Tipping before services rendered

[Anonymous]

New twist on the tipping debate. Putting this in food since it involved a takeaway order.

You order food online. You select takeaway. You select a time for the food to be ready. You are asked to tip at checkout. You choose a 10% tip because it’s takeaway. You grumble about it to your family because tipping is supposed to reflect quality of service and no service has yet been rendered, and it’s takeaway besides, not like someone is going to wait on you for 45 minutes and refill your drink or whatever.

So you go get the food at the appointed time. And it’s not ready. In fact it seems like the kitchen for forgot or something because it takes another 30 minutes while you are waiting for your takeaway in the lobby. And then you are given a bag with the food and you take it back to your hotel and you discover it contains no napkins or utensils.

And you tipped in advance for this?

[Anonymous]

Yep. It happens. It’s annoying and frustrating. ‘Tip’ came from the acronym T.I.P. Meaning ‘to insure promptness’. It did not work in your scenario.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they were annoyed you referred to it as takeaway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they were annoyed you referred to it as takeaway?

Unlikely as I am in a Commonwealth country where that is the nomenclature

[Anonymous]

i'd definitely complain and try to get your money back (including tip). hope workers get fired over this too.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if we could select $0 for tips on TAKEOUT and in the notes section add that you will be tipping in cash upon pickup. Could that be the new norm?

[Anonymous]

I very rarely order takeout. I did though yesterday from Greene Turtle and chose the 15% tip option. You can bypass it completely if you want to. Someone has to bag the food and make sure it’s all correct so I don’t mind the tip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. It happens. It’s annoying and frustrating. ‘Tip’ came from the acronym T.I.P. Meaning ‘to insure promptness’. It did not work in your scenario.

That doesn’t seem likely since the word you meant to use is “ensure.”

Unless you literally mean tipping is a form of insurance. But that doesn’t make sense since customarily, tipping occurs after services are rendered, not in advance. This being asked to tip upfront thing is part of tipping culture gone bananas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if we could select $0 for tips on TAKEOUT and in the notes section add that you will be tipping in cash upon pickup. Could that be the new norm?

I don't want to tip in cash - then it isn't reported to the IRS and no one pays taxes on it.

If this is a place I go to more than once, I'll tip the next time I arrive, but I also don't think it changes the service if you tip or not so I generally don't. I just went to a fast food restaurant (think District taco, or Chopt) and the tip options were 18, 20 and 22%. For a place that busses my table and nothing else.