Tipping before receiving service?

[danilynn17]

I am out of town today through Friday, staying in a hotel.  I don't really know the area, and I have a large suite to enjoy, so I decided to order in food.  There is a local company that delivers from about 30 area restaurants and you can order by phone or online.

I placed my order online. After selecting the food, I am presented with several different options for tipping.  $5, 20%, 18%, 15%, fill in your own tip or you'll give a cash tip when food is delivered. 

I was not very thrilled with deciding what to tip before any service is rendered.  What if the guy was rude? What if my food was cold? What if it came late with no explanation? etc. etc.  Then if you don't give a good tip, there's a good chance that the delivery person will be in no hurry to deliver your food.

Also, on the "how to order" page that gave the basic directions, it made it very clear that their delivery drivers expected tips, and that $5-6 on a $30 order was appropriate.  This is on top of the $4.95 fee they were already charging to deliver to my hotel.  They were very forward and explicit that the delivery people should get a big tip.

 My order came to about $27 or so after their fee and before the tip.  I think I chose the 18% as an "in-between" option.  I would've tipped in cash, but I like to charge everything for expense purposes.

It's nice to have the option to put in the tip beforehand so it can go on your credit card.  However, the pushiness of it bothered me.  I guess there's people out there who don't realize they should tip, but I wish they had a more subtle way of explaining it. 

My food did arrive hot and quicker than the estimated delivery time, so I guess the 18% was okay, lol.  Though the tomato sauce from my one dish had leaked.

[ettacat]

You HAD to tip before receiving the food, or could you have skipped that and tipped in person. I know when ordering pizza online, you don't have to tip when paying the bill with the debit/credit card.

I have been in food service and I understand about tipping. But, a couple of practices make me upset. What you just described and establishments adding a gratuity to the bill. I always tip well above the average if the service is good. I do not like being told I HAVE to tip, though.

[ZipTheWonder]

What city are you visiting?

[danilynn17]

What city are you visiting?

Columbus, Ohio

[ZipTheWonder]

I thought maybe it was somewhere that people wouldn't normally anticipate tipping so they were going overboard. 

I'm going to go with the explanation that they are offering to let you put it on the credit card so they have to know the amount in advance.

[danilynn17]

I thought maybe it was somewhere that people wouldn't normally anticipate tipping so they were going overboard. 

I'm going to go with the explanation that they are offering to let you put it on the credit card so they have to know the amount in advance.

Which I certainly appreciate as someone who rarely has cash on me  .  I just was irked by the pressure/clear expectations to tip a lot!

[Sirius]

We always tip the local pizza delivery person $3, more if it's raining.  They're only coming three blocks, but so far we've always gotten our food hot and usually earlier than estimated.  They're also always very polite, too.

[Sophia]

I don't buy the credit card reason.  What food-related credit card slip does not have a tip line? 

My guess is that people thought all the extra fees associated with these services covered the tip, and therefore they didn't tip.  Then the company had a hard time keeping drivers. 

Even when it was company money, I usually thought the delivery service wasn't worth the extra money.  BUT, when I did use them, I really appreciated it.  My other problem was ordering enough food to cover their minimums.