What Habibi said...

I get tired of hearing people in the service industry bitch and moan about their job, ESPECIALLY while their on their job. If its that bad find another job.

I'll tip according to service, THAT is what tipping is all about. DO NOT EXPECT a tip from me at any time unless you fricken deserve it...

If you're friendly, do a good job, etc, etc... I'll express my gratitude...

But if you ever left ruts in my yard, I can guarantee, you'd be looking for another job to pay for yard work...

 

Or instead of putting the onus on the customer why not do away with tip based pay and go to a proper hourly wage.
It will get back to the customer in higher prices or delivery charges but at least it will be mandatory and if you order food for delivery you will pay the charge or you will get off your *** and go get it.

 

I realize that I came on pretty strong here, but I really am always very polite to customers. If I am given any amount of money as a tip, I say thank you and walk away. Usually I don't even count the money until after the customer has closed the door.

I do have a big *** spotlight (is 15 million CP enough?) and a map and a cell phone with me at all times. Unfortunately, this is South Florida, where every day you wake up and there's 10 new streets filled with non English-speaking occupants.

It may seem like it, but I do not go around just ripping up people's yards. I am aware of the trouble I can get in for that. That's not to say I have never done it though. I pretty much stopped after a woman made me go to the gas station and get change for her (if all you have is a $100 bill, please tell us that over the phone) and when I got back she proceeded to give me exact change. I backed into her front yard and put burnouts across it which continued across the driveway. Later that day the owner of the house called saying that it was the babysitter who had ordered food, and she wasn't even home. Luckily, she was not pissed and actually apologized that the babysitter was such a bitch.

Not getting tipped is part of the job, and I know that. Usually I just suck it up and go to the next house. However, sometimes it gets overwhelming. The night that I wrote this, my first delivery was to a guard in a gated community. This guy never tips me anything. Nothing. I was pissed about going there because of that, not to mention that it was pouring rain and we were under a tornado warning. On the way there it started hailing. I pull up to the gate and tell the guy it's $11.92 and he says he only has $10. All I can say is it's a good thing my girlfriend was there to calm me down because I probably would have beat the crap ou tof him. Instead I just sat there and screamed about how pissed I was and how he should never order food from me again. Then he tells me that he has some change in his car, but he didn't want to go get it because it was hailing. Keep in mind that this whole time I am sitting in my truck with the window down trying to give this idiot his food. Needless to say, I got no tip from him, and as a matter of fact, I ended up paying for some of his food. The rest of the day didn't go any better, so I came home and wrote that.

 

I actually do work another job, which is completely on the books. 19 years old, paying my way through college/rent/car payments... I'll take any money I can get.

 

Try this one on for size...

How about getting called out at 3AM for a "sick party" and when you make location the patient tells you that they've been sick for 3 - 7 days and now they want to go to the hospital. I can understand your pain jiggle.

I've been to countless unnecessary EMS calls, it's just the way people are programmed these days. We've been dispatched to (if I'm lyin' I'm dyin') a stubbed toe, other units in the county have made equally stupid runs. Just hope _you_ aren't having a heart attack while we're tied up on a bogus taxi run.

My dept. covers a fairly affluent area so I'm guessing they just don't realize the cost, but call a taxi, a family member or a friend/neighbor. That EMS unit you're using for a taxi is gonna cost you $500 minimum.

On the other end of the spectrum we'll get people who'll drive themselves to the station with arterial bleeding..!

 

Yet another hijack... This reminded me of when I was in western alaska doing helicopter search and rescue... We had what we called the "Hooper Bay Bingo B***" Who, on every thursday would call in with "chest pains." On good weather/ daylight days, a fixed wing civilian EMS airplane would go pick her up, but on most days, the weather was too bad, or night time, and we would have to go fly out in our Blackhawk helicopter for 2 hours each way at $3300 per hour to bring her back to town. She would be feeling better at the hospital, and be released, just in time to go to the bingo hall. Since she was a Native Alaskan, all her medical costs are paid for by the government (including transportation), so she would get a free trip to bingo every week.

Thanks for paying your taxes.


To the OP, I delivered pizza for a year or so when I first moved up here... It all works out, some people tip well, some don't, goes with the territory. If you can imagine delivering pizza in Alaska, where there is almost no address markings, and most don't know their physical address, since they have PO boxes (no front door mail delivery), I always asked what kind of car(s) was in the driveway, and /or boats on trailers, etc. Worked way better than addresses, and house descriptions (when it comes to house colors, a person's view of what a color is, is very subjective... cars are generally painted in easily described colors).

 

Phuk yes it is ! ! !



Outstanding rant....I was almost mad WITH you.

 

I wish. This is Chinese food I'm delivering. I've worked at a couple different Chinese places and they will generally do anything for a few bucks. Most of them have come to this country to work, and that is what they do. They work full days, 7 days a week, and it turn most of them end up with nice houses and nice cars. However, it is kind of ridiculous when they send me to somebody's house 8 miles away in rush hour for a $13 order. We all lose money in that case. Not to mention cutsomers who called after them will now have to wait even longer for their food, which goes back to me making less money and the business getting less return customers.

Thanks. I've been told by many that I should be a freelance writer. Maybe I'll put up some of the essays I wrote for Comp 1.

 

Ever seen Reservoir Dogs? Watch the first 15 minutes when they are in the coffee shop. I love what Mr. Pink has to say.

