They really need to stop calling it a tip. It's a bid for service.
Drivers shouldn't be allowed to see the tip amount prior to delivery completion. That, or tipping shouldn't be allowed until after completion. I hate this more recent model of tipping before receiving service. Because as you said, it's a bid for service, not an acknowledgement of good service.
Flip it around - why would you work a job, any job, where you don't know your pay until after the work is done?
"Tipping" is rich-people speak for shifting the expense (and blame) to the customer.
They already know the pay. If the pay isn't enough without the tip, then maybe they should consider getting a different job.
You realize that gig economy is the neoliberal slang for a poverty class work, but without the rights of workers, right?
So you're criticizing people who are forced by the system in which we live, to be ordered around by a fucking algorithm, and then take abuse from people who have enough money to NOT work in the gig economy, but no where near enough to actually own the servant class they get off on abusing.
You realize that the gig economy is not my responsibility, right? I'm not criticizing the workers for being underpaid. I'm criticizing the exploiters for underpaying their workers. If you can't pay your workers enough, that is not my fault. You are not entitled to exploit anyone for your personal gain.
If the pay isn't enough without the tip, then maybe they should consider getting a different job.
I'm not criticizing the workers for being underpaid.
Study: When questioned about continuing to work for poverty wages, gig workers across the nation respond with resounding "guess I just didn't think about it because I'm so goddamned stupid" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
The first statement was meant as in these delivery services don't deserve to keep their workers. They should instead look for a better job that will pay them properly. But that's what these delivery services do...prey on the vulnerable that are desperate which is why there should be laws protecting them.
The pay is about $2 per order, regardless of mileage. Dashers can typically complete 2-3 orders per hour, and pay for their own fuel. The base pay is absolutely not worth it.
They are paid approximately $4 to $6 per hour, and yet some people are still defending the practice and asking customers to pay extra on top of the food and the $10+ delivery charge...
Given their compensation model, all I can say is that if you are not willing to tip, and/or you are not willing to tip ahead of time, you absolutely should not use the service at all.
Drivers can’t see the tip, but they are given an estimated payout (of the number presented is different from the estimate, it’ll always pay higher than the estimate) for each order.
If this wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be any drivers. Drivers are contractors and DoorDash bids orders out until someone accepts it. No contractor in their right mind will accept a job not knowing how much it’ll pay.
If tipping weren’t allowed until after delivery, most people wouldn’t tip. You have the option to raise or lower your tip already, but have you ever gone in there and changed your tip after you received your order? Most people don’t. In the 6 or so months I was delivering, I only had one tip adjusted.
Do you get your tip back too if the driver steals your food? Here we have Rappi that also asks for tip before the delivery so I never gave it out.
I did once because the driver completely ignored my delivery instructions and I called to cancel the tip. They refunded it immediately.
Our building has a problem with theft, which I noted in my instructions, and they left the order in the lobby despite my clear warning to the contrary.
Yes you do.
I've tipped a ton and gotten very cold food numerous times. I absolutely agree, and really hate this model.
I'm really starting to feel like some of the people in threads like this who don't get this simple concept you stated are just experiencing cognitive dissonance about the fact that they themselves are happy to exploit the workers because they don't want to tip. (If I'm working for myself, and you hire me to perform a service, then I am your worker. 🤣 Fuck you, pay me.)
Stop using DoorDash and other delivery services. They're a huge scam and you end up paying double for cold food that someone might have tampered with.
This. They are predatory to their drivers, their customers, and the restaurants they almost blackmail into using them. Awful awful company.
The trouble is in England if you don't use deliveroo or whatever, the only food you can get on takeaway (delivered or collection) is kebabs or pizza. The main restaurants tend not to bother with their own takeaway.
Realistically, how far are you from the shops? And would it 1. Take any longer for you to just walk there to pick it up? 2. Do you often NEED to save the extra time it takes to get there and back?
If the answers to both are mostly no, then just don't use delivery and call ahead and get pickup instead. Going for a walk is great!
I used to live 25-30 minute round trip from the shops, still never ordered delivery because it's not any faster (usually slower), not sure why people are willing to pay extra for it, and screw over the restaurants in the process.
Would actually like to know other's point of view on this.
It does, but the thinking here is that the dasher basically loses money taking no tip orders. Which in my Nordic mind is a fucked up business model. A living wage should be the minimum requirement.
Look at the socialist over here guys, over here in America we let our children go without lunch if they can't afford it. How else will they learn that they need to be a productive member of society?
Frankly, I wouldn't want to live under some authoritarian healthcare system that no longer allowed me the freedom to weigh my options between crippling debt and death... Variety is the spice of life!
That's the true freedom we get to have. I hear in the UK and Canada they sometimes have to wait in line! Here I get prompt care with my hundreds of thousands of dollars I pay. Now that's service.
Don't have to wait in line if you can't afford to go in the first place
Taps head
True freedom right there!
God bless America
That's right, and the poor grades and stunted growth they'll experience as a result of that hunger will build character.
Frankly, I wouldn't want to live under some authoritarian healthcare system that no longer allowed me the freedom to weigh my options between crippling debt and death... Variety is the spice of life!
It’s worse. They aren’t employees. They are independent contractors who in many cases assume all liability and have to pay their own payroll taxes. Most aren’t reporting it to their insurance company, much less thinking about retirement and healthcare. It only really works as a temporary side gig.
Under EU-Law you might not fall under independent contractor because most of the income and how you do your job is dictated by a single company.
You automatically fall under regulations for employers and get those protections too. Company that try to do this have to tread very carefully not to fall into that.
I was speaking for Americans. Companies like Door Dash are practically experiments in avoiding labor laws .
Get a minimum amount of compensation for doing a job? Do you hear yourself? That's madness!
A fine idea. Sadly, no one in that restaurant is being paid a living wage. It ain’t just the drivers.
This entire tipping thing is terrible - including for dashers themselves.
It means dashers income heavily relies on strangers being kind enough to leave some extra.
It means customers are gonna feel bad for not paying more than their order amount (and they probably will pay the tip)
It means company can employ slave labor for extremely low pay and still have people willing to do this.
Tipping benefits only one party - the companies. We need to stop it.
correct on all parts, it pits dasher against customers. also these companies are still not profitable. that should tell you something.
the truth is that the business model just doesn't work. if you want to pay drivers actual living wages, delivery fees would have to be more than 20 dollars for each order.
Stop patronizing restaurants where they don't pay their staff a livable wage. Stop using delivery apps that don't pay their drivers a livable wage.
This predatory employers are the problem. Stop rewarding them with your business.
Stop patronizing restaurants where they don’t pay their staff a livable wage.
In most parts of the US, that's all of them. This position is de facto "never eat out or order takeout". I'm not sure that's entirely realistic.
So cook, by taking part in the exploitative system, not only are you contributing to it, but by not tipping on top of that the only person you're hurting is the worker. That worker has never even met the CEO, the CEO doesn't give two shits that while he got his money the guy on the bottom got stiffed. Yes it's inconvenient, but if you have grandiose ideas about how the entire system should change, you should take part in said change not by exploiting that worker yourself but by boycotting the whole business; or by ordering, tipping, and trying to poach them for employment at your business; or by opening your own spot and paying fairly to set an example and provide others like you a place to buy guilt free; something other than "fuck you for bringing me food I hope you starve or have to live in a tent, tell your boss to pay you better I'm sure he won't just find a 'quieter' employee like he did to all the others."
Stop fucking using these extortion apps. Drive your lazy ass to the shit food station yourself.
My friend would order food from a different shop that had delivery instead of walking across the fucking street to the place that quite literally was across the street. I could see it from my bedroom window.
Some people will do anything to avoid having to go out and while i'm very similar, I think like 3-4 blocks is my limit as far as walking. 5 mins for driving, any more and I'm just ordering something lol
Tbh I'll order pizza from the good shop 10min away before I order from the shithole 2min away. The difference? "Good food."
I always pick up, but still this could be understandable.
This is assuming you live in a city and not a suburb
Unless you're in europe where suburbs have food places in walking distance
Goddamn I miss that. Restaurants and bodegas within walking distance of your apartment.
Too bad they're all pizzerias.
Why do you just assume everyone can drive? Plenty of people either don't have a license or don't have a car.
It's definitely true that ignorant people ignore the fact that people with disabilities exist.
I've used these apps -- when I was quarantining because I had Covid, wasn't in a state to drive, and needed food.
I don't use them anymore, but these types of apps can fill a "need".
Why? Who's holding a gun to the head of these drivers and forcing them to work for this gig? The onus isn't on the customers, it's on the drivers.
My guess is either their landlord, their hospital, their bank, their supermarket, or their college. Not an actual gun, just metaphorical. A lot of drivers are just desperate to make ends meet however they can. There’s a lot of shit to be said about the gig economy, but it does provide flexible schedules, and while some people just want to monetize as much of their time as possible, some people actually need to.
