Tipping Part Deux

When I was an owner I paid my pizza cooks the average starting rate, which was $13 an hour. I paid my drivers $8 an hour plus gas money. If I found out one of my pizza chefs thought it was okay to screw people out of tips because he didn’t get any, I’d be annoyed. Ask any driver if they might not want to get $5 an hour more to stay at the pizza place, not have to brave any elements, not have to drive into neighborhoods where they could get killed for a $10 pizza, not have to drive with drunks and other dangerous people on the road, and I bet they would say yes. That’s a guaranteed $500+ a week where a driver working the same hours will maybe make $200 to $300 in pay and will likely have to fill up once a day, so figure $100 a week in gas, then they have to maintain their car and insurance. If the car breaks and they can’t cover it, they lose their job. A store worker can take the bus or get a ride if that happens. So right off the bat we’re at $100 to $200 a week after expenses. Yes, we expect tips.

I treat the customers with respect and I get the food there fast. If they tell you 45 minutes, I will have it there in 20 to 30. If you screw me out of a tip or give me a totally bad tip ($5 for a $100 is a bad tip) you will always get your order in 45 minutes or longer fro me after that. I will not get your mail. I won’t play with your dog, I’m not saying hi to your kids, I will give you a blank look, take the money, and leave. That’s the service you get for showing us you could care less about us.

Now, imagine a world that doesn’t tip at all. Drivers would quit, so deliveries would stop. One of two things would have to happen: A) You get off your lazy butts and come get the food. B) The pizza places would have to either buy employee vehicles or pay a much higher wage to drivers to cover minimum wage, gas, etc, and make it worth doing. Both of which would be passed on to you the customer. So that $10 pizza now becomes $15 because you’re cheap. It is possible some cheap pizza at places with bad pizza would be unaffected, but you get what you pay for.

And if you have a business, like you’re a plumber, Realtor, etc and we see your company logo, and you stiffed us, we will go out of our way to tell as many people as we know that they should avoid your business. If we see you broken down on the side of the road, we will keep going. If we see you walking near a puddle, we will try to hit it to soak you. If you are getting robbed or having a heart attack, we will not call the police for you. We will return the favor of considering you just as worthless as a human being as you did for us.

Bridgeport, is one the the 50 most dangerous cities in the United States. You try delivering there in the summer when everyone is outside at night, while having money, food, a car, a cell phone, for low wages and no tip, see how you like it. Some people say we get paid to do that job, and yes we do, but bartenders get paid for their work, taxi drivers for theirs, waiters for theirs, massage therapist, hairdressers, golf caddies, etc all get paid for theirs, so you going to screw them also?

I have a friend who never tips at bars. I always start with a $5 tip for my first drink. He gets served last, I get served right away. Every time. He will often wait 15 to 20 minutes for a beer when I have one in my hand before I even ask for it (which is funny because I’m not always ordering a beer), but he doesn’t believe in tipping. I don’t believe in people getting paid under minimum wage.

Some people are just ingrates and it sucks for the people trying to give them good service. If you don’t tip you should just go do whatever it is you want yourself.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Kick Rocks” Pizza Delivery Nightmares by Adam Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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What A Pizza Tool

The guy I work for has to be the most miserable person I have ever met. I am convinced that even if he won the lottery, he would still bitch and moan about everything. He has 3 places, makes a ton of money, yet nothing is ever good enough for him. He has repeatedly told everyone he doesn’t need his employees, they need him. He has repeatedly said he doesn’t care what the customer wants, he cares what he wants. He only had the good fortune to open in an area where pizza delivery is scarce so people think they don’t have another choice. But to treat customers, and your employees that way is crazy. Without either one, you lose your business. He has the highest turnover rate of any company I’ve ever worked at, and I’m 37, so I’ve had more than a few jobs. Turnover is a bad thing. Most business owners hate it because you wind up having to train and trust new people all the time. Not this guy, he just doesn’t care.

The other day I was talking to the manager girl who was cutting pizzas when he pipes in, “I need quiet, I don’t believe in talking at wok, do your work and shut up.” This from the guy with the biggest mouth in the place. If he isn’t bragging about how he could run the whole place himself, or any of his amazing accomplishments, he’s complaining about how everyone is doing everything wrong. All the time. The only times mistakes get made on a regular basis is when he’s there making everyone nuts. But he doesn’t care, it’s his place. The funny thing is the most mistakes I’ve seen made making or cutting pizzas are when he does it. He’ll still blame everyone else (management potential, right?), but it’s him doing it.

I got my hours cut because he doesn’t care if you show up early and stay late doing your job better than everyone else, he expects you to kiss his ass and his other manager’s ass. I refuse. I am there to do my work, not make someone else feel better about themselves. So my hours got cut. It’s a dangerous game. I have dirt on just about every place I’ve worked at I could use. Will I? Only time will tell, but making enemies of employees is never a bright way of doing things.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Kick Rocks” Pizza Delivery Nightmares by Adam Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Why Tipping Is Good.

There are so many times I wanted to push a bad tipper off of a cliff. I recommend seeing the movie “Waiting” to see what could happen if you don’t tip or are a bad tipper. I’ve been delivering for over ten years and owned my own place for two years (didn’t work out). Take tonight: My last order was two towns away. Twelve miles round trip. My car gets 20 miles a gallon so that’s roughly half a gallon of gas. Gas is currently $3+ in CT so it COST me $1.50 to bring the guy his $45 order. I get $8 an hour taxed. So before tax, I’m at $6.50 for that hour. I got a $1.49 tip. Totally wrong. They always do it. I hate that one house. It’s in a rich town with a bunch of snobs who could care less. We usually take our time to their house, take any other order we have first even if it cam after that one, and drivers accidentally drop their sodas 5 or 6 times on the way.
The order I took before that one was half the distance, the total was $16.09, the woman gave me $20 and said keep the change. Totally on the mark.

Whoever posts tipping guides at various websites should really try working for tips. If you’re a waiter: by all means, live wit the idea 15% is enough. As a driver paying for gas, insurance, maintenance, and risking my life in all sorts of weather and sometimes in very bad neighborhoods (like Bridgeport, CT), getting a 15% tip on a $12 pizza is like a slap in the face and you’ll go on my shitty tipper list. That would be $1.80 for an order that could be in bad weather, in a bad neighborhood, where the idiot customer has no number on the house or the number matches the color of the house (impossible to read from the car at night), and let’s you wait outside for ten minutes while they look for money.

That’s another thing: if an order is ever late, odds are it was the kitchen that messed it up or it’s really busy, not the driver. If you choose to show you displeasure by not tipping you are making sure everyone from the phone girl to the owner gets their full wage, even though they are probably who made your order late, and you are screwing the person who tried to get it there asap. So if you see donuts in your yard, or the mailbox is gone, or your house gets egged, that’s probably why.

Some drivers will let it go. I do, but I send out postcards anonymously thanking them for being shitty tippers.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Kick Rocks” Pizza Delivery Nightmares by Adam Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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