my turn to ask if i was sucky...

[CorDarei]

This pertains to tipping, and i know it can be a hot button topic here... but i'll see if we can tread lightly on the subject..


here's the scenerio, happened yesterday.

I order a sub and chips from Jimmy John's, it totals out to 6.50. They deliver it, and i give them 1$ in tip.

apparently, when the driver was walking out, the receptionist told me he was talking to himself and said, "one dolla" like it was joke to him that he got such a small tip.

here's more detail on the scenario.

Jimmy John's is less than 1/2 a mile away from my work, hell, i could walk it, and normally i would go through drive-thru, but i was running errands on lunch, and was already late in getting back to work. 2ndly, when i called, i was paying w/a credit card and asked if it had a tip line on the receipt. the guy specifically said that it did, and they would bring the receipt.

lo and behold, guy shows up in less than 10 minutes (but greater than 5). Which is awesome, but i can understand because they're just making one sandwich, and they're only a block away.
When i asked for the receipt, he didn't have it, and says i can write the tip amount on the back of one of those hand written order slips. so i write $1 tip

and finally.

so was i being sucky for only giving a $1 on a $6.50 order that he got to me in under 10 minutes from a business that was less than 1/2 a mile away? or am i correct in thinking that he can go cry a river because he shouldn't have expected more?

[donruss]

As a delivery driver I can say that a $1 tip just flat out sucks. $2 minimum is the standard for a small order and usually 15% or so for larger orders. The whole point is that a delivery driver is a waiter on wheels. Would you have tipped your waiter at a sit-down place only $1? I doubt it. One of the worst things you can use to justify a small tip is that it is only a short distance away. If you use that logic then your waiters in restaurants should not get a lot because they are just inside the restaurant and its "only a short distance". I deliver to a guy all the time that lives on the next street on the corner house and never tips. His reasoning is the same as yours. Well, if it is such a short distance, then come get it yourself. Here is a link for a website that you should consult if you are not sure.

http://www.tipthepizzaguy.com/

This is the year 2008 not 1978. $1 pays for nothing now. If you get bad service, that is obviously a different story.

[Saydrah]

I'm not sure what delivery drivers make, but I think it is more than waiters make hourly- which does justify a smaller tip, but then again, they have gas expenses which waiters don't. The point is, the circumstances of the order shouldn't necessarily affect your tip- would you tip a waiter less because your order weighed less than the thing ordered by the table next to you, so they didn't work as hard carrying it? It's equally silly to base tipping less on the distance a delivery driver went. They had to start their car, drive to your workplace, and deliver your food- if they did their job and served you graciously, they deserve the same tip you would give if it was a 15 minute drive. Most deliveries are very short drives because companies won't send delivery drivers outside a fixed range. Of course you should tip MORE if they make an exception to send the driver farther, if your house is particularly hard to find, if it is snowing, etc., but there isn't really any reason to tip LESS because it is a short drive- 90% of their deliveries are probably equally short drives, and they need to make a living.

Getting the order to you in under 10 minutes deserves a nice tip- that's good service. $2 would be the minimum. My SO's father always tips $1 no matter what to delivery persons, and it drives me NUTS! I usually slip out the back door if I'm over there while they order pizza, flag down the delivery driver, and tip a couple more bucks and an apology for the rudeness from FIL.

[mrtauntaun]

I would have to agree that $1 is on the low side. For $6.50 on prompt delivery, I would have tipped at least $2, and probably $3.

[CorDarei]

thanks for the input everyone.

[Shards]

Well, in the OPs defense, the normal accepted tipping value for a ritzy restaurant waiter is about 15% in the center of NYC. I know this because my grandfather is from there and waiters often comment on how generous a tipper he is down here in my little college town.

So, if we do the math, .15 multiplied by 6.50= 95.5 cents.

So, unless you want to argue that a fast food sandwich shop should expect MORE in tips than a ritzy, up-scale restaurant where you have to grease a palm to get seated in under an hour, he was actually not really being sucky...

[monolayth]

you tipped around 15% by my caculations. I think that was a fair tip.

I may be jaded by the low tippers at my place but 15% is ok. most of my cutomers only tip around 10%. It has nothing to do with what level of service I give them. I always get comment cards from them saying I was the best waitress they ever had. Still I recieve 10%.

Another thing......Everyone is telling the OP that he did not tip well and such. But in other posts some people tell that you should not expect a tip as at all. That a tip is optional. It confuses me. By that logic the guy should be happy he recieved a 15% tip at all.

I don't mean to be rude or start an argument. This is how I see it. I may be wrong but 15% is ok. It is not good it is not bad. It is just ok.