I stopped ordering from these apps because I got tired of watching the driver take my food on a tour of my city and having it arrive cold and wrong.
The last time I went to pick up my food from a restaurant I saw a dasher standing outside a restaurant staring at his phone with food in his hand, I went inside and while I was waiting the dude came back in, dropped the food and asked for another order because the one he took wasn't tipping.
Fuck this system and fuck these apps, pick up your own food (if you can).
I stopped using them when I stopped being given free delivery because without the discount, a thing that costs about six bucks suddenly balloons to thirty fucking dollars. On top of it taking longer and my food arriving cold.
I had a local burger joint call me up to tell me that the our food was currently, and had been with the driver for the past 30 mins. They knew this because the guy decided to have dinner in the parking lot after picking up our order so I really try to avoid now
I'm starting to wonder if all that are symptoms of a company using information technology to it's most powerful extent.
Services like Door Dash couldn't exist at the current scale, speed, and service without the internet and highly capable phones/laptops/whatever in everyone's home. It enabled this kind of gig economy service to come out of nowhere, build very rapidly, and disrupt the market before the law or even social norms could ever hope to step in. But as a consequence of all that, the owners cannot help themselves, and continue with their "Greed% speed run" of running a company straight to its conclusion. Every mistake, every error, every bad take, it's all accelerated right alongside the good stuff. It's like enshittification on amphetamines.
I saw somebody saying how these companies are going to start crashing and burning in the next few years because they've never been profitable but the low interest rates have allowed them to keep burning new investors money to fake it until they make it. They've been following the greed of infinite profits through infinite growth, but that growth suddenly isn't infinite anymore, and now they'll be getting to the find out stage after fucking around for so long.
In the special instructions: "Ring doorbell for cash tip. Do not just leave at door".
Traffic in my area is awful so I always tip $20 no matter the order. Sometimes that comes to almost an 80% tip but a) I know it goes to the driver, b) I don't have to drive in that shitshow, and c) I reward a driver for actually reading the special instructions.
Is it even convenient at that point? I don't know if I'd have an extra twenty I can keep tossing out there every time I'm trying to grab a bite.
How convenient should it be?
How much would you pay a friend you see every couple months that is friends with your other friends to go out and buy fast food for you while you sit at home playing videogames instead?
What amount of money would make that feel ok to you?
Assuming it would take more than 2 dollars to feel ok with that, why is it ok to spend less on a stranger doing it? And how much less is ok?
The "that's somebody's job, they signed up for that" mentality that prevents so many people from doing what little they can to make that job suck just a little bit less at often times nearly no cost to themselves, like not clearing their trays/garbage at a fast food place, or leaving all their stuff at their seats in a movie theater... it's such a pervasive mentality, "I don't -have- to do it, so why should I?".
Do you want to live in a world where people are nice to you, well too bad, cuz they don't -have- to be. As long as that mentality persists, we can't have that world. Doing things you don't -have- to do to make someone else's life just a little easier, is the foundation of basic kindness.
Maybe I'm wrong. I think you're misunderstanding the person you're replying to, and I didn't not get from them did they find it inconvenient to pay a stranger more money because it's a stranger, just saying that they find it to be inconvenient to spend an extra $20 on top of the meal anytime they want delivery and it would probably be better off to go pick it up themselves or make food at home which is what I do. Haven't ordered delivery in months because it's such a waste of money.
That person also never said anything about how "that's somebody's job and they signed up for it" and that was you that brought that into this mix. I don't know why you're getting so offended or pissed off about that comment. They're just saying that paying an extra $20 for delivery is inconvenient and costly.
If you are a driver and you make money from doordash or Uber, you might want to consider getting into a different line of work because those companies are just scamming the hell out of you and there's no need to be so defensive of them.
Hmm, maybe I have to change some wording. That is not at all the tone I was going for, I'm not angry or anything like that. And certainly not trying to direct anything at one specific person, or defend any terrible companies doing the things I specifically am saying shouldn't feel comfortable. I'll see what I can do to the post to clear things up some.
But I do agree that if you wouldn't make a friend do something, you shouldn't feel ok making a stranger do it, do it yourself or don't do it.
The post is not some line for line rebuttal, it's more of a loose essay based off a hypothetical posit.
If someone tips a set amount regularly they can easily plan ahead.
Dashers can see what you tip on the app on average and nobody will pick up your order unless it's extremely convenient for them. They don't see the instructions until they pick up the order.
Yep. It is another reason I overtip in cash. If this person is desperate enough to grab a "no tip" order, they probably need the $20 tip on a $36 order more than most.
Oh, that's a good way to get them to ring the bell. I tried making them ring the bell other ways, but they never do. Uber Eats has a feature where they need to get a code from you to prove they handed you the food. I had several drivers leave the food at the door and then text me, asking me for the code. Fuck off
It’s worth noting that drivers don’t see the note until after they accept the order. There’s a good chance your food takes longer to be picked up because of your $0 tip.
Better to put the tip in the app, give cash, and then adjust the tip back to $0 after the delivery is made. Just communicate that with the driver to avoid confusion.
They get 100% of the tip, it's a legal requirement. The scummy part is the company does this to give you the opportunity NOT to tip, and therefore subsidize the food for shitty people.
Just in case, the few times I have ordered food, I put a dollar or two tip in the app, and add a note saying I'll give them a cash tip. Usually I'll give them a 2-4 Dollars more depending. If you're using these services you need to tip, that's how they make their livelyhood and feed their families.
It's a scummy business, and you should definitely try to avoid using it unless it's your only option for some reason. Your order will probably be at least $30, but do you know how much spaghetti you can make with $30??
It’s worth noting that drivers don’t see the notes until they accept the order.
I used to do the same as you until I dashed for a few months to make ends meet.
I can also tell you that some orders literally cost drivers money to make when the tip is too low. I’ve had countless 25-30 mile round trip orders that paid out $6-7 because the person didn’t tip. I passed on those orders because I would have been paying to deliver them. Drivers need to make about $0.75/mile driven to break even, and most look for $2+\mile. I now look at the distance from the restaurant and tip $2/mile for the one direction. But I’m also in a place where they’re pretty likely to get another order pretty quickly and don’t need to make it a round trip.
The problem really rests with DoorDash and Uber Eats for not paying enough. They recently dropped the base payout to $2/delivery, which will never not cost the driver money. It’s absurd and incredibly shitty how they choose to offload the responsibility of paying their drivers into the customer.
That is a legal requirement. But myself and others got a settlement from Amazon after they stole our tips for years. I got a check for $790 that they kept from me. I dunno if DD ever got caught doing the same, but businesses do try to get away with this stuff.
They used to do that, using the loophole that drivers technically get 100% of the tip because they were subtracting the base pay if the tip covered it. They stopped doing that but now they don't show the full pay to the driver to discourage ignoring low tip orders, screwing over the good tippers who tipped well for fast service. It doesn't matter if you tip well anymore because they're going to bundle your order with low tip orders and force you to wait an hour to get delivery that used to take 20 minutes. It's why I stopped using door dash.
It’s why I stopped using door dash.
Are they any good alternatives that you would suggest?
Unfortunately pretty much all of the apps are starting to do this, so I've just learned to live without.
Can they reduce hourly pay based on tips received, as a loophole?
No
I used DoorDash today and the add tip screen said that 100% of the tip goes to the driver. I know they got a lot of bad PR for stealing part of the tips some time ago and had to make public statements about improving their policies. Are we saying that even after all that, they’re just outright completely lying?
Before they also said the driver got 100% but behind the scenes they were essentially subtracting that amount from what they were going to pay the driver originally. Thus they could claim the driver got 100% of the tip while still pocketing the value of it.
This is tip culture standard. The company is only required to pay enough such that tips plus pay meet minimum wage. CEO's should have to work for tips given by their employees in order to earn over minimum wage, change my mind.
no that is the truth, what it doesn't tell you is that the drivers are paid like 2.50 to 3 bucks per delivery. so tips makes up the majority of their earnings at this point.
I don't think anyone can outright say that they're lying with any amount of certainly, but it would be very very far from the first time a company got caught in a scandal then just lied about how they're going to fix it.
Idk about door dash, but my son was delivering through Uber and he got all the tips for his deliveries.
As someone who delivered DoorDash this past year, I can confirm that drivers get 100% of the top. I had a bunch of customers ask me to verify and it was always accurate. I’ve also confirmed with a number of delivery drivers that brought me food.
We should really not be normalizing calling money paid in advance to not have your food arrive late/cold a "tip". It's extortion.
Tipping culture in America is fucked beyond belief. Pay everybody a fair wage and let's get rid of tipping so nobody ever has to deal with this bullshit again.
We should call it a bid, not extortion. You're (in theory) competing to get your order selected.
Exactly. I completely stopped using those food delivery services after the initial lockdown during COVID. They can almost double the price, can get cold food, and the drivers can be rude if they don't feel you're tip is adequate. It's simply not worth it for me.
