I have had some really poor experiences with instacart. One with a Publix order and one with a Costco order. The one with Publix was an order I placed and was unable to pick up on time due to illness. I called the store and was assured the items would be restocked and a refund would be issued. Never happened. I went to customer service at my local Publix and was told the refund would appear soon and from Instacart. This was a small order and I just dismissed after not seeing any refund on my account after 2-3 months of checking it.
My next problem was with a large order I placed with Costco to be delivered. I saw my receipt from Costco in my email and on my Costco online account, looked ok. Then I saw the amount taken out of my account for that delivery, a $47 difference from what was showing on my receipt and website . I was shocked, I took my printouts of the email, website and bank account to customer service at my local Costco…no explanation. Called Instacart customer service with all my info…no explanation…Costco said it was Instacart’s problem, Instacart said it was Costcos problem. Costco corporate referred me back to Instacart. I spent two days of attempts to straighten this out and get a decent explanations to why I was charged $47 more than my receipt. I was quite aware of the service charge, tip and mark up of items over store cost but $47??? And not one person could explain the differences??? I am done with Instacart…Only in an emergency situation will I use them and I will give the tip in person to the delivery person.
Same happened with me, except the merchant was Sams club. Currently, I’ve only mad contact with Instacart (to no avail). It took multiple attempts for them to even respond. In which, they also blamed it on Sams. They did make a small effort and refunded $8 (because I also took pictures of the items that were significantly higher, for example, meat was marked $16, they charged me $24! They only made an attempt to correct one item charge). Their explanation for the significant overage was because the prices in the store do not apply to Instacart shoppers, prices are higher. So I asked, who blindly shops without knowing what they will be charged (no explanation) because what I was charged WHILE shopping on the platform was different, the prices didnt change until the shopper completed shopping!!
Something is not right and unfortunate for them, I’m not “just letting it go”. The economy is bad enough as it is (and I am on a strict budget. I’d shop for the items myself but this saves me a lot of time because I work full-time and assist in caring for my mother who has had a stroke. Im stressed enough as it is, and they shall receive the brunt of my frustration (over $40 measly bucks!)