Review Insights · App Store
Instacart: Groceries & Food
Maplebear Inc · 4,562,446 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
4,562,446 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 43 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"order"
21 negative reviews mention this · 49% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Gone downhill. I have to enter in my delivery instructions every time I order now? Why are we making this harder?" - Lisa J.
2
"service"
16 negative reviews mention this · 37% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible customer service. They will drop your chat and calls in the middle hoping you will go away." - sigrid1357
3
"instacart"
11 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst Service Ever. Instacart shoppers rarely get the order correct and often deliver to the wrong address. Avoid this app." - Pakk1969
4
"delivery"
10 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Gone downhill. I have to enter in my delivery instructions every time I order now? Why are we making this harder?" - Lisa J.
5
"customer"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible customer service. They will drop your chat and calls in the middle hoping you will go away." - sigrid1357
6
"customer service"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible customer service. They will drop your chat and calls in the middle hoping you will go away." - sigrid1357
7
"terrible"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible customer service. They will drop your chat and calls in the middle hoping you will go away." - sigrid1357
8
"items"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "First order. The language barrier caused a problem with our business receiving the order. I gave the delivery person the name of the business and the suite # and it was delivered to the wrong suite and we had to track it down and physically retrieve our…" - Dr.life
9
"hours"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "horrible. I ordered 3 things of hair bleach at 8pm, it said it would arrive by 9 something same day, completely understandable. It is now 11:48pm, ive had 2 different people “heading to the store” for the past 2 hours now. And i have to pay YOU $15 t…" - Jaydenreeereeee
10
"cancel"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "horrible. I ordered 3 things of hair bleach at 8pm, it said it would arrive by 9 something same day, completely understandable. It is now 11:48pm, ive had 2 different people “heading to the store” for the past 2 hours now. And i have to pay YOU $15 t…" - Jaydenreeereeee
11
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Buyer Beware!. Based on my experience with InstaCart and its drivers as of late I feel it necessary to warn other potential customers of the current pitfalls of this once reliable service. If you don’t actually receive your order or due to a heavily dama…" - Gopher7277
12
"delivered"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "First order. The language barrier caused a problem with our business receiving the order. I gave the delivery person the name of the business and the suite # and it was delivered to the wrong suite and we had to track it down and physically retrieve our…" - Dr.life
📋 All 43 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Terrible customer service
They will drop your chat and calls in the middle hoping you will go away.
Worst Service Ever
Instacart shoppers rarely get the order correct and often deliver to the wrong address. Avoid this app.
Misleading promos, reneged
They advertised $50 off $100 on instacart grocery orders for EVERY weekend in May for the gold days of grubhub. I have the screenshot. It’s the second weekend in May and they changed it to $50 off $150. Terrible practice to lead customers in with a good promo just to silently switch it out and hope no one noticed. Instacart and grubhub are both dead to me now.
Useless
The app sucks and so does the service
Buyer Beware!
Based on my experience with InstaCart and its drivers as of late I feel it necessary to warn other potential customers of the current pitfalls of this once reliable service.
If you don’t actually receive your order or due to a heavily damaged goods, you’re seeking a refund, you may expect to spend over forty five minutes or more in an attempt to contact your driver, who may not respond to any of your texts, then maybe pick up your cellphone call but leave their mute button for the entirety of the entire time.
If like myself, you turn to InstaCart for assistance, you may also find help to be over thirty minutes or more away while you attempt to submit a request for a refund but then be told you will have to additional wait for a response from InstaCart but then be told your request was denied because you did receive your order inspite of never receiving it.
Subsequently, like myself you may choose to submit another request and be told via an AI generated message it’s been (thankfully) finally approved but that it will actually InstaCart five to ten days for the money to be returned to you.
And the irony is not just that it took me over an hour in an attempt to remedy this frustrating problem, but I did not have access to an actual representative irrespective of my disability and how burdensome it is for me to form and type out a cohesive inquiry and required responses.
“Buyer Beware.” With InstaCart you may not only lose your patience, your precious downtime, but you may never get your purchase, have to wait up to ten days for this company to return your hard earned cash, but if you have any type of disability which impedes your ability to communicate effectively, attempting to acquire a refund from InstaCart is a long, frustrating process that feels like they intentionally have erected these vexing hurdles to dissuade a victimized customer from getting our money back. Again, “Buyer Beware.”
If you don’t actually receive your order or due to a heavily damaged goods, you’re seeking a refund, you may expect to spend over forty five minutes or more in an attempt to contact your driver, who may not respond to any of your texts, then maybe pick up your cellphone call but leave their mute button for the entirety of the entire time.
If like myself, you turn to InstaCart for assistance, you may also find help to be over thirty minutes or more away while you attempt to submit a request for a refund but then be told you will have to additional wait for a response from InstaCart but then be told your request was denied because you did receive your order inspite of never receiving it.
