Unfiltered Story #145518

I am a customer in this situation. I’ve been waiting for about an hour and a half on a pizza delivery. It’s a Saturday on a busy weekend for them, and I know how hard these nights can be, so when the delivery guy finally rolls up and gets out, this conversation takes place:

Me: “Hey, rough night?”
Him: “Horrible night. Sorry this took so long.”
Me: “It’s alright, it won’t affect your tip any. I know how tough this can be.”

He starts to pull out the food as I jot down an 8 dollar tip. I hand back the receipt. He looks at it and softens, having looked pretty stressed out.

Me: “I try to tip well, I know how bad the tippers are around here. One of your other drivers told me that after I asked him how a 5 dollar tip was a ‘good tip’. Most people around here don’t seem to understand that the delivery charge isn’t actually a tip, or that these cars are actually yours and they don’t compensate you on gas money.”
Him: “Well, thank you for that.” *He pauses for a moment to hand me the food.* “Last night I did 14 deliveries, and I got 8 dollars in tips for the entire night.”
Me: *I stand there dumbfounded for a good second, mouth agape.* “What the- I knew the tips were bad, but that is just ridiculous! They need to start putting ‘delivery charge is not tip, please tip your drivers’ on the receipts or something!”
Him: *He nods, smiling.* “That’s a good idea.”
Me: “The other driver said he was going to do that. If enough of you do complain or press the issue, maybe something will change?”
Him: “I hope so. And I will. Well, thank you. Take care!”
Me: “You too.”

The last driver told me that he was lucky to get 2 dollars from someone who tips here where I live, on a good day, but that most people didn’t tip at all. He had moved here from up north, where tips averaged on 5 dollars and no tips were a lot rarer. My wife had always gotten a bit nervous when I tipped 5 dollars, as we both thought it was too tacky or low. How wrong we were! We can only hope the business actually changes their receipts and encourages us customers to help out.