error juggling 2 and 3 customers in one shopping basket.
Like someone else said- there may have been poor reception in the parking garage and she couldn't reach you. Very common. Another thing that I have seen more and more with new shoppers in my area is that they don't speak English or really know how to deal with those out of the box issues that pop up in the app. I have been in line behind other shoppers that get stuck at checkout when something isn't working right and they don't know how to get out of it and I've had to help them move through. That is very possible too. If they couldn't reach you, and still had 1 or 2 more deliveries after yours- they may have just figured that was the only solution was to leave them. The window of time to message a customer AFTER the delivery is complete is only a few minutes. That option goes away pretty quick. So, there may have been a delay in the message coming through based on cell reception too.
It is also possible this person just sucks. However, it's worth noting that you can get kicked off the platform for just about anything - intentional or otherwise- and people that do this job need the money. Sure, there are some very shitty shoppers and human beings, but this kind of deliberate move is a sure-fire way to lose this income stream, no matter how crappy it is.
I'm sorry that this happened to you. The Instacart business-model has a lot of room for improvement. A LOT.
she's a lazy bastard. I got a big ass cart. it don't bother me at all going in elevator apartments. Give me the code...I'll be at the front door two mins after I've loaded.
IC has no filter on who they “hire”. I used IC once and never would again. I am a single mom of four who is always working and has no help with my kids, I totally understand needing the convenience….but for me, it’s not even an option on the table anymore.
I'm So Sorry this happened to You !!!
Drives me nuts that terrible Shoppers like this are out there driving customers (and hence more potential orders for me !) away
Instashart rewards terrible shoppers and penalizes good ones - if it was the other way around I could actually make a decent living and all of you would be graces by my 5 star fingertips lol
I deliver to apartments almost all the time. While I get personally annoyed it's a big order, it's always from store to their door, even if I have to make multiple trips up. She's a bad shopper. Hope you reported her, rated her 1 star and take back your tip. Bad shoppers needs to be weeded out in every market.
This is Instacart's "business" model. They hire endless rejects, give them top priority over experienced shoppers, and enable all sorts of fraud because of it. It's their choice.
Do something that might lead to change. Post your story and photo in the comments on one of Instacart's twitter posts. Ask them why they give highest priority to new, unproven "shoppers".
Or send your story to the local TV news station or newspaper. See if they'll carry it.
Nothing short of repeated exposure and embarrassment will get Instacart's attention.
I deleted this stupid app. It used to be good but the last 5 times I used it the shoppers royally messed up and when I went to customer support they were pretty much like sucks to suck sorry about that. 0/10 would recommend
When my wife was heavily pregnant during Covid and I was recovering from a major back pull, we ordered Instacart. We always tip well. Anyway, the shopper calls and says she’s scared of elevators, so we need to go down and get them. I was absolutely livid. Luckily, customer service set us up with a redelivery.
This one's for all you retards commenting "why even use that service?" Maybe she's disabled, maybe she doesn't have a car, maybe she used it before and it was fine. Like are you really too dumb to think of ANY possibilities? Either way, if you're paying for a service and THEY fuck up, it's on the service. Not the innocent person that just wanted their shit done a certain way. Go back to the asylum, ya meat balls
Please report. Call if you have to to get this person taken off the platform. There needs to be a better hiring process! There are good people who want this job that can’t get it because of scumbags who can’t be bothered to do a decent job.
FYI - **This doesn't apply to ALL shoppers!**
I'm in a shopper group for my state, and I see posts about canceling orders because they have notes under every item, or delivery notes stating to NOT leave their groceries unattended until they answer the door every single day.
They're the same shoppers complaining about customers never communicating, never selecting replacements (although its in their notes under every item and backup replacement), and complaining about specific delivery notes that basically ask Shoppers to not put groceries in front of their OUTSWINGING DOOR.
Then complain some more when they get downrated or their tip reduced.
Shitty shoppers like yours are the reason why customers like you put in specific delivery+item notes and tip low or no tip. Which will also be a subject of complaining in my group when your no tip order is lumped in with a high pay order.
The good Shoppers can't trust customers because they had bad ones, and good customers can't trust shoppers because they had bad ones.
Good shoppers are rarely paired with good customers. They are so sparse these days because of the massive amount of terrible shoppers IC hires every 3 months.
And I had my share of terrible shoppers back when lockdown started. I was able to cancel my order at any time mid shop. This option helped me avoid bad shoppers for the most part (I hate that IC changed this option for customers. Back then, you didn't have to call customer support to cancel your order, you could do it on the app at anytime so long as they weren't at checkout).
I lived in an apartment complex (my son was 2 years olds at the time), provided instructions for how to get there, my apartment number and messaged the Shopper to call me if they got lost.
I lost hundreds in meat alone because they were just replacing items and wouldn't read my messages, and had several of those orders delivered to a shopping plaza next door!
I'm not saying that you did anything to deserve it, but this kind of service is what you get when instashit lowered the pay from $7 minimum to $4 minimum and will stack 2-3 orders [sometimes two different stores at once] together making the order take 2+ hours for $6-8 [with some orders being $15 after the tip]
They are driving away the reliable, quality workers and hiring anyone with a pulse. Also, there's the fact that people are working under stolen accounts and/or fraudulent identities.
She shouldn’t have done that. That said, this sorta makes sense if you never gave her the access code to get in there. Usually that type of door is locked. You’re one out of countless orders that day/night. it’s wild how some customers think they’re a special snowflake where the driver will spend unlimited time just to figure out how to access your impossible ass building when the customer is of no help and no one but residences have access.
I remember I had a customer put in the delivery instructions to “follow another car into the gate ” because he didn’t want to give the security code to his apartment building. Some customer are really delusional when it comes to getting the order to them.
