Pizza tipping

jschall84 · #1 01-14-2009, 01:27 PM

what do you tip the pizza guy?

sub question : if you are or have been a pizza guy, who were the best/worst tippers?

steve21 · #2 01-14-2009, 01:29 PM

I tip 'em pretty well just cause those guys are wasting gas running around town, and it rapes the **** out of your car being a pizza guy.

sarcastro83 · #3 01-14-2009, 01:32 PM

I'll usually do 15%... same as in restaurants. If it's fast, I'll tip em a bit more.

They're bringing me tasty food right to my door. That's a service that when done well, merits a reasonable reward.

Chriss62 · #4 01-14-2009, 01:35 PM

Always a five, sometimes a ten.

MJ5150 · #5 01-14-2009, 01:37 PM

Minimum of $5. I give it in cash in case the guy needs it right then to pick up a soda or some more gas. I've started tipping that way in restaurants as well...cash for the server.

-Mike

Trevorus · #6 01-14-2009, 01:39 PM

I used to deliver pizzas. I used to have people wait for the change off the dollar when it was 7 cents. What really frustrated me is they often payed with a roll of bills. I delivered to the worst areas of our town, and we had some red zones where people often got robbed that we didn't go anymore. That job made me hate the human race for quite a while, and it really sucked when I busted my hump, used my gas, and risked myself in these neighborhoods for crappy or no tips. Best way to get horrible service is to be a crappy tipper, and if you're a jerk on the phone, it's best not to call back anymore, because you are remembered, and you may not want to eat what you get. (I want to clarify this by saying, I never messed with anyone's food. It's a huge health code violation, and a really low thing to do. Some of my fellow employees didn't feel the same way, though)

Now when I order pizzas, 99% of the time, I go pick it up. I tip well when I get good service, but I don't have a ton of money, so if I cannot afford to tip, I don't make the driver pay for it, I do the footwork myself. When I do order delivery, I make sure to make it worthwhile, because as I said, you are remembered. Usually around 5 bucks, but more if I order a larger amount of food.

DudeistMonk · #7 01-14-2009, 01:41 PM

I live in Newark (which if you don't know is a pretty crime addled city) so when I order food I tip rather well, usually $5 bucks. (on a 15 or 20 dollar meal from 2 blocks away)

You gotta figure food delivery is the 3rd most dangerous job in the US (only things more dangerous are logging and deep sea fishing).

wabbit · #8 01-14-2009, 01:44 PM

I usually tip them with a set of drum sticks because that's usually what they're trying to earn money for.

jschall84 · #9 01-14-2009, 01:51 PM

i deliver part time and was really surprised. The best tippers are either hotel patrons or soccer moms who cant leave with there 5 kids.
the worst, by far, are the elderly (which i understand and never get upset about) and (i hope i dont get banned for saying this) outward obvious religious folks. Absolutly nothing is worse than delivering $50 to a house and get a Bible pamphlet in return. If I am on a delivery and see a cross in the window or a religious bumper sticker, i know im screwed.

Trevorus · #10 01-14-2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschall84

i deliver part time and was really surprised. The best tippers are either hotel patrons or soccer moms who cant leave with there 5 kids.
the worst, by far, are the elderly (which i understand and never get upset about) and (i hope i dont get banned for saying this) outward obvious religious folks. Absolutly nothing is worse than delivering $50 to a house and get a Bible pamphlet in return. If I am on a delivery and see a cross in the window or a religious bumper sticker, i know im screwed.

That wasn't so much the case where I delivered. I never got pamphlets or anything, but I did deliver to obviously religious people. Older people around here weren't bad either. For me, it was the ghetto places, and there were a few interspersed nice houses that never tipped. Even after 3 years, I remember the one guy who was the rudest and never tipped. He lives in a nice section of town, too. As far as the hotel patrons go, you usually get better tips there, but that of course depends on if it's a hotel, or a motel. Motel, good luck, hotel, good tip.

bburk · #11 01-14-2009, 02:08 PM

Ex delivery dude here,

the larger of $2 or 10% was the bare minimum I would even consider a 'tip'. Anything less than that was considered a 'stiff'. And yes, delivery guys DO remember stiffers. maybe not after the first time, unless you stand out in some way (jerk, pervert, etc), but they DO remember.

Remember, these guys possibly know your credit card number, phone number, name, address just for starters, not to mention all they stuff you can infer about people from what you can see from their front door and the fact that they are alone in their car with food that you will presumably eat. It's a good idea to keep these guys in good spirits. Mostly the guys I worked with were good people... Mostly.

I did work at one pizza shop in Pittsburgh that I'm still not sure if it was a Mob front or not... All Italian family owned and operated ('cept for some of the drivers) and several of them carried handguns all the time. Not that a handgun was a bad idea in some of the neighborhoods I was delivering to, but I only carried a boot knife. I remember the mental hospital specifically was one one of the more um.. interesting delivery locales.

Best tip I ever got was from a church. $50. It was for a an order in the hundreds of dollars. Certainly well worth my time, and the cooks went home happy that day.

