Tipping Pizza Deliverymen

The BBQ Pit
1

I work some nights delivering pizza, like I did 10 years ago. I have a few rants about the business now.

Rules have changed, and now we’re considered tipped workers; before we weren’t, so we were paid above minimum wage. Not only that, but we’re assumed to make a certain amount from tips, whether we do or not is the basis for this rant.

If you can’t afford to tip us, why are you ordering from us? A quality, loaded frozen pizza at Safeway costs $6.00; from us it’s $13-20, depending on size. You can get twice as much from the store as from us.
[ul]
[li]We get $4.25/hr wage, which is $0.90/hr less than minimum. (I used to get $5.50 when minimum was $3.35.)[/li][li]We get a whopping 3.8% commision for vehicle use. (big whoop! It used to be 6%.)[/li][/ul]
So tips are where we make it worthwhile to work a second job to support our families. Ten years ago, the average tip was $1; now it’s $2.40. But we still have “stiffers”, and we have to be as @!#?@! polite to them as others, mainly because we don’t know we’re going to be stiffed until the door slams in our face.

Ultimate insult-to-injury stiff: my first order of the night is for $19.33. A kid opens the door and hands me a $20. Nothing more. So I hand him the pizza, and he starts to shut the door. (“Oh, well, a $0.67 tip is better than nothing,” you might say. But the same thing would’ve happened if the order was $19.93. )

Before the door closes, the mother comes to the door asking if I have change for a $20. “Great!” I think, “She’s going to tip me out of that.” I barely have $20 change on me: $17 in bills and $3 in assorted coins.

“Thank you,” she says, as I expect her to peel off 1 or 2 bills. Nope. Shuts the door in my face. Bitch!

And more: It’s not cute or funny to have a child answer the door. Besides the fact that they don’t understand the concept of tipping, how do you know it’s the pizza man you’re expecting. It could be some psycho. Also, they don’t know how to hold the box. With the new heat cores in pizza bags, the bottom center is very hot. But that’s exactly where they grab for it. No matter how much you tell them to grab the edges. And if they drop it, don’t expect the pizza to be in pristine condition.

2

She stiffs you and sucks up all your change???:eek::eek::eek:

Man, that’s heinous.

3

No doubt! And here’s what happened the previous night delivering:

Usually I have no stiffs. (10 years ago I usually had 1 or 2 a day, but I delivered to a relatively poor neighborhood.) But my fourth delivery was. No biggie, I thought. The other 9 of my first 10 were good tips. I even got a $2 tip for delivering blue cheese to someone whose first deliveryman forgot it.

But the next 6 deliveries:
[ul]
[li]#11 - Woman looks mystified at my appearance. She didn’t order anything. Could be a joke order, could be she realized that she didn’t have the money for the order. I’m willing to think it was the former.[/li][li]#12 - Taken along with #11, but gets there in good time. No tip anyway.[/li][li]#13 - To a hotel on the edge of our delivery area. Usually hotel guests are good tipper. Not this guy. No tip.[/li][li]#14 - To a poorer apartment complex with too many speed bumps. OK tip ($1.75).[/li][li]#15 - Delivery across the street from the store. OK tip ($1.50). Also have #16 with me.[/li][li]#16 - When the woman answers, it looks like she’s just moving in. Great, I thought. Just-moved-ins are usually good tippers. But wait! She didn’t order a pizza. And the phone number is not hers. sigh I realize what happened: order taker took phone number. Computer keyed up address from previous order. But @!#?@! order taker didn’t verify the address like they’re supposed to do with every @!#?@! order. So no tip, no commission.[/li][/ul]

So it’s no wonder that with the first order the next night being a stiffer that I got in a bad mood. :(:(:frowning:

4

Well, here’s part of the problem. When I was growing up, pizza delivery guys also weren’t considered tipped workers where I lived. They made above minimum wage (sometimes much above it - I recall delivery guys making $10/hour in an era of $3.75 minimum wage. Not killer money, but pretty good.) So it was traditional to give the delivery guy the change, but not a real tip.

Things have changed, and now I give delivery guys tips. Some people may not be aware of the change.

Sua

5

At least they’re not tipping you over like a cow which was was I thought from the thread title.:slight_smile:

6

Am I tipping enough?
We have a ‘regular’ order at out local pizza place, usually 2 subs and a pizza, comes to $15-something, I give the guy $18. I round up, and add $2.
Is that enough?
If we order more (several pizzas, for a party or something) I will add to the tip accordingly.

What do you do with the food from joke orders? Is that just a loss?

7

I used to be a pizza chauffeur. One night I was delivering in the snow, and there was an address at the bottom of a hill I didn’t think I’d be able to drive back up. I parked at the top and walked a hundred yards down the hill, and it was a ritzy neighborhood, too. No tip.

For the people who really annoy you, do you hide a piece of jalapeno under one of the pepperoni slices?

8

My average tip was $2.40, but has dipped to $2.25 since the new year. So your $2 + change is good.

Usually, I consider $0.50 the start of non-insulting tips. Since $2.25 is my average, I do get tips that are in the $3-5 range. My biggest has been $12, on a $54 order.

