How do I get through the phone menu to a real live person?
GetHuman researchers routinely call this Instacart phone number to document the phone system.
Here is our latest tip for weaving through the phone menu to get to a real person the fastest:Press 0
Here is how our research team describes the way the Instacart phone system greets you: Thanks for calling Instacart support. If you are a customer, please press 1. If you're a Shopper, please press 2. For all other calls, please stay on the line while we connect you with a representative.
Below are some clips we've found from Instacart's phone menus and tips that help give an idea of what you will encounter when you call. We've highlighted why they are important as well:
Heard when the phone system first answers
"Thanks for calling Instacart support line.
Thanks for calling Instacart support. If you are a customer, please press one.
If you're a shopper, please press two.
Thanks for calling Instacart support line. Please stay on the line while we connect you with a representative.
This call may be monitored or recorded for quality per"
Excerpt from a call with Instacart
Saturday, January 6, 2024 5:37 PM
They may need the phone number on your account
"Thanks for calling Instacart support line.
Thanks for calling Instacart support. If you are a customer, please press one.
If you're a shopper, please press two.
For all other thanks for calling Instacart support line.
Please stay on the line while we connect you with a representative.
This call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes.
Thank you for calling Instacart. You're through to Mary Anne.
Can you please give me your full name and phone number associated with your Instacart account?"
Excerpt from a call with Instacart
Thursday, April 4, 2024 6:56 PM
The first phone menu
"Thanks for calling Instacart support line.
Thanks for calling Instacart support. If you are a customer, please press one.
If you are a shopper, please press two."
Excerpt from a call with Instacart
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 2:44 PM
What are the hours and when should I call?
Instacart operates the call center for this 888-246-7822 phone number 24 hours, 7 days.The short answer is that you should call on a Tuesday.This observation and the following section are based on analysis of a sample set of 4,029 calls made in the last 90 days using our free, web-based phone (see above).
An important note: busy times vs hold times vs best time to call
When we refer to busy or less busy times, we are talking about the volume of calls. The busiest times are when the most people are calling this Instacart phone number (least busy times have fewer people calling). This high call volume does not necessarily mean that you will have a long hold time when you call. Companies like Instacart staff their call centers differently based on the time of day and day of the week, so you may experience a shorter wait on hold at the busiest of times. When we refer to the best time to call, we are referring to the optimal combination of lower call volume and shorter wait times.
The least busy time to call
The least busy day to call Instacart is Wednesday.The most busy day to call is Sunday, which averages 34% more phone calls by comparison.Again, this is based on a sample of 4,029 calls made with our AI-powered, web-based phone in the last 90 days.
Sun
Busiest
Mon
Tue
Wed
Quietest
Thu
Fri
Sat
The shortest wait on hold
We measured the shortest hold times to be on Tuesday.The longest wait in the queue on average occurs on Monday, which is 539% longer than the minimum.As you can see, there is more fluctuation in hold time over the course of the week than there is in call volume.
Sun
Mon
Longest
Tue
Shortest
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
The best time to call
In summation, the best day to call Instacart is Tuesday.It isn't the least busy day, but the fact that hold times are shortest combined with it being on the busy side tells us that Instacart staffs up on Tuesday to handle the higher call volume, and that makes it the best time to call.
Why call this Instacart number?
Below is a sample of recent calls to Instacart, and their purpose. Are any of these similar to the reason you are trying to call?
Issues with shopper application: "I was trying to sign up to be a shopper, but when I got to the tax page, it wouldn't let me do anything."
- From a call lasting 63m 18s , Apr 23, 2024 3:24 PM
Issues with shopper signup: "I tried to sign up as a shopper but got stuck at the tax paperwork, wondering what to do next."
- From a call lasting 4m 51s , Apr 23, 2024 3:18 PM
Call check: "Hello? Yeah. I can hear you."
- From a call lasting 2m 10s , Apr 20, 2024 4:21 PM
Unauthorized charge refund: "Instacart took a hundred and five with some change out of my bank account and promised to refund it over a month ago, but it hasn't been returned."
- From a call lasting 46m 8s , Apr 18, 2024 5:07 PM
Difficulty logging in: "I got a new phone number and didn't update it in the app, now I can't log in."
- From a call lasting 4m 34s , Apr 18, 2024 12:04 AM
Updating contact information: "I need to update my contact information for my Instacart account."
- From a call lasting 3m 26s , Apr 16, 2024 2:20 PM
Update phone number: "I need to update my phone number on my account since I no longer have access to the old one."