Ah and one of my favorite deliver episodes went like this:

me - *knock knock*
customer - "WHO IS IT!?!?!?!"
me - "pizza guy."
customer - "I DIDN'T ORDER PIZZA!!! I ORDERED WINGS!!!" (we sold both)
me - "um... wings guy."
customer - "Oh, alright then..." *opens door*

James Hart · #12 01-14-2009, 02:11 PM

If the house charges a delivery fee... driver gets $3 to $5
If the house doesn't charge the fee... driver gets $5 to $10

My orders are generally between $15 and $35

I use to deliver pizza back in the late 80s. I hated the few regular customers that didn't tip at all... ever. Best tip I ever got was close to $60. A football party pizza order of a little over $40... I was given a $100 and told to keep it. They even offered to let me come in to share the pies & watch the game... they were even offering to call my boss to say my car was dead in their driveway

If it wasn't such a creepy bunch of people I might have stayed.

coreyfyfe · #13 01-14-2009, 02:12 PM

I usually tip up to the nearest resonable whole dollar amount that allows for each change making. I'm typically ordering a single pie so that amounts to being a couple bucks, something like $3 on a $15 charge. I'm also in grad school and making just enough to pay for the pizza so it is what it is.

I was kind of hoping the title of this thread was a typo and it was going to be pizza toppings. I think I know what I'm doing for dinner now...

scottyd · #14 01-14-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wabbit

I usually tip them with a set of drum sticks because that's usually what they're trying to earn money for.

NJL · #15 01-14-2009, 02:19 PM

i used to deliver about 15 years ago... i was lucky, i got OK tips and never got held up even though i later found out that i replaced the driver that got robbed.

i guess everyone was afraid of my car, an old 78 AMC Concord

gold_member_321 · #16 01-14-2009, 02:20 PM

Delivery is usually about $16-$18 around here depending on the toppings. I just give them whatever is left out of the 20.

tplyons · #17 01-14-2009, 02:32 PM

I delivered pizza one night in my life: I ate at this pizzeria at least once a week for years, and one of the managers lived in my neighborhood. One night, October 30, 2004, my neighbor the manager told me he was a few drivers short and was wondering if I'd deliver for one night. I said sure, as I'll try just about anything once.

I got stiffed once because I got to the lady's house after 45 minutes. In our town we have an East Lane and an East Road. I went to East Road, which was on the ticket, even though the phone number ended up being for the East Lane. I called, turns out it was the wrong address, and she stiffed me for taking way too long to deliver a pizza that I didn't screw up. I accepted that.

I got a $20 tip from a couple of kids, I'm sure their dad left them with a $50 and told them to get dinner. I'm pretty sure they were smoking up, but wasn't going to complain over a $20 tip on two pies and a few garlic rolls.

The one that annoyed me the most was the little old lady that paid me in exact change, in QUARTERS mostly. She ordered a small pie for herself, so I felt bad, and didn't mind not getting tipped more than fifty cents. However, I looked like a gang member until I could cash in all those quarters.

Needless to say, it was one of the more interesting jobs I've ever had for a day, but now I consider myself to be a good tipper. On two pies, the tip is usually either $5 or rounded to the nearest five dollar increment plus another five.

Trevorus · #18 01-14-2009, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJL

i used to deliver about 15 years ago... i was lucky, i got OK tips and never got held up even though i later found out that i replaced the driver that got robbed.

i guess everyone was afraid of my car, an old 78 AMC Concord

I used to drive an 85 Ford Ranger that was black and it was RUSTY!!! That probably kept me safe a lot. Then I used a 94 Saturn wagon, and it was pretty good for the job as well. I used it more in the summer because it had AC.

Happynoj · #19 01-14-2009, 02:50 PM

I have actually never tipped a delivery driver. The way I see tipping is that it is not mandatory - if the service is average then I won't tip, because average service is what I am paying for with my food. If the service is better than average then I tip, if it's worse I complain. Lots of people moan at me for this attitude, but I think that the tip is a bonus, as a reward for good service, rather than 'just something that you are supposed to do' - it isn't as if they aren't being paid an hourly wage as well! A tip should be an incentive, not an expectation.

Also, all of the takeaways round here are awful.

Trevorus · #20 01-14-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happynoj

I have actually never tipped a delivery driver. The way I see tipping is that it is not mandatory - if the service is average then I won't tip, because average service is what I am paying for with my food. If the service is better than average then I tip, if it's worse I complain. Lots of people moan at me for this attitude, but I think that the tip is a bonus, as a reward for good service, rather than 'just something that you are supposed to do' - it isn't as if they aren't being paid an hourly wage as well! A tip should be an incentive, not an expectation.

Also, all of the takeaways round here are awful.

Around here, a lot of drivers and wait staff are paid less than minimum wage, with the understanding that tips make up the difference. With the price of petrol over there, I feel sorry for guys that deliver to your place, unless they deliver by foot or on a bike, but then they still deserve a tip for working so dang hard.