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A woman in Atlanta was forced to drive to her local Publix store and confront her Instacart shopper in person after she noticed that he was repeatedly ignoring her messages, mishandling replacements, and selecting items she never approved. The shopper was already inside the store working on her order, but according to the customer, whose total was around $560, the mistakes he was making were so excessive that she felt she needed to intervene directly.
For example, the woman had asked for French toast sticks, and when the app indicated they were out of stock, she immediately submitted a reasonable replacement. But instead of choosing the suggested item, the shopper substituted it with mozzarella sticks, which the customer said she never requested and did not want. The same issue came up with her ground turkey. When the app flagged it as sold out, he replaced it with chicken tenders. And to make matters worse, she later discovered that the store had plenty of ground turkey still available.
Seeing these choices pile up frustrated her because, as she put it, she was now getting “stuck with random items” that she never approved or cared to use as replacements.
She Met More Problems at the Store
By the time the woman arrived at Publix, things were even worse than she imagined. She saw that he had already placed several frozen items, including her ice cream, into the cart even though he still had nearly 70 items left to shop. Frozen items are supposed to be shopped last, and the ice cream was already melting inside the container. To her, this detail alone proved he was not being careful with her order at all.
She said she initially tried to speak to the shopper calmly, asking why he ignored her substitutions and why he wasn’t responding to her messages. But instead of addressing the concerns, he allegedly told her, “This is my job,” and insisted that she cancel the order herself if she was unhappy. She claimed that when she pressed him further, he suddenly acted like he didn’t understand English, and this made her even angrier.
The Shopper Refused to Cancel the Order
As she began examining everything in the cart, she pointed out multiple items she never approved. “I’m telling you what to get, but you’re still ordering what you want to order,” she said, reminding him that the groceries were going to her home, not his. The shopper repeated that she should cancel the order, but she refused and said he needed to cancel it on his end. “It’s my money. You can’t make me get this,” she told him.
Even after she firmly said, “I’m not taking this order. So you might as well stop shopping it,” he continued pushing the buggy through the aisles as if nothing was wrong. She followed him through the store, pulling items out of the cart and placing them back onto the shelves, determined not to pay for things she didn’t request. Eventually, the shopper gave up, abandoned the buggy, and walked out of the store without completing or canceling the order. She followed him into the parking lot, trying again to get him to cancel, but he still refused.
The woman claimed that Instacart customer service kept insisting that he was still shopping the order, which prevented her from canceling it on her end. But after going back and forth with the app for several minutes, her order was finally canceled and her full refund processed. She later added that the next shopper who picked up her modified order “did amazing” and got her exactly what she requested.
Here’s How Netizens Are Reacting to the Atlanta Woman’s Posts on TikTok
In the comments, many viewers sided with the woman and expressed frustration with Instacart shoppers who ignore instructions. One wrote, “Yeah they gotta be stricter on drivers bc why is he not caring.” Another shared their own experience, saying, “Male shoppers are the worst😒. A man bought me moldy veggies.” Someone else commented, “They don’t care about your items. They’re looking for that Instacart payment & your tip. They never care.”
Some netizens felt that people should do their own shopping to avoid issues like this. One person said, “I absolutely refuse to use a shopping service. This kind of frustration could be avoided.” Another added, “It’s just time that we do our own grocery shopping… these people are playing in our faces.”