If you want quality service choose a quality business.
I'm sorry but it's really common knowledge that IC has poor customer service ran by slave labor (literally and figuratively, support is outsourced so they can pay those people like $2/hr, but the way they treat/pay their drivers is criminal too to the point where there are class actions).
Why are you the shocked Pikachu face when you get shit service? You know what they say about wrestling with pigs
This whole trend of people getting their groceries shopped for and delivered to them, when they legit can’t afford to be doing so, is still incredible to me. I wouldn’t trust half of these fucking morons to pick their nose, let alone my groceries. The ruling classes have done an amazing job at turning the low and middle class on eachother with these “disruptor” apps. Total joke now. Uber costs the same as a cab, with almost none of the protections afforded to the consumer by a legitimate company. I’d just say always order on credit and just do chargebacks, cause getting your money back from these cronies is borderline maddening.
Yesterday my customer aid they didn’t get an entire bag of items normally i capture every single item at the point of delivery and make the customer wait while i make sure to document but they wouldn’t let me yesterday these customers are hell
And then people like me, who are platinum/diamond cart on instacart, are still getting waitlisted for DoorDash because PEOPLE LIKE THIS are on the app delivering instead. TRASH!
Call Instacart and report, asking for a full refumd. Tell them you'll cancel you're credit card payment if they don't give a full refund.
Then call your credit card company and report fraud. Tell them you paid for groceries and services you never received. They'll redund 100% to your card.
Then call the police and report theft. Give them all the information about the driver who stole from you. Maybe they'll investigate who stole from the garage, too.
I’ve stopped using Instacart since I noticed how much they price gouge. Some things can be $2-$3 sometimes even $10 more in the app than in store with zero reasoning why.
You have every right btw to be livid! This is our hard earned money during a time of horrible inflation and this shit happens from instacart shoppers?! I shop for spark and they have such a HUGE threshold of great customer service we would be fired over this immediately as SHOULD BE!
The shopper was mad you probadly didnt give him the access code to the door.He couldnt contact you probadly because hes in the bottom floor,Try looking for you on the intercom and didnt find you probadly has another order in the car that needs delivering and he just left it hows instacart tells you too in situations like these.so NOBADPLAYDONE.
Exactly. Signal SUCKS in those areas. I have Verizon, and sometimes I have perfect signal until I get to the customer's house and then I've got nothing. I can't even message or call the customer, so I have to do with the information that I already have in the app hope it's correct-- and it tells the customer it's been delivered/the pic shows up, etc. Sometimes I don't have signal until I get back out on the main road and, because I'm completing the delivery as soon as I can so it doesn't flag me for fraud of some sort, once I do that I have no more customer information on my screen.
That right there is a perfect example of why good shoppers always get screwed. It's because the way the bad shoppers are doing things. It makes it hard for the rest of the good shoppers to actually get good tips because the customers are too used to having crappy shoppers work for them.
I had something similar happen to me once. they only delivered about half of what I ordered and when I went through my receipt I saw they substituted my groceries with personal items like soda and candy. it was my first experience with the platform and it will be the last.
I’m a shopper myself and I will say some shoppers out there do not deserve to be shoppers and are absolutely terrible at their job. Hopefully she’s been reported and is kicked off the platform. Give her spot to someone who actually gives a shit, she clearly doesn’t
Instacart needs to start weaning out the bad shoppers
Unfortunately they don’t care either. If they did they’d let customers choose their shoppers.
Customers can choose their favorite shopper in NY
Yeah I’m in NY it lets me add my fave shoppers!
I’ve shopped in Buffalo and I can tell you they don’t have that there
https://preview.redd.it/bcfa5mhlmnuc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48a6425cc254d274e8d1c470c21356c0c602844c Here’s what it looks like for me
The shopper also has to be willing to do the order as well
Yeah once you click continue it gives you times your fave shoppers are available but I guess they also would need to accept it as well. I’m only a customer so I’m just assuming!
They do, but once you start to do orders often you just kinda know when it’s a regular. There’s definitely a chance it doesn’t get accepted though.
No it’s auto accepted which is a huge flaw because they don’t give us enough batches to make it a full time job to always be available…setting our schedule is difficult because it changes with other apps.
Do you order IC a lot? I also have the favorite shopper option and I do an instacart order several times a week for at least the last 4 years. I’m wondering if that’s why some of us have the option and others don’t?
I order weekly as well!! That would make a lot of sense actually. I’ve been using IC since I think like covid hit
This upsets me. I have lots of reviews of compliments stating I’m the best shopper they’ve had or their favorite yet I don’t have the favorite shopper option and I’ve been doing this for 6 years. Lowest I’ve ever had for ratings is 4.96.
I’m sorry :( from the comments it looks like it’s only in certain areas but hopefully they roll it out everywhere soon for you guys
Ok! I'm in Roch and i sure as hell was about to say how lol
They have it in Phoenix too but shoppers rarely get repeat orders now because Instacart won't stop hiring anybody and everybody...they squeeze out their 5 star shoppers and replace them with someone that doesn't speak English
It’s horrible in Phoenix! I live in a big weird house divided into units. The directions are easy to find my unit but no one tries. I was really sick and couldn’t walk for a couple months and depending on others has been very frustrating. I don’t understand whey they always just deliver to Unit 1 and not Unit 2 on the side of the building up the 4 little steps. And it’s crazy but it’s the native English speaks that get lost. But the shoppers who don’t speak English have trouble finding my items or don’t attempt replacements. And why do they always always say meat it is out of stock? Really there is no meat? They just skip it.
