Introduction
Instacart was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo. It is an American company which delivers groceries to your home. It also offers pick-up services from your favorite stores. It has been a great success till now and has employed more than 300,000 shoppers in 2020 itself.
The time of delivery varies from location to location, and you can schedule your delivery according to your availability.
This article will be talking about the time taken by Insta to deliver an order and some other things which might help you while ordering from them.
Delivery time of Instacart-
- The delivery time of it is different for different locations. The deliveries start from as early as 9 a.m. and continue till midnight. Although they promise to give delivery within an hour, it is not always possible considering the rush.
- Instacart has introduced a ‘Fast & Flexible’ delivery option for quicker deliveries to its customers. It has been done to reduce the waiting time and increase customer satisfaction. This feature will give you the time and date on which your order will be delivered.
- It also has another new feature coming up which will allow customers to place an order two weeks in advance. The peak hours of Instacart usually start from 3 p.m. so, if you are ordering after that, you can get ready for a delay.
- The deliveries in Instacart are done all seven days, and they try to deliver the items earliest even on the busy days. If you think that your order is getting too late then most probably, Instacart will itself cancel your order. The money will be refunded back to you without any charges.
The delivery fee, service fee and other fees on Instacart-
Delivery fee-
- The delivery fee on Instacart orders starts from $3.99 for the same-day delivery. The best thing about instacart is that it provides instacart membership to its customers. The membership allows the customers to have free delivery on orders over 35 dollars. The membership fee for one year is $99 and for one month is $9.99.
- The delivery fee you pay does not go to your shoppers so, you can waive it if you want and rather tip the shoppers buying things for you. There are conditions applied on waiving delivery fees so, check them beforehand.
Service fee-
- The service fee is usually charged as 5% but this fee can not be waived as it goes for covering the Instacart costs like customer service, insurance, background check, etc. This fee does not go to the shoppers and should not be considered a tip.
- This fee also varies with the location, type of item you have ordered, etc. If you have ordered alcohol then you will be charged more service fees. It is to make sure that the delivery of alcohol has been done properly with ID verification.
Other fees-
Many other fees may apply to your order according to its weight, type, delivery location, etc.
1. Heavy fee- This fee is applied if your order is heavier than 50 lbs.
2. Priority fee- This fee applies to people who want the order on a priority basis, that is, in 60 minutes or less.
The minimum order is 10 dollars.
3. Bag fee- Some retailers charge fees for the usage of non-reusable bags
4. Bottle deposit- This fee is charged in some stores on buying bottles, cans, etc.
There are still some more fees left, and you can read about them on their site. The link has been given below.
Cancellation and refund of orders on Instacart-
Temporary authorization hold on Instacart-
- You must have gotten a little shocked on ordering from Instacart and realizing that you have been charged more than what you ordered. Do not worry about that case! This part of the article will save you from that shock if you are a potential user of Instacart.
- The extra charge is called Authorization hold and your money will be refunded back to you. This hold is slightly higher than your order and it aims to fulfill the additional cost of the products you cancel, replace or add.
- If you think you have been charged wrongly then you can file a complaint on Instacart helpdesk. The investigation of the charges may take up to 90 days.
Conclusion-
The delivery time on Instacart is decided by the customers themselves but the order might get delayed during peak hours. To get your order on time, you can order in advance and even choose your favorite shopper to shop for you by contacting them and knowing their schedule in advance.
If you think you need your things urgently, you can take Instacart’s pick up services. The shopper will buy your order and give it to you when you reach the store. You can trust Instacart to deliver your order safely.
Some faqs related to Instacart-
- Is the first delivery free on Instacart?
Ans- Yes, the first delivery is free on Instacart.
- Is there any minimum order amount on Instacart?
Ans- Your order should be at least $10 to become eligible for delivery.
- Why does Instacart hold some of my money?
Ans- This is called a temporary authorization hold and is released after the delivery of your order.
- Is it compulsory to tip Instacart shoppers?
Ans- There is a default tip on Instacart, and you can always tip the shopper more.
Instacart was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo. It is an American company which delivers groceries to your home. It also offers pick-up services from your favorite stores. It has been a great success till now and has employed more than 300,000 shoppers in 2020 itself.
The time of delivery varies from location to location, and you can schedule your delivery according to your availability.
