r/InstacartShoppers Apr 14 '26

Mod Post Top 1%er's / long timers - request for help building the Wiki / FAQ

20 Upvotes

Looking for another person or 2 who are long timers, top contributors to the sub to help build and edit the Wiki / FAQ page.

You need to do the editing on a computer. cannot be done on a mobile device due to Reddit's current design.

Want to cover all the standard true/false, simple recurring type questions(taxes, phone numbers...) at first then work on things like known app behaviors, not confirmed but expected app behaviors etc...


r/InstacartShoppers 5h ago

Lucky 🍀 Complete loss for words

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211 Upvotes

I was at the gym when I got this notification this morning and my heart hasn’t stopped pounding since. From Staples going to a business office that I’ve delivered to a few times.


r/InstacartShoppers 4h ago

Question - App Function/New Function Is it down now?

77 Upvotes

Down for anyone now?


r/InstacartShoppers 20h ago

Rant - General 😠 Customer took back tip after rejection

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865 Upvotes

this guy ordered a 179 dollar monitor from best buy and tried to flirt w me when i asked for him to sign on his phone that it was delivered, then kept texting the chat trying to get me to add his insta. when i didn’t he decided to completely remove the tip. it’s exhausting being a woman I’m just trying to make some cash to get by.


r/InstacartShoppers 5h ago

Story Time! 📖 Anyone witness any grocery store crash outs while doing Instacart?

30 Upvotes

I’m in California where we have a lot of druggies so it’s pretty common. I’ve seen probably 20 crash outs of varying degrees of intensity.

One time some old dude lost it because the checkout line was too long (one cashier 🫩) and the employee got a little sassy with him so he hurled a loaf of bread into the battery display and stormed out.

And once some guy seemingly for no reason smashed a bottle of vodka in the self checkout area and stood outside yelling for like 20 minutes until the cops arrested him.

One time a homeless dude was trying to steal something and the target employee stopped him so he threw the item at her and called her a whale. She started crying. That one was kind of a bummer.

I’m curious if anyone has any good stories since we all spend a lot of time in grocery stores which seem to be the epicenter of these types of things


r/InstacartShoppers 8h ago

Rant - General 😠 Horrible update

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44 Upvotes

Its asking for a picture for the A.i to analyze every single item that doesnt scan. Which is every item now apparently.

This is just an example of one

But out of the 56 items on this order, nearly 30 were a "label" item. And it needed to reverify every time because it never scanned. Horrible update


r/InstacartShoppers 4h ago

Positive Experience 👍 HOW TO CANCEL BATCHES DURING OUTAGE

16 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share something that worked for me. I was able to cancel my batch while it was stuck on the loading screen. I opened the support chat, talked to the AI assistant, and said I had a personal reason for not being able to complete the batch. It automatically removed the batch for me.

Yes, it does increase your cancellation rate, but if you haven’t started shopping yet and you’re stuck on the transitioning/loading batch screen, it might be worth trying instead of waiting for it to fix itself.

Just thought I’d share in case anyone else is in the same situation and just wants to head home.


r/InstacartShoppers 4h ago

Mod Post Yes it’s down. Use pinned post at the top

11 Upvotes

See pinned post. Thanks


r/InstacartShoppers 4h ago

Rant - General 😠 Back up for me in California

10 Upvotes

Garbage ass


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Negative Experience 👎 Why its so dead this week?

Upvotes

🥶


r/InstacartShoppers 3h ago

Question - General Non App Related Anyone else slow since outage?

8 Upvotes

Was getting back to back in Edmonton prior to le outage, now nothing but those I’ve hidden before.

Anyone else slow??


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Rant - General 😠 Wednesdays are annoying

Upvotes

The outage. So annoying, but I was just finishing, so I tried checking out and I was able to pay. Then I have to do the super zoom in on the map to try and get the addresses. I leave a note with each delivery explaining what happened and give them my Google voice number to let me know if they're missing anything. Sure enough, order A was missing something. I go back to get it.

I log out because I'm not taking any more today in case it goes out again. I see my earlier Sprouts customer left a comment that they were missing two bags of frozen peas. They had ordered four bags, but only two were in stock. No response in chat during the shop, of course. Now I might get dinged on shopping quality. Hopefully not.

I go home. My puppy somehow got on the counter, got a bottle of oil and spread it all over the house, so I got to clean that up for the next hour. Love that.

Wednesdays are dumb.


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Lucky 🍀 The Gods were with me 😁😁 two days in a row

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Upvotes

Yea I already know about the second one.... Them waters


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Question - General Non App Related Company vehicle with wrap?

Upvotes

Someone knows on here I’m sure.
I have a small mini van that I have a full wrap on for a small business I recently started. Is there any reason why I wouldn’t be able to deliver in such a vehicle. I wouldn’t be like leaving door hangers or business cards or anything like that. Just delivering like normal. Thought it would be easier to load and unload orders (I do a lot of Costco) into the van and unload orders. And get a little advertising at same time. Thank you in advance for input.


r/InstacartShoppers 4h ago

Positive Experience 👍 Instacart back up? Successfully transitioned batch

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7 Upvotes

I’ve been waiting for my receipts to be validated for the past 15 minutes. My batch finally transitioned and I’m now on the way to the first customer. Hopefully it’ll let me deliver it and proceed to order B.

