2y ago

TikTok video showing DoorDash driver cursing at customer over 25% tip sparks online debate over tipping culture in the U.S.

www.nbcnews.com

Video appearing to show DoorDash driver cursing at customer over 25% tip sparks online debate

What's an acceptable tip for a driver who delivers a $20 pizza?

A TikTok video purporting to show a DoorDash delivery driver in Texas swearing at a customer over the $5 tip she gave him has gone viral, sparking fresh online debate over tipping culture in the U.S.

"I just want to say it's a nice house for a $5 tip," the driver can be heard saying as he walks away from a home in the door camera video posted to TikTok earlier this week by a user under the name Lacey Purciful.

"You're welcome!" the resident says, appearing surprised by the remark. "F you," the driver responds before walking away.

A spokesperson for DoorDash said a delivery driver had been removed from their platform in connection with the incident.

82 comments

Tipping is not the right way to ensure everyone earns a decent wage.
- What a bad take. You expect employers to stop exploiting their staff by underpaying them? Un-American
  
  It's only a bad take if you cannot imagine unions, labor laws, and minimum wage.
- Tipping is messed up on both ends for both the delivery person and the customer when you think about it.
  Tipping is basically a way for a corporation that could actually pay a livable wage to instead not do that, and then criminally underpay their employees - after all, the customers will just pay extra to make up for the literal below minimum wage pay the corporation is paying the delivery person.
  
  It's also a way for employees to under-report their income on their taxes, which is a perverse incentive.

tipping culture needs to die
- the question is how to kill it. anytime someone suggests that they just won't tip anymore, they're deluged by a torrent of hate because "that's not how it works!" yeah, they know and they want to change it.
  seems like the only acceptable answer is for business owners to recognize that tipping culture is wrong and voluntarily, through the goodness of their hearts, abolish tips in their establishment and pay a living wage. this is super admirable for the very few businesses that do this, but its wildly unrealistic to think it will happen. so the default is accepting that businesses will continue to exploit their workers and their customers kind-heartedness.
  
  I’m okay with being flamed.
  Three points to consider:
  tipping itself is voluntary.
  employment is at will (if they can find a better paying job, they should.)(for that matter, so is my patronage- which is why I don’t use door dash or whatever. Totally unethical)
  many tips aren’t going to the driver/waitstaff/other staff at all.
  (Door dash for example, if you tip less than or the same as the delivery fee they pay the driver, they pay the same fee regardless and keep the extra tip. If you pay more than, they take the delivery fee. Many of the point of sales kiosks that are asking for a tip never go to the people bejng the counter- especially at place last that you wouldn’t normally tip at. Or some of it goes there, but then management gets a cut, square gets also gets their cut, and visa etc also get their cut)
  
  What about making government repeal the minimum wage laws surrounding tipping, so that corporations have to pay the actual minimum wages?

As a pizza deliver driver once (in the era before GPS when it was usually cash or a check), the nice houses often were the worse for paying a tip, if anything. The apartments and run down areas seemed to get the point of you doing them a service, and would find change they probably needed to make a tip. That being said, tipping in the US is yet another example of corporate power shifting responsibility and blame onto the consumer rather than take direct action on a problem. The modern example is putting in more and more systems to encourage higher tipping, rather than raise wages.
- Yes! I never know how to feel about being prompted for a tip when I get carry out. Normally the tip is for table or delivery service. I don't think I should be obligated to compensate someone's wage for running my credit card and handing me a bag.
  It is is 100% the case that establishments know customers will feel obligated to tip in any scenario they are prompted.
  Hell, how do I even know that such a tip goes to the service staff who are paid less than minimum wage?
  
  Frequently, it doesn’t. Or more frequently, not all of it. It’s acruelly illegal (a form of wage theft.) but because there’s a sense that the person working the shit job needs that shit job… complaining about it doesn’t help.
  In any case… I’m of the opinion that I shouldn’t have to tip. If that pisses of service workers, they can (and should,) go find another job. That said I do tip for typical things- I just do t think I should have to. And if the service is terrible….
  In any case, there are waitstaff that make relatively large paychecks from tipping as well. (Particularly in bars.)

A business' way of having the customer pick up the bill for them not paying their staff properly. Really unfortunate that this has become so socially expected.

I never understood why the driver should get a tip? Do you top your mail man everytime he turns up with your post?
- They often have to pay for the gas. But then again, if they didn't get tips, and they wouldn't get enough money from the job, then they wouldn't take it in the first place. Which means then the companies would have to actually pay enough money, meaning the drivers wouldn't actually need tips. Tipping just needs to go. It's a stupid fucking system to rob the customer of more money than necessary and breeds those confusing social standards that cause nothing but conflict.

