So this morning we had a chair and ottoman delivered. Originally, it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but we,live on a hill, which was icy, and there was construction of our street. The driver need up having to back down our narrow street, and he and his assistant (college kid) had to carry the items up,the hill. I gave the driver a $20 in front of the assistant and said “get yourself some lunch.” The driver kind of gestured at the kid, like I should give him the money, but is was kind of committed by that point. My wife said she saw the driver give the kid the $20. Did I accidentally insult the driver? By way of background, I worked as a driver’s helper in my 20s and my attitude was I did exactly what the driver wanted and nothing more. I figured by giving the tip to the person in charge he’d make it right. What do you all think?
What kind of company was it? If it was from a small store you very well may have ended up with a father and son and it could have been dad telling you to give the kid the money. Similarly, the driver could have been the owner or a manager or just well enough off that he wanted the assistant to have the money. Or maybe the kid just did the majority of the work and he thought it was the kid that deserved it.
It was Room and Board, a large chain.
$20 is a nice tip. You did good. Don’t worry where it ends up.
I’ve given money to delivery people (they’re always men it seems, so “delivery men”) but I worry when I give it to one of a team of two - I never know if the first guy pockets it and stiffs the other guy, or if they share all the time.
If I have correct “change” I will tip each guy separately, if not - I’ll give it to one but I always say something like “share it with your friend”, or “split it amongst yourselves”.
It used to be that whenever I got large items delivered or repaired the guys would be fishing for a tip which was rather annoying. But lately the guys all seem to work as 3rd party delivery services and while they appreciate tips most of them seem more concerned about getting positive responses to those e-mail surveys about your delivery “experience” and good Yelp and Google reviews.
When I had my washer and dryer delivered and installed it was a really hot day. Part of the deal was that they took the old, non functional; appliances with them when they left. I had an old and fairly large CRT television in the garage and they were willing to take that along too. I had been trying to get rid of that for a long time, but the land fill would not take it, nor would the trash removal people.
I gave the furniture delivery guys $20.00 and two beers iced down in a ziplock bag and they loaded up the old TV.
…and they sat and drank with the sun on their shoulders, and felt like free men.
That’s why when I move, I make sure all the guys are there, hand one of them the tip and make sure I say it’s for all of them. Or if I have enough bills to distribute them evenly I’ll give it to each. I have known enough people who pocket tips that are meant to be shared that I want to make sure it’s split fairly.