Bad Instacart Orders: The Kind Of Orders No One Wants

Are you trying to maximize your daily delivery profit margins, or are you simply looking to study the most horrendous Instacart batches currently circulating on the platform? Welcome to the master directory built to expose how the routing algorithm functions when calculating upfront gig worker compensation.

Professional independent contractors understand that top-tier earnings depend entirely on filtering out low-ball offers before starting the ignition. The primary issue with the app’s dispatching system is that baseline Instacart batch earnings frequently fail to fairly compensate drivers for heavy physical items, complex multi-customer routings, or extreme highway distances.

Accepting these losing contracts means trading your vehicle’s health and your valuable time for abysmal payout metrics. Browse our archive below to see the exact bad offers that smart delivery drivers decline instantly.

👉Read FAQ About Bad Instacart Orders

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Top 10 Bad Instacart Orders

Disclaimer: The images below are recreated screenshots featuring actual metrics from real delivery orders. Some visual elements are simulated to protect user privacy and comply with platform terms.

Bad Instacart Order FAQ

​1. Why does Instacart put out so many bad orders?

Personally, I think there are so many bad orders because big corporations are not heavily regulated by the government. In my opinion, they want to save as much money as possible to make their bottom line higher at the expense of the drivers. Unfortunately, many drivers are so desperate for any small amount of money that they accept these low-ball, bad offers, which means corporations aren’t forced to raise the payouts. If no one took the bad orders, they would have to increase the amount for the deliveries they want us to take. They do this to a small degree already, but mostly only if an order sits for a long period without someone accepting it. In that situation, they increase the pay as little as possible, dangling it out there until someone finally takes the order for just pennies more.

​2. Can you get deactivated for missing or declining too many Instacart batches?

Instacart will not necessarily deactivate you for not accepting enough orders because drivers are considered independent contractors who only take the batches they want. On the other hand, they have what is essentially a rewards program where you are supposed to benefit by taking more orders. In my opinion, they dangle these benefits in front of your face—benefits you can’t even get unless you take an enormous number of orders each quarter. I think this is indirectly a way of ‘controlling’ how many orders a driver takes. Plus, if you are only offered 10 or 15 orders during a full day like in my area, you can’t even take enough orders to qualify for the program, let alone make a living.

3. What should you do when the screen is full of bad Instacart orders?

To be honest, I rarely have this happen because there are never enough orders on my screen unless it is around a holiday. I think the most orders I have ever seen on my screen at once in my area is about 10, and that was around Christmas time. If I do get a lot of bad orders on the screen, though, I just hide them and hope some decent ones come in soon. Also, I multi-app, so I always have a backup plan on the days the orders are just insulting.