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I just think of these posts as "watch out for this company, it's shady." I think that's pretty valuable to know.

And let's be honest, Instacart could have preempted this blog post easily by just saying "sorry about that, we've refunded the fees and if you wish to cancel the service now that the terms have changed, we'll prorate it." I think the blog poster would have been happy with that.

Instead they gave the classic "if" half-apology: "I apologize if for some reason you did not receive it." Not even trusting their customer that he really didn't receive the notice!

I think often "escalating within the company" either (a) doesn't accomplish anything or (b) simply takes too much active time and effort for what is likely to only ultimately be an individual solution. If you really believe that you are a member of an entire class of people that are being wronged, the right thing to do is to increase general awareness that the company is behaving in a way that you believe is unethical.

Also, a company like Instacart should regard such an expression of customer frustration as something to learn from, regardless of its short-term impact to the bottom line. In the long run they have the potential to be a much stronger company by incorporating customer feedback; especially where it seems that a number of customers identify with that frustration.

Yelp is different though - I agree that many individual reviews are worthless, people just looking to bitch about the server they didn't like, etc.

But this is a reasoned, detailed explanation with due diligence done to ensure accuracy. Usually these things are required for your public shaming to be successful (with a [mostly] reasonable audience like HN). When it does succeed, that should mean there actually is an issue that the company would do well to correct, and this tends to be an effective method for getting that done.

>And now this thread has turned into a piling-on of everyone's personal Instacart issues. Is this productive? Is this helping Instacart improve or is it just a cathartic airing of grievances?

It may be a hard pill to swallow, but I believe it certainly is productive, as long as the responses maintain some level of objectivity. Catharsis of frustrated users is a goldmine of feedback that might not have gotten enough visibility otherwise.

"I have a specific, personal customer service issue with this business..." - how is this a specific, personal issue? It seems to affect all customers, and as indicated on the post, it seems like none of them were notified about this change of policy... That's my basic understanding reading the post anyway.

Who gives a damn whether it helps or hurts Instacart? Instacart changed a service people already paid for. Obviously it's not a "whoops, our bad" situation because they admit that they did it, whether or not they thought they contacted people. If anyone gets anything back, then yes -- it is productive.

I'd argue this is why the idea of customer support/community management is an entire department on itself. Customers in general, are not forgiving. Knowing how to deal with them properly takes social savvy, and you have to be aware how emails can turn into a PR blunder.

The customer in this case was put in a position that made him feel that he needed to publically shame. A good PR/Customer Support rep would have seen this coming and would have defused the situation earlier.

The author didn't even ask for what he wants: his year of free delivery under $35.

I'm sure Instacart would have no problem at the very least waiving two $8 fees.

My advice to people calling into customer service departments? Just ask. The person on the other line can't read your mind. If you ask for what you want, you'd be surprised at how often you'll get it.

I know of one person that publicly complained after contacting Instacart privately about the change in service:

> the representative was defensive and used "we're a startup" as an excuse for the shift.

https://twitter.com/jessiechar/status/315603016180973568

I didn't know about this. Still, I was expecting a little longer of a communication with support-- 'escalation' or at least 'the ask' should have been done before the public shaming, in my mind. All I see now is a cordial and polite explanation from Instacart.

Lets get real: outside of two $8 charges that he's not even asked to be reversed, this is exactly the same service that he describes as "great" in the same post.

That's actually really good advice. At Instacart we try to go out of our way to make sure our customer experience is top notch. Giving people what they ask for is always the best way to do that.

Well, unfortunately in today's day and age, things just don't get "escalated" in a company. Without feeling pain the company doesn't escalate things. Pain is a natural escalator, just ask your body it works the same way. When you feel pain depending on the severity of pain it will escalate over other tasks to stop/prevent it. I think although your view has merit and is also a good counter argument, its my belief that this is the natural course of things. cheers