Woman Calls Out Instacart Over Missing Pack 'n Play as Pregnant Delivery Driver Responds to Allegations (Exclusive)

A mom of two caught the internet's attention with her grocery delivery experience gone awry

Published Time: 02.07.2024 - 20:31:14 Modified Time: 02.07.2024 - 20:31:14

A mom of two caught the internet's attention with her grocery delivery experience gone awry.

On Saturday, Hannah Charles posted a video calling out Instacart and detailing the order she never received while on vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The mom explained that she tried to purchase items from Target for her two kids, 1-year-old Sunny and 3-year-old Scottie, including a replacement for the Pack 'n Play portable crib the family left at home by mistake.

Charles addressed her Instacart shopper — who confirmed her name, Mikayla Clark, to PEOPLE on Monday — in a three-minute TikTok tell-all, which has reached over 25 million viewers on the app.

"You started shopping for my order, and you found literally everything. But most importantly, you found the Pack 'n Play, which is the reason we placed this order ... We need somewhere for my 1-year-old to sleep where she will be safe," Charles, 26, began as she showed screenshots of her interaction with the shopper.

The Alabama native tells PEOPLE that she turned to TikTok in the hopes of helping people like her.

"It’s very difficult in today’s economy to be young parents," says Charles. "Social media can get a bad rep sometimes, but this story going viral ... is proof of the positive strength that social media can have."

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In her video, Charles pointed to the screenshot of her order timeline to illustrate how Clark seemingly checked out of the store with the Pack 'n Play. However, after the app reported her shopping was complete, Charles received another notification saying that the portable bassinet was refunded and marked unavailable.

"You told me that the box for the Pack 'n Play was too beat up and so you couldn't scan it. I told you that you could ask an employee for help, and you were like, 'Look, I can give you the receipts. I didn't steal anything.' I said, 'I'm not accusing you,' " Charles continued in her video recap, which currently has over 3 million likes.

Clark, 25, tells PEOPLE that she spoke to an employee at the store, but she claims the Pack 'n Play package had "a black skid mark across it" that "scratched off" the barcode. The damage to the box, she says, obscured the information needed for manual entry.

"Even with the SKU numbers, it couldn't have been entered, and it was the last one in stock with the one she wanted," Clark says.

But the situation took a turn when Clark left the store. Charles didn't see the delivered order when she arrived at her home and promptly contacted Instacart for customer support.

"They tell me that they got in touch with you, and you left it at a black and white building. I said that's not good enough," Charles said, once again addressing Clark, who tells PEOPLE she never described the building as black and white. She clarifies that she submitted a photo of a blue and black house as "proof" of delivery, though the photo does not show any actual items waiting at the address.

In her TikTok, Charles went on to say that Instacart customer support eventually claimed they were unable to reach the shopper. "So now my beef is not only with Mikayla, but it's also with Instacart," the social media creator concluded.

Instacart also told Charles they would issue her a refund, but she wouldn't receive the money for five to seven business days. And while her order total was $138.58, a screenshot of the receipt says her card was charged $229.

"We are on our first day of our week-long vacation," the TikToker summarized. "We are out $300 — $130 of that spent towards children's items that we now don't have that we have to go buy again — and we will not see that money back in our account until we're back home from vacation."

The delivery service issued a statement to PEOPLE on Monday, writing, “We know that customers count on Instacart and unfortunately, this order fell short of expectations. We have been in contact with this customer to refund her order and suspended the shopper in accordance with our guidelines.”

Charles finished the video by suggesting Cl -

ark return the items if she stole them or bring Charles to the incorrect address where she claimed to have left delivery. Speaking to PEOPLE, Clark claims she would be at risk of termination if she returned to Charles' delivery address.

"Instacart policies and regulations tell us that we cannot do that for any reason at all once a order is marked as delivered and completed. We cannot go back to the house," the shopper says.

Instacart requires their shoppers — who work as independent contractors — to agree to an independent contractor agreement and account access guidelines. These agreements are intended to ensure safe, professional use of the platform on the sides of both the customer and the shopper.

Shoppers who breach Instacart's independent contractor agreement and violate the account access guidelines are subject to deactivation. Such behavior may include a failure to deliver orders or returning to a customer's residence after the order is completed.

In one of several follow-up TikTok posts, Charles visited the blue and black house from Clark's proof-of-delivery photo in an attempt to obtain the missing items, but no one answered the door.

Clark tells PEOPLE that she's not sure if Instacart's guidelines allow her to return to the incorrect address, but she claims that she did volunteer to personally replace Charles' missing purchases.

"I offered to meet her at Target and get her all the other items if they had more Pack 'n Plays, which she said they did the next day," Clark says. "I don't even know if that's against regulations, but at that point in time I was in tears with people threatening to show up at my house over an order I didn't have."

Still, Clark disputes several of Charles' other claims made in videos updating her followers about the situation. The 25-year-old Instacart shopper says she responded to the claims with her own TikTok videos, but they were removed from the app when her account was banned.

Clark also tells PEOPLE that she didn't file a police report but only discussed the possibility with the authorities, despite what Charles claimed in a video and reiterates to PEOPLE.

"I spoke with a deputy and he said that I could file charges for harassment of communications," Clark tells PEOPLE. "I told him I didn't want to follow that. I just wanted my name to be cleared, because I've been having people drive past my house, pulling in and out of my driveway, calling my in-law's phone, my relatives that live in a whole different state."

Charles has repeatedly told her followers she does not condone harassment, though many social media users have voiced their indignation on Charles' behalf and criticized Clark directly.

Clark — who tells PEOPLE she was fired from her job in insurance on Monday — says she's received threats aimed towards her 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.

Clark claims her two kids were actually with her during the Instacart delivery, and she says she wouldn't want to set such a negative example: "I'm not going to teach my kids the morals of, 'Oh yeah, the sticky fingers,' " she says, adding, "I'm just not that kind of person."

Clark is currently expecting a third baby due this month. A portable crib was removed from Clark's baby registry, though she insists that this is a coincidence.

"The Pack 'n Play is off because my in-laws that actually live across the street from me bought me a bassinet a month and a half ago along with a little rocker. That's when that was taken off," she tells PEOPLE.

Charles also managed to get a Pack 'n Play after all, though she said Instacart had been "completely silent" after her initial three videos about the incident. Instead, the delivery service's competitor Shipt reached out and offered to send the vacationing mom a replacement.

In a statement to PEOPLE, a representative for Shipt says the service "exists for moments like this — to support people like Hannah in a pinch with reliable, same-day delivery."

The company's statement continued, "When we heard about her experience, we knew we could be a part of the solution and hopefully get her back to enjoying her well-deserved vacation a little bit more."

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