As a working mother of a daughter with disabilities, Jill McCormick said she relies on ordering her groceries through the Kroger app.
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She said that all changed Tuesday when an order for $282 in groceries turned into her being charged $2,783.25 for a list of groceries she said she did not order and never received.
"My heart stopped because I'm thinking panic mode," said McCormick. "Something is happening, and I have to react very quickly, and I didn't even know where to start."
McCormick said her Instacart shopper stopped communicating shortly before her bank informed her of the excessive charge. She said the shopper claimed the charge was an error and would be canceled.
"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.
According to a report published by WCPO-TV, a Kroger spokesperson provided a statement that read: "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."
McCormick said Kroger had indicated a refund may take seven to 10 business days and the amount offered in a gift card went up. She said of the original offer, "They gave me $20 for my $3,000 that was taken out of my account."
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McCormick said the second $250 offer wasn't sufficient enough to convince her to shop at Kroger again, at least not online.
"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."
WCPO-TV said Kroger didn't respond when asked whether they had a plan to prevent overcharging from happening again.
McCormick said she filed a police report with her local sheriff's office.