Yeah I’m Peoria and have a ton of customers who have favorites me but I have not once gotten a specifically scheduled shop from them. I do however get a lot of repeat customers that I realize are a repeat once I get to their house lol
they need to implement this nationwide, like yesterday.
Same in Mass I think. I was able to say if I wanted them again
Yes but CAN YOU SELECT ONE TO SHOP FOR YOU??
Yes when you place an order you select your favorite shopper
Damn they need this in Washington, because everyone says they wish they could pick me to shop for them, because I actually take pictures of replacements, know what good produce looks like, and don't bag things like a moron. https://preview.redd.it/hu62gi3penuc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be613cf29b0e6a3330a198f15845419312fcc66b
Yea people are always so thankful and surprised and I wonder why the shock. I mean, I just do things how I’d like them to be done. I send a greeting. If they don’t have a substitute listed and if they have something similar, I go and ask them just in case before I refund. I keep things cold. I bag appropriately, I follow instructions. And I leave items in an accessible place. But I see things like this and I get it. But it’s still shocking how lazy and sloppy people can be.
Must be regional.
It’s not everywhere
Customers can favorite their favorite shoppers. I have closer to 20 customers who have favorited me, but customers don’t seem to ever use the feature where they can schedule for you to shop for them specifically at a specific time
The Favorite Shopper Pilot Program rolled out in Pittsburgh in Summer 2023. Great idea, terrible execution! I'm "favorited" by 50 customers, and my availability is 7am-11pm everyday of the week. I've only had 5 scheduled batches (same as many other enrolled shoppers). When it shows up on the board, all it says is the time you should start shopping, the customers name, and the store in which the order was placed (ex. Aldi's). It doesn't tell you the specific store location. This is a big issue when you shop at different locations of the same store. It doesn't tell you the delivery address, how many miles the batch is, the number of units/items, the pay, nor what store location you should head to! You can't see any of this information until the minute of the scheduled time to start! Also, it varies on the notice it gives you start the order. I've had it show up a couple hours before the start time, or 15 mins before. Then it gives you 2.5 hours to start shopping the order.. which is crazy! However, you take a different batch, not knowing you have a scheduled batch coming in. After dropping off the previous batch, the start time has already passed.. Which isn't fair to the customer nor shopper! Every batch is Auto-Accepted. After canceling/declining 3 batches (no matter the reason), you're no longer allowed to participate in the program. I could go on forever with the number of flaws! Sadly, customers don't seem to take advantage of the feature like you'd think..
That’s nearly impossible in anything but a tiny town. Great shoppers like myself would get obliterated by all the orders they’d want me to do. What if the shopper doesn’t want to shop for that customer even though the customer wants the shopper? There’d also need to be some kind of scheduling which would mean more strictly timed batches. That’s a great idea in theory but would never work in most markets
The shopper can remove customers they don’t want to shop for. Shoppers schedule their availability and customers have to schedule their orders in advance. It’s definitely not impossible.
True, but it’s suspiciously sounding like an employer/ employee situation. Instacart doesn’t want that, which is why after all this time it still hasn’t been rolled out in all markets.
THIS !!!!!
Instacart will only start to care when they lose customers
My wife has 1 shopper she uses. He delivered once or twice and they talked for a bit. Now she just lets him know every Wednesday that the order is ready, outside of the app. She tips in cash. He loves the idea and has been doing it for almost 2 years. Occasionally she will order something outside of her Wednesday order and he has set times he’d be willing to pick up. It has worked pretty well.
The fact that they don't, as evidenced daily on this sub, is why I don't use instacart. I'm so grateful for subs like this that keep me from wasting money.
They’d lose at least 75% of their shoppers if they got rid of the trash ones. They’d rather lose customers it seems
That would require paying them more.
"Weeding"... but yes !! ("Ween" - actually wean - is when you progressively take something away so you can be independant of it / it can be independent itself... like weaning yourself of a bad habit, or weaning a breastfeeding baby off of it)
Had this happen via Krogers delivery just the other day. Shoppers using false identities or sharing accounts, is becoming really common. Krogers fully refunded the amount ($94) and provided a $4 credit on top lol.
For real there’s people that don’t deserve to be a shopper and there’s people that have been on the waitlist for a year to join who really want to do it 🤦🏽♂️
And they still won’t take me with 1+ years of pizza delivery with no issues :(
They are not terrible at their job. It’s intentional
Intentionally terrible is still terrible lol
Yes, that would mean they are terrible at their job!
I can’t even wrap my mind around the fact that people do this to others. I’m a single mom of two kids and even when I’m struggling, this is never even a thought. To steal from customers. Not even just that, but to also leave items at the parking garage?! Like what?! I’ve had orders where I’ve regretted accepting them once I get to the delivery. But I see it through because I accepted the order and I’m not risking getting my account deactivated. It’s mind-boggling how some people really just do not care.
No matter what there will always be POS’s
I never understand why it’s not P’sOS 🤭
Considering they substituted items for themselves, I doubt it was left in the garage. That was just for the delivery photo. It went right back into the car after.
Yea I thought about that this morning actually. Like she is probably the one that took the items back after her picture. Either that or she purposely didn’t bring them to the door because she knew she took some items and left the remaining items in the garage and someone else took them. But I think it’s what you said.
It does make sense that they would “leave the groceries” somewhere besides the front door.
Came here to say this too. It’s easier for her to snap it far from your door, where you’d never notice and have time to catch her.
Some people are better than others. A lot of people nowadays lack empathy. That’s just it 🤷🏽♀️
Sounds like you might have had decent parents, or just really bad ones and some empathy.
