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Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

nytimes.com

271–280 of 376 posts

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#271
post #260
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tip you give to the UPS driver is a real tip for good service, not a necessary wage supplement to keep them from starving.

How is it good service? Does the driver have any control over the traffic?

I often meet the driver. Some of them are nicer than others.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people aren't willing to risk their jobs over screwing over gig workers Ironic that they may have ended doing long term damage to their careers as a result.

Did they? Can you name the people to blame? If someone shows up with Instacart on their resume, is it hard for them to act like they were either ignorant or against the decision?

I'd definitely discount applicants on that basis.

is it hard for them to act like they were either ignorant or against the decision?

No, but fooling me if I want to know is a different matter.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#273
post #104

I've never used Instacart, but I've used GrubHub and DoorDash and the like a couple of times -- I can never remember which one I have an account for, or which one has the restaurant I want, so it's always a hodgepodge. But one thing is clear as day. When I use DoorDash, the tip box says "100% of tip goes to Dasher". Look, I know all of these places either charge me a service fee, or if I'm not being charged a service…

Has anyone tried treating these transactions as actually fraudulent, and asking their credit card company to investigate and reverse the charges? I've heard the card companies will sometimes be pretty aggressive on the cardholders' behalf. That said, this would probably get your account banned from whatever service you try it on.

From my experience they aren't necessarily always on your side, but for a small enough transaction they may not care. They don't investigate aggressively, rather they put the burden on doordash to prove all these small charges.

That being said, technically it's not allowed as you authorized the charges and maybe didn't get 100% of what you were advertised, but I'm not sure you can get a refund for that.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#274
post #243

> ...couriers have braved the elements, gotten by on meager wages and dealt with annoying customers, growling dogs and fifth-floor walk-ups, all for the chance of a big tip from a happy customer. This is not how I experience it working, in my area, with sites like GrubHub and the others. They ask for a tip UPFRONT, before delivery. I usually like to tip cash (for obvious reasons). There is an option for this, and the…

I wonder if you added a note stating that you planned to tip in cash, whether the drivers could see that and give you better service.

Between a guaranteed tip of a known amount vs a maybe possible tip, which would you choose?

That being said they're probably aware of the average expected value of a cash tip, and it maybe lower than whatever you guarantee via prepayment.

It's like asking if you want $10 or what's in the mystery box. You should never pick the mystery box as there is no incentive to actually put anything good in the mystery box.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To play devil's advocate, this is actually standard practice with tipped employees like waiters and waitresses. They are often paid a lower base wage because it is expected they make some of it back on tips. Tips have always been essentially a variable part of the worker's salary controlled by the customer. It's why in America it's considered basically unacceptable to not tip even though it's "optional."

Waiters and waitresses don’t use their own vehicle amd gas to bring me my food, though.

That's not really part of this problem though, as even if they were compensated for gas and insurance for the car, this still applies.

Fundamentally, people are outraged because essentially tipping is subsidizing the wages the employer should be paying, and that's the case even with a restaurant.

The issue is the tipping system. It's counterintuitive but your "generosity" with a tip, once it becomes standard cultural practice, ends up in one way or another getting nullified by the employer. And there's no real way to prevent this as the OP said, money is fungible, so if the employee gets paid more in some way it all just becomes their total earnings in the end, which saves the employer from having to make up that difference because the market price for the employee's time and labor is fixed.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#276
post #104

I've never used Instacart, but I've used GrubHub and DoorDash and the like a couple of times -- I can never remember which one I have an account for, or which one has the restaurant I want, so it's always a hodgepodge. But one thing is clear as day. When I use DoorDash, the tip box says "100% of tip goes to Dasher". Look, I know all of these places either charge me a service fee, or if I'm not being charged a service…

To play devil's advocate, this is actually standard practice with tipped employees like waiters and waitresses. They are often paid a lower base wage because it is expected they make some of it back on tips. Tips have always been essentially a variable part of the worker's salary controlled by the customer. It's why in America it's considered basically unacceptable to not tip even though it's "optional."

It's not quite that - in places with a lower "tipped minimum wage," the employer only gets to pay the lower hourly rate if the employee doesn't earn the standard minimum wage from tips.

