Tipping in advance with online orders: who does it go to?
The article about the card machine with a tipping function prompted an enormous number of reactions. Including reactions about tipping in advance with online orders. It feels like an obligation (ugh!) and people wonder who benefits from it.
Personally, I find tipping in advance incredibly illogical. You base your tip on the service provided, right? And beforehand, you simply don’t know whether that service will be good, mediocre or downright terrible. If I order a pizza and it’s delivered quickly and hot: perfect. So, a tip. A cold pizza, the wrong toppings or hours later than promised: irritating. A small tip because I think the neighbourhood teenager is a nice guy. But it isn’t good service.
And I give it in cash. When tipping in advance, the tip is digital.
Cash preferred
Suzy doesn’t like that digital tip either: ‘When you order food online, some restaurants nowadays also ask whether you want to give a tip.. I always gave it in cash at the door (if I had change). They can remove that option online as far as I’m concerned, although I have used it a few times.. but I prefer to give it in cash and it’s not an obligation anyway.’
Harry completely agrees: ‘I do tip, but only if it’s delivered reasonably on time and therefore always in cash. And it shouldn’t become an obligation.’
Being required to tip
That feeling of being required to tip with an online order rubs more people the wrong way. Cees: ‘With, for example, New York Pizza, you can already give a tip in advance when ordering online. That feels like an obligation to me, and I don’t go along with it. So they get nothing. In my view, it should remain voluntary. How often does it happen that when you tip via one of those card machines, the staff still sees nothing of it and the boss simply pockets it (at least, that’s what I think)? But don’t get me wrong: if I’m treated well and pleasantly, I’m happy to give something as a tip. But not with imposed percentages and only on a voluntary basis.’
All those extra costs
Ploni thinks she already pays enough extra costs with an online order: ‘You pay service charges, card transaction fees and nowadays 5 or 6 euros in delivery fees, and then they ask for a tip in advance too. You don’t even know yet whether your food will be good, delivered on time (usually not) or still be hot. I never tip in advance and only do so afterwards if it was exceptionally good. Or actually, if it was as it should be. So that you get what you ordered in normal portions, that it’s hot and on time. Of course that’s how it should be, but these days that’s already asking a lot.’
A tip for whom?
Who does that tip actually go to? The person who delivers your order? The chef? Thuisbezorgd itself? Gerda: ‘When I order through Thuisbezorgd, it immediately asks me to give the delivery person a tip. I have no idea who gets the tip, so I give nothing in response to that question.’
Ferry: ‘You should never give a tip directly to the restaurant anyway, I always give the tip to the people serving me/us… same as with delivery, I give the tip directly to the delivery person.’
What do you think?
Also read:
- Eddie’s dining annoyances: restaurants with those shitty little tables and chairs
- Bizarre and disgusting behaviour by hospitality guests #3
- Rosé lovers, take note! You won’t want to miss this rosé brunch with Whispering Angel
