Food delivery tipping advice - elevator out of service

Assume the following situation:

Sick person on the 8th floor of an urban apartment building with laryngitis (so cannot order by phone) and, as many urban dwellers have, a thoroughly inadequate pantry for actually preparing food. This person wants to order food. Is it okay to order via Seamless or Foodler or something similar and throw in a large additional tip for the inconvenience of having to climb stairs (An extra $20? $30?).

Okay to do this and mention the elevator is out of order in the "add comments" section of the order? I assume that most delivery people would be willing to climb 7 flights of stairs if the tip was large enough to compensate.

Feedback from actual food delivery people especially welcome.

Note: Of course standard "sick person ordering food" protocol applies, including washing hands with disinfectant soap after delivery guy buzzes up and being careful not to expose person to any germs.

If I was a delivery person, I would be more than willing to climb a few stairs for that much more (seems excessive to me, but I'm sure that depends on where you live).

Why would they pay an extra $20? Isn't the delivery person already getting a wage?

Depends on how large the order is, but that does seem a bit excessive. I'd say tacking on ten to the usual percent tip you'd give for delivery is more than reasonable.

@fallen189: Delivery drivers will often receive a lower wage simply because they get tips. Similar to how waiters are paid but usually not that deep of a wage cut.

Must be an American thing

@fallen189: Probably. There are plenty of places that pay their delivery drivers a normal amount, then might split tips among all of the staff and use the delivery fee to pay for the driver's gas. It all depends on the workplace.

Yeah, I have no idea how the American tipping system works.

Like, I get the idea that you should always tip, but I don't understand that the 'tipping' system is used to help justify the fact that employers screw their workers by underpaying them.

I think a better system is: pay your employees more. Then people can still earn tips if they provide good service.

I was a waiter for about 5 years. If I did a good job, I was hopeful of a tip - sometimes I got good tips, sometimes I got nothing. At the end of the day though, my wage was enough to see me through anyway - the tips were just a bonus (which was always appreciated). The idea that you have to be reliant on tips is mind boggling to me. Is the thought that because people rely on tips that they will therefore work harder to get tips? However, by that logic, everyone in the U.S seems like they're supposed to tip regardless of the service, so why work harder?

And I've just become Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs

Anyway mate, tip what you feel comfortable with. Not your fault that they have to climb all those stairs, but it sucks for them as well - the fact that you're thinking it through so much is pretty nice. $10?

@cale said:

You can hang a rope out the window and tell him to tether it to the food, then you simply hoist the food up and drop him a fat fai dalla bill, saving yourself twennyfai dalla.

Economics at it's finest!

Its hard to tell how good a tip is without knowing how much the order is. I think though its a great idea to let them know ahead of time that your elevator doesn't work. The other thing is if there is already a delivery charge? When I order pizzas online they add an extra $2.50 for delivery charge. I add this amount into what I would normally tip. Another of my biggest pet peeves is when someone estimates time and misses by a mile. It's not that it takes a hour to get pizza, its that they said it would only be 15 minutes. I would prefer no time estimate than one that is off by more than half an hour. I was eating lunch a restaurant the other day and waitress after taking out order said " that should be out in like fifteen minutes." I eat at same restaurant alot normally no one ever says stuff like that. As soon as she walked first thing I did was look at my watch, than said "that's a little bold." it took 25 minutes. Since my boss paid I can't tell you what we tipped, sorry.

@captain_insano: It's a cultural thing for sure. As an American, I always tip. The amount of the tip is dependent on the level of service you get. Shit service is usually like 10% or less, average service is like 15-20% and if the waiter is really super good they might see 25%+.

Honestly, I kinda feel like the whole living wage issue is something probably more true on the employer end than the customers. Growing up I was taught you tipped because it was the polite and honest thing to do. The idea that you tipped so the waiter could make ends meet never really entered into the conversation. I think most Americans were probably taught the same way growing up. Plus, our schools suck, so tipping is a good way to learn basic math.

Should everyone get a living wage? Yes. But even if the wages went up, I imagine most Americans would probably still tip, not only out of force of habit but because we've been brought up that way. I mean, even if more waiters got paid more, it's hardly like a "living wage" means your're in the Ritz. Plus, being a waiter seems like one of the worst jobs imaginable - you deal with shitty customers, whiny kids, noise, you're on your feet all day - a little extra consideration for all that seems only just.