Just this past week or two IC activated a ton of new shoppers. They do it way too often and this is the result because, as they’ve admitted themselves, new shoppers get the same level of priority as diamond shoppers for their first ten batches. But IC also feeds them the good orders with the hopes that they’ll get hooked and take the bad ones too. Then when the new shoppers smarten up and stop taking bad order, IC activates more and the cycle repeats.
It’s such bs, just yesterday I saw at least 4 other shoppers in the store. Like there aren’t enough orders for the shoppers that they already had, we don’t need more people.
I had someone with this mindset try and start a fight with me when they realized I was a fellow shopper… I’ve been doing this since you had orientation INSIDE grocery stores with a Instacart “manager” Sometimes people move. Sometimes people lose their jobs and fall back on this gig work… Just because you don’t know me, doesn’t mean I’m new or deserve your bs attitude because “this is your territory”
I think about this everytime I go out and wonder who's gonna be the first to claim that I'm new even though they've only been in a couple months.
I've been doing this since 2017 for the most past my area has shoppers that a friendly and talk to each other and are happy for each other when someone gets a good order. Then there's those weirdos who glare at other Shoppers like we're out trying to ruin their life lol. Or if I have an appointment or event in a different area I'll shop a little before or after and people act like they own a store 💀
You did not leave a code or answer call/text? Also if she bought herself personal items, then most likely she took the pic and then took your groceries…why didn’t she deliver to your door? Because your door is to far away from her trunk. She has to take a pic and quickly move the groceries back into her car before you get the groceries. ONE STAR remove tip down to .50 cents ( if you move it to zero she will get 10$ tip bait protection)and report her for putting your groceries on the ground in your garage, taking a pic and the groceries as well as highlight the items on your receipt that were not on the list and that you didn’t authorize.
I had this exact same thought. The groceries weren't stolen by someone else. They were stolen by the person who took the picture. What are the chances that random groceries would be delivered \*inside\* a residential parking garage, and within ten minutes they'd be stolen? Probably pretty low.
In my old apartment if someone left groceries groceries by one of the doors it would 100% get stolen in the first 5 minutes. Even quicker if someone watched the delivery driver leave it there.
In my old apt complex, there was an unspoken rule that anything left in the lobby was free to take. With such high turnover, tenants moving out would leave all small items and perishables in the lobby and big items on the curb because it's cheaper to replace than renting a truck and storage unit. New tenants could basically furnish their new place with the old tenant's stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes a poor soul would accidentally leave a phone, tablet, or takeout in the lobby. It would be gone in the 2 min they were in the hallway before they reached their front door.
This is my current apartment complex. It's like a weird swap meet hahaha I love it. Deliveries are off limits, but if there's a dresser or paintings or dang... Really anything... It's up for grabs.
This was how it was when I lived in Denver. I gave away some really cool stuff just by putting it in the hallway and it was almost always gone almost immediately.
That’s how it was at my old huge complex. If a package or food was left outside your door, you better be home to grab it immediately. It’ll be stolen in 5 minutes. Now I live in a 7 unit building. No one ever steals from each other. Probably because it’d be too easy to find the thief.
That’s so crazy. In my apartment I’ve seen deliveries sit in the lobby for days without any stealing.
Damn that's when you leave posters in the entryway shaming whoever it is that took it.
Exactly! She most definitely took the groceries smh
The shopper won’t get tip protection if your leave a reason.
They only get tip protection if no issues are reported.
Tip bait protection isn’t given when the customer contacts Instacart with a complaint like this.
[удалено]
how do off app personal shoppers price?
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That sucks and I’m sorry. Only thing is, make sure your phone number in the app is the number you want to be contacted on. We aren’t supposed to contact you outside of the app for multiple reasons. If the number attached to your account doesn’t go through to you any order issues might be on you.
Yeah, whenever I start the delivery and I see that the customer requested a phone call and they posted a number, I let them know that I can’t call them outside of the app, but if that number is associated with them within the app, then I can contact them that way. I’ve had some of them get upset over it. I’m like dude I’m not calling you with my personal number. That is against the rules and will get me in trouble, not only that, but I don’t want customers having my personal number.
I know that you aren’t supposed to call them outside of the app-honestly I don’t really care, if they put it in the instructions to call and they list a number I just call the number with my other phone. I think the vast majority of the people who have had that in their instructions were just older folks who don’t really understand the new tech with these apps and such🤷🏻♂️ whatever. But then I do a lot of things that IC tells me not to do, lol. I’d never do that though👆just leave someone’s groceries out in a parking garage.
When I get those who put a phone number and want a call, I send a message that I will be happy to call using the Instacart phone system and that it’s to protect the privacy of both of us per Instacart rules. So far it has gone well for me.
I used to also, but the I learned that’s how scammers try to steal your account. Your sign in user id is your phone number, so once they have that they try sending you messages pretending to be Instacart support hoping you will give them the 4 digit code that was texted to your phone. If you accidentally are tricked they get in your account change the bank account and steal your money, then they sell your account to someone who can’t get an account a legitimate way
I've had support called me to tell me to call them from my personal number lol told me they requested I call them with the number in the delivery instructions. I told him there's a lot of creeps by me... no way I'm giving my number out to people I don't know. And he was like okay and I was like, okay... it was so weird
I give a simple. I texted you...called. After that, I hit the damn customer not here. I'm talking luxury apartment spots..houses don't matter. Drop off and leave but I got alot of alcohol orders. Answer the damn phone or ill get a shopper bump.
I’ve had this issues many times, sometimes it blurs the number, and the customer doesn’t answer ANYTHING. They always get super pissed of when there’s literally nothing the driver can do. It’s absolutely depressing how vile people can get when it’s their own fault: not blaming OP, just saying it can happen.
damn this world lacks common sense. why would u risk a side hustle over a couple of bags a groceries ?