For tipping countries like the US, the driver would only get a "has a tip" notification on the order (if they get any information like that at all!) so they can decide. There is no way the driver can see that there is a $40 order with a $4 tip, or a $40 order with a $16 dollar tip. Orders would be ignored all the time, and the service would fail.
Oh, and if they did get a "has tip" flag for the order, then customers could just game it, by selecting "add tip" and setting it to $0 or $0.10 or something so their order gets that "has tip" flag!!
Here is AU, there is no tipping, so the drivers get paid like normal people. None of this work for tip bullshit that seems to have survived this long in the US, its incredible that it has gotten this far. Now the US get asked for tips using self-service machines, that is the height of lunacy!
I tried Instacart (United States). It tells you exactly what you will get paid before you accept an order. If the tip was more you will see it. Basically if you order Tylenol and 5 other items it will say the Store Name, 6 items, Total payout. (And distance) When you arrive at the store you get a list of the items, and the isle number/shelf if it is available. You scan each item into the app for it to be accepted, if the item is not the same code, it will make you send a message or alternate possibility to the orderer. And they approve/deny.
Long story short. You 100% know what you are getting paid before starting so if 1 order for 6 items says you make 20 dollars, and another says you make 6 dollars. The 20 dollar order will be accepted first.
All this and these motherfuckers still can't find basic shit in the store? Instacart is the most expensive and least efficient company I have ever used for product delivery.
They fucking suck to work for too. The shoppers probably don't bother to look very hard because of the insane time limits they expect you to meet, just to have you sit in a parking lot for another hour waiting for orders in a supposed "hot spot" at Kroger that regardless is gonna have you drive across town to a fucking nino salvaggio or something you didn't even know existed in that location.
That's probably it. Still, I can't justify the insane markups when stores have their own services for pickup/delivery now without them. They rarely get things wrong, and with current food prices, that markup is unjustifiable.
Yep, that is absolutely fair. The whole service is a scam on every end, no matter how you interact with them.
Yep, that is absolutely fair. The whole service is a scam on every end, no matter how you interact with them.
The order actually does show how much tip comes with it. The system feeds each dasher based on their acceptance rate of orders..so if you accepted an order with a low tip, your position in the queue would be more likely to get the orders with larger tips than someone who turns down orders with smaller tips all the time. Naimsayin?
This comment seems pretty good, can I get your cash app info so I can tip you for it?
You're welcome, CashApp havent rolled out to Australia but you can tip me directly via my bitcoin wallet though:
12345X#6514421B
I don't have Bitcoin 😔
you don't know what you're talking about do you. why did you even bother typing all this up if you don't know shit.
the drivers are paid more or less constant and they can see the total payout and mileage. an order that doesn't have tip attached will slowly increase in payout until a driver takes it. so those orders tend to be slow.
orders do get ignored all the time and people complain about cold food all the time too.
Fuck tips
You mean "fuck places where I've been socially obligated to pay someone's wage instead of their employer"
Yeah, an actual, genuine TIP where it's optional for providing good service is fine. The extortion it's now become is not.
You literally always pay the wages of the people that work for companies.
All the bullshit with tipping on food delivery apps made me stop using them years ago.
First I hear the apps are stealing tips. Then they're not stealing tips anymore. Then maybe they're stealing some of the tips.
To try and avoid all that I tried to use cash. The drivers don't get their base rate reduced and they get the entire, non-reportable cash tip. Then my food started taking twice as long and arriving cold because the drivers thought I was stiffing them.
My theory is the apps do this (pre-tipping) on purpose to discourage cash and after-tipping so they can lower what they pay the driver and they'll still accept the order because they see the higher after tip amount. So now the apps might not be technically stealing tips, but they're using up front tips to allow them to reduce their shitty base rate for everyone.
Now if want delivery it's pizza, Chinese, or one of the few other places with their own drivers. I've had this policy for years now and I don't see myself ever going back unless it's an emergency.
Bonus to me: all my takeout/delivery is now 20-30% cheaper. Everyone should really take a look at the inflated prices they're paying and decide if it's really worth saving a short drive.
Ya I used to always tip cash but stopped all food delivery entirely ~5yr ago. By turning food delivery into a live auction everybody loses except the company running the service. Drivers compete against eachother accepting the absolute lowest fees while customers need to play the game of choosing an appropriate tip for a prompt delivery while also ideally not shorting the employee who ultimately accepts the order. But since to accept the order they need to compete with other drivers it's naturally going to lead to them accepting lower prices, allowing the delivery company to pocket the difference. Not a good system.
That's if you have the option of driving
People on all these astro-turfed anti-tipping posts always have the same AI generated talking points. Rarely ever do these people actually talk about STOPPING using the apps and STOPPING going to restaurants. Stop making "tip culture" the fault of the worker. It is 100% on the business owner for not paying their staff appropriately for the work performed. Not tipping rewards the business and punishes the worker.
It's 100% on the tax system that incentivizes these payments.
I've made more as a server than most Americans make doing "appropriately compensated" work. Hitting median wage for your area as a server is easy in 95% of the US.
Reason I don't use these services is the tip is expected in advance. Bring me my food hot and in a timely fashion and I'll give you a good tip. I'm not paying you ahead of time to take too long bringing me cold food. I'd rather pick it up myself.
Ubereats lets you set the tip after the delivery. afaik the others don't.
Should be illegal to prompt a tip before services are rendered, including at those POS machines that ask you up front to tip even a small amount.
So little of that is actually under the control of the courier. I did that for a little bit, and generally the drive from the restaurant to the customer was the shortest part. You get an order for a restaurant that hopefully you're close to, but maybe you aren't. You get there and maybe the food is ready, maybe it isn't. Maybe it's been sitting on a shelf for half an hour. Maybe traffic is heavy, maybe the GPS gives you shitty fucking directions. Maybe you ordered from the wrong restaurant and instead of being 5 minutes it's 20. Sure, there are shitty couriers, but 9 times out of 10 your food is cold or late because of circumstances outside of their control.
While I know many don't. I always take that into account. I keep tabs, and usually only raise a stink if it is obvious my order was taken for a ride.
Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered — are you sure?
Well, I 'might' not order from you again then — are you sure?
You shouldn't use apps that don't pay their drivers a livable wage.
Damn, tips used to be given after a job well done not before.
Tips may have been that way a hundred years ago but I've been in the restaurant industry in the US for over 15 years, and for the duration tips have been used as a means to offload labor costs to the customer. They are not optional for the majority of people who work for tips, they are the difference between paying bills and not.
The practice is antiquated and should be completely removed as the standard way to compensate restaurant workers. But the thing that anti tippers always seem to miss is that the labor costs will still be there and the owners are not going to take it out of their cut. The menu prices will per force go up when companies get rid of tips. The same people will be complaining about that just as loudly, I'm willing to bet.
As I said in another comment, it's a bad system, but if you don't tip, you're a bad person.
labor costs will still be there and the owners are not going to take it out of their cut
That's where you're not only wrong, you've become part of the problem by claiming that.
Amen, there are so many places in the world where you can directly compare pricing and see that not only is it usually cheaper when this horseshit greed system isnt involved, but the customers/workforce is happier with the end product.
That said, if you do not tip in the US for servers/employees not compensated, you're an asshole. Boycotting the person trying to feed themselves rather than the company as a whole only makes a difference in that it makes you more of an asshole.
Yes the correct and honorable thing would be for the employer to absorb the costs but this is America we're talking about. We're currently going through record inflation almost purely because of corporate greed. These companies saw an opportunity to blame their massive price increases on COVID/labor costs/ materials cost even though these are only small factors. Yet year over year they're increasing profits. I have zero doubt that if they switched away from tipping systems that they would use that to falsely justify price increases.
They very well might here. But I think it would be a win. I worked in US restaurants for a long time in many positions and think it would be a win for the customer and employees. Customers, it would be an upfront cost, and you wouldn't have to worry about whether your server can eat although they serve food all day every day. Employees, get to eat and know for sure they will be able to later. If the consumer is paying that cost regardless, might as well codify it.
Then why can I, as a student, afford to go out to eat in a non-tipping country?
I think it is somewhat better than people who pay workers directly. Cutting out the owners is good; tipping isn't a sound system, but overall, not paying via a middleman (owner) seems like the best path.
the prevalence of iPads with 20,22,25 percent tips for a coffee is having me question the entire practice for sure.
im also seeing reataurants operating server robots now. for those I only tip 10%.
Yeah and before the Ipads it was a little jar with the word "tips" on it, but nobody uses cash anymore so they have to ask for that $1 (are coffees still $5? Mine is $2.95 so it's $0.59) digitally now. Of course, the robot probably isn't worried about making rent this month so it's probably safe not to tip bots, but I don't mind sliding a dollar to the nice girl providing me the happy juice. If I did I'd just make coffee at home or stop at the gas station and serve myself though, I wouldn't go to a place with a human that expected a tip. Idk, if I'm going to force someone to suffer I'd rather just eat the bullet and drink shitty gas station coffee than be the 100th person to symbolically tell someone to fuck themselves and die this morning while they contemplate if they'd rather pay the power bill or get groceries this week but that's just me.
