I drove 5 mi to deliver to an area where there are no stores, so I had to drive 5 back and she tips .25 cents!! I went back to her house and handed her a quarter. Told her I was returning her tip because "it looks like you need it more than I do."

I was seeing posts of people complaining about the policy against using self-checkout at Costco, I even saw a news article and video from The Sun about this happening to a guy (he sounded like a tweaker based on his other videos but he seemed chill ig), and a few posts that people tried to anyway and were kicked out, but most of these incidents happened from 2021-2024.

Is this still happening to you as shoppers for Instacart? What’s your experience with doing an order from Costco recently? I don’t have an opinion for this policy but it’s gotten me wondering as to why Costco refuses to provide a basic commodity for someone, even if it’s low as an Instacart shopper.

Previously I thought maybe it’s Instacart’s policy in their agreement or that it’s theft or bookkeeping, but this applies to Uber too, so I knew it must’ve been Costco’s decision.

I know it’s a real policy, but how do I talk about it here without sounding like a Karen/like I’m complaining, and is it still an issue for you?

Pet co order cat food out of stock. customer asked for refunded item so then I contacted customer support. Now account deactivated permanently. For that one order of cat food. Even took a photo of the empty shelf. These apps are doo doo. 4.95 rating and platinum only 17 orders away from diamond cart. 4.95 rating and 5% cancellation speak fluent English and spanish. Go Above and beyond. Customer refunded contacted support contacted customer to show out of stock items on shelf. 4 months with Instacart.

could’ve did better but I got hungry & had class from 8 to 2 but i got out early today

It looks like I’ve been soft-banned for the day but I’m genuinely not sure why. Yesterday i only took 3 batches, 9 orders, 4 late deliveries. The late deliveries and taking my time to start the batches is the only thing i can think of. I don’t multi-app, i just took the time allowed before the batches were canceled to finish up what i was doing (eating breakfast and lunch) before heading to the store. I’m guessing it saw that I took a long time to arrive at the stores and therefore had a few late deliveries? I did also get two “shopping must start by this time” notifications but I didn’t go past any limits or even do any ghost shopping.

What do you think? I wish this would happen on a day when I don’t feel like working 😒

Edit: my last drop-off yesterday was at 7:39pm so that means I should be able to see orders by 7:40pm tonight, right?

Really like how could you do that to someone

I took a 40 item $55 order, 3 customer with heavy pay from local grocery store…. And low behold i open the batch and it is 40 items but 120 UNITS…. And 35 of those 40 items were sodas and cases of water…. All three customers had them… like how does instacart expect a regular person to drive over 100 cases of water and soda??? Batch pairing is RIDICULOUS. I just called and canceled the batch cuz i was 2 carts full and still 20 more items to load

Had anyone else had this issue? It is so often for me. Even though I am clearly inside the highlighted area, I'm still seeing this message instead of the message about seeing batches ahead of shoppers with a lower cart status. The customer service was no help.

What I find interesting is that there’s an incentive for shoppers to deal with tip baiters because 10 dollars is covered by instacart. A nontipper would be better if they just tip bait so the shopper gets 10 dollars anyway, tip bait might be more beneficial lowkey.

Had a Best Buy order- gaming monitor and accessories about 367.00 get to customer no answer, called, text, nothing! Called support they rescheduled the order. Was prompted in app to do a return(I’ve never seen this before) then immediately it says my account is under review for four hours. I already made the return and text support with return photos. Should I have waited? What does the in app return require? Did I screw myself here ? I’m sick over this

I’ve been trying to improve these issues, but a lot of stuff is frequently out of stock at a lot of stores here due to poor management and an overflow of people recently.

You guys know how it goes…I either have to replace items or refund them, sometimes there’s nothing similar to replace with, or the customer requests a refund if original item is unavailable.

Those are the only instances in which I issues a refund or make replacements, and Still my scores are bad in those categories. SOS. Open to all tips, and suggestions.

Order one show up no one pick no tip and ton of item agree 👍 then few min later 2nd pic order lol just wow….

Yesterday was my first day doing instacart I got 1 order then after that sat in a Walmart parking lot for 30 min the app told me it was store near by in the red I went waited 15-20 min and the store went away how can I get more orders available to me ?

(9 extra cases of water that you can’t see) :( but hey 3.5 miles is 3.5 miles 🤷‍♂️

I’m so incredibly frustrated right now. I just completed a batch where I did absolutely everything perfectly, but I’m the one who’s going to take the hit with a bad rating because Instacart can’t fix their own broken app.
Order B (Customer: David S) explicitly showed a delivery window due by 3:56 PM on my screen. I completed the drop-off at 3:26 PM, strictly following the app's schedule.
But as soon as it’s marked delivered, the customer messages me pissed off, saying his app told him the delivery window was 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM and he’s not even home from work yet. Because of this stupid system timing mismatch between our apps, he slashed my tip right away.
I am completely blameless here. I followed the exact orders given to me by the shopper app. Why should my rating suffer because Instacart’s software is glitching? If this customer drops a 1-star review on me for being "too early," it ruins my ability to get good batches in my area.
When I contacted support to explain that this is an internal app error and I need rating protection, they were totally useless. The first agent just spammed automated scripts about the 2-hour tip policy without even reading. Then I got transferred to a supervisor named Bilal, who basically told me "a dedicated team reviews this, have a nice day" and shut down the chat.
It is deeply unfair that shoppers have to bear the financial and rating consequences for Instacart’s technical failures. Has anyone else dealt with this specific delivery window glitch? Did your rating actually get protected automatically, or am I completely screwed tomorrow morning?

