Laughter from customer service at some of the documented incidents I have reported…took a recent turn with a senseless health-related delivery that must be exposed.
I have used six platforms… the current one for 18 months.
Ever scan a cracked egg??
Customer profile… noted on the platform…
*Injury and …compromised immune system…
*Food restrictions…six words
*Please use produce bags for produce and for packages of meat and poultry
*No contact…please put delivery bags inside the plastic-covered box in front of my door.
Yet… about 50 percent of the time, there’s a delivery problem.
To avoid bending and lifting, I place an empty fruit crate inside a new lawn bag in front of my door… the lawn bag handles secured inside the apartment allow me to open the door and pull the box inside…except… as you will learn…the instructions are open to
Example: The delivery pictured below was left lined up like marching men… six feet from the box…in the hallway, nowhere near my apt door…
Others have
- Placed delivery bags inches from the empty box…but not in the box…
- Left a single bag delivery dangling on the far rim of the box…the rim fartherest from reach.
- Forced bags under the plastic instead of placing the delivery On Top as noted…
- In a recent new twist…one shopper delivered the order by sliting the plastic bag to place the bags inside the box.
- One shopper, anxious to please… not only put the produce in produce bags and knotted them tightly, but decided it would be a good idea to do the same to all items in the entire order.
Wish I had known beforehand…
- A delivery driver liked my $200 + grocery order so much, he stole it en route…
Note: Not unusual Chinese and Mexican take-out orders were food-napped previously, said an industry insider.
I got a fast refund, but the original order could not be replaced in one trip…some of the essential items were out of stock.
- A delivery service debited my order 19 times…even the tech glitch shocked a banker…
- Or the time I received a grocery order with one dozen wet, cold, organic eggs… Despite what you may hear or read online…discard!!
The shopper had ignored chat and dashboard instructions to use produce bags, so wet bunches of collard greens were bagged with the eggs… - Instructions for fresh bread would arrive… for months last year. I had to send pics of the bread tags and receipt …
- Frozen bags of veggies arrived… thawed.
- Heavy, wet zucchini and other unbagged fresh vegetables, piled into the grocery bag…eggs on the bottom.
- One of the worst…produce bag not used with meat or poultry as requested…instead, it was thrown into the bag with a pint of organic ice cream, no less… in another delivery, a package of chicken leaked in the bag and all over quarts of bottled water…
The number of ways simple, written instructions can be misinterpreted is amazing…..
For instance, despite my customer profile, I have received food and oil from New Zealand, Zimbabwe…and other parts of the world mistakenly thought to be in the US.
I am so done
Complaint Letter to Customer Service 12/16/2025
“A bagged delivery with edibles was supposed to be left at my door in a waiting box yesterday…
But the order arrived minutes before store closing… in a used box.
The used delivery box had a strong chemical odor…The lanolin-like scent irritated my throat, and nauseau…and despite breaking down the box and sealing it in fresh, double lawn trash bags last night…the toxic smell persists today. Disinfectant plastic bottles were previously stored, according to the box markings.
“We did not box…we only bag… and we do not carry that product,” said the store manager this morning.
Box markings scanned and attached indicate the product is used to clean athletic equipment, and the edibles must be discarded to avoid risk of illness and poisoning.
So, I must document all this for the second day to attempt a refund of all applicable charges??? Again?”
Order #2
At least, the bags landed in my waiting box…with two dozen eggs ordered… one carton partially visible was fine…the other carton had a cracked egg that leeked over the others…and the carton was damp because it was packed with frozen bags of green beans.
Conclusion
Nothing I found online prepared me for the experiences that I have had. The preceding stories are just a sample of the time-draining and costly issues experienced.
Said a supervisor: Your instructions are clear and simple …my apology… the shoppers are just not reading the instructions.
At one point, as a person of color, I wondered if it all had something to do with the demographics and the zip code, but customer service said no (sure, as if they would admit such a thing).
But rather than profiling, I do believe my hunch was correct, it has to do in part with the job pool in this large urban area. Shoppers are multicultural, and there have been problems with English.
I’ll never forget the shopper, who in chat misspelled OK.
No… not a typo. I was apprehensive and wondered what new, fresh hell awaited … unfortunately…I was correct…
But some of the worst issues have come from English-speaking shoppers…
Another part of the problem is the tech glitches … For instance, placing an item in your cart with instructions not to substitute, yet either the shopper or the system removes your instructions, and you receive something that you cannot use or consume.
Incredibly, the continued shopper errors pile up on the customer’s account, and despite evidence that the customer is not at fault, customer service can’t manually refund the money or issue credit.
So, while I replaced the items in both recent orders, the platform, in their own words, is still evaluating my documentation and deciding whether I will receive a refund for the contaminated box delivery and the damaged carton of eggs???
Outrageous.
A few tips
*A credit card used for orders will give you more protection than a debit card, and using PayPal may help you resolve issues more quickly than the bank solo.
*I no longer plan for other tasks or activities on the days I must order online groceries. The amount of time spent correcting mistakes… sometimes reordering…it is too much.
*When refunds are returned, you must still cover the extra service fees for unplanned trips. Sometimes refunds are delayed.
*This is my last December with this company. Nothing that the company has suggested to ease shopper errors has worked.
Of course, some of the shoppers follow simple instructions well. And some shoppers know how to bag meat and poultry. Unfortunately, you can’t request shoppers.
*Place orders early in the day.
Learning that essential ingredients for dinner are out of stock…or the shopper made a mistake and brought the wrong ingredients, or ruined the ingredients for a 6:00 pm delivery… might mean grabbing a sandwich instead.
*Whenever possible…call the store and find out if items on your list are in stock.
Be aware that it may be when they say yes… but no… by the time the shopper arrives. Sometimes the shopper will say it’s out of stock and remove the items from your cart… but it is in stock…the shopper overlooked…happened recently.
This is a business model in need of a major overhaul.
Sources
https://www.ift.org/career-development/learn-about-food-science/food-facts/food-facts-food-safety-and-defense/bagging-groceries#:~:text=Raw%20meat%20should%20always%20be,temperature%20foods%20in%20separate%20bags.%20When%20shopping:
Note… the country has a reputation for extremely clean grocery stores…see up to point 00:35
Less need for produce bags.
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