It also gives the advantage of tipping less if it takes too long ;)
I’ve done Uber eats in the past, and you don’t see the notes until after you pick up. Things may have changed since 2020/2021, but all I recall seeing is
distance to restaurant and distance to drop off
total profit (including current tip)
So I wouldn’t see the cash tip note until after I accepted the delivery.
That's just the opposite of how tipping is supposed to work. If I'm happy with the service, I'll tip (and I'm far, far from the US - in a place where you don't get frowned upon if you don't tip) - and by "happy" I don't even mean something extraordinary - but I can't know if I will be happy in advance. Moreover I'd prefer tipping in cash as opposed to through an app - this way I know the money can go directly in the worker's pocket, not in the company's.
You're right, this isn't a tip, this is just paying for the quality of the service.
Its effectively paying protection money.
Would be a shame if your order came in an hour late. You know, a few bucks would make Vinny here a lot happier. The happier Vinny is, the less likely something bad happens to your order.
"Oh and PS - Vinny knows where you live"
Shrug, I tip decently. But I don't mind free food. As someone who gets delivery 1-3 times a week. I get 1 or 2 free meals a month, because they take "side" trips. (the tracking programs they use are great!)
They often start out with "all we can offer 5 dollars off your next meal"... And I counter with "I had to throw the food out, I'm happy to send you screenshots of their route going 15-30 minutes out of the way"...
The problem, at least where I live (Montreal), is that for anyone in the service industry, your taxes assume you got at least 15% tip (or at least for waiters)
The tip absolutely goes to the dasher. The screwed up system aside you are only compounding the exploitation of the delivery driver.
Don't use the app but don't get mad at a system that you're choosing to participate in and actively making worse.
The tip does go to the driver
Sometimes it frightens me to see how things in the US are working. This crap will come to europe sooner or later, the US capitalism is just a few years ahead.
I’m not sure of that. The difference is that people in Europe have a history of having good things thanks to regulations. In the Us, lobbyists have done so much damage that the culture is that regulations are bad.
I hope they never get complacent though.
Germany is well on track with the AfD doing populistic politics and other countries are not that far off doing the same or even more extreme versions of it.
? I thought it did though. I've read online stories of Dashers being annoyed at low tips.
Tips are completely optional, but it would be a shame if something happened to your order. Would you like to tip so we can, uh... protect you from such unfortunate circumstances?
I swear I read somewhere that there are parts of Europe were tipping isn't required, but if you want extra good service you'll tip before being served if you want good attentive service.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember where I read it.
At least in my part of Europe, tips are not required and often not expected (because minimum wage doesn't have the strange exception tipped employees do in the US), but if you actually appreciate the service given then it's the norm to give a small amount as a tip.
For deliveries I normally give cash straight to the driver if it comes in a reasonable time frame, I certainly would never preload a tip using the payment portal
Also from country where tips aren't expected.
Did preload a tip once because I felt guilty.
Ended up having the driver yell at me to come get the food in the lobby and that I was wasting his time when I was sick with covid and even though I specifically ordered for door delivery.
On top of that the food was cold and soggy. So I went straight to customer service and removed that tip.
If I have cash I will tip if they do a good job otherwise. No.
One night a while back I ordered some food from a place about 10 minutes away after a long day with a sick baby and tipped ~30%.
While the drivers at the restaurant I got like 5 messages asking for a better tip, I didn't answer because why would I. Then my foods on the way and on the app it looked like the guy parked down the street for 10 minutes and continued to spam me with messages asking for a better tip. I didn't respond because why would I. Then the food gets here, I'm hype. I have very simple delivery notes on every order "Please don't knock or ring the bell" and always do leave it at the door. I pulled up my security camera to see this guy just going in on my doorbell (which is disconnected anyway), then he starts slamming on the door yelling variation of "come get your food". After a few minutes of that he just puts the food on the step and starts yelling a bunch of stuff out front of my house at like 9pm, including again asking for more of a tip. In this time he set off my dog who's now losing his mind and woke my sick baby. So naturally I put my dog on the leash, grabbed my crying baby and in the most redneck b horror movie fashion I could muster flung the door open and just stood there on the step with a crying baby, a 100lb dog going nuts and the defeated eyes of a father who just wanted a cheesesteak after a long day.
I said all that to support, how I didn't get to eat my food until hours later because now I had to soothe my baby back to sleep. Their response was something along the lines of
'Hi ***, sorry about that. Here's a 4.63 credit as an apology. That's 20% off your order total!'
Moral of the story is now I always keep a few quick meals in the house that cook in the toaster oven. It's cheaper and the toaster oven never woke my baby.
wtf godless region do you live in?? Never heard of this kind of behaviour.
Finland here. Tipping is in no way expected and it's actually rather atypical to tip at all. Though no one will say no if you do decide to tip!
It's a bad system but you are a bad person if you don't tip.
Yeah, the only mildly infuriating part about this post is that they didn't tip. Despite the problems with DD, the drivers do actually rely on those tips.
OP's post is very misinformed and I'm not down.
Can you decrease it afterwards?
No, you can only increase.
Which is good because offering a job to someone then lowering the price you pay them after they've done it is evil regardless of it you've decided that you don't like the company the person doing the task is working for
Not sure about a decrease, but you can easily get it fully refunded if they fuck up. I tip really well because I used to be a food courier myself. Every few months some idiot delivers my pizza upside down or leaves my order outside my building and I get my tip refunded with ease. I have no idea if that money is refunded from the dasher's pay though.
I know another industry that asks to pre tip before services rendered. Asian Spas... In both cases, you can get fucked.
Cash tipping is king for just this reason.
So you think people are gonna gamble to deliver for you? Do you have any idea how much driving all day fucks your car up? Ask my dead car. I'm $10k in debt and it still won't run.
They never hid it in the first place unless there was a hidden bonus from doordash to compensate for a longer than usual delivery.
Source: was dasher
Yes they did. I had to use a third party app to bypass the hidden information and there was a group of people putting together a lawsuit about it. It was the same people who made the app.
I don't use doordash but don't be a dick and leave no tip. That's such a selfish thing to do.
Yea DoorDash and the like are inherently reliant on tipping. If you don't like tipping in general then fair enough, just order somewhere that pays minimum wage+ (aka not doordash)
Honestly that's not something I really consider. I don't make it my policy to try to analysis someone's pay.
It’s not really about analyzing someone’s pay, just choosing a place that hires employees, not contractors
I'm so glad there are societies that don't care about such things as tips
I'm a dasher. Yes, drivers do get tips, and our livelihoods depend on people tipping. Yes, you should tip, yes, you're just being cheap if you don't. Yes, it is bullshit that doordash doesn't pay us more, yes, tipping culture is bullshit. But you still eat out at your favorite greasy spoon knowing full well the staff depends on tips to pay their rent so you tip them.
If you don't want to tip, get off your ass and get the food yourself. We're dying out there and don't need a hundred 15-mile-0-tip deliveries declined a day dragging down our acceptance rates. Just treat us like fucking humans, ffs. Please. Tip. Your. Drivers.
It's your employer who doesn't treat you like humans. Stop blaming the customers for it.
The customers in this case are also treating the employee like shit.
Nope. The customers are dealing with the company. How the company treats employees is between the employer and the employee.
Yeeaaahhh fuck that honestly, its not the responsibility of the customer to pay the employees of a company, that's your boss/HRs job. Tips should be something paid out to someone AFTER they do a service for you that you are satisfied with, not before. Why tf would I pay someone an extra $5 before they do a service for me? There's no obligation for them to do a good job, they already have the money. Case in point, I've ordered from Door Dash before and tipped like $6 bucks, I got my food like an hour and a half later and it was cold. Fuck that shit.
This is the problem. These services have successfully pitted you against the customer. If you are not happy with the pay, your issue is with the employer, not the customer.
These services do pay drivers and it's not enough. Instead of paying more, they redirect you to the customer for the rest, and in some cases you just get screwed. But it's the service screwing you, not the customer.
What I can't accept is the apps trying to say I should tip 15% on the delivery total before discounts, for a delivery not even done by the restaurant, so it's not like it's also shared with the cooks.
I'll tip, but fuck that bullshit. $50 in a bag is the same as $20 in a bag.
Stop taking jobs that don't pay a living wage then blaming your customers.
They really need to stop calling it a tip. It's a bid for service.
Drivers shouldn't be allowed to see the tip amount prior to delivery completion. That, or tipping shouldn't be allowed until after completion. I hate this more recent model of tipping before receiving service. Because as you said, it's a bid for service, not an acknowledgement of good service.
Flip it around - why would you work a job, any job, where you don't know your pay until after the work is done?
"Tipping" is rich-people speak for shifting the expense (and blame) to the customer.
