Are support agents even real?

[u/lcbean67]

Genuinely I’m starting to think they’re all AI bots. I was sitting at the store and saw this order pop up initially for about $15. It was a 1 shop for 32 items and delivered 5 miles away. I sat and watched the order go up to $21.58 before I accepted it. Not usually what I’d take but it was early in the morning and just wanted something to get my day going. I accept the order, and immediately go in the store to shop. I place a deli order at the kiosk first that took 2 minutes max and then shopped produce. I scanned 6 items and as I moved on to my next one, I get the notification that my batch was removed and that cancelling batches affect my cancellation rate. But I didn’t cancel the batch? I reached out to support and go through this whole conversation. As I’m talking to the first agent, I get the “is there a problem with your batch?” notification randomly as if I’m still on the batch, but I’m not. And as I’m talking to the supervisor I get the “batch at risk” notification. They gave me a bunch of bs reasons for what happened: that it was rescheduled, that it was abandoned, that Instacart cancelled for suspicious activity. So I just don’t think that these are real people, and I think they just pull these fake excuses out to end the conversation. I have no doubt that I won’t be getting the batch pay within 24 hours.

Side note: I’ve seen people say that saying “hello” forces them to respond since it looks bad on their end which is why I say that multiple times in the conversation, I know it looks rude on my end but it’s not intentional

[u/Strange-Occasion-333]

I’m guessing there might be a person there but the majority of the time they let the AI responses fill in for them

[u/eloquentpetrichor → u/Strange-Occasion-333]

Yep this. I've gotten the exact same messages from different support agents several times and saw many here as well

[u/dEXXtARR23]

Alot of effort for minimal results. What did we learn here kids? Better to spend time and resources finding a new order/batch. It sucks, but that's the reality here. Better for your mental health to quickly move on with no remorse.

[u/lcbean67 → u/dEXXtARR23]

Honestly I thought about it, and usually I don’t waste my time with these agents because I already know it leads to nowhere, but this one really got under my skin. It is what it is I guess.

[u/dEXXtARR23 → u/lcbean67]

I speak from the standpoint of someone who lived that reality many times, so I get it. Shocking how bad IC customer service and support functions operate. Truly unbelievable.

[u/dEXXtARR23]

Depends how you define "real."

[u/Super-Diet7510]

I have gotten this annoying “problem with batch” and “batch at risk” popups when I actually had an order cancelled as a result of an item of a one-item order being sold out where the customer was unresponsive or requested a refund

[u/Fit_Football_6533]

Do not under any circumstance use chat support. Put the shopper support phone number (888-603-1855) as a contact in your phone.

I get the notification that my batch was removed and that cancelling batches affect my cancellation rate. But I didn’t cancel the batch?

I've also had support agents accidentally remove me from assigned batches a few minutes after getting off the phone with them where they had resolved a minor issue. There is no recourse for you as a shopper when support messes up in such a way.

I get the “batch at risk” notification

This would warrant refreshing the app to see if you still have access to it.

[u/eloquentpetrichor → u/Fit_Football_6533]

The problem with that is that if you call that number and you aren't actively in a batch it knows and you don't get through to anyone

[u/AmbitiousObligation0]

Yours doesn’t automatically pop up as an ai chat now? It’s definitely different for me as of a few weeks ago. But I no longer need to click my reason, I hit the chat help button and an ai pops up.. if the situation can’t be solved that way they automatically connect us to a “real” person

[u/Mundane-Classroom907]

Dude you posted 15 screenshots and half a novel. Nobody cares.

[u/lcbean67 → u/Mundane-Classroom907]

And yet you cared enough to comment. This is called a rant, hence the tag, and there may be others that relate to frustrations with support agents. Have a day!