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BGonline.org Forums
Tipping etiquette...
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Tipping etiquette... (Stick)
Date: Thursday, 8 December 2011, at 2:08 a.m.
The blank stare had also been invented.
For various reasons (pride, mainly) I never complained when stiffed, and never pulled the old "change fumble." Since my tips averaged higher than most, and I was consistently the fastest driver, "fastest" defined as the one making the most deliveries, I have to think it helped rather than hurt me.
I delivered pizza for one year, and drove a cab for eight, and there were only two times temptation got the better of me. My town had a seniors program, the rider paying fifty cents and the city a dollar, between any two points in town, and at least one, Lutheran General Hospital, that was a ways out of town. Seniors (save the rare dime) did one of three things: handed you a buck, and told you to keep it; tipped a quarter; or stiffed you. On average for the equivalent of a $1.50 fare you get around fifteen cents. Many of the senior runs would have metered at $1.50 or less, but there were some, often serial abusers, who would crisscross our sprawling town, wheedling extra stops along the way. There was one senior who was a stiff, but his fare would have run right around a buck-fifty, so to me he was no big deal. As it happened, unlike most of the seniors this fellow owned a nice house, and clearly had retired with a substantial pension from somewhere in addition to his social security. He was always dressed in an expensive suit. One day out of the blue he informed me, rather smugly, that if I had noticed that he never tipped, it was because he was commuting from a part time job he had taken after retiring, and in his mind the fact that he was going to and from work meant that stiffing drivers was okay. I pointed out, quite mildly, that almost every passenger (during the day) was commuting, and almost every other passenger tipped. There was dead silence from the back seat until we reached 665 Thacker (his house), and then he tipped me a quarter.
The other time was on a pizza run, actually two sandwiches. It was what might be termed a double minimum because it was the cheapest order we would deliver, $2.97 including the fifty cent delivery charge, and the apartment was only one block from the kitchen, about as close as any order we ever received. He handed me a five, and, because I never fumbled, three seconds later I handed him $2.03. He said "Wait a minute," and handed me back the three pennies! I was so stunned the door had closed before I could react. I was tempted to ring the bell and throw the pennies at him, but time is money, even if pennies aren't. That was the only time a stiff truly pissed me off.
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