Mark didn’t like how a Papa John’s pizza delivery guy was acting, so he paid the delivery charge but marked through the tip line on his receipt. Two days later, he discovered an extra $6.42 had been tacked on. When Mark called Papa John’s to report the theft, he spoke to someone who obviously hasn’t gotten our memo that “taking it seriously” is about as reassuring as “your call is very important to us.”
Here’s Mark’s story:
On Monday, July 28th I ordered a pizza from Papa John’s Pizza. When the delivery driver showed up, he handed me my Visa slip to sign with an ‘x’ written next to the tip line. To me calling any kind of attention to the tip line on a credit card slip is akin to holding your hand out and asking ‘where’s my tip.’ I didn’t like the presumptive tip, and had already paid an almost $2.00 “delivery charge” so I wrote a line through the tip line, rewrote the total and signed the slip.
This morning while getting ready for work, my wife informs me that Papa John’s Pizza had overcharged us by $6.42. Quite upset about Papa John’s Pizza stealing six-and-a-half dollars from me, I immediately googled Papa John’s Pizza corporate number. I was transferred to the finance department, and left a message expressing my extreme dissatisfaction. About 7 minutes later I got a call back from Papa John’s Pizza and the gentleman asked for the details of the transaction, etc. After promising the difference would be reversed to my debit card, he said that “Papa John’s takes this sort of complaint seriously.” To which of course I replied “Please do not ‘take this seriously,’ resolve the issue.” Then the Papa John’s Pizza guy got all defensive and wanted to know why I was calling him a liar. Anyway he promised to have a ‘field supervisor’ look into the situation.
If my charge was off by a dollar, say because the person keying in the charge transposed a number, I may or may not have been so upset. I would have waited until the local Papa John’s Pizza opened up and discussed the matter with local management. But I firmly believe that the delivery driver took it upon himself to give himself a 30% tip. I also wonder how many other people have been ‘fleeced’ by this driver.
I hope to email you with an update about how Papa John’s Pizza refunded the difference and took steps to show me that I am a valued customer, but the day is still young.
Well, we’re impressed that someone at Papa John’s called him back as promised, and in less than 10 minutes—that sort of thing is far too rare with many companies, and makes us think that Papa John’s actually means the phrase. But yeah, they might want to rethink using empty PR-speak if they want to reassure customers that employee theft is not tolerated. But you shouldn’t blame your customers for being skeptical when they hear that phrase—there’s a reason nobody believes it anymore.
(Photo: Getty)
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@2719: “If you don’t want to tip a pizza delivery guy you need to get the pizza yourself. A buddy of mine worked for Pizza Hut. Was making minimum wage (at that time I believe is was $5.xx). Those guys only do it because of tips.“
Exactly. They do it for the tips. Why? Because with good tips, they make a pretty good wage. They COULD go work a 7-8 dollar an hour job doing something else, but they would rather take this job that service workers so often love to bitch about that’s so shitty because it might get them good tips. So because they are greedily choosing this crappy job, it’s somehow my personal responsibility to directly pay their salary? Screw that! If you make too low of an hourly wage, find another job where eating and paying bills doesn’t rely on people arbitrarily giving you extra money for doing what you’re already paid to do.
A tip is just that, I don’t give a damn who says otherwise. A tip is a reward for good service. If you don’t provide good service, you can go screw yourself, because I’m certainly not giving you money (just less than I would have otherwise) for being an asshole to me. Hell, most of the time, “good service” to me is simply doing your regular job… not being an asshole, being as prompt as possible, etc. If you simply do your job, you’ll probably get a decent tip from me. If you go above and beyond, you’ll get a good tip. If you show up a half hour late with a “Dude, here’s your pizza. So where’s my tip, brah?”, you’re probably getting the door closed on your face. It’s a tip… a reward for good service. It’s not me being your employer and having to pay your wages, and if it were, you’d be fired for shitty service.
