If your gripe was that ordering pizza is only done by the lazy, you should have started a thread on that rather than hijacking this thread by declaring that you don’t tip and that pizza delivery people don’t deserve tips.
I’ll tell you another thing, I cook fabulous meals. I have over 50 cookbooks in my kitchen, but most of the time I don’t even use one and still make great food. I violate time-honored “rules” that you must never tinker with a recipe the first time you make it, and that you have to taste what you’re cooking to know if you’ve seasoned it right (I’m a vegetarian who won’t taste my meat dishes), and yet friends and family have praised what I make.
But geez, some nights I get home from work exhausted and I just don’t feel like cooking. Frozen pizza is nasty, I don’t buy packet meals, and I don’t eat at McDonalds. Instead, I have a nice local Italian restaurant deliver some pizza, or some pasta dish, and I tip the driver anywhere from 20-30% of the total because I appreciate them delivering my food quickly. And they do, too - they’re always much faster than the estimated time given over the phone.
So pardon my lazy ass if I decide not to buy frozen circles of cardboard with cheese on them, or a box full of noodles and nasty-tasting cheese powder, but instead have the audacity to occasionally pick up a phone and have delicious food delivered hot and fresh, and even tip them for doing it.
Exactly, with a coupon and $10-$11 I can get a large pizza delivered hot and yummy, and that includes the tip. Hardly worth saving the extra couple bucks to go to the store, give up the freezer space for storage, spending the time on cooking, etc. etc. Plus, if I call from work and pick it up on the way home, the fresh pizza is actually cheaper than the good frozen ones. We don’t eat pizza often, why shouldn’t we eat good ones when we do splurge?
Seriously, cheap frozen pizzas are vile. As are most packaged dinners. I can’t believe someone would actually pretend like a box of Noodles N’ Sauce was preferrable, taste-wise or convienence-wise, to a fresh pizza.
I thought that we had discussed the whole practice of tipping frequently enough on these Boards that people would have an idea of how tipping practices differ from country to country.
To those criticizing Go You Big Red Fire Engine for not tipping, remember to look at his location. Not every country has the same tipping practices as the United States.
Go You Big Red Fire Engine, you’re just making an idiot out of yourself. I’ve spent most of my life in Australia, and i know that tipping is not required there. You are not a bad person for not tipping; you’re just conforming to the practices in your country.
But there’s also no need hijack the thread by criticizing those who do tip. Those people are also conforming to the practices in their country, and your gratuitous insults just make you look like a moron.
As for the whole making your own pizza schtick, you’re also being an idiot on that score. Sure, people could heat up a frozen pizza or make their own from scratch. But the fact is that sometimes people just want to order home delivery. Are you seriously arguing that it is silly to have someone else make your food when you could do it yourself? Have you never eaten at a restaurant instead of staying home?
FTR, hotshot, I do eat frozen pizzas from time to time. They don’t taste nearly as good as other pizzas, IMHO. And making one from scratch ain’t gonna happen.
As for whether or not I can cook, I do reasonably well, thank you very much. No, wait, I’m an excellent cook. What’s so damned wrong about having food delivered to your house - especially, say, if you’re ill and the family would like to eat? And if it’s about the environment and the fact the delivery guy is driving all the way out to all of our houses… hell, there shouldn’t be restaurants period, then. We should all save gas and whatnot by staying at home all the time and cooking our own damned food.
I live out in the country, where we don’t get delivery. But there are some nights where I’m positively exhausted where I would love to have a dinner delivered to my home from time to time.
And, upon preview, I can see that others feel that you’re an asshole. Right now, I heartily agree.
If I’m catching the right reference, I’d settle for the car.
Nah, I work for a company who’s name ryhmes with “Pizza Slut”. The uniform is black shoes, black pants, red & black shirt & red or black cap. Last winter, I was wearing a black fleece pullover and black mitty-gloves. One of my easily impressed coworkers said something about looking like a ninja, so I decided to go with “Ninja Pizza Guy” for a handle. When I think of something clever, I’ll change it.
I don’t eat pizza anymore. I stopped liking pizza after I had a baby, which sucks but oh well. When I did order pizzas, I usually wrote the check rounded to the next dollar plus three to four dollars, depending on the total amount.
Example: Total = 13.45 Check = 17.00
More than people who don’t tip at all (cultural differences aside; I can safely assume 99.99% of the people I’ve been out with are American), I hate people who spend so much time calculating the exact amount a tip should be, and everyone has a different opinion. A dollar per person, a certain percent of the total, whatever. Just give 'em a few bucks and get it over with.
How true Silver Fire. When I’m at a restaurant I just move the decimal over to the left one place, double it, round up to the nearest dollar, and then adjust accordingly for service.
With pizza, I’m all about the delivery guy’s attitude. Even if I was having a terrible day when I used to deliver, I was at least civil with my customers since I knew they were paying my rent. If the guy’s just kind of there with the food and doesn’t seem to give a shit about me, I’ll tip $2 plus change. If he’s borderline surly I’ll drop it to a buck. $3 plus change and up for guys that seem to be actually trying to make me happy with the service.
Nobody is saying you have to order pizza. I’m sure many people could make a pizza but choose not to because, I don’t know, they prefer the pizza made by the pizza store or they are doing it because they are busy doing something else but they really want pizza. Or any number of reasons. But, I’ll tell you what, the next time someone forces you to order delivery pizza, feel free not to tip.
Guys, I think Fire Engine is a she. I seem to recall a thread where she gets her clit pierced.
Anyhoo, the first time I ordered pizza for myself, I was about fourteen or fifteen and I didn’t know you were supposed to tip. Not only that, but I had less money than I realized-EXACTLY enough for the pizza and that’s it.
Here’s what I have in my pantry right now to make a meal:
Thirteen boxes of tea. (that’s just sick…)
Two cases of homemade beer.
A bag of mini chocolate chips.
Half a bag of cheetos I bought in December.
Mmm. Sounds tasty.
I’ll stop hijacking this thread now.
As for tipping pizza drivers, I always tip $2 +. Is it better to tip the driver in cash or written into the check? I try to tip in cash if I can, but if I have no cash, I work the tip into the total bill. Does that make it harder on you?
I usually tip well in general, but I have an extra soft spot in my heart for delivery persons. They’re bringing hot food to my lazy ass and I don’t even have to be dressed. Awesome!
Largest tip I’ve ever given was 300%. It was a dark and stormy night, parents were on vacation and I was home alone. Decided at around 9:30 that I really needed some pasta from Guido’s. The poor guy arrives within 20 minutes, soaking wet, with my dinner salad and spinach canneloni, a total of $10. I just handed him a $10 and a $20 and told him to have a nice evening. Since it was at the end of his shift (the place closes at 10) I figured I’d just made up for a whole day’s worth of shitty tippers.
If they work for a major chain, chances are it makes no difference whatsoever. The places I worked for just asked for a grand total at the end of the night.
I’m thinking that Fire Engine may not get the tipping culture differences. Before I went to the States as an adult (was there a few times as a kid) I never got how important the tipping process is there. In Australia, you tip occasionally, but you are not obliged, in NZ you tip even less. For us, if the service was excellent and you have the money, then tipping is a way of saying thank you, so when looking at the US system, if the service was lousy or just part of the job (ie pizza delivery), then we would think, why tip?
