I’ve never seen a delivery charge added to a pizza around here.
Further, as a former pizza driver and bartender it is my deeply held opinion that people who do not tip are jerks. Period.
You can rationalize your cheepniz any way you want, but tipping is the social convention. Tipped service workers depend on tips for a significant portion of their income. Is that fair or just? Maybe, maybe not but it’s the way things are. Deal with it, grow a set of stones and TIP.
In my experience the worst non-tippers were the people who’d have a total of something like 9.78, hand you a ten then stand there and wait for their 22 cents back. I’d usually give 'em a quarter and tell 'em to keep the difference.
Oddly enough, http://tipthepizzaguy.com exists. I found it after Googling “delivery charge pizza”. It’s an interesting site, though it’s seemingly anti-customer at times.
It does downplay the $2 delivery charge, which is in place at at least 3 stores in my town (Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Little Caesar’s; no further cite, I’m sorry).
Honestly, if the companies would take it upon themselves and compensate the drivers and not request “hidden” (or actual hidden) charges from the customers, I’d be more comfortable with this in general, higher prices and all.
Anyone who doesn’t tip a delivery person AT LEAST as much as they tip a restaurant server is an asshole. And yeah, IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD THE TIP YOU CAN’T AFFORD THE PIZZA.
Your waiter brings you your food 20 feet from the kitchen; the pizza person slogs it through the rain and snow, paying for his own gas and car insurance.
Plus, he’s probably competing with other drivers. A place I worked for in Chicago had so many drivers that I’d only get one delivery every hour and a half or so, so that measly change-plus-a-dollar didn’t go very far.
When I delivered pizza, we got pretty much minimum, and were paid another 50 cents per delivery, and then it was up to us to get tips to make anything worthwhile. I’ve never heard this isn’t SOP.
Yes. Also, people who deliver room service at hotels. The latter group seems to have a less arduous position than driving around in all sorts of weather.
as a former pizza delivery guy, I did appreciate the tips we made 5 bucks a hour plus 23 cnets a mile plus tips. My biggest tip was i delivered a 15 buck pizza to this mansion, the guy handed me a fifty and said keep the change, , the I had a few rich people not tip at all
Wow. I am also a university student. I would think that, out of necessity of paying bills, you would have held at least one job that requires you to serve other people. And if not, that you would have friends who have had to do this, or that you at least had the empathy for waiters and delivery people that comes from being in a low tax bracket. I always tip, and always think that it’s necessary.
Coming from a background where tipping was the better part of my income I make sure I tip when I get good service. I dine out at least 5 times a week and am well known in the restaurant circles BECAUSE I tip well.
If you frequent a place you will be remembered by how much you tip. I worked at a thoroughbred horse race track back during the good old 1980’s when oil money was flowing like and uncapped well. I got to meet many celebrities and a lot of very wealthy people who knew the value of tipping.
Face it if you are a lousy tipper you WILL get lousy service. If OTOH you tip well you will have people fighting over you when it comes to getting service. It happened to me today when I frequented the same restaurant twice in this week and once each of the previous weeks. I had 3 waiters trying to get me to sit in their section. The girl who wound up waiting on my group was takig real good care of us.
My friend who likes to have a little fun with the staff wound up getting all three servers taking care of us and telling us the next time we came in they wanted us in their section.
I also have a cousin who complains about the service is never satisfied with the service anywhere he goes and is a lousy tipper. Whenever we eat out at any of our usual places he gets shafted on the service. Its almost like the Seinfeld episode where George kept getting the finger from the waiter while Jerry and Kramer get doted on.
In my previous occupation I hired and trained 1,000’s of people who are still in the food service business. Many have gone on to become management and supervisors while a great many more are still serving as service staff.
They remember a lot of what I taught them and also know I reward good service so I usually get great service. I have had poor service and when I have I usually asked the server why they were not doing a good job. I once told a malcontent server that if they didn’t like what they were doing then quit and find a job that they could enjoy. I said do us both a favor and quit.
A week later when I dined again in the same place the manager (who was one of my former trainees) wanted to know what I said to her. I told him exactly what happened. He said I did him a favor because he was going to fire the person. He told me at the end of her shift she came up to him, said she quit and walked out. Some people are just not cut out to work with the public and the sooner these people learn this the better off everyone will be.
Absolutely I tip anyone that works in the service industry as well.
If I am too lazy to cook and I order take out…But then I am even too lazy to go get it why wouldnt I tip them?
First of all I know people that have delivered here in Oregon. Most of them do not even make half of what I do. That is extremely rude to expect them to give you service in a rush without an incentive.
Here in Oregon they make I think its $6.75. What does that get you? Not much of anything. I live in a college town so they are doing it to get through school. They need the extra spending money. I am happy to give them enough for a couple beers.