 

We tip really good at work when we order out. We'll easily spend $70 once a week at the Chinese place and have it delivered. I make everybody tip $0.50 for their $4.50 lunch. Sometimes he delivers twice in the same day.

 

I'm in the second group, I have never relized how severe my injuries were until I got there and the lady with the paperwork said holy **** we'll rush you right in.

 

I delivered pizza's for quite some time, and because of that I generally tip well. As long as the service is good. But if the service is bad, I have no problems leaving a bad tip, or no tip at all.

When I delivered to somebody that obviously had the money to tip, and they didn't. I confronted them. I would usually say something like, (very politely of course) "I'm sure you know that tips are a large portion of my salary and I rely on them to make ends meet. I understand that you feel my service was not good enough to earn a tip, but can you tell me what I can do to improve my service so I do not have this happen again in the future?" Most of the time, the person would get embarrassed and try to tip me, which I wouldn't accept. Once I got the door slammed in my face, and a couple times I was given legitimate complaints (usually pizza arrived later than expected).

 

I think anyone who eats at any kind of restaraunt should have to work at one for a minimum of one entire pay-period for that particular store. I was at McDonald's for years (first job), and you would not believe some of the customers. One woman came in every tuesday (it was 39 cent hamburger day, 49 cent cheeseburgers) and would order a plain cheeseburger. So, she got a plain cheeseburger, which she would then unwrap right at the counter and throw it at the employees working the register or at the grill team in the back, screaming how she just wanted bread and cheese with no meat. Of course, every dang tuesday, we had a different person working the front counter and they would always give her a plain cheeseburger, with no one having the insight that this woman doesn't want meat on her next one. When I made manager, I called the police, pressed assault charges on her for throwing food at my employees, had her banned from the store after I explained to her that a plain cheeseburger had meat and SHE was ordering it wrong. I'm all about getting what you pay for, but 49 cents does not give people the right to throw tantrums like that, geez...
The Pizza Hut here doesn't deliver anymore, but for the last year that they did, if you had a pizza delivered it was automatically like 3 dollars more than usual. Anyway, sorry for the long pointless (irrelevant) story, I always tip, the poor woman at Huddle House here makes $2.13 an hour, and her tips make up the difference. She is taxed on minimum wage, whether she makes that or not. She is of limited intelligence, but she does try, so I always leave a ten percent tip, even if she sucks...It's a habit for me now, wherever I go, and I might even tip the pizza guy 5 bucks, even if it takes them to an hour to get one pizza to my house, because the Pizza King (small town "made for t.v. version of Dominos") is a block away, but it's my laziness for not going and getting it, so I don't take it out on the delivery guy...

 

[QUOTE=BennyHanna].

When I delivered to somebody that obviously had the money to tip, and they didn't. I confronted them. I would usually say something like, (very politely of course) "I'm sure you know that tips are a large portion of my salary and I rely on them to make ends meet. I understand that you feel my service was not good enough to earn a tip, but can you tell me what I can do to improve my service so I do not have this happen again in the future?" QUOTE]

Benny, I kind of like that approach, but I honestly wonder if it's acceptable behaviour to say such a thing?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a smart ***, I really would like to debate whether that would be acceptable to say to a customer, or not.

I personally think it's wrong, and here's my reason:
* Many people are just cheap fks to begin with and will never tip. Tipping is not a law, so if they don't want to, they shouldn't have to, and I think it would be correct to state that a tip is completely voluntary.

By you asking, it is very confrontational, puts people on the defensive, and you risk them not ordering from you again.

Now if you don't own the place, you probably won't care, but the owner probably does.

Anyway, serious question here, is Benny's question acceptable to pose to a non-tipping stingy cheapskate? Or would it be considered uncouth.

Occasionally I'll drive a cab on Fri & Sat nights. but I honestly don't believe that would be an acceptable question for me to pose to a customer.

When the bus driver was taking my wife & I to the cruise ship in Ft Lauderdale in Jan, he stood right up at the front of the bus, and said in a loud and clear voice:
"Welcome to Florida, my name is Pete, at the end of your trip, tipping is not only encouraged, but expected"

Honestly, I felt like he crossed the line demanding a tip, so at the end of the trip, I gave him nothing.
Approach is everything.
I thought what he did was in bad taste, and as much as I like the question you pose to your non tipping customers, I believe that might be in bad taste also, but I'm no expert, I'm curious to see what the rest of the peeps have to say.

 

I waited tables at Jim's (it's a chain, kinda like Denny's) for 6 months when I was first in college, so I understand both sides of the tip issue.. Some people are just cheap or don't understand that wait-staff don't even make minimum wage... okay..
Some have an issue with the food or the service..okay..
But then there are Jehovah's Witnesses who come in in groups of 4 - 10 and sit there drinking juice for 2 or 3 hours, taking up tables and then leave a GODDAMNED COMIC BOOK as a tip!!!

Also, as far as address numbers visible from the street.. I work for Fedex now and yeah, if you're in a "neighborhood" I can figure out if I'm at the right house when you can't be bothered to either have a number on your mailbox, painted on the curb or visible from the street.. but all you folks in wooded, rural, semi-rural, whatever areas.. don't expect me to make more than two passes trying find your house if you don't like to have a visible address.. and no, a rock 50 feet back from the road with a number painted on it doesn't cut it..

And X2 on the gated communities, give up the gate code if you want your **** delivered, I ain't sittin' there praying some one comes along and opens it up.. I have work to do and deadlines, you aren't home as far as I'm concerned..

Whew!