Tips

While I usually try to stick to a healthy diet of salads, Twirls and Pepsi to keep my body in perfect shape, during lockdown I did get into the habit of using Just Eats or Uber Eats to deliver my tea. It's hard work being an internet icon, I just don't have the energy to cook.

But one thing I've never been sure of is the etiquette of tipping the delivery driver. Eric says I shouldn't tip but I can't imagine the drivers are exactly coining it in, surely they appreciate my tips?

This evening Eric was out helping some strangers look for a dog in a car park so I was dining alone. I ordered a McDonalds and the total before delivery was only £8, and I work off a 10% tip, so 80p. I rounded it up to a very generous £1 coin. When I offered this to the delivery driver he acted like I was handing him a fresh dog turd. Clearly £1 isn't good enough.

So what do you do? Do you tip? And if so, what amount?

I'm in Walkden tomorrow and my cabs are pre booked and paid for, so it's just a question of tipping the drivers. £5 usually.
I think that's pretty reasonable.
Yet I never tip a bus driver. That would be absurd. Apparently.

I should add I hope they're more punctual than my lift to the match.

Yeah I tip and as a rule of thumb I usually work to 10% too but I'd not be too bothered about holding my hand out just to get a quid back, so I probably would have said keep the change in your circumstance above.

Saying that though, I went to a restaurant the other week for the first time in ages due to Coronavirus and being somewhat at risk if I caught it.

I went with my daughter and everything had changes from how it used to be - she did everything from her phone.  

When we went in we were offered a table but I asked if we could be seated slightly away from a large group of noisy folk who were already there - and yes that wasn't a problem.

It was a Japanese restaurant which my daughter likes and I told her to order a selection of dishes we could share, we sat down and she got her phone out - which is what all the young ones seem to do every time these days - I thought it was a bit rude of her but I thought it best to say nothing though.

I was sat waiting for the waitress to come to take our order and said to my daughter why was it taking her so long when the place wasn't that busy when my daughter explained that it isn't done that way anymore and that she had gone on to her phone made the order and sent it using some app or something and using one of these 'square box' thingy icon's that were on each table (if you know what I I mean?).

So my daughter wasn't being rude, the waitress wasn't ignoring us and the food order had gone straight to the chef and our food was brought to our table shortly afterwards - and very tasty it was too!

Once we had eaten we had to go, so I waved and and asked for the bill which was there as we got to the till on the way out.

I told my daughter I'd treat her (isn't that what dads always do anyway!) gave her my card to pay and was just digging in my pocket for a tip, when my daughter said don't worry.

I thought by that she would find a couple of quid for a tip  - as apart from the waitress bring us the food and drink, she hadn't actually done anything else for us - my daughter had taken the order and delivered it to the chef!

When we got outside the restaurant I was a little bit less than amused to see that a 20% service charge had automatically been added to the receipt and that the waitress (or more likely the company) had taken half the country's national debt off me for the pleasure of finding my own way to the table, my daughter ordering the food and delivering it to the chef and me stood waiting by the till for them to press a button for my automated bill!

Well they say you can't take it with you and the food was good and we did have a nice time but I'll make a point in future of not paying a kings ransom again the next time we more or less do all the work of the waiter service ourselves!

I've finally started using Just Eat recently and have never tipped a driver, they add on all sorts of extra charges on top of the actual food so i don't feel the need to pay any extra.

I do still tip in restaurants though but the service charge is annoying. You can ask them to take it off if you aren't happy with the service though.

Norpig wrote:I've finally started using Just Eat recently and have never tipped a driver, they add on all sorts of extra charges on top of the actual food so i don't feel the need to pay any extra.

You tight arse. Yesterday, my delivery was £2.49 with a 58p service charge. After petrol the driver is hardly making a mint. He was a fool not to take my £1 coin.

Sluffy wrote:Yeah I tip and as a rule of thumb I usually work to 10% too but I'd not be too bothered about holding my hand out just to get a quid back, so I probably would have said keep the change in your circumstance above.

Drag yourself into 2022 sluffy, you pay online prior to your delivery so you can't say "keep the change". The old days were certainly easier.

Still, if the driver got a £1 tip for every delivery he made I'm sure it would add up at the end of the year.

I don’t tip for Uber, just eat etc.  if in a restaurant usually add a couple of quid if service has been good.  More often than not they just key in the amount you owe and don’t even bother asking.  Maybe I have one of those faces.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Sluffy wrote:Yeah I tip and as a rule of thumb I usually work to 10% too but I'd not be too bothered about holding my hand out just to get a quid back, so I probably would have said keep the change in your circumstance above.

Drag yourself into 2022 sluffy, you pay online prior to your delivery so you can't say "keep the change". The old days were certainly easier.

Still, if the driver got a £1 tip for every delivery he made I'm sure it would add up at the end of the year.

Ah I didn't know that, although I should have should really have guessed it.

I don't really have takeaways and if I did I live in the city centre so would just pop out and get one.

On the occasions my daughter visits and orders one I just give her my card and and give the delivery bloke a couple of quid at the door from my pocket.

In fact I use real money so little these days I even have to hunt around the house to find the couple of quid in the first place.

One thing I still can't get my head around though is how popular MacDonald's is though?

I remember lockdown and the absolutely massive queues on the day before they started, or the day after they ended, so much so they blocked the roads queueing up in their cars for one.

I just can't get it into my head for all the fast food you can get delivered these days that people plump for a MacD???

Why bother with that when you can have almost anything else delivered to your doorstep?

Sluffy wrote:One thing I still can't get my head around though is how popular MacDonald's is?

I remember lockdown and the absolutely massive queues on the day before they started, or the day after they ended, so much so they blocked the roads queueing up in their cars for one.

I just can't get it into my head for all the fast food you can get delivered these days that people plump for a MacD???

Why bother with that when you can have almost anything else delivered to your doorstep?

Have you ever had a Chicken McNugget? Lovely.

I used to deliver Chinese food.
Most people didn't tip.
And I used to be one who thought well if everyone gave a quid the driver is going to do ok by the end of the night. I bet if I had tits I would have got more big tips.