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Comment by missedthecue | Hacker News Reader

The marginal cost of putting a tipping screen in the payment flow is close to zero. If one person tips for the whole year, it's pure profit.

Yes, it might annoy customers, but I have a hard time buying the idea that people will go buy a Samsung phone because Apple stores ask for a tip.

I've seen online checkout pages for e-commerce stores asking for tips now. Not even for custom products or commissioned art or anything but just straight-up factory made products like motorcycle parts and electronic goods.

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There are always marginal customers who are barely hanging on, and already angry with Apple for whatever reason, and seeing a tip screen may finally throw them over the edge. Imagine an example where someone came in for a warranty repair, got told it had some very minor water damage, and so it was not covered, and now has to pay $499 for a repair they feel should have been free (let's assume the water "damage" has nothing to do with the issue) and the payment screen for the repair says "add a tip?" I could see that person never buying a new iPhone, or at least never stepping foot in that store again.

While the scenario you’ve outlined can- certainly happen, I think some studies have to be carried out to really determine tipping as the final insult to tip irate customers over the line into lost business.

Personally I don’t regard it as such a severe affront. To me, modern payment flows are such a bloated mess of screens that I’m half surprised Apple Stores don’t already have a tipping screens. If it wasn’t tipping, it’d be an appeal to donate to the St. Jude’s Children Hospital or to the Ronald McDonald fund. When supermarkets and fast food joints have all of these extra payment screens, a tipping screen at an electronics retailer doesn’t trigger me any more intensely.

Is this right? No. But it’s the state of payments, and it’s easy enough to tune out. Just another way how every vendor is trying to squeeze every last drop from consumers.

The marginal benefit of putting a tipping screen in the payment flow is close to zero. If one person during the whole year avoids the creepy store that demands tips, it's pure loss.

(iphones can be purchased online, btw)

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