Every year at this time the trash men put a Xmas card on the trash can & you are supposed to put some money in it I guess. Some people take the money from the cans in the morning. So it doesn’t always get to them.
I never do tip them I guess because: 1.The trash rates are high enough as it is. 2. I always put the can on the street even though they have to come in the yard and get it. 3. I don’t tip the gas guy, postman, phone guy, cable guy, etc.4. as above, sometimes someone takes the money.
I’d tip the trashmen if they’d take my trash. Last summer, my town switched to an automatic garbage truck. It has a big arm that comes down, pics up the trash bin, dumps it into the truck, then puts the bin down again. We all got new trash and recycle bins that must be positioned correctly in the gutter, with the arrow pointing out, with at least 3 feet in between the two bins.
If any and all of these measures are not performed correctly, the trash truck can’t pick the bins up. At this point, the driver gets out of his car, puts a note on your trash can, and does not reposition the bins. He leaves 'em there, full of trash. Bugs the shit out of me. I mean, if he’s getting out of the truck to put the tag on the bin, how much harder is it just to get the damn trash?!? I pay for this service!
The whole positioning thing is well and good when I’m bringing the trash out, but try to explain it to housesitters/guests who are trying to be nice and put the trash out. It’s almost impossible.
I do not tip the trashman…for one thing I leave the trashcan beside the road in a nice neat way…and 99% of the time I have to get it out of the ditch when I get home…with half the trash strown along the roadside…
I’m sure some of you remember my thread about my garbageman-if that worthless search engine worked, I’d link to it here.
My garbageman not only takes all my garbage, he puts my can back on my porch afterwards, and toots the horn while pulling away. If I’m outside when he comes, he waves and says “hello”. He gives awesome service, and today I left him a $20 tip!
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Nail technician? I’m guessing this is a manicurist…either that or a hardware store guy. Either way it’s hilarious.
As to the dilema of whether or not to tip the , uh, sanitation engineer, I’d have to say no. Why? Well the only people I tip are those that make their money off tips. Food logistics technicians (waitresses) make only about 1/2 of minimum wage as their base pay, so they need your tips just to survive.
Garbagemen, on the other hand, make probably about $15/hr or more. They don’t need tips to supplement that. And that Christmas card on the trash can idea to solicit tips (which I had never heard of before this thread), strikes me as rather tacky.
I should add that I’ve never heard of leaving a card for a tip, and I would complain about that if it happened to me. Very, very tacky.
I also should add that I don’t pay for my garbage service. A friend who runs the company has a driver just stop here and we leave the driver a few bucks a week to pick up our trash. We get excellent service, and I figure slipping him a $20 at Christmas time is the least I can do. But that’s just how it works 'round these parts.
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
I did this year. First time I’ve ever tipped service persons. But I’ve been redoing my kitchen since, oh, forever. Which means that the trash guys have been dealing with heavy 3mil, 50 gallon bags filled with plaster and nail-embedded lathe for months. Figure $20.00 would at least pay for a tetanus shot…
