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.
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.
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.
Where I live it’s about £2 more on a order of any cost. That’s not even close to being double, especially with a minimum spend of £10
Are you ordering directly from the restaurants?
No. Clearly deliveroo in UK is wildly different to American delivery services.
Indian take out for my wife costs about $44.
The same items ordered on the delivery apps comes out to about $56 and then after fees and tips is roughly $80.
I wish these companies were only $2 more expensive than just going to the restaurant.
Holy shit America is so different
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.
If you have to tip to get someone to provide a service your already paying for then that is a bribe.
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.
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.
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)_/¯ .
I agree with you completely but at the same time I have disdain for gig workers because they all seem to operate under an entirely different set of traffic laws and social conventions. At least where I live.
Wdym by social conventions?
I see them acting rudely to restaurant staff and grocery store staff often.
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?
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.
Solution is stop using delivery services.
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.
Fuck tips
You mean “fuck places where I’ve been socially obligated to pay someone’s wage instead of their employer”
You literally always pay the wages of the people that work for companies.
Usually it’s rolled into the price of the product or service, which clearly nobody has a problem with.
As is this. I have no idea why people here are convinced tipping is somehow bad for employees and good for employers
It’s literally the same thing you just are more aware of it.
It’s not the same thing. Tipping is a psychological game that pits customers and servers against each other. It’s “how little can I tip before they tamper with my food” versus “how indebted can I make them feel before they reject it and leave without tipping”
It’s “how little can I tip before they tamper with my food”
Normal people never, ever think this.
I didn’t realize you’re the spokesperson for all normies, what an honor. Really though, it is a common sentiment, especially with pre-tipping. When they flip around that iPad and glare at you, there is definitely a sense that the probability of them spitting in your food is not 0% if you hit the no tip button.
Baristas post on their social media about giving non-tippers decaf all the time. If that’s what they are willing to share publicly to the entire world, imagine what people are willing to do secretly.
As someone who both drives for doordash and uses doordash to order. At least in my state. You cannot opt to not tip. Its not an option. Theres a mandatory tip of 4.00$ per order regardless of what you order, how far the location is from delivery etc.
And I don’t think it makes your order arrive any faster.
A reasonable tip ensures that someone will accept your order. Nobody is forced to go pick your food up.
I did a bunch of ride-a-longs with my buddy during COVID. Watching him decide which orders to accept was fascinating. There are lots of variables, and a reasonable tip was a requirement.
It basically boiled down to how much money per mile.
Some shady people will put a $20 at first, but then change it to $0 after the food is delivered – not based on bad or slow service, but because they are assholes. The $20 is to get a Dasher to accept the order quickly. Bait and switch.
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.
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.
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
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.
Yeah and all 100 of the orders I’ve delivered who made the same promise ended with no tip. That’s bait. I don’t bite hooks.
Don’t you have to accept the order before you can read the special instructions?
This is much “America” for my european brain
Stop fucking using these extortion apps. Drive your lazy ass to the shit food station yourself.
