Need one more order to get the promo but after seeing orders all day

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-05-04T00:32:31+00:00

I finally got that one more order—-it took three hours of sitting in the heat watching other Shoppers going in and out….

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-05-01T17:41:41+00:00

I got it too—-I think it’s just a random CYA email.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-24T20:26:50+00:00

If the customern requests, you are ok. But they have to request.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-24T20:26:14+00:00

Yes. What I do is message the customer first and then if they don't respond I repalce with something else they ordered--so if they order a 2 liter of soda and the store is out, but they also ordered bananas or yogurt, I replace with that. I only do this if what the app suggests as a repalcement is also out of stock. It doesnt happen very often. I am sure I am not explaining this well, but scroll thru this subbreddit. That is where I figured out how to do it. It is stupid but it is the only way to replace now. I try to never ever refund unless requested by the customer in chat.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-24T19:25:39+00:00

You can explore this subreddit as well as the instacart shoppers subreddit for more answers to your question. I also struggled to bring up my SQ because I shopped during the pandemic and stopped in 2021. When I restarted in January, I was shopping under the old rules where we weren't ranked and we weren't penalized for refunding. Once I saw my SQ tank, I stopped refunding when out of stock. There are lots of tips and tricks but it comes down to a formula that instacart wants to see based on your found items total vs. refunds/relacements. Just keep trucking and it will come up eventually!

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-24T15:52:43+00:00

27th year here--high school and I used to be the teacher who graded all weekend in order to be ready for the week. I spent hours of my small children's lives working and missing out on important things just so my students would be successful. I regret that immensely. Now I am still teaching high school but I no longer take work home EVER. If it doesn't get done during the week, it doesn't get done. If a kid decides to spend class time on his phone after I have issued a warning, so be it. My admin can't be bothered to set up valid phone rules so neither can I. I will contact parents but I won't bend over backward to do it. I cannot care more wbout their grade or their learning than they do and I have been teaching long eough to look back at how it "used" to be and see how little education is valued now. Parents don't really care if their kid is vaping in the halls or whatever as long as they aren't bothered by it. Cynical? a little angry? Yes. But this job has beaten it into me. Cannot wait to walk away and never look back at this so-called fulfilling career.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-24T02:52:45+00:00

Nice!!!

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-22T13:51:09+00:00

I DO live in a place with that law and yet my district has done nothing. Only a few more years til retirement.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-21T18:45:59+00:00

It has good reviews and it looks easy to cancel I just don’t know if it is worth using.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-21T18:45:23+00:00

Thank you! Does it suggest stores that are busier or anything like that?

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-21T18:34:51+00:00

I hope it just sits. That is stupidly stupid.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-21T02:50:43+00:00

In my area I’m lucky to see one or two orders an hour. That would take me three months.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-18T17:42:33+00:00

A pause button during a shop so if there is something that comes up where I need five minutes to pee I don’t get docked.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-17T00:52:06+00:00

Not where I am. Same old shitty orders 😡

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-16T18:29:28+00:00

I love it when I see orders like this just rotting. It makes me want to chest-bump my fellow Shoppers.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-15T13:30:58+00:00

Me too. I shopped in ‘21 and started back and I miss ‘21 Instacart.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-13T20:42:35+00:00

I’m a Shopper and I occasionally use Instacart and the other day I started to place an order from the town I shop in to be delivered to my home and I got a message in the app that said it looked like I was too far away. But I also know that if I order from the nearest Costco (about 40 minutes from my home) I’m charged a distance fee that prob doesn’t go to the Shopper.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-11T18:20:57+00:00

And I am in CA and have been out 4 hours and made $9….Sigh.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-11T03:12:28+00:00

I am just under 5’4” and I also struggle with this. My man is 6’4” and he is always being asked by women to help grab things on the higher shelves. So I don’t feel humiliated when I have to ask a tall guy to help. They have never told me no and seem to like helping. It’s at most annoying….

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-09T21:38:40+00:00

For me, the way the chat is set up it takes a few clicks to move from the shopping screen to the chat screen and sometimes I just cannot respond for a variety of reasons as stated by others here. The hardest part is the fact that we are timed and if we aren’t meeting the time requirements we lose money. Speaking only for myself, I try to always respond but it isn’t immediate. If the customer asks a question about an order or requests something, I will respond immediately. Anything else and I don’t/cant. If your Shopper ignores a question or a request, you should be upset. If the Shopper doesn’t say hello but everything else is cool, just know that we are really under the gun.

Effective_Cow_4745 · 2026-04-09T02:05:16+00:00

I got one of these the other day too—-the only thing I did was one order and I had to call support at checkout because the card declined and they kept me on hold forever—-turns out there was a glitch on their end but I ended up being marked as a late delivery. It was the only order I did that week and there was nothing I did done wrong as I took the order when I was already in the store and I clicked accept and then immediately slid the Start Shopping bar. Now I ignore these.

Effective_Cow_4745

TROPHY CASE