I always get great service. The last one that came to the apartment said I was the only one at that building that tipped him all the time. Guess what? That will leave an impression on him when he sees the apartment number next time.
I tip the same everywhere no less than 20% If you order 20 bucks in pizza what is a whole 4 bucks? 4 bucks to them is 45 minutes of running around in crappy weather to bring you food that you were too lazy to get yourself.
Absolutely I tip anyone that works in the service industry as well.
If I am too lazy to cook and I order take out…But then I am even too lazy to go get it why wouldnt I tip them?
First of all I know people that have delivered here in Oregon. Most of them do not even make half of what I do. That is extremely rude to expect them to give you service in a rush without an incentive.
Here in Oregon they make I think its $6.75. What does that get you? Not much of anything. I live in a college town so they are doing it to get through school. They need the extra spending money. I am happy to give them enough for a couple beers.
I always get great service. The last one that came to the apartment said I was the only one at that building that tipped him all the time. Guess what? That will leave an impression on him when he sees the apartment number next time.
I tip the same everywhere no less than 20% If you order 20 bucks in pizza what is a whole 4 bucks? 4 bucks to them is 45 minutes of running around in crappy weather to bring you food that you were too lazy to get yourself.
I must be considered a good tipper then, because I order from the same Pizza Hut and I always get my pizza in less time than I am quoted, sometimes as much as 15mins “early”.
I tip around 15%, but never less than $2-$3. I usually figure out what 15% is and round up to an even dollar amount. If 15% is less than $2, then I do the same thing with rounding up so they’ll get $2.XX.
I’ve always been a pretty good tipper (20-25% or more if the bill is small) but I found out I’m not in at least one area.
Now I’m not the most fashionable guy. When I get a haircut, I got to Bo-rics. I wait until my hair is as long as I can stand it then get it cut short so I don’t have to go back for a while.
For my $10 cut, I would give a $2 tip. 20% right?
My wife’s cousin worked at at a Bo-rics, apparently the going rate was $5-$10.
In the USA, the rule of thumb is that if you cannot afford to tip, you cannot afford to get the service.
Service people are generally paid poorly and their only real income is through tips. I had a friend who earned officially $4.00 an hour at a seafood restaurant in New York City. She took home $500 and more a week in tips. Without them, she would have starved.
Having lived in Europe, I know things are different there. Most are paid MUCH more than the standard American working in food service…waiter, waitress or delivery guy. When I worked as a waiter in Germany I had a great basic salary. A tip - although fairly normal - was an unexpected surprise. In Scandanavian countries, I had wait staff refuse tips.
The USA is very different. Not tipping someone who brings food…to your table or to your home, is simply not done in the States…unless there is really bad service and you are trying to make a point.
I was off the road( not allowed to delivery) for a month last year. Damn that leadfoot of mine! Anyway, I worked in the restaurant for that time. My usaul time is the weekends. I made an average of EIGHTEEN dollars a night. how far di it go? About the distance to get the check home.
I nearly always tip very well, there’s only been once or twice I haven’t, and it’s always because of extremely poor service. I like to tip. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to make someone else feel warm and fuzzy inside. If an extra five or ten percent above the average tip makes someone’s day, then that’s the least I can do for making someone wait on my lazy ass, when I’m too lazy or busy to cook for myself.
Especially pizza delivery-persons. I always figure, if I can tip generously when I go to their place and they only have to make a twenty foot trip, indoors, and without having to pay for gas or look for my house, then I can certainly do better for the guy who has to bring the food to me when I get to sit on the couch in bunny slippers, too schlubby to make the effort to even leave the house ;).
And you know, I must be completely oblivious, because I never even made the connection before this thread. I always tip four or five bucks, and I never really thought about it being a “generous” tip, but in the month that we’ve lived here, our delivery times have plummeted. The first time we ordered, they said thirty to forty five minutes and it probably took forty. The second time, they quoted us an hour (it was a saturday night around nine o’clock after a football game), it took about twenty five minutes.
The other night we ordered and were quoted forty five minutes to an hour, and fifteen minutes later our doorbell rang. I didn’t even think they could make the pizza that fast
And here I just thought they were over-quoting me on delivery times to look good or something…
I used to work delivering pizzas for a national chain.
A) 5.15/hr
B) 50 cents per delivery
C) Tips
On any given night I usually made my salary in tips. Sometimes twice-over.
When it was a nice day and I was carrying, say, two orders of buffalo wings, I didn’t mind getting stiffed. But when it was 1 AM and pouring or the road was lit by no more than my headlights or it smelled like rabbit droppings or I had to navigate my way to the door through old hub caps and the like … or I was carrying a $48.50 order … well, I didn’t appreciate the one time I got a $1.50 tip and the folks felt generous.