And why should it be expected to tip just because someone’s bringing you food? Do you tip your garbage man? He has to ride on the back of the worst-smelling truck ever so you don’t have to burn your trash or take it to the dump yourself. This guy drives a pizza to your house in the comfort of his own car. What about hospital and nursing home personnel? They often have to deal with people that’ve puked or crapped themselves or bleeding all over the place, etc. So where’s their tip? Delivery drivers take a lot less shit from customers than call center employees, so where’s the mandatory tipping for call center workers?
Now it’s kind of another issue if you’re doing your job well and don’t get a tip. It kinda sucks when you bust your ass and do well at what you do and still don’t get a tip, but it still shouldn’t be expected or demanded. You don’t know if the person’s a cheapskate, just forgot, or doesn’t have the money to at the time (either financially, or physically…as in only having the exact amount on the at the time). If it’s the last one, it’s absolute bullshit from the people that give the “Well then you obviously can’t afford pizza and shouldn’t be buying it” or “Go pick it up yourself” garbage. If I have the enough to pay what’s listed on the menu and any applicable delivery charges, I can afford the pizza. If you think I should only get delivery with a separate charge specifically to the driver in addition to paying the price of the food AND a delivery charge, open your own pizza chain and see if anyone chooses to order anything from someone that feels entitled to the customer’s money and thinks the customer’s an asshole if they don’t give you more than is required.
Papa Johns is one step above dog food. I can’t believe people eat that garbage. Yes, it IS that bad.
@coren:
Tipping is optional just like good service is optional. One goes with the other. The OP is your typical stingy, ungenerous, self-righteous chump who thinks he’s better than other people, especially those who have jobs serving others be they a pizza delivery guy or a CSR. However, it is evident this gentleman is better than no one.
And NO, I did not justify stealing in any way shape or form. In fact, I said people who steal give those who provide good service a bad name.
@NinjaMarion:
Please take a Valium. I could go on for days about the merits or lack thereof of tipping in society but suffice to say that in some jobs a tip is customary and in some it is not. I did not write this societal rules. I would much prefer that the owner of a business pay his employees a good living wage instead of adding a few more million to his bottom line but that is not how it works. We have the system we have. If you order a service in which tipping is customary you should consider your tip as part of the price.
The question of how you tip reflects more on you than on those serving you. Are you generous or a skinflint? Do you respect hard work and effort? Do you believe a worker is worthy of his wage? Would you rather those working in what many consider menial jobs instead go on welfare and live off of the largess of government? How you answer those questions will determine how well you tip.
Good service should always be valued, whether you believe in tipping or not.
People who eagerly look for a tiny sliver of excuse to clear their cheap conscience really can GTFO. You were lazy and wanted the pizza delivered. Pay the fee and give the guy $5. If you do not like the system, go pick it up. Even better, eat some chicken breast and rice.
Yet another massive tool OP.
I know a lot of people have probably already said this, but I need to say it too.
The OP is completely indignant. The delivery guy is wrong for what he did, but the OP deserved it. And when corporate did everything right to fix it for him, the OP was still indignant.
People like this guy are exactly why I don’t go above and beyond for my own customers anymore. I’m still gonna get attitude no matter what, might as well save the effort.
Did pizza delivery before (papa johns even) so from my end it is like this:
1. Dude probably stole it, there are alot of scummy drivers out there
2. The X on the line is less so a *AHEM* with your hand out and more so for the pain of answering the same question a billion times. You actually wouldn’t believe how many people ask were to put the tip. I know they are giving money but COME ON! On that note i never did do that because I was lazy.
3. As was said before customer sounded like a prick.
in this case “we are taking it very seriously” equals “Yes i freakin know the problem already basically planned how to investigate and/or written up the pink slip please for the love of god shut up and stop repeating yourself”
You can be sure that the manager was probably banging his head against the wall after the 10 min of this saying to himself, shut up shut up shut up.
…. it should be compulsory service for everyone to work for a living in food service/customer service for at least a year. We would be so much better off as a country.
