Instacart.com

Hi [redacted], 
Thank you so much for reaching out. I sincerely apologize that you are seeing you have been overcharged for items. I took a look at your orders and see most of your orders have been placed at Cub, where we have every day in store pricing. Item prices for this retailer reflect the...

average in-store prices in your area. Items on sale in the store may not be on sale through the Instacart platform. Prices and availability are based on available data feeds, subject to delays or errors and may change without notice. As a result, the in-store price of a particular item at the time a purchase is made, including for weighted items, may differ from what is available through the Instacart platform. However, if you are seeing drastic differences in prices, we definitely want to rectify that whether it be due to a catalog issue or shopper error. Please feel free to email us at [redacted] if you have specific orders you want us to look into!
 
Thanks,

Hi Joseph,
We did send you the notification titled " Announcement about Instacart New Market Promotions" on March 2nd which you can find on the Messages and Chats tab on the top right side of your Dashboard in the Shopper App. If you have further issues, questions or concerns please email us directly.
Respectfully,

Hi [redacted], 
Thank you for reaching back out. We have been able to conclude our investigation into the flag on your account and have reached out to you directly. 
Respectfully,

Hi Robert,
Thank you for sharing and apologies for the poor experience. I'm very sorry for the issues with your item. I was able to look into this for you and refunded the amount of $2 payed on your redelivery. I've also flagged the item for our catalog team to fix this issue. I can see you were...

issued a full refund totaling $79 for the Instacart Express subscription. Refunds are reflected in your bank account in about 3-5 business days. If you have further issues, questions or concerns please email us directly.
Respectfully,

Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 6, 2015/12/09) */
The complaint I filed against Instart.com was resolved to my satisfaction.

Hi [redacted], thank you so much for reaching out. I sincerely apologize for any confusion this has caused. Instacart is a grocery delivery service that has [redacted] on the platform. You can place the order in one of two ways, on the Instacart website or on the [redacted] website, but the delivery is still...

through Instacart. Based on the information you have, I am guessing that you placed the order through [redacted]. I definitely want to make sure I address all of you concerns.
 
1. Regarding the $12.99 surcharge, I am not sure where you saw this, nor am I seeing it reflected on your receipt. 
2. We do have an Express membership for customers to get free delivery on orders of $35 or more. This membership is priced at $149 per year. However, I am not seeing you were charged that amount. I am guessing the charge you are referring to was the $150 authorization charge. The authorization charge is a temporary hold on your card that does not actually post to your account until the groceries are delivered and the final charge is reconciled. The authorization charge is in place in case you decide to make adjustments to your order such as adding items or approving replacements in case an item is out of stock. 
3. I see that the final charge was in the amount of $131.49. While we do offer delivery from some stores that offer same as in store pricing, we do not have that agreement with every store on the platform. For [redacted], some of the prices may be higher than in store. Were the prices that were reflected to you at checkout the same prices that you see on the receipt that was emailed to you? The paper receipt is not supposed to be given to the customer because the card that is being swiped at the register is an Instacart payment card and we keep the receipts for auditing purposes. 
4. I will definitely make sure to follow up with the agent you spoke with for training purposes. It appears that it was a new agent and I want to make sure that they understand the high quality of customer service we are aiming for. 
I hope I was able to provide some education and address some of your concerns. I look forward to hearing back so we can further investigate and resolve your issues.