Case in point, I really hadn't encountered the whole "living wage" thing in depth until I went to Europe. Went out to a restaurant, got good service, moved to give a good tip and got stopped by my fellow diners who explained that "over here" waiters are paid enough not to need tips. When I stated that the service was good and I thought it was kinda irrelevant what the waiter was getting paid, I got a lecture about they thought Americans were barbarians for not paying the working underclasses enough and how our system of economics was fundamentally broken. And how on top of being barbarians we were stupid for wasting money on tips we could have been keeping for ourselves, which we wouldn't have to do if only we weren't ignorant barbarians and paid our workers more. (This was in Paris by the way. Because of course it was in France)

I just thought they were assholes for not tipping.

yeah, that sounds like a nice tip

Honestly sounds like you're being really generous just by considering doing this.

Tip 30% of the total instead of 20%

An extra $20 seems like a bit much unless it's a huge order.

I usually tip a blanket 5 bucks to all delivery people, unless it takes more than a half hour longer than the estimated 30 - 45 minutes, in which case they get nothing. The added inconvenience of climbing the stairs would probably net them an extra 5 bucks on top of that regardless. 20 seems like way too much considering that's probably what the entire meal cost (assuming you're alone).

I completely agree with you on tipping. I actually never stiff a tip unless I was getting actual verbally abused by my waiter (never happened in my life by the way). I typically 20% on all occasions with the exception of a couple of instances I have tipped 50-100% becauseI though the waiter/staff went above and beyond to make our accommodations worth it. Part of this comes from having working in a Restaurant growing up and seeing everything you've described and more but part of it also comes from being able to earn a decent wage.

As for the living wage there is a trend starting by independent restaurants in big cities to actually pay their wait staff competitively. One restaurants doesn't discourage tipping but all tips go to a charity which I thought was a fantastic idea. I really hope to see this type of trend continue because outside of being a teacher I can't think of a more thankless job then being a waiter/waitress.

Edit: I will say I do not tip at coffee shops or sandwich shops or any place where their sole purpose is to just take your order and make it while you stand around. Most of those places do offer competitive wages and there is virtually no reason to tip.

Who are your neighbors? Leonard and Sheldon?

@lawgamer: I think if this happened to me, I would have dramatically slammed my tip down onto the table like, "yeah, fuck you". Perhaps their system of waiter/ess etiquette is different and that's cool, but man, they could've said so a little more nicely.

My mom waitresses'd for a while and when you only make $4 an hour, you do live and die by tips. It sucks, but it is the current reality.

It's very much an American thing. I've been to the U.S. quite a number of times, but seeing 'gratuity' pre-calculated on your check never stops being weird.

Over here in the Netherlands it's pretty common to round up the bill or have waiters keep the change, but usually that's where it ends. Unless service has been so exceptionally good that a tip is in order regardless of custom.

Same for deliveries. Paying with cash, rounding up to the next increment of 5 and letting them keep the change seems pretty standard, though you'll still see delivery guys reaching for their wallets to hand you your change. And if you happen to have paid online I don't think anyone expects a tip.

All that said, if I were to make someone climb 8 sets of stairs I'd definitely feel a tip is in order... A pretty large one at that, as well as an apology. $10 would be a minimum for me, possibly more if it's a bigger delivery. That's talking US, over here €5 seems about right.

We Dutch have the reputation of being cheap. It's a bit of a stereotype at this point and not as bad as some make it out to be. Still, you can usually tell it's actually appreciated rather than expected if you pay for lunch or leave a tip. To me that seems to be the way it should be, but then, of course I would say that.

When I was a teenager, I worked for a party rental company that rented tables, chairs, tents, etc. I went on a delivery by myself to an apartment complex where I carried 3 tables that were each 5 feet long and about 30 chairs in stacks of 5 at a time up to the 6th floor using the stairs. The apartment complex's elevator was out of order. The woman I was delivering to was older and couldn't help me. She also gave me an exactly zero dollar tip. It sucked, but I did it because it was my job.

You should give a big tip because you think it is the right thing to do, not because you feel obligated to do so because the delivery is a little harder than usual.

I used to deliver pizzas, I worked there for 8 years and I only ever got paid $5 an hour...which is far below minimum wage. Yes, you need those tips to survive.

I say good on you OP for at least being considerate. Do what feels right, and for God's sake don't be cheap! Make someone's day a little better by giving the extra dollar I say.