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by EEMac 1094 days ago
It's called bribery or corruption and is common in third-world countries. "You actually want me to do the job I'm already paid for? Give me cash."
2 comments

Yes, one area where I am forced to tip significantly and very often is with my food delivery service. This is, of course, a matter of "pre-tipping": I must enter the tip amount when placing my order, not after receiving the service. So I consider any "pre-tip" to be a bribe, because I cannot know who is handling the service and I cannot know how the service will be performed.

I have seen many food delivery workers (they are all contractors, of course) who brag about stealing food from bad tippers. I am not a bad tipper, and delivery drivers steal the drink from my order all the time. In fact they did it more often when I just ordered one drink; now I often order two, and I find that it comes in a carrier and they leave it alone. Perhaps it's a huge bother for them to wrestle one lonesome moist cup, and they'd rather keep it for themselves.

If I do decide that the driver caused some big problem or outright stole from the order, I will pursue customer service to reduce the tip to $0. They don't always understand that, so I have to spell it out. And yes, I do increase the tip when I find that exceptional service has been rendered.

If stuff is missing from my order due to theft, then I'll be contacting customer service to let them know that either they replace the entire order(I'm not touching food messed with by the delivery driver) or I'll not be paying anything at all. If they refuse I let them know that I'll be contacting my card issuer asking for a chargeback. They usually comply before I do that.
> It's called bribery or corruption and is common in third-world countries. "You actually want me to do the job I'm already paid for? Give me cash."

While true, it is just veiled and normalized in 1st World nations and perhaps more pernicious due to severity; at least it's honest in the so called 3rd World as you mentioned which ironically makes it more tolerable to me.

I don't like it, but I'm also beyond the hope we can undo this until an immense reduction in population makes housing, and the maintenance that supports it, a post-scarcity commodity which I fear will likely never completely happen.