They already know the pay. If the pay isn't enough without the tip, then maybe they should consider getting a different job.
You realize that gig economy is the neoliberal slang for a poverty class work, but without the rights of workers, right?
So you're criticizing people who are forced by the system in which we live, to be ordered around by a fucking algorithm, and then take abuse from people who have enough money to NOT work in the gig economy, but no where near enough to actually own the servant class they get off on abusing.
You realize that the gig economy is not my responsibility, right? I'm not criticizing the workers for being underpaid. I'm criticizing the exploiters for underpaying their workers. If you can't pay your workers enough, that is not my fault. You are not entitled to exploit anyone for your personal gain.
Study: When questioned about continuing to work for poverty wages, gig workers across the nation respond with resounding "guess I just didn't think about it because I'm so goddamned stupid" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
The first statement was meant as in these delivery services don't deserve to keep their workers. They should instead look for a better job that will pay them properly. But that's what these delivery services do...prey on the vulnerable that are desperate which is why there should be laws protecting them.
The pay is about $2 per order, regardless of mileage. Dashers can typically complete 2-3 orders per hour, and pay for their own fuel. The base pay is absolutely not worth it.
They are paid approximately $4 to $6 per hour, and yet some people are still defending the practice and asking customers to pay extra on top of the food and the $10+ delivery charge...
Given their compensation model, all I can say is that if you are not willing to tip, and/or you are not willing to tip ahead of time, you absolutely should not use the service at all.
And I don't, specifically for that exact reason.
Tips are no longer tips and companies have successfully forced us to pay their employees for them.
It's not the customer's fault. In addition to us paying their wages we have to trust some rando to do a good job with zero evidence they will.
There's nothing to flip, gratuity and wages should be separate things. And minimum, standard living wages should be paid.
America’s view that tipping is normal needs to change.
How about an adequate wage instead, like the rest of the developed world?
Drivers can’t see the tip, but they are given an estimated payout (of the number presented is different from the estimate, it’ll always pay higher than the estimate) for each order.
If this wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be any drivers. Drivers are contractors and DoorDash bids orders out until someone accepts it. No contractor in their right mind will accept a job not knowing how much it’ll pay.
If tipping weren’t allowed until after delivery, most people wouldn’t tip. You have the option to raise or lower your tip already, but have you ever gone in there and changed your tip after you received your order? Most people don’t. In the 6 or so months I was delivering, I only had one tip adjusted.
Do you get your tip back too if the driver steals your food? Here we have Rappi that also asks for tip before the delivery so I never gave it out.
I did once because the driver completely ignored my delivery instructions and I called to cancel the tip. They refunded it immediately.
Our building has a problem with theft, which I noted in my instructions, and they left the order in the lobby despite my clear warning to the contrary.
Yes you do.
I've tipped a ton and gotten very cold food numerous times. I absolutely agree, and really hate this model.
I'm really starting to feel like some of the people in threads like this who don't get this simple concept you stated are just experiencing cognitive dissonance about the fact that they themselves are happy to exploit the workers because they don't want to tip. (If I'm working for myself, and you hire me to perform a service, then I am your worker. 🤣 Fuck you, pay me.)
Stop using DoorDash and other delivery services. They're a huge scam and you end up paying double for cold food that someone might have tampered with.
This. They are predatory to their drivers, their customers, and the restaurants they almost blackmail into using them. Awful awful company.
The trouble is in England if you don't use deliveroo or whatever, the only food you can get on takeaway (delivered or collection) is kebabs or pizza. The main restaurants tend not to bother with their own takeaway.
Realistically, how far are you from the shops? And would it 1. Take any longer for you to just walk there to pick it up? 2. Do you often NEED to save the extra time it takes to get there and back?
If the answers to both are mostly no, then just don't use delivery and call ahead and get pickup instead. Going for a walk is great!
I used to live 25-30 minute round trip from the shops, still never ordered delivery because it's not any faster (usually slower), not sure why people are willing to pay extra for it, and screw over the restaurants in the process.
Would actually like to know other's point of view on this.
It does, but the thinking here is that the dasher basically loses money taking no tip orders. Which in my Nordic mind is a fucked up business model. A living wage should be the minimum requirement.
Look at the socialist over here guys, over here in America we let our children go without lunch if they can't afford it. How else will they learn that they need to be a productive member of society?
Frankly, I wouldn't want to live under some authoritarian healthcare system that no longer allowed me the freedom to weigh my options between crippling debt and death... Variety is the spice of life!
That's the true freedom we get to have. I hear in the UK and Canada they sometimes have to wait in line! Here I get prompt care with my hundreds of thousands of dollars I pay. Now that's service.
Don't have to wait in line if you can't afford to go in the first place
Taps head
True freedom right there!
God bless America
That's right, and the poor grades and stunted growth they'll experience as a result of that hunger will build character.
Frankly, I wouldn't want to live under some authoritarian healthcare system that no longer allowed me the freedom to weigh my options between crippling debt and death... Variety is the spice of life!
It’s worse. They aren’t employees. They are independent contractors who in many cases assume all liability and have to pay their own payroll taxes. Most aren’t reporting it to their insurance company, much less thinking about retirement and healthcare. It only really works as a temporary side gig.
Under EU-Law you might not fall under independent contractor because most of the income and how you do your job is dictated by a single company.
You automatically fall under regulations for employers and get those protections too. Company that try to do this have to tread very carefully not to fall into that.
I was speaking for Americans. Companies like Door Dash are practically experiments in avoiding labor laws .
Get a minimum amount of compensation for doing a job? Do you hear yourself? That's madness!
A fine idea. Sadly, no one in that restaurant is being paid a living wage. It ain’t just the drivers.
This entire tipping thing is terrible - including for dashers themselves.
It means dashers income heavily relies on strangers being kind enough to leave some extra.
It means customers are gonna feel bad for not paying more than their order amount (and they probably will pay the tip)
It means company can employ slave labor for extremely low pay and still have people willing to do this.
Tipping benefits only one party - the companies. We need to stop it.
correct on all parts, it pits dasher against customers. also these companies are still not profitable. that should tell you something.
the truth is that the business model just doesn't work. if you want to pay drivers actual living wages, delivery fees would have to be more than 20 dollars for each order.
Stop patronizing restaurants where they don't pay their staff a livable wage. Stop using delivery apps that don't pay their drivers a livable wage.
This predatory employers are the problem. Stop rewarding them with your business.
In most parts of the US, that's all of them. This position is de facto "never eat out or order takeout". I'm not sure that's entirely realistic.
So cook, by taking part in the exploitative system, not only are you contributing to it, but by not tipping on top of that the only person you're hurting is the worker. That worker has never even met the CEO, the CEO doesn't give two shits that while he got his money the guy on the bottom got stiffed. Yes it's inconvenient, but if you have grandiose ideas about how the entire system should change, you should take part in said change not by exploiting that worker yourself but by boycotting the whole business; or by ordering, tipping, and trying to poach them for employment at your business; or by opening your own spot and paying fairly to set an example and provide others like you a place to buy guilt free; something other than "fuck you for bringing me food I hope you starve or have to live in a tent, tell your boss to pay you better I'm sure he won't just find a 'quieter' employee like he did to all the others."
The purpose of tips has gone away in the US. You are supposed to tip after the delivery for a good service. Now you have to "tip" for a good service.
You have to pay their wages instead of the giant company that's partially doing so already
If you have to tip to get someone to provide a service your already paying for then that is a bribe.
Call it a bribe then. For regular customers there is little difference.
Modern extortion.
Stop fucking using these extortion apps. Drive your lazy ass to the shit food station yourself.
My friend would order food from a different shop that had delivery instead of walking across the fucking street to the place that quite literally was across the street. I could see it from my bedroom window.
Some people will do anything to avoid having to go out and while i'm very similar, I think like 3-4 blocks is my limit as far as walking. 5 mins for driving, any more and I'm just ordering something lol
Tbh I'll order pizza from the good shop 10min away before I order from the shithole 2min away. The difference? "Good food."
I always pick up, but still this could be understandable.
This is assuming you live in a city and not a suburb
Unless you're in europe where suburbs have food places in walking distance
Goddamn I miss that. Restaurants and bodegas within walking distance of your apartment.
Too bad they're all pizzerias.
Why do you just assume everyone can drive? Plenty of people either don't have a license or don't have a car.
It's definitely true that ignorant people ignore the fact that people with disabilities exist.
I've used these apps -- when I was quarantining because I had Covid, wasn't in a state to drive, and needed food.
I don't use them anymore, but these types of apps can fill a "need".
Why? Who's holding a gun to the head of these drivers and forcing them to work for this gig? The onus isn't on the customers, it's on the drivers.
My guess is either their landlord, their hospital, their bank, their supermarket, or their college. Not an actual gun, just metaphorical. A lot of drivers are just desperate to make ends meet however they can. There’s a lot of shit to be said about the gig economy, but it does provide flexible schedules, and while some people just want to monetize as much of their time as possible, some people actually need to.
