Odessa, FL asked in Civil Litigation and Consumer Law for Florida

Q: Should I contact a lawyer to file criminal/civil charges against Instacart for employing criminals?

My Instacart account was used yesterday to make 4 fraudulent purchases in 30 minutes. The first three purchases were for around $50 with a $490+ tip on each of the three. Each time the driver marked the deliveries as delivered right after the order was placed. The last one was made for the same items and a normal tip, which a new driver attempted to deliver it while I was on the phone with Instacart attempting to cancel the transactions. Instacart stated they cannot refund/cancel the transactions since they were marked as delivered. I requested the driver's information to press criminal charges and they refused to provide any information. They refused to acknowledge the driver would be physically unable to retrieve the order and deliver each one in the time frame they used. I suspect the account used for the deliveries is fraud, which means Instacart doesn't monitor or check their delivery driver's credentials or employability. I have not used Instacart in over a year.

1 Lawyer Answer
Charles M.  Baron
Charles M. Baron
Answered
  • Consumer Law Lawyer
  • Hollywood, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: Start by calling the police for your locality. They should be interested in investigating your matter. Also, the Fla. Attorney General's Office's Fraud Hotline 1-866-966-7226 possibly could be interested. I think this issue can be solved through law enforcement, but if you must end up suing in civil court for your money back, it would be in small claims court, unless Instacart terms and conditions that you agreed to (such as by checking a box) requires claims to go to arbitration instead of court. In that case, you would set up an arbitration claim. The monetary amount of your claim may be too small for it to be worthwhile to hire a private attorney; if so, you may want to consult an attorney for advice on self-representation.

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