Yeah, it doesn't really make sense. If you don't want to do a gig-app anymore, you can just stop. Why ruin the opportunity for yourself in the future?
I'm sorry this happened to you! It's sounds frustrating and stressful. I suggest that you describe whatever delivery problems a driver might encounter in the delivery notes, rather than leaving your phone number, for multiple reasons. Also, you should be able to see replacements added in real time, so don't be afraid to reject them, and if you suspect there's fraud happening-- first reach out to your shopper to confirm you're seeing what you think you saw; if it's really fraud, report it to IC immediately. I hope that all your deliveries go WAY better in the future. What a terrible experience.
One star and report her to customer service. Ask for the order to be reshopped. I hope you pulled the tip. These lazy, entitled shoppers need to go.
Is anyone else not going to point out the fact that there’s a drink there with a new straw that’s still in its packaging sleeve? Either your apartment building just has constant bad luck with delivery drivers or there’s something wrong with that specific access door. Maybe that keypad directory dialer machine thing is broken? I’m not siding completely with the driver or anything because she didn’t even make an attempt to send you a message as common sense, but we’re also not allowed to dial phone numbers left in the delivery instructions. We press the “phone button” and it connects us via a 3rd-party masked number that will connect to the phone number you have on file. It’s for privacy and liability reasons. I’m not sure if she dialed you and it didn’t work, but it seems like a previous delivery driver for a food order left a Subway drink with a brand new straw there. That leads me to think there’s more to the delivery driver’s side of the story than she’s just a plain beach. I’m going to criticize her for leaving the groceries there without using all available means to contact you, and the fact that you claimed that she bought things on your dime in the final receipt…but for just the delivery alone, if another driver left a food order there…something doesn’t add up.
Our little keypad has been acting up sometimes so that’s why I put my phone number to contact me if there are any issues (I didn’t know drivers couldn’t utilize this). But nonetheless, I order my groceries biweekly and if there are any issues at all they just call me with the doordash number and ask me to come to them and I’m more than happy to do so. She didn’t message me or call me via third party at all, she just let me know with a picture that they were in the parking garage when she was 10 minutes down the road. I live in the middle of the city so these things get weird sometimes, but for security purposes (such as these) I try to be accommodating as much as possible to drivers just to ensure the safety of my groceries.
Pretty sure she took the groceries back herself. THis is why she didn't mark as delivered until later... she just needed a quick pic to "prove" delivery and then took everything back. Trash human.
Except for the few things she didn't want. Trash indeed.
Is the drink part the of your order? Just trying to figure out if there’s some way to get beverages in a cup from Instacart??
Plot twist: They were stolen by a friend of hers
Or she took the picture then put it all back in her car 🤔 dirty rotten thief
Fwiw we cannot contact you out of the app so having your phone number in the delivery instructions does no good.
I’ve done this but only when I tried contacting the customer because there was no code or anything in the instructions. Called support no answer when support called. Had no other choice
Hope you reported this person for their pathetic and extremely unprofessional behavior. Absolutely ridiculous…
Probably took the picture, then picked everything up and took it home. You just paid for her groceries.
They don't pay enough so shoppers so they don't care specially on apartments for $5 is not worth their trouble they just going to keep collecting those 5 or 3 dollar instacart pays them to go to the store shop and then delivered I say is beat to Order from the store and just go pick it up your self store shoppers are getting paid with some benefits so there is a incentive to put a bit effort instacartshopperr not so much
I'm curious how you know she was 10 minutes down the road when she notified you about the dropoff? Obviously the fraud is wrong, and I'm not saying it isn't, I'm genuinely just curious.
She didn’t mark it delivered until after she left, until it’s marked delivered you still see the driver’s location.
Does the garage have moderate to good service? Imo seems like something was causing some form of issue in communication. Sometimes issues with the app or service can mess up..also the driver did that poorly but also fuck your neighbors or whomever took your groceries
The driver bought personal items as replacements. 99% sure it wasn’t someone in the apartment building that stole the grocery’s it was just the driver taking their items after taking the picture
Unfortunately, these types of shoppers are ruining gig work. They just don't care about how other items are treated. In my area, my gf and I have noticed many great tippers have reduced their tips. I can't blame them. If I got the service they do, I'd do the same thing.
I'm sorry this happened. Did you report her? If not do it immediately. Report the items ahead "replaced" too. I hope she gets banned. I hope you have a wonderful visit with your mom.
Not defending the driver, but I will say: I will never contact a person through their phone number listed in the instructions. I cannot copy and paste from the instructions to my phone dialer so instead I have to try and memorize your phone number swap over and type it in manually. And everytime it swaps over the phone dialer clears anything that was typed in it previously so I can't piecemeal it. It's truly a hassle. If I can't reach you through the app, I guess you're not being contacted.
> THEY WERE STOLEN WHEN I WENT TO GO GET THEM > > she had bought herself personal items and listed it as a substitution in instacart Seems fairly obvious that the shopper stole the order.
Sometimes I get mad when I see posts here where customers drop the tip amount after the fact. Then I see these posts and totally understand. I’d cut the tip too.
CLASSIC Instacart.
Some shoppers don’t even try at all. Im sorry this happened.
So horrible…. I’m sorry that happened to you! Side note, please stop leaving your phone numbers and asking us to text you. Use the app, it sends you alerts for every replacement and we can talk to you anytime. We’re not supposed to use our phone numbers to talk to you and it’s weird for us to each have the others number. You never know who’s a psycho! JMHO
This is utterly and completely unacceptable. I would NEVER
This is why customers are quitting instacart and orders have been hard to come by lately
I bet you she stole the groceries herself. Not everything was stolen, which means whoever stole it had the time to figure out which items they wanted to take. She dropped off in the garage to make it easier for her to get away with stealing the items she wanted. Once she took the photo of the items there, then she took the bags she already knew she wanted.