I stopped ordering from these apps because I got tired of watching the driver take my food on a tour of my city and having it arrive cold and wrong.
The last time I went to pick up my food from a restaurant I saw a dasher standing outside a restaurant staring at his phone with food in his hand, I went inside and while I was waiting the dude came back in, dropped the food and asked for another order because the one he took wasn't tipping.
Fuck this system and fuck these apps, pick up your own food (if you can).
I stopped using them when I stopped being given free delivery because without the discount, a thing that costs about six bucks suddenly balloons to thirty fucking dollars. On top of it taking longer and my food arriving cold.
I had a local burger joint call me up to tell me that the our food was currently, and had been with the driver for the past 30 mins. They knew this because the guy decided to have dinner in the parking lot after picking up our order so I really try to avoid now
I'm starting to wonder if all that are symptoms of a company using information technology to it's most powerful extent.
Services like Door Dash couldn't exist at the current scale, speed, and service without the internet and highly capable phones/laptops/whatever in everyone's home. It enabled this kind of gig economy service to come out of nowhere, build very rapidly, and disrupt the market before the law or even social norms could ever hope to step in. But as a consequence of all that, the owners cannot help themselves, and continue with their "Greed% speed run" of running a company straight to its conclusion. Every mistake, every error, every bad take, it's all accelerated right alongside the good stuff. It's like enshittification on amphetamines.
I saw somebody saying how these companies are going to start crashing and burning in the next few years because they've never been profitable but the low interest rates have allowed them to keep burning new investors money to fake it until they make it. They've been following the greed of infinite profits through infinite growth, but that growth suddenly isn't infinite anymore, and now they'll be getting to the find out stage after fucking around for so long.
What I do:
$0 tip
In the special instructions: "Ring doorbell for cash tip. Do not just leave at door".
Traffic in my area is awful so I always tip $20 no matter the order. Sometimes that comes to almost an 80% tip but a) I know it goes to the driver, b) I don't have to drive in that shitshow, and c) I reward a driver for actually reading the special instructions.
Is it even convenient at that point? I don't know if I'd have an extra twenty I can keep tossing out there every time I'm trying to grab a bite.
How convenient should it be?
How much would you pay a friend you see every couple months that is friends with your other friends to go out and buy fast food for you while you sit at home playing videogames instead?
What amount of money would make that feel ok to you?
Assuming it would take more than 2 dollars to feel ok with that, why is it ok to spend less on a stranger doing it? And how much less is ok?
The "that's somebody's job, they signed up for that" mentality that prevents so many people from doing what little they can to make that job suck just a little bit less at often times nearly no cost to themselves, like not clearing their trays/garbage at a fast food place, or leaving all their stuff at their seats in a movie theater... it's such a pervasive mentality, "I don't -have- to do it, so why should I?".
Do you want to live in a world where people are nice to you, well too bad, cuz they don't -have- to be. As long as that mentality persists, we can't have that world. Doing things you don't -have- to do to make someone else's life just a little easier, is the foundation of basic kindness.
Maybe I'm wrong. I think you're misunderstanding the person you're replying to, and I didn't not get from them did they find it inconvenient to pay a stranger more money because it's a stranger, just saying that they find it to be inconvenient to spend an extra $20 on top of the meal anytime they want delivery and it would probably be better off to go pick it up themselves or make food at home which is what I do. Haven't ordered delivery in months because it's such a waste of money.
That person also never said anything about how "that's somebody's job and they signed up for it" and that was you that brought that into this mix. I don't know why you're getting so offended or pissed off about that comment. They're just saying that paying an extra $20 for delivery is inconvenient and costly.
If you are a driver and you make money from doordash or Uber, you might want to consider getting into a different line of work because those companies are just scamming the hell out of you and there's no need to be so defensive of them.
Hmm, maybe I have to change some wording. That is not at all the tone I was going for, I'm not angry or anything like that. And certainly not trying to direct anything at one specific person, or defend any terrible companies doing the things I specifically am saying shouldn't feel comfortable. I'll see what I can do to the post to clear things up some.
But I do agree that if you wouldn't make a friend do something, you shouldn't feel ok making a stranger do it, do it yourself or don't do it.
The post is not some line for line rebuttal, it's more of a loose essay based off a hypothetical posit.
If someone tips a set amount regularly they can easily plan ahead.
Dashers can see what you tip on the app on average and nobody will pick up your order unless it's extremely convenient for them. They don't see the instructions until they pick up the order.
Yep. It is another reason I overtip in cash. If this person is desperate enough to grab a "no tip" order, they probably need the $20 tip on a $36 order more than most.
Oh, that's a good way to get them to ring the bell. I tried making them ring the bell other ways, but they never do. Uber Eats has a feature where they need to get a code from you to prove they handed you the food. I had several drivers leave the food at the door and then text me, asking me for the code. Fuck off
It’s worth noting that drivers don’t see the note until after they accept the order. There’s a good chance your food takes longer to be picked up because of your $0 tip.
Better to put the tip in the app, give cash, and then adjust the tip back to $0 after the delivery is made. Just communicate that with the driver to avoid confusion.
They get 100% of the tip, it's a legal requirement. The scummy part is the company does this to give you the opportunity NOT to tip, and therefore subsidize the food for shitty people.
Just in case, the few times I have ordered food, I put a dollar or two tip in the app, and add a note saying I'll give them a cash tip. Usually I'll give them a 2-4 Dollars more depending. If you're using these services you need to tip, that's how they make their livelyhood and feed their families.
It's a scummy business, and you should definitely try to avoid using it unless it's your only option for some reason. Your order will probably be at least $30, but do you know how much spaghetti you can make with $30??
It’s worth noting that drivers don’t see the notes until they accept the order.
I used to do the same as you until I dashed for a few months to make ends meet.
I can also tell you that some orders literally cost drivers money to make when the tip is too low. I’ve had countless 25-30 mile round trip orders that paid out $6-7 because the person didn’t tip. I passed on those orders because I would have been paying to deliver them. Drivers need to make about $0.75/mile driven to break even, and most look for $2+\mile. I now look at the distance from the restaurant and tip $2/mile for the one direction. But I’m also in a place where they’re pretty likely to get another order pretty quickly and don’t need to make it a round trip.
The problem really rests with DoorDash and Uber Eats for not paying enough. They recently dropped the base payout to $2/delivery, which will never not cost the driver money. It’s absurd and incredibly shitty how they choose to offload the responsibility of paying their drivers into the customer.
That is a legal requirement. But myself and others got a settlement from Amazon after they stole our tips for years. I got a check for $790 that they kept from me. I dunno if DD ever got caught doing the same, but businesses do try to get away with this stuff.
They used to do that, using the loophole that drivers technically get 100% of the tip because they were subtracting the base pay if the tip covered it. They stopped doing that but now they don't show the full pay to the driver to discourage ignoring low tip orders, screwing over the good tippers who tipped well for fast service. It doesn't matter if you tip well anymore because they're going to bundle your order with low tip orders and force you to wait an hour to get delivery that used to take 20 minutes. It's why I stopped using door dash.
Are they any good alternatives that you would suggest?
Unfortunately pretty much all of the apps are starting to do this, so I've just learned to live without.
Can they reduce hourly pay based on tips received, as a loophole?
No
I used DoorDash today and the add tip screen said that 100% of the tip goes to the driver. I know they got a lot of bad PR for stealing part of the tips some time ago and had to make public statements about improving their policies. Are we saying that even after all that, they’re just outright completely lying?
Before they also said the driver got 100% but behind the scenes they were essentially subtracting that amount from what they were going to pay the driver originally. Thus they could claim the driver got 100% of the tip while still pocketing the value of it.
This is tip culture standard. The company is only required to pay enough such that tips plus pay meet minimum wage. CEO's should have to work for tips given by their employees in order to earn over minimum wage, change my mind.
no that is the truth, what it doesn't tell you is that the drivers are paid like 2.50 to 3 bucks per delivery. so tips makes up the majority of their earnings at this point.
I don't think anyone can outright say that they're lying with any amount of certainly, but it would be very very far from the first time a company got caught in a scandal then just lied about how they're going to fix it.
Solution is stop using delivery services.
They do get the tips.
How much of it?
It's right the in there screenshot
Idk about door dash, but my son was delivering through Uber and he got all the tips for his deliveries.
As someone who delivered DoorDash this past year, I can confirm that drivers get 100% of the top. I had a bunch of customers ask me to verify and it was always accurate. I’ve also confirmed with a number of delivery drivers that brought me food.
We should really not be normalizing calling money paid in advance to not have your food arrive late/cold a "tip". It's extortion.
Tipping culture in America is fucked beyond belief. Pay everybody a fair wage and let's get rid of tipping so nobody ever has to deal with this bullshit again.
We should call it a bid, not extortion. You're (in theory) competing to get your order selected.