So I wasn’t mad at the $0.67 tip the kid gave me (probably unintentionally). It was the mother making me think I was getting more, draining my change, and stiffing me from there.

For bad orders:
[ul]
[li]If there was a complete mismatch (phone and address were bad), we rip off the address sticker and leave it to be eaten by hungry drivers.[/li][li]If there was some order-taker mistake (typed bad address, didn’t verify), we hold it, call the number, and hopefully get things straightened out. If nothing comes of that, we drivers eat it.[/li][li]If the wrong toppings were put on a pizza and we redeliver a correct one, we bring back the old pizza and eat it.[/li][/ul]
Besides having the drivers literally eating it, the management has to eat the cost. Right now, that’s about 40%’ i.e., a $10 pizza costs $4.00 in ingredients. But on top of that is the driver’s wage for trying to deliver ($1-2), and loss of manpower that could’ve been used in delivering good orders.

9

No. But we don’t know they’re annoying until after the delivery.

When I delivered 10 years ago, we had that annoying $3 off if it was 30 minutes old. I had one group of drunks trying to claim that, but I had my watch on that said it was only 22 minutes old. Shut them up toot sweet! :D:D

10

And the difference is?

Don’t hit me, I tip.

11

Reminds me of Snow Crash… :slight_smile:

12

“The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory.”

Fenris

13

2 large pizzas invariably come to $19.98 (it’s a permanent coupon type thing). An all too usual scene at a $400k+ house:

Me: That’ll be $19.98 sir.

Richie Rich: Here’s $20, keep the change ::winks::

I even had one rich kid tell me to “Have fun working” (followed by maniacal laughter) after stiffing me. The kid was probably 19 or 20 and I’m sure he’d never worked a day in his life.

14

Not always. Some people are bad enough on the phone that you want to do that to them. And some folks build up a reputation. Doesn’t someone at your shop remember people or addresses you’ve had regular trouble with?

Of course, the jalapeno-under-the-pepperoni trick was a standard joke where I worked, but I don’t know of anyone really doing it.

I worked during the 30-minutes-or-free era. In the year I worked there, I gave away two pizzas. I was damn good.

15

After working in food service, I tip damn good- especially for a college student.

I just read Snow Crash over break. Hee… Watch out for Uncle Enzo.

16

I used to deliver a while back. Anyone who tried to “tip” me anything under 50¢ would find the coins on their doorstep next time they stepped outside.

Also, for this Ultra-annoying situation:

me: “That’ll be $19.54”
Shithead: “Here’s a $20”
me, thinking I am about to get a 46¢ tip, only to see that…
Shithead: “I’d like my change, please”

In this rare breed of uber-shithead, you are damn straight I have a quarter, two dimes, and a penny in my cash pouch I could give him. But I also kept about $3 in pennies in a sealed Tupperware container in the car. I would occasionally pour coke and throw cigarette butts in the container.
Me: “One second, I gotta go to the car to get you change”

Come back and hand fuckface 46 sticky, stinky pennies. It does wonders for making you feel better when you know you aren’t getting tipped. :slight_smile:

17

I always try to tip between 15-20% for pizza delivery. Sometimes, cause of cash, I’m forced to tip less, and I always feel bad about it. But it’s never under $2.

Wait… There was one time when we didn’t tip… although it was my girlfriend at the time, and the guy was an asshole. The change was something like $4.54. He gave her 4, then just started walking away. She asked for change, and he said something to the effect of “ummm… uhh. sorry, I don’t have it” and then walked off. Fucking ashole. We were going to give him the dollars. But whatever.

18

Recently (couldn’t have been more than 2 years ago) Ann Landers advised her readers not to tip pizza delivery guys. That blew my mind. What freakin’ century is she living in?

I take my motto from Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven: “It’s not tipping I believe in; it’s over-tipping.” We often order pizza or Chinese food at work, often after hours when the doors are locked, so the delivery person has to go to some extra effort (figure out which door we’re at, maybe wait for us if they’re early). We’re careful to always tip about 20%, so they’ll remember where we are and how to find us–we don’t have to go through the laborious and detailed instructions if they shout, “Hey, anyone know where the X Building is?” and three delivery guys shout, “Yeah, I’ll take it!” because they know there’s good tip waiting for them. And, like y’all said, if you’re ordering out for pizza, it’s not because you’re trying to save money.

19

Our computer system allows for some notes to be taken, like entry codes if the person doesn’t want to leave their last name. (Many apartment entry systems around here are indexed by name, not apartment number.)

One field comes up on the screen, but isn’t printed on any labels. Often, the manager will put “DO NOT ACCEPT CHECKS” or “NO CHECKS”. Doesn’t do any @!#?@! good if it’s not on the box we deliver… :rolleyes:

20

One of my old co-workers would put comments in the memo line of checks if he didn’t like the people. Until one lady noticed the words “NO TIP!”. :smiley: Fortunately for him, we were all paper then, so there was no tracing who delivered.

Now, we can trace who took the order, who delivered, how often they order (the screen says “Wow! Another frequent customer!” But we have no direction on what to do with that info :rolleyes:), and of course, special instructions. Some customers don’t want their pizza cut, some want it delivered to the back door.