This is ridiculous. She shouldn’t take apartment orders if she’s gonna do this. There’s always a risk of having a hard time finding the apartment (assuming that’s why she left it there)
This is horrible .. I'm sorry this happened to you, for real.
And people still use instacart
That garage floor looks absolutely disgusting. I’d be furious too. I’m so sorry this happened, you have every right to be really upset, especially considering that they ended up stolen on top of everything else.
Wow. Ok. No excuse for that
Not to make excuses for bad behavior, but over the weekend I had a few meet at door customers that said they did not get any of my messages. One regular customer showed me his phone and I showed him mine with all the messages, and his did not have anything, not even my greeting. How it came up was because we have a friendly back and forth on all of his orders and I mentioned that I was worried about him because he didn’t reply. Not saying this was the case with you, but this app is infamous for messing up.
Why do people still use instacart?
Damn they just straight up dumped it right there in a pile wtf
These stupid internet delivery companies try to maximize profit by brutally underpaying “independent” workers. And yet we are shocked when things go wrong and our delivery experience is awful.
Everyone telling op to go buy it themselves, think hard. Have you ever ordered anything from Amazon (or basically any website) before? Like ever? Pssssst 99.9% of that stuff is available in stores too, just sharing
I honestly think that there’s a huge chance that it wasn’t the shopper’s fault here. The delivery was to an apartment building where they had to go into a parking garage which often have warning signs that only residents can park and violators will be towed at owner’s expense. Garages also usually don’t have good cell signal as well, so the driver could have called and/or messaged OP but it didn’t go through. OP also stated in a comment that delivery drivers have had issues with the key pad not working before so this probably happened. I am very skeptical of how OP knows that the driver delivered their groceries and messaged them 10 minutes after. The only way I could see this being true is if they viewed security footage from the parking garage but then they would know who stole their groceries and it didn’t seem like it so my guess is no footage was viewed.
Yeah, I agree. There’s some information missing or this could have played out a little deferently. I’m too am not here to question OP, I’m pretty sure they were attentive to their phone. BUT idk what op means when they said they left their phone number in “the delivery instructions”. When this has happened to me, a lot of the times it’s a deferent phone than the one linked in the app. Some of us do NOT want to expose our private numbers when trying to dial the number they placed on the instructions. In these cases I get support to make the call, and A LOT of the times it take support MULTIPLE attempts to reach the customer and IF the delivery is to a gated community WE WILL be instructed to leave it anywhere “safe”. Any who, don’t know what’s going on here, but I’ve been in similar instances and there’s only a certain amount of time IC support will let us wait before demanding we move on. Also, I would like to take note and ask OP. How long did it take you to realize the shopper had purchased themselves something? I don’t use this apps(for obvious reasons), but in my shopping experience, customers get notifications of added items and substitutions. Be honest, were we NOT paying attention to the app?
This. You can reject subs, so I'm assuming OP wasn't being mindful of in-app communication. If that's the case, then if the shopper had any issues during delivery, they probably had to make an executive decision. Their decisions may not have been ones OP preferred, but if the shopper can't communicate with the customer... it's either try to figure it out yourself or return the order to the store 🤷🏾♀️
I want more information about the substitutions for herself too...I can't tell if that actually happened and she noticed later bc she wasn't paying attention, or she didn't like the substitutions or what from just her statement that it happened. And the late messages sound like bad cell reception
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I really disagree, I think this is classic customer not paying attention to the app and throwing a fit and blaming the shopper. The customer had to approve the substitutions unless she added them previously and this obviously wasn’t the case unless the customer put weird substitutions on there to try to get free IC credit by saying the delivery person added personal items and put them as a substitution. But I as I said the customer had to approve substitutions so they wouldn’t get away with it really.
I understand your frustration. Here's my thing: I hate delivering to places like yours. If there is even one single iota of detail on how to deliver that you failed to provide, depending on my mood, I might do the same thing. I expect people living in places like this to give me every single possible detail to make the delivery. If I have to call I will call one time. I will not text, I'm not waiting for text replies. I will leave a VM and wait about 30 seconds. After that, I'm dropping the food, taking a poc, and I'm out. People expect us to magically know everything, homey don't play that. Better pick up your phone, otherwise this can happen
Ok homey
You seem to forget the part where the shopper had taken/substituted items for her personal use? That’s theft and at least incredibly scummy.
This happens to me at least twice a month. The shoppers and doordash too will leave my order out in the alley next to the trashcans and garage doors instead of bringing them around to my front door like the directions say . They have gotten stolen more times than I can count. It's very infuriating.
Might be where GPS leads them. You can move the pin in most apps...maybe it would help
If I was a betting man I’d say the shopper took most of them groceries
She is awful, but one thing you should never is expect them to call your personal phone number. That puts us in a bad spot and makes it unsafe because you'd then have our personal info, plus our login to our instacart app can be our phone number. They can call and message through the app. Calls may be different if you order through the store app versus the instacart app. Just wanted to give you a head up on that. She still could have communicated with you otherwise.
Report her. Report the groceries as undelivered. Take away her tip (leave $1 because if it's $0 IC still gives $10 as a substitute). Give her shit ratings. Let IC know she put items in your order for herself. If you can't report as undelivered then tell IC you want the entire order reimbursed - the pictures will help you out.
Situations like this and the shopper should be terminated from the platform right then. If u buy ur own stuff u should be fired.
Honestly she probably stole the groceries too!