This article will be talking about the time taken by Instacart to deliver an order and some other things which might help you while ordering from them.
Delivery time of Instacart-
- The delivery time of Instacart is different for different locations. The deliveries start from as early as 9 a.m. and continue till midnight. Although they promise to give delivery within an hour, it is not always possible considering the rush.
- Instacart has introduced a ‘Fast & Flexible’ delivery option for quicker deliveries to its customers. It has been done to reduce the waiting time and increase customer satisfaction. This feature will give you the time and date on which your order will be delivered.
- It also has another new feature coming up which will allow customers to place an order two weeks in advance. The peak hours of Instacart usually start from 3 p.m. so, if you are ordering after that, you can get ready for a delay.
- The deliveries in Instacart are done all seven days, and they try to deliver the items earliest even on the busy days. If you think that your order is getting too late then most probably, Instacart will itself cancel your order. The money will be refunded back to you without any charges.
The delivery fee, service fee and other fees on Instacart-
Delivery fee-
- The delivery fee on Instacart orders starts from $3.99 for the same-day delivery. The best thing about instacart is that it provides instacart membership to its customers. The membership allows the customers to have free delivery on orders over 35 dollars. The membership fee for one year is $99 and for one month is $9.99.
- The delivery fee you pay does not go to your shoppers so, you can waive it if you want and rather tip the shoppers buying things for you. There are conditions applied on waiving delivery fees so, check them beforehand.
Service fee-
- The service fee is usually charged as 5% but this fee can not be waived as it goes for covering the Instacart costs like customer service, insurance, background check, etc. This fee does not go to the shoppers and should not be considered a tip.
- This fee also varies with the location, type of item you have ordered, etc. If you have ordered alcohol then you will be charged more service fees. It is to make sure that the delivery of alcohol has been done properly with ID verification.
Other fees-
Many other fees may apply to your order according to its weight, type, delivery location, etc.
1. Heavy fee- This fee is applied if your order is heavier than 50 lbs.
2. Priority fee- This fee applies to people who want the order on a priority basis, that is, in 60 minutes or less.
The minimum order is 10 dollars.
3. Bag fee- Some retailers charge fees for the usage of non-reusable bags
4. Bottle deposit- This fee is charged in some stores on buying bottles, cans, etc.
There are still some more fees left, and you can read about them on their site. The link has been given below.
Cancellation and refund of orders on Instacart-
- “Oh! I bought this again?”, This occurs to most people, and at that time you do not know what to do with it. While ordering through Instacart, you can go through the same thing again, and you might want to cancel the order before it reaches your door.
- Instacart provides you with the facility to cancel your order. But is it so easy? Well, no, you will be charged a cancellation fee of up to 15 dollars if you cancel your order when the shopper has started purchasing or picking your order.
- You will get the full refund if your order has not been started processing yet, that is, no shopper has started buying anything for you yet. If you want to know the process of canceling the order, then click the link given below-
Temporary authorization hold on Instacart-
- You must have gotten a little shocked on ordering from Instacart and realizing that you have been charged more than what you ordered. Do not worry about that case! This part of the article will save you from that shock if you are a potential user of Instacart.
- The extra charge is called Authorization hold and your money will be refunded back to you. This hold is slightly higher than your order and it aims to fulfill the additional cost of the products you cancel, replace or add.
- If you think you have been charged wrongly then you can file a complaint on Instacart helpdesk. The investigation of the charges may take up to 90 days.
Conclusion-
The delivery time on Instacart is decided by the customers themselves but the order might get delayed during peak hours. To get your order on time, you can order in advance and even choose your favorite shopper to shop for you by contacting them and knowing their schedule in advance.
If you think you need your things urgently, you can take Instacart’s pick up services. The shopper will buy your order and give it to you when you reach the store. You can trust Instacart to deliver your order safely.
Some faqs related to Instacart-
- Is the first delivery free on Instacart?
Ans- Yes, the first delivery is free on Instacart.
- Is there any minimum order amount on Instacart?
Ans- Your order should be at least $10 to become eligible for delivery.
- Why does Instacart hold some of my money?
Ans- This is called a temporary authorization hold and is released after the delivery of your order.
- Is it compulsory to tip Instacart shoppers?
Ans- There is a default tip on Instacart, and you can always tip the shopper more.