- From a call lasting 2m 59s , Apr 16, 2024 2:16 PM
Updating phone number for account: "I've been out of work for a year now and need to update my phone number to start working again with Instacart."
- From a call lasting 4m 8s , Apr 16, 2024 1:41 PM
Reporting fraudulent account activity: "Somebody was using my account without my authorization to place orders."
- From a call lasting 8m 10s , Apr 15, 2024 9:17 PM
Issue with cashing out: "I was trying to cash out my funds and it's blocked, I never had a problem before."
- From a call lasting 5m 56s , Apr 14, 2024 1:53 AM
Instacart's support line is answered by an automated menu system. There was a long enough pause after it answered that I thought the call hadn't gone through. It also repeats itself a lot (for example, saying "thanks for calling Instacart" twice before giving menu options). It doesn't seem like it's set up well. Thankfully there are only a couple of menu options to choose from before it sends you to an agent.
Your options are customer support, shopper support, or stay on the line for all other questions. The first and third options seem to take you to the same place, so it's faster to press that button. An agent answered my call immediately and asked for the name and phone number on my account. After providing that, she was able to verify my account and answer my questions. If you select the shopper support option, the call just disconnects.
Calling this number was relatively painless and it's easy to get to a human agent. However, Instacart discourages customers from calling. They no longer list the number on their website. You're directed to their online help center or a chatbot. If you ask the bot for their number, it says they're an online business and therefore don't provide phone support. The bot may send you to a human after a while depending on your responses. Their support webpage mentions scheduling a call through the app, but I couldn't find a reliable method to get there. This is considered their main customer support number and is still listed on plenty of third-party websites. They do provide a dedicated support number for seniors, though (844-981-3433). Shoppers can only get support through the app.
Customers who called Instacart with complicated issues have complained about the lack of support. Agents can't escalate calls in any way. Instacart's main support option is its online help center. If you can't solve your problem over the phone, this is your best resource. The support link in the Instacart app opens a browser to this page. It has articles covering popular support issues, such as how Instacart works, signing up for their premium service, using coupons, and problems with your order. Contact information, including live chat, is only available if you're signed in to an account.
It's harder to get support if you don't have an account or can't log in. You can't access the online chat and phone support agents verify your information before anything else. Some may answer basic questions, but that's up to the individual agent. If you're stuck because of account issues, try contacting Instacart through social media. Customers report good results from Twitter (X), even if it may take a couple of tries to get a response. Some third-party websites also list emails or forms for specific problems. However, trying to reach the company this way with anything other than the specified issue will likely be ignored or worse, affect your account standing.
Jeff truly believes that all customers deserve good service. He’s been building tools, inventing phone tree hacks and helping customers since before his days at GetHuman. He's also a Google GDE and involved in the Angular community.
More Ways to Contact Instacart Customer Service
There are of course other ways to contact Instacart customer service besides the phone. Below we list the best ones, by medium.
Click "Email Us" to submit your issue to them online
As a last, sometimes only, resort- Instacart customer service can be accessed through their website. This can entail digging through help articles before finding a form and "being allowed" to submit a problem to their team, and rarely leads to a real-time conversation, which is why GetHuman does not recommend this unless it's the only way.
Conclusion and closing notes
This is Instacart's best phone number, the real-time current wait on hold and tools for skipping right through those phone lines to get right to a Instacart agent. This phone number is Instacart's best phone number because 54,540 customers like you used this contact information over the last 18 months and gave us feedback. Common problems addressed by the customer care unit that answers calls to 888-246-7822 include Track an Order, Refund, Update Info, Place an Order, Report a Problem and other customer service issues. The Instacart call center that you call into has employees from California and is open 24 hours, 7 days according to customers. In total, Instacart has 2 phone numbers. It's not always clear what is the best way to talk to Instacart representatives, so we started compiling this information built from suggestions from the customer community. Please keep sharing your experiences so we can continue to improve this free resource.
GetHuman does not provide call center services or customer support operations for Instacart. The two organizations are not related. GetHuman builds free tools and shares information to help customers of companies like Instacart. For large companies that includes tools such as our GetHuman Phone, which allows you to call a company but skip the part where you wait on the line to get a live human rep. We continue to work on these tools to help customers like you (and ourselves!) navigate the messy phone menus, hold times, and confusion with customer service. As long as you keep sharing it with your friends and loved ones, we'll keep doing it.
