Instacart crashed late Sunday, leaving furious shoppers waiting all night for deliveries that never arrived
- Instacart's network crashed late Sunday, leaving customers waiting hours for food deliveries that never arrived.
- "I waited close to 6 hours for my order before canceling it," one customer tweeted. "The worst service ever."
- Some customers said they were unable to cancel orders that were automatically rescheduled to the middle of the night or the following day.
- The network issue has since been resolved, and impacted customers can now cancel or reschedule their orders, according to someone with knowledge of the company's outage.
Dozens of Instacart customers are furious after a network outage left them waiting all night for food deliveries that never arrived.
"Do NOT subscribe to Instacart," Mick Weidner wrote on Twitter. "They screwed up my order yesterday. I tried to contact them in multiple ways. I tried to cancel my subscription and was told I can't. So I resubmitted my order and it appears that the order didn't process. Terrible company!"
Another customer tweeted: "I waited close to 6 hours for my order before canceling it. The worst service ever."
Instacart confirmed the outage on Twitter, writing, "Our site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are actively working on the issue and apologize for the inconvenience."
Dozens of people took to social media to complain that the company never directly notified customers of the outage. Several said they were unable to reach Instacart's customer service when their orders failed to arrive. Some said their orders were automatically rescheduled to the middle of the night or the next day.
"I ordered Instacart today to be delivered in two hours," one customer tweeted. "They never showed up, didn't notify me or anything. I log in to check status and they postponed it to tomorrow from 9-11 am when I'll be at work. I’m furious. No response back to my complaint."
On Monday morning, some customers said they still hadn't heard anything from Instacart about the outage or what would happen to their missing deliveries.
The outage also impacted Instacart employees who fill and deliver shoppers' orders.
"I am a shopper and was stuck at the grocery store from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. last night," Stephanie Abene tweeted. "Due to the outage, I was never able to checkout and deliver a very difficult and substitution heavy order to my customer. I want to be compensated for my time and the inconvenience."
The network issue has since been resolved, and impacted customers can now cancel or reschedule their orders, according to someone with knowledge of the company's outage.
Here's what customers are saying on Twitter about the incident:
Do NOT subscribe to #instacart. They screwed up my order yesterday. I tried to contact them in multiple ways. I tried to cancel my subscription and was told I can't. So I resubmitted my order and it appears that the order didn't process. Terrible company!
— Mick Weidner (@mickweidner) October 15, 2018
I placed an order at 2 PM to arrive between 6-8 PM and nothing has arrived. The app says the shopper is still out getting 12/16 items I ordered yet it’s literally 11 PM and the store is closed. Y’all lost a customer along with everyone else I’m telling not to buy from you guys.
— kam (@kamiliatorres) October 15, 2018
I ordered @Instacart today to be delivered in two hours. They never showed up, didn’t notify me or anything. I login to check status and they postponed it to tomorrow from 9-11 am when I’ll be at work. I’m furious. No response back to my complaint.
— ????♀️ night of the L I V ing dead ????♀️ (@livtrain) October 15, 2018
@Instacart you should change your name to nevercart. I waited close to 6 hours for my order before canceling it. ???? The worst service ever.
— DrDina420 (@DrDina) October 15, 2018
And now I wake up to my @Instacart order just being cancelled?!? And with no communication? What am I paying a subscription for? #nothappy pic.twitter.com/8D6aoqTM3F
— Rachel Brockway (@RachelBrockway) October 15, 2018
What’s the status of your service now? Is it safe to order again? Majorly disappointed by the lack of communication over this. Understand things go wrong but customer service should have handled things better.
— Mey (@meyphotography) October 15, 2018
Any word on what will happen w/ orders from @Instacart last night? Will they be delivered? Should I reach out to someone else for fulfillment?
— Amy Gross (@AmyCGross) October 15, 2018
Ordered @Instacart at 4pm yesterday. Said it would arrive between 6-6:30pm. They never informed me it wasn’t coming and it never did - which means breakfast and lunch for my kids didn’t come
— Erin Wilson (@techmatchmaker) October 15, 2018
Then this morning I get an alert Instacart has charged me for the order that never came.
Just how I called it . After 3hr of waiting for Instacart system to be back up. The order was cancelled and we got nothing . Well done Instacart . We see how much your care about your shoppers .
— Itsmetricky (@MigdadTarik) October 15, 2018
@Instacart so, your whole system goes down and you do nothing for everyone who was inconvenienced. Great service. We are planning to switch to @Shipt
— Billy Schroeder (@Schrowa) October 15, 2018
@instacart I am a shopper and was stuck at the grocery store from 6pm to 8:30pm last night. Due to the outage, I was never able to checkout and deliver a very difficult and substitution heavy order to my customer. I want to be compensated for my time and the inconvenience.
— Stephanie Abene (@StephanieAbene) October 15, 2018
@Wegmans @Instacart 1 of 2. NEVER AGAIN. I am so frustrated over my experience yesterday and the lack of support given to fix the issue. The initial delivery was 830-9 which was changed to 1130pm (what??????) after i finally went to bed at 11pm.
— kelly larkin (@Kc91me) October 15, 2018
@Wegmans @Instacart 2 of 2... so now it’s morning and no delivery is made and the app shows only 1 item shopped. WHAT IS GOING ON??? I demand full refunds and service cancellation. Mr Wegman pls choose a new partner for deliveries
— kelly larkin (@Kc91me) October 15, 2018
@Instacart I placed my order 3 hours ago and paid for 1-2 hour delivery. No one has even started shopping and now it’s 11 pm and I couldn’t make dinner and have no idea when my order will arrive or even begin
— Chloe Jane (@chloejanekg) October 15, 2018
As shopper, the app was down for us too. There was no way to view the order, cancel or even if the transaction competed there was no way to move to the next step to deliver the groceries as we are not given the address until after checkout a few steps later. We were SOL too.
— ysa_ballerina (@4lyfYzamar) October 15, 2018
I never received an order and ended up shopping myself. Now 4 HOURS LATER someone is shopping it and I had no way to cancel! Not good.
— Natalie Noble (@natalieenoble) October 15, 2018
Tried to use @Instacart to have my food delivered when I got back home from my vacation. 8-9 delivery time and no food or updates. What the hell?? I should never have tried something other than @amazonprimenow.
— Juree-Gee (@JureeGee) October 15, 2018
@apoorva_mehta your site was down today. My order never showed up & I couldn't cancel so I emailed 2x & was told my order wasn't in progress (3 hrs later). Now, I'm putting my kid to bed & get a text that my order is being shopped. WTH? Won't recommend @Instacart ever.
— Natalie Noble (@natalieenoble) October 15, 2018
I understand that y’all are having difficulties however how this is handled is horrible. My status is that the shopping is complete. I cannot cancel my order and I have been trying to attempt to contact customer service. Which I’ve been on hold for 55 minutes now!!
— Yara Wilson (@yarawilson92) October 15, 2018
@Instacart - placed and order for 10 pm est. Not here yet. Been on the call for the 30 minutes and now the order won't be here till 10-11 am tomorrow morning. Why do I subscribe to your service if I do not get delivery when needed? Spoke to 3 levels of support and no one can help
— Preet Kamal Singh (@maverickpreet) July 26, 2018
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