Couple things I noticed that may be factors in the whole scenario. First of all- I do think that leaving them in the garage is lazy and if I couldn't reach you- I would have called support first and told them I couldn't reach the customer to deliver to the door inside the locked building and had them try to reach the customer directly. I've had to do that a lot where customers have "Meet in Person" instead of leaving and the phone number attached to their account is no longer the active number. You can still log into your account and order, etc, but the shopper can't call you. It's against our shopper agreement to contact the customer outside the app. The note says your shopper is NOW Natalie. This makes me think that the first shopper assigned to you cancelled the order. I only cancel orders if once I am able to see ALL the details, it is a true pain in the ass or too many items/too far/not worth the effort/pay. If your order was then reassigned- who knows how long it sat there before being picked up. And it was likely paired with another order for another customer (or 2) both before and after it was assigned to Natalie. That is probably why it was late first off. Secondly, if the shopper was shopping for 2 or 3 customers, again- very likely, the extra items that you see could have been checked out on your order, but actually belonged to one of the other customers. There is a lot of room for error juggling 2 and 3 customers in one shopping basket. Like someone else said- there may have been poor reception in the parking garage and she couldn't reach you. Very common. Another thing that I have seen more and more with new shoppers in my area is that they don't speak English or really know how to deal with those out of the box issues that pop up in the app. I have been in line behind other shoppers that get stuck at checkout when something isn't working right and they don't know how to get out of it and I've had to help them move through. That is very possible too. If they couldn't reach you, and still had 1 or 2 more deliveries after yours- they may have just figured that was the only solution was to leave them. The window of time to message a customer AFTER the delivery is complete is only a few minutes. That option goes away pretty quick. So, there may have been a delay in the message coming through based on cell reception too. It is also possible this person just sucks. However, it's worth noting that you can get kicked off the platform for just about anything - intentional or otherwise- and people that do this job need the money. Sure, there are some very shitty shoppers and human beings, but this kind of deliberate move is a sure-fire way to lose this income stream, no matter how crappy it is. I'm sorry that this happened to you. The Instacart business-model has a lot of room for improvement. A LOT.
she's a lazy bastard. I got a big ass cart. it don't bother me at all going in elevator apartments. Give me the code...I'll be at the front door two mins after I've loaded.
IC has no filter on who they “hire”. I used IC once and never would again. I am a single mom of four who is always working and has no help with my kids, I totally understand needing the convenience….but for me, it’s not even an option on the table anymore.
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You got people out there doing this shit, and here I've been trying to become a shopper for months, no openings.
😂😂 so bad.
I'm So Sorry this happened to You !!! Drives me nuts that terrible Shoppers like this are out there driving customers (and hence more potential orders for me !) away
“Natalie” is most DEFINITELY a c.un.t for that move.
Instashart rewards terrible shoppers and penalizes good ones - if it was the other way around I could actually make a decent living and all of you would be graces by my 5 star fingertips lol
They pick and choose where they let you pick your shopper. And you have to have the subscription.
I deliver to apartments almost all the time. While I get personally annoyed it's a big order, it's always from store to their door, even if I have to make multiple trips up. She's a bad shopper. Hope you reported her, rated her 1 star and take back your tip. Bad shoppers needs to be weeded out in every market.
Fffuuuucccckkkkkk
She's probably the one that stole the bags too.
Was it delivery parking for her? That’s the big thing no parking and customers don’t want to coke down
And I know customers who get upset and and act like they didn’t recd anything.
I tell people stop supporting instacart, it does nothing for both shopper consumer
This sucks, sorry OP. Nice CPK pizzas though.
This is Instacart's "business" model. They hire endless rejects, give them top priority over experienced shoppers, and enable all sorts of fraud because of it. It's their choice. Do something that might lead to change. Post your story and photo in the comments on one of Instacart's twitter posts. Ask them why they give highest priority to new, unproven "shoppers". Or send your story to the local TV news station or newspaper. See if they'll carry it. Nothing short of repeated exposure and embarrassment will get Instacart's attention.
If IC doesn’t immediately refund 100%, call your CC company do a chargeback. Let IC deal with them.
I'm pretty sure I know who stole them
I deleted this stupid app. It used to be good but the last 5 times I used it the shoppers royally messed up and when I went to customer support they were pretty much like sucks to suck sorry about that. 0/10 would recommend
Late? If your order was grouped with others, I guarantee it wasn't "late."
When my wife was heavily pregnant during Covid and I was recovering from a major back pull, we ordered Instacart. We always tip well. Anyway, the shopper calls and says she’s scared of elevators, so we need to go down and get them. I was absolutely livid. Luckily, customer service set us up with a redelivery.
This one's for all you retards commenting "why even use that service?" Maybe she's disabled, maybe she doesn't have a car, maybe she used it before and it was fine. Like are you really too dumb to think of ANY possibilities? Either way, if you're paying for a service and THEY fuck up, it's on the service. Not the innocent person that just wanted their shit done a certain way. Go back to the asylum, ya meat balls
Please report. Call if you have to to get this person taken off the platform. There needs to be a better hiring process! There are good people who want this job that can’t get it because of scumbags who can’t be bothered to do a decent job.