Exactly. I completely stopped using those food delivery services after the initial lockdown during COVID. They can almost double the price, can get cold food, and the drivers can be rude if they don't feel you're tip is adequate. It's simply not worth it for me.
For tipping countries like the US, the driver would only get a "has a tip" notification on the order (if they get any information like that at all!) so they can decide. There is no way the driver can see that there is a $40 order with a $4 tip, or a $40 order with a $16 dollar tip. Orders would be ignored all the time, and the service would fail.
Oh, and if they did get a "has tip" flag for the order, then customers could just game it, by selecting "add tip" and setting it to $0 or $0.10 or something so their order gets that "has tip" flag!!
Here is AU, there is no tipping, so the drivers get paid like normal people. None of this work for tip bullshit that seems to have survived this long in the US, its incredible that it has gotten this far. Now the US get asked for tips using self-service machines, that is the height of lunacy!
I tried Instacart (United States). It tells you exactly what you will get paid before you accept an order. If the tip was more you will see it. Basically if you order Tylenol and 5 other items it will say the Store Name, 6 items, Total payout. (And distance) When you arrive at the store you get a list of the items, and the isle number/shelf if it is available. You scan each item into the app for it to be accepted, if the item is not the same code, it will make you send a message or alternate possibility to the orderer. And they approve/deny.
Long story short. You 100% know what you are getting paid before starting so if 1 order for 6 items says you make 20 dollars, and another says you make 6 dollars. The 20 dollar order will be accepted first.
All this and these motherfuckers still can't find basic shit in the store? Instacart is the most expensive and least efficient company I have ever used for product delivery.
They fucking suck to work for too. The shoppers probably don't bother to look very hard because of the insane time limits they expect you to meet, just to have you sit in a parking lot for another hour waiting for orders in a supposed "hot spot" at Kroger that regardless is gonna have you drive across town to a fucking nino salvaggio or something you didn't even know existed in that location.
That's probably it. Still, I can't justify the insane markups when stores have their own services for pickup/delivery now without them. They rarely get things wrong, and with current food prices, that markup is unjustifiable.
Yep, that is absolutely fair. The whole service is a scam on every end, no matter how you interact with them.
Yep, that is absolutely fair. The whole service is a scam on every end, no matter how you interact with them.
The order actually does show how much tip comes with it. The system feeds each dasher based on their acceptance rate of orders..so if you accepted an order with a low tip, your position in the queue would be more likely to get the orders with larger tips than someone who turns down orders with smaller tips all the time. Naimsayin?
This comment seems pretty good, can I get your cash app info so I can tip you for it?
You're welcome, CashApp havent rolled out to Australia but you can tip me directly via my bitcoin wallet though: 12345X#6514421B
I don't have Bitcoin 😔
you don't know what you're talking about do you. why did you even bother typing all this up if you don't know shit.
the drivers are paid more or less constant and they can see the total payout and mileage. an order that doesn't have tip attached will slowly increase in payout until a driver takes it. so those orders tend to be slow.
orders do get ignored all the time and people complain about cold food all the time too.
Fuck tips
You mean "fuck places where I've been socially obligated to pay someone's wage instead of their employer"
Yeah, an actual, genuine TIP where it's optional for providing good service is fine. The extortion it's now become is not.
You literally always pay the wages of the people that work for companies.
All the bullshit with tipping on food delivery apps made me stop using them years ago.
First I hear the apps are stealing tips. Then they're not stealing tips anymore. Then maybe they're stealing some of the tips.
To try and avoid all that I tried to use cash. The drivers don't get their base rate reduced and they get the entire, non-reportable cash tip. Then my food started taking twice as long and arriving cold because the drivers thought I was stiffing them.
My theory is the apps do this (pre-tipping) on purpose to discourage cash and after-tipping so they can lower what they pay the driver and they'll still accept the order because they see the higher after tip amount. So now the apps might not be technically stealing tips, but they're using up front tips to allow them to reduce their shitty base rate for everyone.
Now if want delivery it's pizza, Chinese, or one of the few other places with their own drivers. I've had this policy for years now and I don't see myself ever going back unless it's an emergency.
Bonus to me: all my takeout/delivery is now 20-30% cheaper. Everyone should really take a look at the inflated prices they're paying and decide if it's really worth saving a short drive.
Ya I used to always tip cash but stopped all food delivery entirely ~5yr ago. By turning food delivery into a live auction everybody loses except the company running the service. Drivers compete against eachother accepting the absolute lowest fees while customers need to play the game of choosing an appropriate tip for a prompt delivery while also ideally not shorting the employee who ultimately accepts the order. But since to accept the order they need to compete with other drivers it's naturally going to lead to them accepting lower prices, allowing the delivery company to pocket the difference. Not a good system.
That's if you have the option of driving
People on all these astro-turfed anti-tipping posts always have the same AI generated talking points. Rarely ever do these people actually talk about STOPPING using the apps and STOPPING going to restaurants. Stop making "tip culture" the fault of the worker. It is 100% on the business owner for not paying their staff appropriately for the work performed. Not tipping rewards the business and punishes the worker.
It's 100% on the tax system that incentivizes these payments.
I've made more as a server than most Americans make doing "appropriately compensated" work. Hitting median wage for your area as a server is easy in 95% of the US.
Reason I don't use these services is the tip is expected in advance. Bring me my food hot and in a timely fashion and I'll give you a good tip. I'm not paying you ahead of time to take too long bringing me cold food. I'd rather pick it up myself.
Ubereats lets you set the tip after the delivery. afaik the others don't.
Should be illegal to prompt a tip before services are rendered, including at those POS machines that ask you up front to tip even a small amount.
So little of that is actually under the control of the courier. I did that for a little bit, and generally the drive from the restaurant to the customer was the shortest part. You get an order for a restaurant that hopefully you're close to, but maybe you aren't. You get there and maybe the food is ready, maybe it isn't. Maybe it's been sitting on a shelf for half an hour. Maybe traffic is heavy, maybe the GPS gives you shitty fucking directions. Maybe you ordered from the wrong restaurant and instead of being 5 minutes it's 20. Sure, there are shitty couriers, but 9 times out of 10 your food is cold or late because of circumstances outside of their control.
While I know many don't. I always take that into account. I keep tabs, and usually only raise a stink if it is obvious my order was taken for a ride.
Well, I 'might' not order from you again then — are you sure?
You shouldn't use apps that don't pay their drivers a livable wage.
Damn, tips used to be given after a job well done not before.
Tips may have been that way a hundred years ago but I've been in the restaurant industry in the US for over 15 years, and for the duration tips have been used as a means to offload labor costs to the customer. They are not optional for the majority of people who work for tips, they are the difference between paying bills and not.
The practice is antiquated and should be completely removed as the standard way to compensate restaurant workers. But the thing that anti tippers always seem to miss is that the labor costs will still be there and the owners are not going to take it out of their cut. The menu prices will per force go up when companies get rid of tips. The same people will be complaining about that just as loudly, I'm willing to bet.
As I said in another comment, it's a bad system, but if you don't tip, you're a bad person.
That's where you're not only wrong, you've become part of the problem by claiming that.
Amen, there are so many places in the world where you can directly compare pricing and see that not only is it usually cheaper when this horseshit greed system isnt involved, but the customers/workforce is happier with the end product.
That said, if you do not tip in the US for servers/employees not compensated, you're an asshole. Boycotting the person trying to feed themselves rather than the company as a whole only makes a difference in that it makes you more of an asshole.
Yes the correct and honorable thing would be for the employer to absorb the costs but this is America we're talking about. We're currently going through record inflation almost purely because of corporate greed. These companies saw an opportunity to blame their massive price increases on COVID/labor costs/ materials cost even though these are only small factors. Yet year over year they're increasing profits. I have zero doubt that if they switched away from tipping systems that they would use that to falsely justify price increases.
They very well might here. But I think it would be a win. I worked in US restaurants for a long time in many positions and think it would be a win for the customer and employees. Customers, it would be an upfront cost, and you wouldn't have to worry about whether your server can eat although they serve food all day every day. Employees, get to eat and know for sure they will be able to later. If the consumer is paying that cost regardless, might as well codify it.
Then why can I, as a student, afford to go out to eat in a non-tipping country?
I think it is somewhat better than people who pay workers directly. Cutting out the owners is good; tipping isn't a sound system, but overall, not paying via a middleman (owner) seems like the best path.
the prevalence of iPads with 20,22,25 percent tips for a coffee is having me question the entire practice for sure.
im also seeing reataurants operating server robots now. for those I only tip 10%.
Yeah and before the Ipads it was a little jar with the word "tips" on it, but nobody uses cash anymore so they have to ask for that $1 (are coffees still $5? Mine is $2.95 so it's $0.59) digitally now. Of course, the robot probably isn't worried about making rent this month so it's probably safe not to tip bots, but I don't mind sliding a dollar to the nice girl providing me the happy juice. If I did I'd just make coffee at home or stop at the gas station and serve myself though, I wouldn't go to a place with a human that expected a tip. Idk, if I'm going to force someone to suffer I'd rather just eat the bullet and drink shitty gas station coffee than be the 100th person to symbolically tell someone to fuck themselves and die this morning while they contemplate if they'd rather pay the power bill or get groceries this week but that's just me.