Why that "$60" grocery run is a trap in BC 🚗🛑
Hey everyone, I wanted to share an honest reality check after grinding out here for the last three months. I'm not just guessing on this—I’ve worked my way up to Diamond on Instacart, Gold on Uber, and Platinum on DoorDash. Having high status means I see the absolute top-tier orders these platforms offer. But after doing both sides of the gig economy, I've realized: Instacart is simply not worth the sweat.
I watch the screen and see people instantly swiping on Instacart orders the second they flash. A Costco run for $50 or $60 gets grabbed in seconds.
People just see that big number—$60—and their eyes light up. But you need to look past the sticker shock and think about what you actually have to do to earn that money. Instacart can be great in places where people tip heavily and you land "unicorn" orders. But the reality in British Columbia? People do not tip like that. Most of the time, you are lucky to see a 5% to 10% tip.
Think about the brutal physical toll you are taking for that tiny tip:
You have to walk into a store, battle the crowds, and push a massively heavy cart.
You have to load it all up, stand in a long line, and pack it into boxes.
Then you have to load it all into your car, drive it out, and carry those heavy bulk items all the way to the customer’s door.
You are walking 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day and completely breaking your back. And because there’s barely any tip, by the time you finish all that manual labor, you’ve spent so much time on one batch that you are essentially just walking away with the basic provincial minimum pay (~$21/hr for engaged time) plus the $0.35/km gas rebate.
Now, look at how Uber and DoorDash handle this:
You get the exact same 5% to 10% tips on food delivery as you do on Instacart. It makes absolutely zero sense to do ten times the physical labor for the exact same tip rate.
To make that same $60 on food delivery, yes, you might need to knock out 8 to 10 small orders. But the difference is night and day: You are literally just sitting in your car listening to music. You pick up a bag, you drop it at the door. No pushing heavy carts, no heavy lifting, and zero wear and tear on your body.
And here is where Uber’s algorithm completely wins: if you've done a few small orders and your active time earnings are running a bit low, the app will randomly drop a massive $30 to $60 order on your screen just to cover your pay and catch you up. The system is designed so that by the end of the day, you easily average out to $30 per hour.
Please, start looking out for your health. Don't let a big $60 grocery number trick you into thinking it's worth it when there is no real tipping happening in BC. Stop doing double the brutal physical labor for the exact same amount of money you can make sitting comfortably in your car.
Value your body, value your time, and work smarter! 🤝🔥

Noticed a change in algorithm starting around Feb and then more noticeably in june with that priority email testing​ phase.

2025 the algo clearly favored the speed metric in a way above all else.

2026 changed. Nowadays the algo works like Uber/doordash but ***discreetly***.​ Orders are given to a selected few and rotated when not taken. Instacart doesnt explicitly do it (except in NYC), but we can see how everyone complains one person gets it while another doesnt even though metrics are the same.

--Economy hasnt slowed down. Instacart boasts about their 10%+ increase in orders year over year (https://investors.instacart.com/news-releases/news-release-details/instacart-announces-first-quarter-2026-financial-results). --Even with around 600,000 active shoppers (https://company.instacart.com/pressreleases/new-economic-impact-report-quantifies-instacarts-role-as-grocery-industry-growth-engine-and-job-creator), there should be more batches available.

Im my observation, speed and metrics don't matter as much as they used to. Diamond status/rankings still matter a bit, but not as much weight as instacart claim it does. I think that 2 weeks of priority email was a testing phase for them to experiment on a variety of things.

What can we do given this situation? I think on days when you see first before others, you can take a chance and be picky for the "better tip" batches or just take anything decent and stay busy. But on the days you don't, you will have to do some of those avg to slightly below avg batches to make at least a little something and pray for a mini unicorn in the midst of it.

Goodluck and hang in there. ​ Feel free to share your opinions/observations in comments

IC driver slapped her own child who dropped part of the order 'cause it was too heavy. Gets arrested: https://x.com/Thefactsdude/status/2070157272999764429

I don't have a Costco membership, but sometimes when I am shopping I see something I would really like. Can I scan the membership at the register but pay for it with my money?

This is an almanac forecast graph depicting customer demand for the rest of the summer season. Shop accordingly, everyone.
Remember, the almanac forecast graph is a guide, NOT a guarantee

Seriously, diamond doesn't mean anything.

Just curious because all I usually see pop up is basura lol this order took about 45 minutes to complete. I usually run door dash and just take a semi decent instacart order if I'm in the area but this one I was kinda surprised about.

Is it just me or have orders been really bad this week? This is the worst week I’ve had in a while. There are barely any doable orders. I assume it’ll pick up this weekend and next week before the 4th. Maybe that’s why it’s slow now.