Instacart is a grocery delivery company that is spreading quickly across the United States and offers an intriguing service: It pairs you with a personal shopper who finds your food and household items from your favorite local stores, bags your order, and delivers it directly to your door.
The app also allows you to schedule orders ahead of time, which can be hugely helpful…until plans change.
In the event that you need to cancel an Instacart order, it’s a pretty easy process, provided you know how to navigate the app or website.
In this article we’ll walk through the process of canceling an Instacart order on the app or on a computer, and how to do so when the shopper has already gotten to work.
We’ll also walk users through the process of canceling an Instacart Express membership, and answer some frequently asked questions.
So without further ado, lets get started.
Note: If at any time you need help with this process, you can reach out to Instacart customer support using these 3 simple methods, or alternatively you can also call their phone number and speak directly with a respresentative.
Contents
How Instacart Works
The service can be accessed at Instacart.com or with the Instacart app, which is available for iPhone or Android.
The app lets your browse through items available from popular local stores in your area, pick items you want, and provide instructions for your shopper on produce preferences or what to do if an item is out of stock.
Instacart has quick options to select from, including telling the shopper to find the best replacement, providing them the replacement you’d prefer, or just canceling the item altogether.
Once you’ve selected everything you want, you get an order total, and once you review your order and provide any last instructions to your shopper, you select a payment method (they accept most major credit cards and Apple Pay) and complete the order.
Instacart charges customers the base price of groceries (with no individual item markups), but charges a service fee and delivery fee for every order.
Once you have submitted your order, an Instacart shopper will get to work finding your items in the store.
In most major markets, Instacart offers a guarantee of two-hour delivery, so these shoppers often get to work finding your items quickly.
(This will be important when understanding how to cancel orders…stay tuned.)
Once they’ve completed your shopping, personal shoppers will take a prepaid card provided by Instacart and pay for the items at the grocery store, then either set it out to be picked up (only available at some locations) or get it delivered to your door.
That’s how it works when you want an order to come through.
Let’s get into next what to do if you want to cancel an order.
How to Cancel an Instacart Order
While it can be a bit logistically tough to cancel an Instacart order, and they do ask you to review your order before you finalize it, it is possible to cancel an individual order, provided you do so quickly.
Instacart allows you to cancel your delivery for a full refund and no additional fees, but you have to do so before your personal shopper and delivery driver starts shopping for your order.
If you’ve scheduled an order ahead of time, either hours or days, this can easily be done.
If you order your food ASAP to be delivered in a two-hour window, however, you might need to act quickly to cancel the order before your shopper gets to work.
Canceling an Order in the App
To cancel an order in the app, the process is pretty simple.
First, you find the Account icon, which is located in the top left of the app and looks like a small person in a circle icon.
Then you tap on “Your Orders” from the menu.
From there, you’ll see a list of your orders scheduled for the future.
Tap the order you’d like to cancel, and from there you’ll be given the option to “Cancel order.”
Tap that, then wait a second, and you’ll get a confirmation that your order has been canceled without penalty.
NOTE: It’s important to wait once you tap to ensure that the order was canceled properly – if a shopper has begun since you started the process, it might not go through effectively, and you need to wait for the confirmation.
Canceling an Order on Your Computer
On a computer, the process is similar and you just need to find the Account menu on their website platform.
On the website, the Account menu is in the top right corner, as opposed to the top left on the app.
You’ll see it here:
From there, tap the menu and you’ll get a drop down where you’ll see “Your Orders.”
Tap that, and you’ll be taken to a page with your future orders.
Find the order you want, tap that, and you will be taken to a page where you can review the order or, if in time, cancel it.
Tap “Cancel order” to cancel the order, and then wait again for confirmation.
Canceling an Order After the Shopper Has Begun Shopping
If you go to cancel an order and see that the order is already marked as being in progress, you will still be able to cancel…but you may be charged a fee.
If the shopper has begun, however, you will need to contact Community Support to cancel your order.
How to Cancel an Instacart Express Membership
An Instacart Express membership gets you free delivery on all orders of $35 or more for an annual fee of $99.
To cancel your membership, log in on a computer and click Account in the top right-hand corner.
(If you aren’t signed in, you might be taken quickly to a login page to sign in.)
Once signed in, you can click in to your Instacart Account and review the dropdown menu, then tap “Instacart Express,” which will take you to your Express page.
From there, you can review your membership, including “Membership Plan.”
Next to that option, you can select “End membership.”
At that point, they will give you an option to “Set a Reminder” closer to the time when your Express Membership renewal is set to occur.
(Users are automatically enrolled in auto-renewal unless they select otherwise.)
If you want to continue to evaluate the product and not make up your mind quite yet, you can set a reminder closer to the membership end date and cancel then.
If you are set on canceling, click “Continue to Cancel.”
Then confirm your cancellation by clicking “End.”
This will save changes to your account and you should be good to go.
NOTE: If you paid the annual fee, that membership fee will be in effect for the entire year, so no matter when you cancel, your Express membership will be active until the end of your billing period.
If you got a free two-week Express membership trial and you don’t want to renew membership, you’ll need to amend your membership before the two weeks are up by the same process.
In that case your membership will be good until the two weeks are up, and that final day will act as your cancellation date.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to reach Community Support?
If you want to cancel an order after a shopper has begun and want to reach customer support quickly, there are three ways to do that.
- Launch their online Help Center
- Email help@instacart.com
- Call 1-888-246-7822
Instacart emails tend to be responded to quickly and can often provide faster assistance than you might think, but for immediate help, the online Help Center and phone number are probably your better bets.
Will canceling an Express membership affect gift cards?
Gifts cards that have been given to you will remain active whether or not you have an active membership plan.
Gift cards are automatically applied to future orders, so if you want to wait to apply a gift card, delay redeeming it (don’t click on the link in the email you received) until you’re ready to order.
Is there a membership renewal charge if I cancel and decide to go back?
Nope, as long as you change your mind before the cancellation date.
In that case, just return to the Express page, click “Renew Membership,” and you’re good to go.
An Easy Way to Cancel Your Instacart Order or Membership
Instacart is a service that is meant to make your life easier, and that should be the case if plans change and you need to cancel an order.
Provided you do so before shopping has begun, it’s an easy process, whether on the app or on your computer.
The Instacart Express membership is similarly easy to cancel, provided you know where to navigate in their menu and have made up your mind on canceling the membership.
Either way, this guide should make handling canceling a bit easier, and prevent you from having to spend too much time on the phone with a customer service agent.
