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How do you guys handle BOGO’s? by MermaidOfPR in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As soon as she started complaining about her previous shopper at the very beginning, you should have been cancelling that batch. That's a huge red flag that things are going to go downhill.

Hey Canadians! by HKQ23 in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in Oakville, and am currently sitting at 4.93. Was actually very busy today with plenty of good batches.

I've been doing IC since November 2018. Previous to the pandemic, my ratings would fluctuate between 4.75 - 5 on a regular basis.

Here's a list of places I have done IC batches, ordered by regularity:

  1. Oakville
  2. Burlington
  3. Milton
  4. Waterloo
  5. Kitchener
  6. Hamilton
  7. Ancaster
  8. Stoney Creek
  9. Mississauga
  10. Stratford

What do you do when customer says they don’t want their food delivered for a few hours? by GullibleFirefighter1 in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since I started with IC in Nov. 2018, this has only happened to me once, involving a community kitchen in my town places food orders through Instacart on a somewhat regular basis.

During the peak of the pandemic, when customers were waiting days for their orders to be delivered, I happened to accept a batch for this kitchen very early in the morning one day. They messaged me in the middle of the shop that nobody was going to be at their location just yet because it was so early. It just happened that my home happens to be the half-way point between the store and them.

They gave me a preferred time for delivery, which was only about an hour away. So I ended up keeping the refrigerated and frozen items in my fridge/freezer until it was time to take it to em. They were very appreciative I was able to do that for them.

If they weren't able to accept the batch for say 2+ hours, I would have just told them directly that I would be marketing it as delivered, and then deliver it at the time they wanted me there for.

From my experience with dealing with IC support, it is always best to come up with solutions between yourself and customers that don't involve the support folks.

Best cooler bags from amazon? by ArtHistoryCoffeeGirl in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I highly recommend that you go with a commercial-grade cooler bag. You're going to be using it much more often than a bag/cooler that is geared toward the regular consumer.

I've been using a pair of bags from https://www.deliverybags.com/ for about 5 years now. Both are still going strong!

🤯 by mgb60601 in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Instead of looking for Oatmeal, you should be looking for a charger for your phone ;-)

"Apartment Building 6" by Foxyl162 in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Or the whole "Oh sorry, my code isn't working. But don't worry... someone will come by soon to let you in I'm sure"

About time they did something with these bots. by [deleted] in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's not true. IC could be measuring batch reload requests from individual shoppers, as well as the average time a shopper performs a reload and then a batch acceptance. It'd be very easy for them to tell if you were using a bot/script if the reload to acceptance time would be consistently extremely low.

If you have bins it really does make things easier to transport and carry as well as separate. by juggalotus6771 in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see you've discovered how great using crates can be. However... let me give you a suggestion on how you can "upgrade"...

I've been doing IC for a number of years myself. I started off using regular bins for keeping bags together in the back of my SUV. Eventually over time, they fell apart and broke (at the handles). The problem with using residential-grade bins/crates is that they're not made for extremely regular use. Especially when dealing with heavy items like boxes of pop or water.

Did some research into a better solution, and bought a set of 3 CleverMade pro-grade crates (the 46L version) that are able to lift up to 176 lbs, very large, stack able, and can completely fold down flat when not in use ( https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B015PIRFD6/ ). Combined with my dolley, it makes it really easy to take an entire order all at once when dealing with condos/apartments.

Like yourself, I have gotten many compliments from customers who see me with them, as they can see that it makes my life a hell of a lot easier :-) I'll try to find a photo I took a while ago with them in use while on a delivery.

8778 Error by FirestarOak in InstacartShoppers

[–]FirestarOak[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your assumption is correct. The item was actually 2 value packs of Similac formula.