I've had the same experience. I'd select the cheapest possible chicken breast from Whole Foods and they replace it with air chilled, free range chicken breast. The difference in cost was quite significant per pound.
Please contact our support team in these cases, we absolutely aren't deliberately choosing more expensive items in order to profit -- see my comment elsewhere on this article, but we primarily look at your previous preferences and the preferences of other customers.
If you chose the cheapest possible option, it does seem inevitable that any replacement would be more expensive :-)
Yeah as somebody who was a personal shopper before the internet getting requested items can be really tricky there is no guarantee they won't run out of something there is no Ralfs API to plug into to give real-time inventory information.
there is no Ralfs [sic] API to plug into to give real-time inventory information
[citation needed] :) there are many ways to "vertically integrate" with retailers (and yes, some do in fact offer a real-time API of what is in store, and our availability information for those is fantastic)
I don’t think so because every time they do this, (often), I let them know and they refund that more expensive price, so I’m not sure it would be economical
It's classic corporate bully tactics. Most people will let themselves be steamrolled and the corporation knows it. If one person (you) complains they will gladly refund because they know twenty others will not be able, know how, or care enough to pick the fight.
It's the same strategy as "unexplained" charges appearing at random on people's phone and cable bills. Concede one battle, win twenty others. Massive fraud being perpetrated every day gets a pass because:
1) each individual fraudulent act is so small the cost of fighting it is greater than the insult perceived by most victims
2) arbitration clauses
3) monopoly
4) corruption (kickbacks &c)
5) delegation of customer service to automated answering systems; it's easier to bilk your fellow man when he's invisible to you
Don't ever kid yourself, these policies are intentional and calculated, with malice aforethought. You can be certain spreadsheets and charts were created, examined and became the basis of an affirmative executive decision.
If you chose the cheapest possible option, it does seem inevitable that any replacement would be more expensive :-)
And, sorry that we were frustrating to you.
(engineer @ Instacart)