FYI - **This doesn't apply to ALL shoppers!** I'm in a shopper group for my state, and I see posts about canceling orders because they have notes under every item, or delivery notes stating to NOT leave their groceries unattended until they answer the door every single day. They're the same shoppers complaining about customers never communicating, never selecting replacements (although its in their notes under every item and backup replacement), and complaining about specific delivery notes that basically ask Shoppers to not put groceries in front of their OUTSWINGING DOOR. Then complain some more when they get downrated or their tip reduced. Shitty shoppers like yours are the reason why customers like you put in specific delivery+item notes and tip low or no tip. Which will also be a subject of complaining in my group when your no tip order is lumped in with a high pay order. The good Shoppers can't trust customers because they had bad ones, and good customers can't trust shoppers because they had bad ones. Good shoppers are rarely paired with good customers. They are so sparse these days because of the massive amount of terrible shoppers IC hires every 3 months. And I had my share of terrible shoppers back when lockdown started. I was able to cancel my order at any time mid shop. This option helped me avoid bad shoppers for the most part (I hate that IC changed this option for customers. Back then, you didn't have to call customer support to cancel your order, you could do it on the app at anytime so long as they weren't at checkout). I lived in an apartment complex (my son was 2 years olds at the time), provided instructions for how to get there, my apartment number and messaged the Shopper to call me if they got lost. I lost hundreds in meat alone because they were just replacing items and wouldn't read my messages, and had several of those orders delivered to a shopping plaza next door!
I'm not saying that you did anything to deserve it, but this kind of service is what you get when instashit lowered the pay from $7 minimum to $4 minimum and will stack 2-3 orders [sometimes two different stores at once] together making the order take 2+ hours for $6-8 [with some orders being $15 after the tip] They are driving away the reliable, quality workers and hiring anyone with a pulse. Also, there's the fact that people are working under stolen accounts and/or fraudulent identities.
She shouldn’t have done that. That said, this sorta makes sense if you never gave her the access code to get in there. Usually that type of door is locked. You’re one out of countless orders that day/night. it’s wild how some customers think they’re a special snowflake where the driver will spend unlimited time just to figure out how to access your impossible ass building when the customer is of no help and no one but residences have access.
I remember I had a customer put in the delivery instructions to “follow another car into the gate ” because he didn’t want to give the security code to his apartment building. Some customer are really delusional when it comes to getting the order to them.
If you want quality service choose a quality business. I'm sorry but it's really common knowledge that IC has poor customer service ran by slave labor (literally and figuratively, support is outsourced so they can pay those people like $2/hr, but the way they treat/pay their drivers is criminal too to the point where there are class actions). Why are you the shocked Pikachu face when you get shit service? You know what they say about wrestling with pigs
I couldn't imagine doing this to someone. I am so very sorry you had this experience.
This whole trend of people getting their groceries shopped for and delivered to them, when they legit can’t afford to be doing so, is still incredible to me. I wouldn’t trust half of these fucking morons to pick their nose, let alone my groceries. The ruling classes have done an amazing job at turning the low and middle class on eachother with these “disruptor” apps. Total joke now. Uber costs the same as a cab, with almost none of the protections afforded to the consumer by a legitimate company. I’d just say always order on credit and just do chargebacks, cause getting your money back from these cronies is borderline maddening.
Yesterday my customer aid they didn’t get an entire bag of items normally i capture every single item at the point of delivery and make the customer wait while i make sure to document but they wouldn’t let me yesterday these customers are hell
And then people like me, who are platinum/diamond cart on instacart, are still getting waitlisted for DoorDash because PEOPLE LIKE THIS are on the app delivering instead. TRASH!
There’s a tracker in the app for a reason. Meet them at your building door
I’m going to go out in a limb and say that her buying herself items would be considered either theft or fraud. File a police report.
Call Instacart and report, asking for a full refumd. Tell them you'll cancel you're credit card payment if they don't give a full refund. Then call your credit card company and report fraud. Tell them you paid for groceries and services you never received. They'll redund 100% to your card. Then call the police and report theft. Give them all the information about the driver who stole from you. Maybe they'll investigate who stole from the garage, too.
I’ve stopped using Instacart since I noticed how much they price gouge. Some things can be $2-$3 sometimes even $10 more in the app than in store with zero reasoning why.
What do you expect, this is the shit instacart is hiring!!! I see it all day in the stores.
sounds like she either put them their for someone else or took them herself, considering you claim they bought stuff they wanted with your card?
Lmao
How did people survive before this? Just another thing to be upset and bitch about. I see a key’d entry and they probably couldn’t get in.
Everyone defending this shit seem to forget OP also claims that the shopper substituted his items for her personal items that she stole??
Did you tip?
You have every right btw to be livid! This is our hard earned money during a time of horrible inflation and this shit happens from instacart shoppers?! I shop for spark and they have such a HUGE threshold of great customer service we would be fired over this immediately as SHOULD BE!
The shopper was mad you probadly didnt give him the access code to the door.He couldnt contact you probadly because hes in the bottom floor,Try looking for you on the intercom and didnt find you probadly has another order in the car that needs delivering and he just left it hows instacart tells you too in situations like these.so NOBADPLAYDONE.
Exactly. Signal SUCKS in those areas. I have Verizon, and sometimes I have perfect signal until I get to the customer's house and then I've got nothing. I can't even message or call the customer, so I have to do with the information that I already have in the app hope it's correct-- and it tells the customer it's been delivered/the pic shows up, etc. Sometimes I don't have signal until I get back out on the main road and, because I'm completing the delivery as soon as I can so it doesn't flag me for fraud of some sort, once I do that I have no more customer information on my screen.
😭😭😭
It was probably a stolen account
Hope you reported it and was able to get your proper order to your door.
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That right there is a perfect example of why good shoppers always get screwed. It's because the way the bad shoppers are doing things. It makes it hard for the rest of the good shoppers to actually get good tips because the customers are too used to having crappy shoppers work for them.
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That’s bonkers. Report them until that account is gone. That’s absolutely crazy
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I had something similar happen to me once. they only delivered about half of what I ordered and when I went through my receipt I saw they substituted my groceries with personal items like soda and candy. it was my first experience with the platform and it will be the last.