This is why I don't order delivery anymore.

Here's the video - youtube.com/shorts/Pyj9KlgaFdw

So, we are assuming the pizza was $20. a 20% tip, which is still pretty standard, afaik, would be $4. WTF is this driver pissed about exactly?
Also, why the hell does anyone use these services? They take a huge commission from the restaurant, they don't pay their drivers living wage, shit is frequently wrong, or the driver is an ass. What benefit does this "service" actually offer because I can't see it.
- I pretty much don't even use it anymore unless there's some emergency reason I can't leave the house. Paying for doordash is paying fancy restaurant prices for fast food.
- Iirc, door dash likes to withhold some or all of the fee they pay the driver if the tip is equal to the fee. I forget exactly how it works, but unless you double the delivery fee, you may as well not tip.
  
  All the more reason I ask why anyone uses these apps. It’s not good for the restaurant. It’s not good for the 1099 contractors (they aren’t employed by the delivery services same as Uber/lyft).

Whatever you think of the driver's behaviour, getting someone sacked for having a bad day is a scummy thing to do. You leave them a five star review or you do nothing.
- Well then I'm scum because I would contact the company and demand my tip back and tell them exactly why.
  
  I get the impulse, for sure. It's upsetting, you want revenge. But would you stop to consider whether the injury to your feelings is really worth throwing someone out of work? I mean, if it's some tax-avoiding, worker-exploiting, obscenely highly paid executive, go for it. Bury them if you get the chance. But punishing a very low wage gig worker to make yourself feel better, and tightening the iron grip of the afore-mentioned executives by snitching on them? Be the better person and feel good about it.
- I normally agree with you - if something got misdelivered or an item is wrong, it's best to give the benefit of the doubt, they forgot or they're having a bad day or whatever. No reason to tank a person's whole side job.
  In this case though, considering it's the driver directly swearing at the woman and indicating he thinks she has wronged him, and obviously he knows where she lives... I can't necessarily blame her for reporting it to be on the safe side. That's a lot different than just forgetting a drink.
- getting someone sacked for having a bad day is a scummy thing to do
  It is, but only because losing a job means that person might now lose access to food, housing, and healthcare. That's a really steep price to pay for what could be an isolated incident. But that's not something to lay at the feet of the person tipping here. They are also a victim of the structure we've created. They need to choose between shutting up and accepting verbal abuse in their own home or speaking out and possibly triggering events that ruin the delivery driver's life? Neither of those choices are acceptable.
  
  Did you see that house? They're beneficiaries of the structure 'we' have created. They absolutely should have enough self-awareness to take it on the chin.
- Yeah, no. You freak out on me like that, especially on a 25% tip, I'm absolutely reporting you to your manager. That kind of entitlement deserves to be destroyed and I don't feel the least bit bad about someone losing their job for removed out a customer unwarranted.
- And at the next delivery the driver spits in your pizza?

I don't mind tipping well but the cursing was not needed.

A spokesperson for DoorDash said a delivery driver had been removed from their platform in connection with the incident.
wut? Is doordash hiring people on the fly to deliver food?
- Doordash doesn't hire drivers. It's gig work.
- Download an app and start driving today!

I did a little digging into DoorDash's pay scheme, and from what it sounds, larger orders might carry a higher delivery premium paid to the driver, plus incentives, plus the tip. They are paid as follows: Base Pay + Tip + Promotions. Base pay is anywhere from $2-$10 based on time, distance, and deliverability. Tip is 100% to the driver for the delivery. Incentive includes peak pay, guaranteed earnings, and challenges.
So the least the delivery driver would have earned was $7.00 for the delivery ($2.00 service plus the $5.00 tip). If it was peak they could have earned $1-$3 more if you make 5 deliveries with an acceptance rate of 60%. So the driver could've made up to an additional $3.00 if he met this criteria.
I personally don't believe DoorDash has a really great payout model, it heavily pays the company over the delivery driver. If anything the driver shouldn't have a beef with the customer; they should have issue with DoorDash for their pay model. Honestly I wonder why the restaurant didn't have a delivery service of their own; those that serve pizza almost always employ delivery drivers.
As far as tip culture is concerned, I am personally not a fan even though I live in the U.S. but we have to live with it. There are scales used as guidelines for properly tipping service, and we use them. That said, 25% is a generous tip for a driver...they drove the food there. They didn't seat the customer, take their order, cook the food, serve it, serve drinks, clean the table, etc.
- but we have to live with it
  we don't have to, but the steps to change it will be uncomfortable for everyone, including the low paid service workers. companies aren't willing to change because it helps their bottom line, and the kind-hearted customers aren't willing to change because they'll feel like they're the ones hurting the service workers. i struggle with this as well.

82 comments