Did you check your receipt?
An Ohio mom of a disabled daughter got quite the surprise last week when her $282 online grocery order – through Instacart – at Kroger became $2,783.25 without her knowledge.
‘My heart stopped because I’m thinking panic mode,’ Jill McCormick told WCPO. ‘Something is happening, and I have to react very quickly, and I didn’t even know where to start.’
The mom put her order in the grocery chain for typical family goods. But, her bill showed nearly ten times that amount that included six packs of Butterball turkey bacon, five bottles of Platinum dish soap and 15 bottles of Gain laundry detergent.
A stunned McCormick quickly reached out to her shopper, but they stopped responding leaving the mom holding the bag – and the bill.
Jill McCormick placed an order through Instacart at her Ohio Kroger, but quickly learned it was 10 times what she expected to pay
Her bill at the Liberty Township Kroger showed included items she never ordered including six packs of Butterball turkey bacon, five bottles of Platinum dish soap and 15 bottles of Gain laundry detergent
On Tuesday evening, McCormick put in the $282 order, and her shopper had been asking about standard substitutions. But the shopper stopped communicating.
That is when McCormick’s bank notified her she had a charge in excess of $2,500. She checked her Instacart order, which showed the extra items that were ordered, ones that she never received.
McCormick said her shopper said the items were charged by mistake and would be canceled. But that didn’t happen.
‘After trying for an hour, trying to get in touch with someone, they were finally able to get in touch with Instacart to cancel the order because they never canceled the order as the shopper originally told me,’ McCormick told the outlet.
Instacart told the news station the company had guidelines for its independent shoppers, including background checks.
Krogers also released a statement about the incident.
‘We understand a customer was overcharged for an order placed on August 9, 2023. We rectified the incident as soon as it was brought to our attention with an expedited refund to the customer’s original form of payment and a gift card to apologize for the inconvenience,’ it read.
‘After trying for an hour, trying to get in touch with someone, they were finally able to get in touch with Instacart to cancel the order because they never canceled the order as the shopper originally told me,’ McCormick said
McCormick also detailed the entire ordeal in a lengthy Facebook post where she ripped Kroger and said it was difficult to get in touch with someone at the chain
McCormick said the nation’s fourth-largest grocer by revenue initially offered a $20 gift cart for the hassle.
But, that wasn’t enough for her and the store upped the freebie to $250. Still, McCormick wasn’t happy about the outcome.
‘I’m not looking for that,’ she said. ‘I’m looking for a fix and outcome. How about we show results so someone else, another family, is not going through this.’
McCormick also detailed the entire ordeal in a lengthy Facebook post where she ripped Kroger and said it was difficult to get in touch with someone at the chain. ‘They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with any of it,’ she pleaded to the reader.
A police report was filed about the incident, McCormick said.