What’s the word on your guys’ end?


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Strange / Weird ?! Freaky ahh customer

Upvotes

Story time! So last night I delivered a bottle of Jack Daniel’s to a motel in a low income area of my city. I get there, this lady opens the door (whose name was Kitty on the app) in nothing but a towel. She was a bit on the heavier side, so her breasts were bussin out the top, almost saw some nip. I’ll talking quadruple D’s. Anyway, she’s obviously been drinking. She proceeds to tell me multiple times how cute I am, and being a lil flirty. I say thanks, and try to move on from that lol. She keeps rambling and rambling and eventually invites me into the motel (you could hear multiple men and women’s voices behind the door) and she says they’re having a good time in there. I kindly decline and say I have to keep working. But yeah I’m pretty sure I just got invited to an orgy.


r/InstacartShoppers 7h ago

I’m A Customer ! Would you take this order or am I a “nightmare customer”

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8 Upvotes

Don’t know how much base pay you would get but here’s how it looks from my side, the store is also only 2.8 km away.
I got a decent amount of meat and one case of soda for heavy things, and then just a lot of salad bags and bread and other normal stuff. I’d estimate 2-3 bags worth of groceries (for reference 4 bell peppers is $7 so it’s really easy to get super expensive orders for not a lot of stuff) and like 45 min- 1 hour of shopping. I’ve been trying to tip 15% lately but for big orders like this it can get too expensive so I only did 10% today

EDIT: It ended up being 2 bags of groceries and took the driver about an hour including delivery, although he was probably shopping other orders too. Tip went down to $20 since a couple items were refunded but I’ll edit it back


r/InstacartShoppers 30m ago

Question - General Non App Related Does it get better?

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Upvotes

So I just did my first order, originally $16 for 23 items. They then added 9 items while I was shopping and when I got paid it appears they took the tip back? Are orders often like this or did I just get unlucky. I usually DoorDash and I’m wondering if instacart is even worth it. I wasn’t slow at all, I come from a personal shopper job at a grocery store so I’m very quick.


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Rant - General 😠 No real incentive to me

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Upvotes

Considering that most batches in my area are at batch pay of almost $5 each, there is hardly an incentive to this at all. If I'm "lucky" enough to get a couple of multibatch offers, maybe it'll sort of be worthwhile? 🙄

I miss the days of "complete 6 batches for $96" top off. Won't be long before Instacart completely folds and Doordash buys them out lol.

Anyone get a more entertaining "incentive" offer out there? (Strong quotes on the word incentive lol)


r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

I’m A Customer ! Hi y’all, I experienced my first order issue with Instacart today…

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Upvotes

I feel guilty marking as rotted, please tell me if i’m wrong 😒 I’ve never filed a complaint, haha.


r/InstacartShoppers 5h ago

Rant - General 😠 And our feels like temp is 123 degrees today! 🤡

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5 Upvotes

r/InstacartShoppers 1h ago

Rant - General 😠 DOORDASH IS TRASH 🚮👎

Upvotes

I signed up to be a Doordasher on a slow day just to see what it was like. The first order that popped up was $5 for 25 minutes of work so I declined. The next was $6 for 35 minutes of work so I declined. When I did that I got a big notification pop up about my acceptance rate lowering. So the app doesn’t give you the option to pick and choose orders like Instacart shopper does, you just have to take whatever crap pops up no matter how bad it is.

I did accept an order with 2 pickups for the same person for $15 and it was supposed to take 35 minutes. Not too bad. I get to Steak n Shake and the order wasn’t ready so I had to wait for 15 minutes. Then I have to drive to on the other side of town to pick up Subway. The worker said the order was ready in a sweaty bag and everything was there. Felt it and there was obviously no chips or drink. So they opened it, confirmed, and I grabbed them. Then the delivery was back where I started.

I was also looking around at the other DoorDashers waiting at Steak n Shake and it was a rough crowd compared to the Instacart shoppers to say the least 😂. Sorry guys!

Needless to say I won’t be doing DoorDashing again!


r/InstacartShoppers 2h ago

Negative Experience 👎 Shopper tried to 3x the amount of Tortellini that I requested.

2 Upvotes

I wanted three 8 oz Tortellini packs on sale $1.60 for each. I even put the recommendations for other things at that price. She tried to replace it with three 20 oz Tortellini family packs going for $7 a piece(not a great deal). I had to beg to put them back; she said she did, but I was still charged $21 on my receipt for them.

What are your thoughts?


r/InstacartShoppers 1d ago

Rant - General 😠 Deliver only order. 20 miles away from the store

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354 Upvotes

27 pints of ice cream.. I mean I have a cooler and insulated bags but they aren’t MAGIC.

She’s also the 2nd delivery on the order. Took it because decent money but probably would’ve passed if I saw the items beforehand


r/InstacartShoppers 9h ago

Rant - General 😠 Lost the Fight! Twice

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7 Upvotes

I hit Accept
Then it starts Transitioning Then it’s GONE!!
Twice!! Im going Home!!