Subsequently, like myself you may choose to submit another request and be told via an AI generated message it’s been (thankfully) finally approved but that it will actually InstaCart five to ten days for the money to be returned to you.
And the irony is not just that it took me over an hour in an attempt to remedy this frustrating problem, but I did not have access to an actual representative irrespective of my disability and how burdensome it is for me to form and type out a cohesive inquiry and required responses.
“Buyer Beware.” With InstaCart you may not only lose your patience, your precious downtime, but you may never get your purchase, have to wait up to ten days for this company to return your hard earned cash, but if you have any type of disability which impedes your ability to communicate effectively, attempting to acquire a refund from InstaCart is a long, frustrating process that feels like they intentionally have erected these vexing hurdles to dissuade a victimized customer from getting our money back. Again, “Buyer Beware.”
Disappointed
I brought the order in as soon as it came and the ice cream I ordered for the kids sleep over was melted. Totally unsatisfactory. In the years I have been using Instacart this has never happened. I have disappointed little girls.
First order
The language barrier caused a problem with our business receiving the order. I gave the delivery person the name of the business and the suite # and it was delivered to the wrong suite and we had to track it down and physically retrieve our items.
Useless
Not user friendly
Cant correct errors
Cant reach anyone
Useless
Cant correct errors
Cant reach anyone
Useless
Poor customer service
Every 20 mins they delay my delivery another 20 mins despite indicating that everything is shipped for. There is no traffic. They simply don’t care that they aren’t delivering my food.
Never received my order/ support doesn’t reply
I’ve been waiting on my order for 3 hours now, customer service never messages back after multiple tries to reach them, won’t let me delete or cancel my order (I spent $65!) AND tried calling and sat on the phone waiting for someone to answer for 45mins & nobody ever answered! 0/10 and this was my first time using this app, guess I’ll stick with DoorDash..
No refund
Absolutely ridiculous experience with Instacart. My order has been postponed THREE times, my shopper never even started shopping, and they completely ignored all of my messages. Then when I tried to cancel the order because clearly nothing was happening, Instacart wanted to charge me a $15 cancellation fee for an order that wasn’t even being worked on.
To make it worse, trying to contact customer service was basically impossible. I kept trying to connect to a live agent and no one ever responded or connected through the app. Customers should not be penalized because a shopper is unresponsive and support is nonexistent.
This whole experience was frustrating, time-wasting, and honestly unacceptable for a service people rely on for groceries and essentials.
To make it worse, trying to contact customer service was basically impossible. I kept trying to connect to a live agent and no one ever responded or connected through the app. Customers should not be penalized because a shopper is unresponsive and support is nonexistent.
This whole experience was frustrating, time-wasting, and honestly unacceptable for a service people rely on for groceries and essentials.
Update crashes app
Updated the app and now it won’t open any page other than the home page. What did you do to this app!!!
Awful
They won’t allow returns of items. I was stuck with over 40$ of frozen fish. 1 bag I cooked and it tasted bad , I got sick from it (from Safeway. ) I asked for refund and asked to return the other frozen unopened fish for fear of getting sick. I felt Rudely denied. Asked to appeal their appeal, no reply. What kind of organization doesn’t allow returns? I would never use them if I wasn’t stuck with the foodsmart program. Customer service is rude and I feel mocked by them.
Dead
Just horrific service and zero help. Terrible technology and the idea has exceeded the products grasp.
Instacart Fell off
The app isn’t working & it took my money without even having the order in the recent orders
Appointing a employee
I have to always wait so long just for my order to be given to a shopper.
Terrible communication
I’m extremely disappointed with Instacart’s service. My order was never delivered, and the app quietly marked it as refunded without notifying me at all, so I was left waiting for an order that was never coming. On top of that, I paid extra for priority fast delivery, only for the delivery window to be changed after I had already placed my order. Paying more for faster service just to receive worse service is unacceptable. This was frustrating, inconvenient, and a complete waste of time.
Failure app
This is the absolutely worse service I have seen across the apps
It’s ok
I love the concept. The only
Thing sucks is. It takes a long time for someone to actually accept your order. So originally would say you’d get the order around (example 3pm-3:45) but your stuck waiting for someone to pick up your order so sometimes you get it 1-2hrs later
Thing sucks is. It takes a long time for someone to actually accept your order. So originally would say you’d get the order around (example 3pm-3:45) but your stuck waiting for someone to pick up your order so sometimes you get it 1-2hrs later
Forces you to buy more
Forces you to buy more
Changes fees after order is placed
I noticed the fees, especially delivery will get changed after i finalize and pay for order.
Orden de 4 entre
Esa orden son una abuso 4 entregan
A terrible shopping app,
In more than 1 hour, they couldn’t bring 4 identical brand ice cream with the same ingredients, and although the distance to my house is 2 minutes to the place where the shopping is done by car.
