Shoppers and customers are ranting online and offline about how terrible Instacart’s services are. It has been confirmed that Instacart is not as safe as we think or need.
For those of you who have never heard the name Instacart (although that is unlikely if you live in North America), Instacart is an online delivery service that lets you order groceries and household items and have them delivered to you by a shopper. Instacart is currently operating in 5,500 cities across the United States and Canada. They are the leading grocery delivery service in North America, but their reputation has been in the mud recently!
How Safe Is Instacart?
Instacart has 1.3 stars from 1,823 reviews, proving that customers aren’t pleased. With Instacart, customers should enjoy delivery within a two-hour frame and have their products delivered in perfect condition. But thousands of customers have complained about a ton of things, including
Incomplete deliveryDelayed deliverySubstitutions that weren’t requestedTheftBad customer serviceWrong information (for example, being told a product is out of stock and it isn’t)Misplaced deliveryOverpricing
It would have been better if the problems with Instacart could be blamed on system glitches like one wrong substitution in twenty, but things got pretty bad when customers began to complain of theft. Some shoppers have received orders, purchased the items, and never delivered. One customer recently wrote a review where she complained about a shopper who ate part of her groceries and bought personal items for himself that were not on the list.
Also, one too many customers have complained about misplaced deliveries. Either their orders were delivered to someone else, or they received a package that they didn’t order at all. So it’s no wonder why Instacart ranks 44th on Grocery Delivery sites. This isn’t very reassuring for the leading North American grocery delivery service.
Instacart is dissatisfied with their current services, affecting the sales of the stores they are affiliated with. Going to the store yourself is ultimately safer and cheaper because Instacart charges $3.99 for delivery service, the service fee is about 5%, and you’ll probably tip your shopper. So at the end of the day, you are spending about $5.99 extra using Instacart, the money you can save. But people wouldn’t hate them so much if they were safe to use.
Unsafe How?
If you didn’t get it before, misplaced delivery and theft are a pretty huge deal! Customers need to know that they aren’t at risk of losing tens of dollars when using Instacart. Sadly, we haven’t seen an improvement for the last five years. As much as there are certain perks when it comes to Instacart, such as the access they provide to a range of stores like CVS and Kroger, it isn’t enough when there is too much risk involved.
No one wants to lose their groceries or have them misplaced or, worse, stolen! No one likes calling customer service to complain about an overcharge. No one likes to call customer service to track a delayed delivery. And no one likes to call the bank to report a credit card fraud. It is just too much if customers have to deal with all that and at an expensive rate!
Instacart used to be one of the most reliable services available. Ordering items used to be effortless (it still is, though); having them delivered used to be something to not worry about; receiving the groceries in good condition wasn’t an issue. Today, everything is a challenge. If it isn’t a shopper making a substitution that wasn’t requested, Instacart overcharges you. If it isn’t a shopper bringing lemons that should be in the trash, it is a shopper eating some of your chocolate bars or a shopper adding his order to yours, or a shopper never delivering your groceries.
Instacart is one of those services that shouldn’t be a problem. We are supposed to enjoy all the pros and deal with the minor cons. We are supposed to Google search Instacart near us and not be afraid to order from them. But now customers can’t count on them. I mean, a 1.3-star rating is pretty bad for a service system like this.
Conclusion
While we don’t know why the current service has been terrible or how they intend to fix it, we do know one thing – Instacart is too risky to use today! It is said to be the best in grocery delivery, but today, they are not. Honestly, it is safer to shop by yourself (as much as that may be a nightmare for many of us). We would like to believe that soon the service will be improved and these issues will be addressed. We also hope that customers get refunds for misplaced deliveries and thefts soon. I mean, some people have had great experiences with Instacart. It’s just that the majority today haven’t. While that is the case, here’s to hoping they would win our hearts again!
