But that was kind of my point: Delivering anything short of a bobcat[0] instead of a bag of potatoes doesn't matter. Instacart's own terms of service put the onus on running you through the arbitration gauntlet. Well, or small claims, but only one person at a time so they can just drip-dry the entire problem away.

Sure, people will eventually stop using the service if the problem gets bad enough but as long as they keep the salami sliced[1] fairly thin, they'll get away with it for a long time with no outside check.

0 - https://www.xkcd.com/325/

1 - http://scams.wikispaces.com/Salami+Slicing