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37 Times Male Instacart Shoppers Took “Close Enough” Way Too Far
It’s sort of a modern miracle that you can open an app and just have a person do your shopping for you, never mind the pretty exploitative labor practices. If you have happened to use a service like Instacart, you may also be aware of the fact that sometimes one’s personal shopper can start making “interesting” alterations.
So if you were looking to be confused and perhaps irritated at the same time, we’ve gathered some of the funniest posts from folks sharing the shenanigans their Instacart shoppers have gotten up to. Get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and tales in the comments down below.
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#1
I ordered a saalt brand menstrual cup, only item, $35, and homie dropped this off
RELATED:
#3
I had a guy bring me 30 bananas. He replaced every fruit they didnt have with bananas. I didn’t even order bananas.
Instacart in a nutshell is a three sided operation. You pick a store and load up a virtual cart, a nearby personal shopper accepts your order, and that person walks the aisles picking your groceries before handing them off or driving them to your door, often within an hour or two according to Instacart's own explainer. It sounds simple because in theory it is.
Someone reads through your list, looks for a reasonable replacement if something is unavailable, checks out with a company issued card, and brings everything to you. In practice, that someone is a real person moving fast through a store they may not know well, trying to satisfy a stranger's specific instructions, a ticking delivery window, and their own performance rating all at the same time. That is where things start to go sideways.
#4
This reminds me of the time I used Instacart and ordered Almond Milk. Apparently there was no more left (which I found very hard to believe). He subsituted it with a single almond.
#5
Dumped everything, Then he started cursing and bugged out sending crazy messages . He got fired
The biggest source of chaos by far is substitutions. If an item is out of stock, shoppers are supposed to text a suggested swap and let the customer approve or decline it. Sometimes that works exactly as intended. Other times the substitution logic seems to come from a random number generator.
#8
The male Instacart shoppers are never beating the allegations!
#9
When this man tried to replace a bag of frozen red and green peppers for a singular Strawberry milk... like can we please for the love of g-d stop this nonsense
One Redditor recounted ordering a simple bag of lettuce, only to receive no lettuce at all and, inexplicably, a box of molasses cookies instead, a story Cheapism collected among a whole pile of similarly baffling shopper fails. Other customers online describe swaps that miss by an entire food category, cottage cheese standing in for ricotta or turkey pepperettes replacing pork ones, regardless of brand or flavor.
#11
LITERALLY JUST HAPPENED TODAY! This man delivered me spoiled fruit. The pineapple juice was cloudy and some brown bacteria on the side of the fruit Granted it’s the grocery store fault for not removing it for purchase BUT WHAT? why not just refund me.
Sometimes shoppers skip the ask first step entirely. A Colorado woman named Roxanne Nice told 9News she ordered around forty dollars worth of groceries through a King Soopers order fulfilled by Instacart, then later noticed her card had been charged more than one hundred and forty dollars.
#13
I ordered a new electric toothbrush and I guess they were out and it got replaced with a wireless mouse
#14
I can’t find my screen shot but I had ordered a sale item that was a $1 watermelon. They were sold out and instead of my alternative he picked a $43 WATERMELON. HOW.
Nearly every item on her list had quietly been marked out of stock and swapped for pricier replacements she never approved and never got a text about. Instacart told the outlet that shoppers caught doing this can be removed from the platform. Ignored instructions have become their own genre of complaint.
#16
I once canceled a giant order when I saw they assigned me a male shopper. Canceled the whole thing. I just didn’t have the mental fortitude that day.
#17
I ordered 4 single bananas because it’s just my partner and me in the house. Bro bought me 4 BUNCHES of bananas! I had so many bananas!
#18
I had a next day delivery from target allegedly stolen by the male delivery driver. Called shipt to report my package was missing and was told this happens a lot with the male drivers. Because I have it on camera that he did actually steal my free lip glass and cat food he will be disabled from the platform. We need to start complaining about these men and get them disabled from the platform.
The good news is that Instacart does offer a bit of a safety net. Customers get three days after delivery or pickup to report missing, damaged, expired, late, or badly substituted items directly through the app, and eligible issues can lead to a credit or a refund, according to Instacart's help center. If a shopper sends something wildly wrong or extra, customers are only charged for what they actually ordered, and Instacart says the mystery items can simply be kept, donated, or tossed.
#19
Brooo I literally had a male shopper last month replace 14 items!!! Upped my bill by $70. I texted him after the first 5 items to keep substitutions around the original price. Completely ignored it. So nuh uh, I took my $15 starting tip down to $5. (The store was only 4 miles away) Cause I'm on a budget bro!! He replaced all the items with expensive things.. I called the store and they refunded everything I wasn't happy with. Thankfully.
#20
I recently got a new job in the bakery of a grocery store and this (male) doordasher comes up asking where the pillsbury cookie dough is, I tell him to check in the coolers near where the dairy was and he asked me to check in the bakery freezer (where it wouldn't be anyway) and when I repeated myself he got all huffy and "this is freaking bull" and clicked item not found or whatever.
#21
The strawberries a male shopper picked out for me last week.
Lukas (he/him) 2 hours ago
I can't get fruit from delivery because they always deliver me spoiled fruit, which means unless my sister can take me shopping, since I don't have a car, I can't get fresh fruit. It makes me really sad.
#22
I’ll never forget buddy bringing me a bag of Avacados instead of Oranges. Like, there is no way there were no Oranges in the store and you decided “yup, Avacados will do”.
#23
They don’t think….
#25
I of course have since deleted my screenshot (unfortunately) but one time I ordered a pack of 6 chocolate cupcakes.
They wanted to replace it with PARMESAN CHEESE. Had to message the dude and be like: "are we okay? Get another cake then not freaking cheese, I'm on my freaking period."
#26
once i had a male instacart shopper and the order was for pads, he told me he couldnt find the aisle they were in, so he left the store and didnt do the order at all but refused to cancel on his end
Lyone Fein 48 minutes ago
Man, if you’re not going to fill the order, don’t pick up the job run. Let another shopper do it.
#27
They were looking for my neck brace in the candy section.. then replied “oh it was in the pharmacy”
#28
This happened to me with smoked turkey legs. They smelled rancid and leaked white fluid on my other groceries. I smelled it before I even opened the bag. So I can't understand how they couldn't.
#30
My last order I had a $4 pack of 30 turkey snack sticks. They replaced it with an $8 pack of 4 beef chomps
#31
I bought 2 bouquets one 11, and the other 9. Tell me why this man replaced them both for a total of $48.96. It was my first time buying through instacart so i didn't know. I kept on at work. I got that backcharged later on. Hell nawwww
#32
I had a driver give me 2 loaves of bread from someone else’s order… I ordered deli meat and I guess the bread was my substitute 😭😂
Mind you, deli meat ain’t cheap these days… I really hope that person who got my order either ate it or donated it.
#33
I was buying a case of water 24 pack for like 4 bucks. He replaced it with a more expensive water. 10 bucks for a 6 pack…. I was livid
#34
Bruh because how is this a substitute for this
#35
my male shopper gave me this. i was mortified
#36
I once ordered a delivery for a blanket for $30 and the driver brought me a $180 electric blanket. No upcharge. I wasnt mad at that at all
#37
Oh god, I had a man override my “refund me” and decide on a completely different supplement than ordered. Had him banned from my account for that. Normally the women are but uh… this was a first lol.