NOBODY wanted to deliver to those folks. Poorly lit, which made it difficult to find the house. Way the hell and gone out in the middle of nowhere (despite, due to an act of Satan, that they were within our 3-mile delivery radius), which didn’t lend itself to another delivery on the way there or back. And they tipped like it was the 19th century. And it smelled horrible.
I don’t tip pizza delivery drivers as much as I do restaurant personnel, no. I come into more contact with waitstaff in a restaurant, and the pizza places from which I order are all within two miles away (on dry streets, at that; I don’t order in inclement weather, in which case I’d tip more). So, am I thereby judged an “asshole” based on this one action? (I might add at this juncture that I worked for tips before in addition to hourly pay [as a courtesy clerk], and I was pleased with a dollar or even 50 cents, and I didn’t expect tips at all. Not the caliber of pizza delivery, I suppose, but many of the shared circumstances.).
If I can’t afford the tip (at least, a tip in excess of one-and-change, or two dollars at most) I’m “barred” from ordering it, as well? Something’s fishy.
And refills my drink through the evening and idly chats, often sincerely and brings more food than the pizza deliverer and often walks considerably more than 20 feet, while dealing with other customers simultaneously. As I understand it, the pizza drivers have the customers queued up, and don’t refill drinks, etc.
Like I said before, no inclement weather ordering here. And, even, the snow down here is largely nonexistant.
The gas and insurance argument is worthy, IMHO. I keep this in mind when I tip.
Sounds like a problem with the company.
Quite honestly, I’m rather put off from ordering delivery pizza (if pizza at all) after all this discussion that has brought to light the facts “behind the scenes”. Even if I tipped extravagantly, the last thing I’d want is people fighting for my tip. (And, good on the high-tippers. If I had that money, I probably would as well.) I hate the idea that I’m just seen as a potential tip. I certainly don’t feel that way about the delivery driver, whatever little value this holds.
Oh, and I also discovered this site—thestifflist.com. It purports, as far as I can tell, to collect the names and addresses of those who “stiff”. It’s anyone’s guess as to what is intended to be done with this information. How legal is this site? Anyone?
Another question, as well—what’s the hourly wage a pizza driver usually expects to be paid?
I earned more as a receptionist at a law firm in the summer (non-skilled work, believe you me) after my senior year of high school. I also earned more working construction one summer.
But then, this society is geared toward food delivery personnel being tipped, so they earn less because of that expectation. There is 0 expectation to be tipped for doing good construction work or answering a phone well.
When I delivered for Domino’s 10 years ago I got minimum, $0.25 a mile, and tips. I always tip now since I remember what it was like, walking through a downpour, being soaked to the skin, and when the people answered the door, they stood there laughing at me. They kept me standing in the downpour, while they got the money, then they gave me exact change. Not exactly something to endear you to getting them what they wanted the next time they called.
I work at a big Pizza chain. I get paid more than minimum wage, but only because my boss gave me a raise for being a good worker. I’m working on getting another raise soon because I frankly think I deserve it. I currently make more than the other drivers at my work. Most of the drivers make minimum wage which is 6.75. Some got hired at the 7.00 range. Our restaurant charges 2 bucks for delivery. A LOT of people assume that this is our tip and don’t tip us. We get 75 cents of that two bucks.
I usually don’t get too angry with people that don’t tip. Its the people who ask for their 12 cents back that irritate me. I chose this job because its easy and has really flexible hours. I am currently going to school and it works with my schedule. I have worked in the pouring rain, blistering sun and other miserable conditions. I get irritated when its pouring outside and I’m standing on your porch with no overhang getting soaked because you totally spaced on the fact that a half hour earlier you placed an order for pizza. I get irritated when people do the stupid little joke when I ask them “Excuse me did you order a pizza?” and they say “Nope” and then start laughing. I get irritated when you order a pizza and then you don’t have the decency to even apply house numbers to your house and don’t even bother turning on the porch light or even chaining up your scary barking dog. But the bonus of delivering pizzas is you only have to deal with the bad customers for 2-5 minutes and then you’re on your way.
Now, back to tips. 2-3 dollar tips seem the norm. If you give me a buck, I’m not going to grimace or egg your house. I thank everyone for all the extra cash they give me. 5 dollar tips make my face light up. 7 dollar tips make me suspicous and I will ask if you made a mistake. Biggest tip I’ve gotten? I took a 14 pizza order to the local movie rental place when they were doing inventory. I got a 20 dollar tip out of that. I was so happy and giddy.
and as for how much I tip delivery drivers? I usually tip anywhere between 4-10 bucks. I know what a shitty job delivery driving can be at times. I know that customers can be total asses at times and I feel for them.