To whom it may concern,
Thanks for sharing the concerns from Ms. [redacted] – after reviewing the conversations between our Customer Happiness Team and Ms. [redacted], a few points of clarification is required.
As Ms. [redacted] has shared, our website does state to all Customers the type of pricing that we...

offer when compared to in-store. While our pricing are our own, the following articles appear to address this on our current FAQ ([redacted]):
Are Instacart prices different from in-store prices?
When possible, Instacart works with retailers to bring you the same prices as found in the physical store. In some cases prices may be higher than in-store. We don’t honor in-store discounts (although we make available Instacart Deals from time to time). You can see detail about pricing at the stores in your area here (you must be logged in):[redacted].
Who sets the prices on Instacart?
All prices on Instacart are based on the prices set by the retailer. Where the prices are marked “Same as in store,” the retailer has set the prices to reflect, on average, the in-store prices of that retailer in your local area. Where the prices indicate that they are higher than in-store, the price of an item is based on the price set by the retailer, upon which Instacart may add a standard mark-up to partially cover the cost of delivery to you. Instacart does not add a mark-up to the price of alcohol items.
What does “15%+ higher than in-store” pricing mean?
This means that the average price of items on Instacart is 15% higher or more compared to the average price of that retailer in your local area.
What if I find an item that is priced incorrectly or unfairly?
If you notice an item that you believe is priced incorrectly or unfairly, please email[redacted] we will look into it as soon as possible.
For all Instacart Customers, the prices are clearly shown during order creation and checkout and we value the feedback that Ms. [redacted] has shared. While the price increase still falls in line with what we shared in our FAQ, I’ve shared feedback to help clarify this language. Please note that “15% higher or more” does encompass the difference in price that she experienced.
We welcome Ms. [redacted] to share her findings if she wishes to share us the items and the prices with us as we’d be happy to share this with our team for further investigation.
Regards,
[redacted]
Customer Happiness Manager

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/11/20) */
Instacart.com
[redacted] Street
[redacted] CA XXXXX
Friday, November 20th
Re: Follow up from Instacart
[redacted]
Dispute Resolution Specialist
Revdex.com, Inc
1000 Broadway Suite 625
Oakland, CA XXXXX
Dear...

Ms. [redacted]
Thanks for reaching out with your case. We're following up in regards to Case #XXXXXXX that was reported to the Revdex.com on November 10th, 2015.
We recently audited our communications that we've sent to Mr. [redacted] and there was only one incorrect item which we did refund the customer for. The customer special requested an item, which means asked us to pick up an item not in our catalog, so his shopper did the best to pick out the special item which was just listed as "blueberry pie filling".
He wrote in to let us know he was very unhappy about the item he received so we refunded him for the item. He did request a refund for his entire order however it is not out policy to refund for correctly purchased items which we let him know. He did not respond when we we let him know that.
We have since reached out to him and let him know we would make an exception and refund him in full for this order.
Sincerely,
[redacted] F.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 9, 2015/11/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 13, 2015/11/30) */
I recently filed a complaint against this company that was resolved (#XXXXXXXX) In retaliation for my complaint, my account has been suspended.
I am disabled and depend on services to deliver groceries to my home. When I received poor service from this company (after very good service for more than a year), and I received NO REPLY to my emails (since they do not post a phone number), I filed a complaint with the Revdex.com. That complaint was resolved on 11/24/2015. Today (11/25/2015), I discovered that the company has suspended my account in retaliation.
I demand that my account be reinstated by end of day on 11/25/2015.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/22) */
Instacart.com
[redacted] Street
[redacted] CA XXXXX
Monday, June 22, 2015
Re: Follow up from Instacart
[redacted]
Dispute Resolution Specialist
Revdex.com, Inc
1000 Broadway Suite 625
Oakland, CA...