The employee is supposed to report their tips, usually per pay period, and if it adds up to less than minimum wage, the employer is supposed to make up the difference.

Doesn't work out like that in practice, though. My wife waited tables for years when she was young and most of those places just paid enough to show $0.00 on the paycheck after payroll/SS taxes and the like. It also works out to be essentially what Instacart and DD are doing, but with a federal/state mandated "floor" on how low they can pull the hourly from the tips.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#277
post #60

DoorDash is extremely helpful for me because I'm disabled and can't cook so it's really convenient for me to be able to order food for delivery when I don't have a caregiver around to cook food for me. I'm extremely disappointed by DoorDash's policies but because of my circumstances I can't just boycott. I live in a college town too, so most DoorDash drivers are students who are just barely getting by, so I'll be tip…

If Bitesquad exists in your area, I'd use them. I switched to them after I found out that they employ their drivers directly, as full employees with an hourly wage, known schedule, and benefits. I've not compared their pricing directly against DoorDash, for what it's worth.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you added a note stating that you planned to tip in cash, whether the drivers could see that and give you better service.

Between a guaranteed tip of a known amount vs a maybe possible tip, which would you choose? That being said they're probably aware of the average expected value of a cash tip, and it maybe lower than whatever you guarantee via prepayment. It's like asking if you want $10 or what's in the mystery box. You should never pick the mystery box as there is no incentive to actually put anything good in the mystery box.

Although if drivers hear about this story and find out that some prepaid tips are doing nothing for them, their perceptions of the cash tip may change. I figure they have the ability to give the customer zero stars if the promised tip isn’t given.

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#279
post #104

I've never used Instacart, but I've used GrubHub and DoorDash and the like a couple of times -- I can never remember which one I have an account for, or which one has the restaurant I want, so it's always a hodgepodge. But one thing is clear as day. When I use DoorDash, the tip box says "100% of tip goes to Dasher". Look, I know all of these places either charge me a service fee, or if I'm not being charged a service…

Has anyone tried treating these transactions as actually fraudulent, and asking their credit card company to investigate and reverse the charges? I've heard the card companies will sometimes be pretty aggressive on the cardholders' behalf. That said, this would probably get your account banned from whatever service you try it on.

Disputing charges comes with its cost though. I disputed something for the first time last month, and my credit score dropped by 30 points. Seems like disputes are considered a red flag until resolved (I am hoping, will have to see if it goes back up).

Re: Instacart and DoorDash’s Tip Policies Are Delivering Outrage

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a model curriculum and has no mechanism for enforcment. I am not able to find more than a handful of CS degree programs with ethics prerequisites. Plenty of engineering schools offer compute ethics courses as electives, but then again, plenty of business schools offer business ethics electives in MBA programs.

> That's a model curriculum and has no mechanism for enforcment. The mechanism for enforcement is ABET accreditation. When I was at Cal Poly SLO, our CS program was up for re-accreditation, and yes, we were required to take an ethics course, mostly due to remarks from prior accreditation reviews. Edit: > I am not able to find more than a handful of CS degree programs with ethics prerequisites ABET accreditation allow…

This has digressed a bit. Let's recap: someone asked if ethics were an MBA requirement. I responded by asking if it was CS/CE requirement. Then someone brought up the ABET model curriculum, and now here we are.

The general point is that it started with a altogether too common dig at MBAs. I think those are usually unwarranted without any further examination. But I also found some studies that indicate leadership in a corporation is neutral to positive on corporate social responsibility (didn't share it earlier, but here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25782028).

The ABET model curricula is admirable, but the ethics requirement is not overly stringent. And there are very prominent CS/CE programs that are not accredited (http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx, I won't name names, but they are top 10 schools, easily).

It would be great if every damn high school student had to take semester of secular ethics, let alone MBAs or Engineers. I could easily see any degree having a 1 or 2 credit hour course in profession specific ethics.

But to the original point, I just don't like people getting high and mighty over people with MBA degrees for no good reason (I don't have an MBA).

ps - and to bring it all the way back around, there were many, many people involved in this. UX design, backend development, PM, project management, testing... it's just lazy scapegoating to pin this on a hypothetical MBA pulling all the strings.

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