I put in a 9 item order on Instacart. Until today I have never had an issue with Instacart. I still don't, actually. My issue is with bad shoppers. In this particular case I placed my request at 12:38 pm. A shopper took the request at 1:00 pm. The order wasn't delivered until 3:00 pm.
That's completely unacceptable. I ordered frozen ice cream along with other items and I kept wondering how melted it would be when it arrived. And since the shopper refused to answer my chat request, I had to wait until it arrived.
I get that gig workers need to stack in order to make money, I'm all for it, obviously. I would have understood a reasonable delay, say, an hour tops for 9 items. But since this shopper couldn't be bothered to check his chats or reply, let alone communicate, it tipped me over the edge. I contacted Instacart. They are very good at resolving issues. The issue was resolved to my satisfaction.
But let me tell you what you stand to lose if you're a bad shopper
Tips. I tip, I tipped $10 for a $50 order. I always tip. I understand that some people don't tip. So I try to go above and beyond in the tip department. People who shop for me mean the world to me. It's not easy being a shopper. A good shopper is worth their weight in gold if they can leverage their time and stack right.
I retracted my tip from $10 to 1 cent. Yep, a penny. I gave the shopper an honest review. And then, I requested that Instacart remove the shopper from my account so I don't have to deal with him again.
The shopper was shopping for my order and other people's orders at the same time. Had he been able to cut the time down from 2 hours to 1 hour AND communicated with me in chat, I wouldn't have bat at eye.
Delivery drivers - communicate with your customers
You can get away with a little more if you kindly and respectfully reach out to your customer and be honest. Let them know you're shopping for another order, stay in communication, otherwise you risk getting a bad review and having your tip revoked.