Add a note in delivery instructions “cash tip”.
It also gives the advantage of tipping less if it takes too long ;)
I’ve done Uber eats in the past, and you don’t see the notes until after you pick up. Things may have changed since 2020/2021, but all I recall seeing is
So I wouldn’t see the cash tip note until after I accepted the delivery.
That's just the opposite of how tipping is supposed to work. If I'm happy with the service, I'll tip (and I'm far, far from the US - in a place where you don't get frowned upon if you don't tip) - and by "happy" I don't even mean something extraordinary - but I can't know if I will be happy in advance. Moreover I'd prefer tipping in cash as opposed to through an app - this way I know the money can go directly in the worker's pocket, not in the company's.
You're right, this isn't a tip, this is just paying for the quality of the service.
Its effectively paying protection money.
Would be a shame if your order came in an hour late. You know, a few bucks would make Vinny here a lot happier. The happier Vinny is, the less likely something bad happens to your order.
"Oh and PS - Vinny knows where you live"
Shrug, I tip decently. But I don't mind free food. As someone who gets delivery 1-3 times a week. I get 1 or 2 free meals a month, because they take "side" trips. (the tracking programs they use are great!)
They often start out with "all we can offer 5 dollars off your next meal"... And I counter with "I had to throw the food out, I'm happy to send you screenshots of their route going 15-30 minutes out of the way"...
The problem, at least where I live (Montreal), is that for anyone in the service industry, your taxes assume you got at least 15% tip (or at least for waiters)
The tip absolutely goes to the dasher. The screwed up system aside you are only compounding the exploitation of the delivery driver.
Don't use the app but don't get mad at a system that you're choosing to participate in and actively making worse.
The tip does go to the driver
Sometimes it frightens me to see how things in the US are working. This crap will come to europe sooner or later, the US capitalism is just a few years ahead.
I’m not sure of that. The difference is that people in Europe have a history of having good things thanks to regulations. In the Us, lobbyists have done so much damage that the culture is that regulations are bad.
I hope they never get complacent though.
Germany is well on track with the AfD doing populistic politics and other countries are not that far off doing the same or even more extreme versions of it.
? I thought it did though. I've read online stories of Dashers being annoyed at low tips.
Tips are completely optional, but it would be a shame if something happened to your order. Would you like to tip so we can, uh... protect you from such unfortunate circumstances?
I swear I read somewhere that there are parts of Europe were tipping isn't required, but if you want extra good service you'll tip before being served if you want good attentive service.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember where I read it.
At least in my part of Europe, tips are not required and often not expected (because minimum wage doesn't have the strange exception tipped employees do in the US), but if you actually appreciate the service given then it's the norm to give a small amount as a tip.
For deliveries I normally give cash straight to the driver if it comes in a reasonable time frame, I certainly would never preload a tip using the payment portal
Also from country where tips aren't expected.
Did preload a tip once because I felt guilty.
Ended up having the driver yell at me to come get the food in the lobby and that I was wasting his time when I was sick with covid and even though I specifically ordered for door delivery.
On top of that the food was cold and soggy. So I went straight to customer service and removed that tip.
If I have cash I will tip if they do a good job otherwise. No.
One night a while back I ordered some food from a place about 10 minutes away after a long day with a sick baby and tipped ~30%.
While the drivers at the restaurant I got like 5 messages asking for a better tip, I didn't answer because why would I. Then my foods on the way and on the app it looked like the guy parked down the street for 10 minutes and continued to spam me with messages asking for a better tip. I didn't respond because why would I. Then the food gets here, I'm hype. I have very simple delivery notes on every order "Please don't knock or ring the bell" and always do leave it at the door. I pulled up my security camera to see this guy just going in on my doorbell (which is disconnected anyway), then he starts slamming on the door yelling variation of "come get your food". After a few minutes of that he just puts the food on the step and starts yelling a bunch of stuff out front of my house at like 9pm, including again asking for more of a tip. In this time he set off my dog who's now losing his mind and woke my sick baby. So naturally I put my dog on the leash, grabbed my crying baby and in the most redneck b horror movie fashion I could muster flung the door open and just stood there on the step with a crying baby, a 100lb dog going nuts and the defeated eyes of a father who just wanted a cheesesteak after a long day.
I said all that to support, how I didn't get to eat my food until hours later because now I had to soothe my baby back to sleep. Their response was something along the lines of
'Hi ***, sorry about that. Here's a 4.63 credit as an apology. That's 20% off your order total!'
Moral of the story is now I always keep a few quick meals in the house that cook in the toaster oven. It's cheaper and the toaster oven never woke my baby.
wtf godless region do you live in?? Never heard of this kind of behaviour.
Finland here. Tipping is in no way expected and it's actually rather atypical to tip at all. Though no one will say no if you do decide to tip!
It's a bad system but you are a bad person if you don't tip.
Yeah, the only mildly infuriating part about this post is that they didn't tip. Despite the problems with DD, the drivers do actually rely on those tips.
OP's post is very misinformed and I'm not down.
Can you decrease it afterwards?
No, you can only increase.
Which is good because offering a job to someone then lowering the price you pay them after they've done it is evil regardless of it you've decided that you don't like the company the person doing the task is working for
Not sure about a decrease, but you can easily get it fully refunded if they fuck up. I tip really well because I used to be a food courier myself. Every few months some idiot delivers my pizza upside down or leaves my order outside my building and I get my tip refunded with ease. I have no idea if that money is refunded from the dasher's pay though.
I know another industry that asks to pre tip before services rendered. Asian Spas... In both cases, you can get fucked.
Cash tipping is king for just this reason.
So you think people are gonna gamble to deliver for you? Do you have any idea how much driving all day fucks your car up? Ask my dead car. I'm $10k in debt and it still won't run.
Did they stop hiding the tip amount?
They never hid it in the first place unless there was a hidden bonus from doordash to compensate for a longer than usual delivery.
Source: was dasher
Yes they did. I had to use a third party app to bypass the hidden information and there was a group of people putting together a lawsuit about it. It was the same people who made the app.
I don't use doordash but don't be a dick and leave no tip. That's such a selfish thing to do.
Yea DoorDash and the like are inherently reliant on tipping. If you don't like tipping in general then fair enough, just order somewhere that pays minimum wage+ (aka not doordash)
Honestly that's not something I really consider. I don't make it my policy to try to analysis someone's pay.
It’s not really about analyzing someone’s pay, just choosing a place that hires employees, not contractors
I'm so glad there are societies that don't care about such things as tips
I'm a dasher. Yes, drivers do get tips, and our livelihoods depend on people tipping. Yes, you should tip, yes, you're just being cheap if you don't. Yes, it is bullshit that doordash doesn't pay us more, yes, tipping culture is bullshit. But you still eat out at your favorite greasy spoon knowing full well the staff depends on tips to pay their rent so you tip them.
If you don't want to tip, get off your ass and get the food yourself. We're dying out there and don't need a hundred 15-mile-0-tip deliveries declined a day dragging down our acceptance rates. Just treat us like fucking humans, ffs. Please. Tip. Your. Drivers.
It's your employer who doesn't treat you like humans. Stop blaming the customers for it.
The customers in this case are also treating the employee like shit.
Nope. The customers are dealing with the company. How the company treats employees is between the employer and the employee.
If I'm not happy I should drive for it myself? If you're not happy go change your job
The problem are not the customers, it's the employers.
Also keep that attitude up - people ordering less, driving by themselves because of the expected tips and you end up redundant.
Yeeaaahhh fuck that honestly, its not the responsibility of the customer to pay the employees of a company, that's your boss/HRs job. Tips should be something paid out to someone AFTER they do a service for you that you are satisfied with, not before. Why tf would I pay someone an extra $5 before they do a service for me? There's no obligation for them to do a good job, they already have the money. Case in point, I've ordered from Door Dash before and tipped like $6 bucks, I got my food like an hour and a half later and it was cold. Fuck that shit.
No one is holding a gun to your head to be a dasher. If you don't like it, do something else. This is entitled af.
This is the problem. These services have successfully pitted you against the customer. If you are not happy with the pay, your issue is with the employer, not the customer.
These services do pay drivers and it's not enough. Instead of paying more, they redirect you to the customer for the rest, and in some cases you just get screwed. But it's the service screwing you, not the customer.
What I can't accept is the apps trying to say I should tip 15% on the delivery total before discounts, for a delivery not even done by the restaurant, so it's not like it's also shared with the cooks.
I'll tip, but fuck that bullshit. $50 in a bag is the same as $20 in a bag.
Stop taking jobs that don't pay a living wage then blaming your customers.
They need a "cash tip at the door" option
This is much "America" for my european brain