DoorDash will change controversial tipping model | Hacker News Reader

DoorDash will change controversial tipping model

techcrunch.com

11 pointscryptozeus6 comments

I have and have had regular conversations with the delivery folk about this topic, and even as recently as last week they still don't see any difference in their tip. As a result I switched to putting in 0 tip and giving cash when I have it, and have significant confirmation that a large number of people in my area do something similar.

One question I had from the beginning is, how much of this problem was cultural? That is, would this same policy have met with similar resistance in other countries, or does America have a singular belief in the fact that one ought to be explicitly rewarded for ones effort? The issue as quoted in the article seems to be that users were outraged that their tips did not go directly to the drivers. However, they did not accept the explanation that this system paid more drivers more money (at least according to the company’s statements). It seems almost selfish that we would value our individual contributions that highly that we would risk punishing drivers. What do others think?

I'm American born and raised. I find tipping as it has become in America to be abhorrent. It's purported to be a bonus for good service, but if I'm given poor service, the social expectation is that I still add at least 15% in tips or I'm stingy and rude. It's never even considered that perhaps the one paying my waiters is the stingy, rude one. Hiding an additional mandatory fee and enforcing it through social dynamics between two people who experience it as something entirely different from what it is purported to be while continuing to insist it's just a bonus is simply rotten. Tips should not be an expectation, and if it takes doing away with them entirely to separate ourselves from that expectation, so be it.

DoorDash broke the trust of both drivers and customers when they silently changed the model away from one in which tips go into driver's pockets and one in which they go into theirs.

DoorDash's attempt to change the conversation toward where they will set other variables in the pay model is a red herring, and there is no valid reason why they need be set in a way that causes overall pay to be lower in a system in which they are not stealing tips.

1 So it looks like DoorDash still hasn't done anything about it.

2. "The company isn’t releasing all the details yet, but the key change is that “Dashers’ earnings will increase by the exact amount a customer tips on every order.”"

Why does it take months to strategize this out. If it were as simple as, "we're not doing our previously crappy behavior" it seems like they'd announce it in that presser. The fact that there are "details" leads me to think they're just looking for another weasely way to keep the same behavior.

This article is from July...

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