XXXXX
Dear Ms. [redacted]
Thanks for reaching out with your case. We're following up in regards to Case #XXXXXXXX that was reported to the Revdex.com on June 12th, 2015.
We audited our communications that we've sent to Mr. [redacted] and we did discover that while the cancellation of his order was discussed due to out of stock items, (Fig. 1.) we did fail to explain to him why his refund appeared to be less than what he was charged. (Fig. 2.)
When a customer places an order with us, we authorize their card for the order total plus a $10-20 buffer to consider any possible changes that might be made to the ordersuch as special request items, added items, or changes in price for replacement items. Once the order is delivered, we replace the authorization with a single, final charge for the order amount. This is to eliminate separate line items on a customer's bank statement. Information about the authorization is found easily through our FAQ (Fig. 3.) and is displayed the customer on the payment page before checkout (Fig. 4.)
For Mr. [redacted]'s order, we authorized a hold of $20 for the order that was placed on June 9th, which totaled $16.46. When he requested a cancellation, our automatic refund email populated the total based on all of the items in his order, which was $16.46, leading Mr. [redacted] to believe he wasn't being refunded in full. However when an order is canceled, since the customer has not yet been charged, we just release the hold of $20 entirely.
We've retrained the original customer service agent who interacted with Mr. [redacted] to prevent this from reoccurring in the future. While customers are shown information about authorizations on the payment page before checkout, we will take this feedback to our team and try and clarify how this translates when an order is canceled to prevent confusion in the future.
We have reached out to the customer as well to apologize and explain in further detail. We have placed a $10 credit on her account as an apology for the miscommunication.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
[redacted]@instacart.com

Hi [redacted], 
 
Thank you for reaching out. I apologize to hear about the experience you had. I actually see you have quite a few account with us, although most of them do not have any orders on them. I will definitely follow up with the agent who hung up on you and listen to the recorded...

call to ensure training opportunities are taken care of. I do see that you were refunded the full amount of $149. Please let me know if there is any specific feedback you would like me to share with the agent or within the company. 
 
Thanks!

HI [redacted], Thank you so much for reaching out. I apologize for the troubles. It looks like there was a glitch and the full credit did not apply to your order. It does look like our Transactions Specialist was able to refund that amount to the card you used to pay the order. This was done...

on 6/27/17. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to help!

This customer's account was flagged as having a high fraud score through the SiftScience software and subsequently her account deactivated. Since writing into the Revdex.com, our transactions specialist has looked at the accounts and both have been reactivated. Customer was satisfied with the resolution.

Hi [redacted], Thank you so much for reaching out. I sincerely apologize for the troubles as I know the Groupon was giving a few customer's the same issue on our website. It looks like we were able to refund the $40 to you on the last order you placed! If you were not seeing that refund, please feel free...

to let me know so I can further assist.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:while the instacart website says the prices may be higher than in store, it is not upfront about how high the concealed shipping fees are. Peapod, Amazon all advertise their shipping fees. At the end of the day, it is about transparency. if there is a disclaimer to the effect that the product prices may be 25-30% higher, then the customer can make an informed decision about whether to pay the shipping fees or go to the store. Learning about it after the fact comes as a surprise and does not transform into a good customer experience.
SincerelySheetal[redacted]

Complaint:[redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I received a generic email indicating someone would follow up. It resembled the same automed email I had replied to several times in the past without ever receiving a response.
Sincerely,Crystal [redacted]

Hi [redacted], Apologies for the confusion. If your account was cleared and then marked as fraudulent again, you will need to follow up with our Transactions Specialist to see why that happened. If you respond to that email thread it will be received directly by that specialist.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
I understand that. Natalie advised that there was also going to be a credit applied in the form of a promo code should I choose to make additional purchases with Instacart. I attached the email from her in my prior communication. That credit has never been received. That is the issue. Please advise.Sincerely,Shannon [redacted]

Hi Michael,
Thank you for sharing and apologies for the poor experience. We have reached out to you directly via email. Please feel free to direct any further issues or concerns to that email. 
Respectfully,

Hi Rosalyn, 
Thank you for reaching out. We have reached out to you directly via email. Please feel free to direct any further issues or concerns to that email.
Respectfully,

Hi [redacted], Thank you for reaching out to us. I'm sorry for the troubles. It looks like you have multiple accounts with us under varying names. Due to this, your accounts were flagged by our 3rd party system as potentially fraudulent. In order to dispute this, you will have to follow up with our...

Transactions Specialist. To do this, please [redacted] and we will send this over to them.