[Pedersen]

I'll toss in my two cents. You tipped 15.4%. I would have tipped higher, but that is because of how I am (you have to be below average to get 15% from me. You have to be beyond awful to get nothing from me. Average will normally get you 20% from me. So, likely, I would have handed over $8 and let him keep change).

In the USA, 15% is considered average. You tipped above average. I don't think you were sucky in the least.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

I dunno. It's proper percentagewise, but I'd still consider it a little thin, even at a restaurant. I'd have probably given the guy a ten and have been done with it. I ordered a pizza for the first time in a long time, and gave (unknowingly at the time) an abysmally low tip. The next time I ordered, it took an hour to get my pizza, but I rounded up to an even 20 on a $13 order (after asking the CSR what was considered a good tip; she said it was entirely up to me). The third time I had my pizza in 20 minutes, after being quoted a 45 minute lead time.

Tipping delivery drivers well certainly pays off, so if you want better service, give a bigger tip.

[wagegoth]

I generally tip 20% in a restaurant for decent service. For delivery, I'm going to tip that much, with a $2 minimum, and the farther they have to come the higher the minimum goes.

In California, servers get minimum wage, but I'm not going to base my tip on how much I think the waitperson should earn but on how happy I am with the service.

Additionally, gas in my area is running around $3.50 a gallon for regular. The driver probably spent 10 - 15 minutes of time on the delivery, even if he's only a mile away, and, possibly, a $1 in gas (starting the car in winter twice), which immediately negates the tip. Some companies charge a delivery fee, but often the management keeps the fee, or only gives part of it to the delivery drivers.

BTW, servers in New York only make $2.13 an hour. Unless they're working in a high-end restaurant, 10% to 15% tips on their checks isn't going to take them much above minimum wage. I think the law in the states that expect tips to make up minimum wage is unfair. If restaurants in California and other states can pay minimum wage, all restaurants can. (I will now end the rant, as I don't want to get shipped to fratching.)

[BookstoreEscapee]

Generally I tip higher, percentage-wise, on a smaller bill...but I don't think you were sucky. He was sucky for complaining about it where you could hear him...

[MonSqueek]

Being an Aussie I dont understand tipping. It is not customary here. If it is optional why do people rely on it ? I thought tipping was a way of saying "hey thanks that was great service." Not a expected thing that people relied on for their living!

Are the costs of things less becasue people automatically put on a tip in America? For example if a meal here costs $30.00 on the menu. Thats what we pay. Would that same meal be priced lower on the menu in America because of the unspoken expectation that people will pay more then they are billed for?

Sorry if I seem so nieave and confused ! Please dont eat me !

[RetailWorkhorse]

Being an Aussie I dont understand tipping. It is not customary here. If it is optional why do people rely on it ? I thought tipping was a way of saying "hey thanks that was great service." Not a expected thing that people relied on for their living!

Are the costs of things less becasue people automatically put on a tip in America? For example if a meal here costs $30.00 on the menu. Thats what we pay. Would that same meal be priced lower on the menu in America because of the unspoken expectation that people will pay more then they are billed for?

Sorry if I seem so nieave and confused ! Please dont eat me !

As far as I know, in Aussie the price you see is the price you pay (you lucky duck!). Whereas here in the States, you not only have the price of the item, but the price of that nasty little thing called TAXES which is different for every state and every item (Food Taxes and Merchandice Taxes). Some people work for establishments that will refuse to pay anywhere near Minimum Wages and demand that the rest comes from the tips, then not only are you taxed for what you earn working, but the ASSUMPTION of what you earned in tips as well (My sis was a waitress and thus she taught me all this).

It reeks and it's not fair, but that's the way it is.

As for the OP: Oi, I thought it was fair!

[Binky]

Being an Aussie I dont understand tipping. It is not customary here. If it is optional why do people rely on it ? I thought tipping was a way of saying "hey thanks that was great service." Not a expected thing that people relied on for their living!

For example if a meal here costs $30.00 on the menu. Thats what we pay.
!

thats my understanding. I too am an Aussie, and I only tip if the person(s) who served me did a really good job (of like in another post of mine, I spill drink all over them and want to make it up to them)

[Freemage]

I usually tip 15%, then round up, on deliveries that are of 'average' quality. So I would've tipped 1.50, just to make it a round number. I usually set restaurant tips at the 20% level.

Of course, the guy who delivered my Chinese take-out the other night got bupkus, but that was because it was a pre-ordered delivery (ie, I ordered over an hour before I wanted the food to arrive) and then it got there almost 40 minutes late (meaning I'd spent two-thirds of my lunch hour down in the lobby, waiting for the food to arrive).