Bad customer service
When I had a pick up window of 5-6 I was told that meant the order didn’t have to be ready until 6. When I just tried to cancel, I was told there was a 15 fee! So I had to sit in the parking lot while
My order was 1 1/2 hours late!
My order was 1 1/2 hours late!
Completely misleading inventory
They never have half the items that I spent an endless amount of time putting together my shopping cart. They charge astronomical fees and services, i used to think this was as good as Amazon but totally mismanaged and don’t see it lasting if they can’t get this simple thing on track ppl would have to be extremely desperate to keep using it with the fees they charge is just gross
Customer service
Non existent
Order cancelled
The shopper just assigned to my order canceled it! They showed 3 produce items as out of stock. All except for 1 item on My list shows many available.
Instacart ai bot just gives generic answers.
The service can be great but has gone downhill. Shoppers used to contact you, note they cancel. I hope they retrain their workers
Instacart ai bot just gives generic answers.
The service can be great but has gone downhill. Shoppers used to contact you, note they cancel. I hope they retrain their workers
Meat was opened
This was the worse experience ever!
Non Existent Customer Service
I was using this app for years. Ordering every single week. Then this past weekend I had my order stuck in “shopping” status for 4+ hours with no help from the AI support. When I was placed through with customer support agent there was 0 empathy to help and only patronizingly generic responses. When I stated that I was going to cancel it was another generic response. So I immediately cancelled my membership and suggest you all stay away from this pathetic service.
Read the delivery instructions
Alexander did not follow the delivery instructions. He left the bags in the lobby as opposed to at my unit door as requested. I am on crutches and it is difficult for me to carry things up to the apartment.
SCAM
This a a scam to lock you in a subscription that is EXTREMELY difficult to get out of. Don’t trust these kind of people.
No accountability, they change the time and date for delivered
They change the delivery time and DATE with no consequence.
I paid for expedite delivery and I have a membership, they pushed my order out for over two hours and then just cancelled it.
There is no accountability for tech companies. If this was a brick and mortar store it would have been fined to oblivion.
Also prices are much higher than in store prices, something around 30-50% even with a membership. This is a scam.
I paid for expedite delivery and I have a membership, they pushed my order out for over two hours and then just cancelled it.
There is no accountability for tech companies. If this was a brick and mortar store it would have been fined to oblivion.
Also prices are much higher than in store prices, something around 30-50% even with a membership. This is a scam.
Gone downhill
I have to enter in my delivery instructions every time I order now? Why are we making this harder?
App never closes
After a delivery is complete the app won’t end. I can force close it, but it won’t go away. It stays open always so I have to delete the app and reinstall it all the time for it to work otherwise it’ll stay open all the time..
horrible
I ordered 3 things of hair bleach at 8pm, it said it would arrive by 9 something same day, completely understandable. It is now 11:48pm, ive had 2 different people “heading to the store” for the past 2 hours now. And i have to pay YOU $15 to cancel my order.. wtf. When am i going to get my stuff…:(
Underwhelming
Nothing seems to be loading and app is not very friendly to new people.
grocery garbage
first time using the app and I can’t add to my previously saved cart because it constantly tells me, something went wrong try again, and takes so much time to load the main screen options. i have strong internet connection mind you, its 2026 get it together.
Eh
Great service, but one of the absolute worst and slowest softwares
Delivery time
I use several delivering apps and Instacart is the slowest in shoppers picking up orders and delivering them each time I order something similar on other apps they pick up the orders quicker and deliver time is much more efficient and faster. Plus Instacart is more expensive. Usually takes almost an hour to have 2-5 items delivered to me when DoorDash does the same items in about 30 minutes max.
Order online
Not accurate did not get $40 off as stated - will not shop again
It’s a bad version of uber eats
They are almost 95 percent of the time late. Even if u pay their priority fee . A fast order comes way past stated deadline , and sometimes past bedtime . 60 percent of the time there are missing products . Sometimes the delivery ppl don’t even deliver at the right place and the terrible part is that once status shows delivered , u cannot contact the delivery person again . Never ever use uber eats through Instacart either. Just use the uber eats apps . The only good part of using Instacart is the access it has to Costco . But most of the time items are restricted on Instacart , such as bananas or organic chicken
Messed up order
I order Instacart knowing it will get to my door at a certain time because I live in an area where my things will be stolen if I am not there to get it. They decided to delay my order 4 hours just because, and they are set to arrive when I am not home. I paid for a specific time and changing that time messed some stuff in my life up. Not cool.
AI Food Looks Yuck
The AI generated recipe photos are completely unappealing and obviously fake. I seriously doubt the recipes are much better or tested, unless the recipes are stolen IP. How much did you spend to create a feature that makes people not want to use it?
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)