The newspaper does send me any tips that are sent in to the company. I have an extremely detailed summary each month, and all tips and debits (I buy the bags and rubberbands) are listed. Tips are listed by customer name, so folks can always follow up if they want to.
Your friend could switch to a Sunday-only subscription, btw…I have lots of those.
FCM, nah, I’m just joking about the service issue. I’d porch your paper in a snowstorm even if you never tipped. Especially if you’re an old geezer. Of course, booze is never inappropriate.
Having done this job for a decade, I tend to tip everyone, but I don’t know if most folks tip the garbage guy or not. He always seems surprised when I do.
Missed the edit window…
I decided not to mention the issue in my letter…I just can’t bring myself to do it. My regular customers will realize something is fishy if they get cards from 2 people and should be able to figure out which one is legit. In the retirement home, though, I’m going to have to pay one of the overnight CNAs to go around and pick up any of my tips before the thieving carrier arrives there to deliver her paper, as our routes overlap there.
I’m pretty sure it is adults that deliver ours as one came up and apologized last week when, for the first time ever, ours wasn’t there one morning. Their age is inconsequential to me though. Yes, I do miss the image of a young enterprising kid on a bike but when it comes down to it service is service. Honestly, I didn’t realize tipping is the norm. Usually everything but the sections I care about go straight into the recycle bin. I’ll correct that this year. Hell, it sure sounds reasonable and decent enough.
Thanks, papregirl, for making me aware. I didn’t know but will look for whatever card may be included and I hope your subscribers are generous enough that you can do all the modest things you mentioned.
I have to say, though, I don’t tip my paper delivery person. It never occurred to me to do so since the paper directly debits my account. We get weekends only. I’ve never had a letter or notice or anything from my carrier, either. I have no idea who delivers it.
Mom loved Christmas. She tipped everybody, which meant that the garbage man, paper boy, exterminator, and yard man would knock on the door and stop and chat for awhile. It made her feel good.
She tried to tip the mail man but he wouldn’t take anything. She had to be satisfied with a card and cookies.
How low does a person have to get before they try to steal someone else’s tips? Is this person going to be fired?
I think there are a lot of people like your mom, especially as folks age. My customers may not see me often, but when they do, I often get a chance to talk about my kids. When people get older and lonlier, sometimes it really means a lot to them to “know” someone who has children, or even just someone they can fret about a little when the weather is bad. And some of them are comforted by the fact that if I know they’re elderly or unwell, I’ll notice if they don’t pick up their papers and will check on them. Twice I’ve called the police to do welfare checks on customers I couldn’t reach; one of them was fine, the other had died.
I don’t know if my DM is going to report her to her manager, but I have an inside line and may know more tomorrow. Word tends to get around, so the bosses should know by now, hopefully.
But yeah…very, very low.
I and my brothers were those canvas bag kids too. Though the paper routes were never in my name, my mother made sure my brothers split their tips with me. Especially when she discovered that my older brother was conning me into collecting the semi-weekly bill from the gruff old codgers who scared him.
My older brother was a paper boy. He was teen and he actually took a trip on his own during the summer. So my dad covered his route. (They wouldn’t let me drive the motorcycle just because I was 10) My dad one morning, spotted a house on fire and woke the family up and get them out and got the fire department called.
The paper reported that my brother the paper boy did all this. (even though they knew he was 1500 miles away!)
Of course, booze is never inappropriate.
I never got de-flowered, either. :(