I know I usually just post about video games and such, if I post at all, but I really have to rant about a horrible experience I just had with @BJsWholesale and @Instacart . Feel free to tune this out if you don't like complaining.
It's the day after New Year's and I am super wiped. I had been traveling for two weeks for the holidays and just needed to not think of my responsibilities while I got my energy back. So I decided to order some groceries from BJ's, which I had good experiences in the past with.
I put in a relatively large order, over 200 dollars of groceries, because A) I hadn't gone shopping since late November due to my holiday trip and my cuppboard was BARE and B) when I shop for bulk groceries like this I always try to make them last about a month.
I put the order in via the website and give my phone number for contact since I don't have the Instacart App on my phone. I instruct people to call or text me if there are any issues. Close to my delivery time my delivery person calls me and asks "are you getting my messages?"
I say no. She says "well I'm instructed to call you before delivery" I think, well that's weird. I load up the instacart site and see that a HUGE part of my order is missing. Specifically any meat product I ordered is missing as well as a few breads.
They were listed as out of stock. I instructed her to make replacements via the chat window she was using. She then called me back and said "I'm about to check out I can't go back." This annoyed me... quite a bit...
But I know people usually just do their best and sometimes they have pressing schedules. Out of curiosity I asked why she didn't call or text me when she was instructed to and she said "I'm not safe if I call or text, using the app guarantees my safety."
I wondered why this made it OK for her to call me before she delivered, not to mention I've had tons of grocery deliveries before where people simply called and texted me and there was no issue. But I couldn't get a straight answer out of her.
I looked up the order and noticed that she made replacements for certain products for more expensive products, listing them out of stock so that my order cost approximately the same even though many items were missing.
Out of curiosity I called BJ's to see if they were out of stock of the products that were missing or replaced with more expensive products and they were not. All of them were in stock. I was very annoyed now, but I figured I'd just get the groceries and do a follow-up shop.
She then calls me and tells me that parking is hard to find around my house. To her credit it is, however I instructed her that I saw an open parking space around the block. She said that this was too far because my order was big and BJ's doesn't give you bags (also true.)
Though every delivery person I have had in the past brought, you know, their own bags. Instead she decided to illegally double park. I told her there was a driveway that my neighbors wouldn't mind her using for a short period of time but she refused to use it.
She asked me to come down to her car and pick up her groceries. Now, I'm not even dressed. It's early in the morning the day after New Year's and I was hoping for a lazy day. I told her to carry it up to my apartment but she refused to leave her car.
So I quickly threw on some pajamas and went down and asked her to at the very least to bring the groceries inside the front door and she REFUSED THAT TOO! Instead she brought them to my front stoop and just left them there! She said I needed to start bringing them in, so I did. 
But I had to go slow because I didn't have my keys on me and I had to hold the door open or else it would lock behind me. So she piles some of my groceries up against the door to hold it and it damages them! A pack of cheese and some other things get torn in the process.
She only has boxes for a few groceries. Most of them end up just individually strewn all across the floor of my apartment landing. The whole time SHE is complaining to ME about how hard I am making this for HER! Eventually she says "I'm sorry for your trouble" and drives off.
To @BJsWholesale 's credit, they refunded me the cost of the damaged items, but HOLY CRAP! I've never had a delivery experience this bad.
I think what annoyed me the most was that she refused to take the items inside. The disabled and elderly use this service and may not be able to carry the groceries up like I did. If I was someone who needed help and not just a lazy New Year's shopper, they would be out of luck!
I have never denied someone a tip before in my life, but this time I did. I know that people in the service industry are just doing their best because I used to work in it. But nothing about her behavior or performance was OK and I found myself wishing I just shopped myself.
Anyway, that's the story of how I rung in the new year with a botched delivery and floor cheese.