I wonder why he didn’t talk directly with the Store Manager? Seems strange to go directly with corporate. I wont tip just for doing ones job. Sorry folks just call me European. Why not just tip everyone, mechanics, cable repair men, the guy installing your battery at auto zone? Have you ever tipped the UPS or Fed-ex guy? How about the postman? The parts delivery guy does the same job as the pizza guy and never gets a tip. (the parts guy has to have a clean haircut and tuck in his shirt how about a tip for that) That is my tip rant.
I’ve worked for Papa John’s for the last 3 and a half years, just recently “retired” for a full-time career. Let me say up front that I loved my time there. Good friends, the work was fun, and I made great money. Now this is how it is.
Fact: The delivery fee, which just recently increased from $1.50 to $1.75, is there to sort of cover the company’s cost of paying drivers minimum wage or better. The company gets $.50 of it, the rest is cash in the driver’s pocket. This can be considered for various costs, but in the computers it is called “mileage,” which is assessed to each and every delivery. A driver can potentially get to keep the entire delivery charge based on performance, seniority, or doing the manager a favor by staying late, covering a shift, etc.
Papa John’s operates on a VERY small profit margin. We’re talking 4-6%. What they’ve done now is adjusted the drivers’ hourly pay rate so that they get minimum wage ONLY when in the store, but when they’re clocked out on deliveries, their pay is adjusted to $4.55, making them more dependent on tips.
It seems a lot of people don’t even understand how to tip a pizza guy, so I can’t really fault him for putting an X near the tip line. Delivery areas vary and it could’ve been that people routinely ignored the tip line out of ignorance. I can’t tell you how often people would just take a slip and scribble on it without even looking at the total or taking their copy, let alone try to figure a tip. Some also don’t realize you can add a tip if you’re writing a check.
In these situations, I would politely ask if they’d like to leave a gratuity for their driver, and 9.8 times out of 10, they’d be more than happy to. The other .2, well, you take the bad with the good and roll on. You DO NOT adjust CC slips. That is no less than fraud, and stealing, no matter how big a jerk the person is who is stiffing you. Do you tip your waitress for carrying a plate of food to you from a kitchen 40 feet away? Then you gotta tip the drive who’s racing your food from MILES away, and do it mathematically, not a flat rate of a dollar. And don’t stiff someone because they put an X by the tip line.
That “X” may have been there for senile oldsters like me that have never gotten used to tipping on a card and always have to ask someone where to enter it on the receipt, especially since every pizza place has their own format.
I’ve always been an OP defender but this time I have to agree with many of the other commenters. The OP comes across as too cheap to tip the driver, looking for any excuse not to do so, and then was a jerk to the people on the phone… every temptation to violate the comment guidelines all rolled into one cheapskate elitist twit.
oh and another thing I forgot to mention about pizza delivery, contrary to alot of the other posts drivers really don’t make a % tip on any delievery. For some reason people always tip the same amount no matter what unlike normal food service. For me in my area i could count on 99% of my tips to be exactly 3 dollars, no matter the order. My god would i have loved actual % tips
@Dansc29625: People do tip the post man, every year around christmas, i have gotten tips pushing carts at grocery stores. Some are just more common than others
@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz: The best and most sensible comment in the entire thread and a moderator writes this?
Common sense is your friend.
I tip not because I give one rats ass about the economic situation my server/driver has found themselves in, but because I am selfish and self centered and want people to think I am generous and pleasant and that I should always get great service. My “will be delivered in 45 minutes” pizza always arrives piping hot in less than 20, meals at my favorite restaurants are always served according to my particularly specific tastes, and my bartender has my drink ready before I sit down. I always tip at least 25 to 30% (50% if the bill is small, 100% if the bill is cup of coffee small) regardless if the service is good, bad, or mediocre. I smile even when things are wrong and ALWAYS ask how their day has been.
I’ve only had ONE bad experience at a restaurant in my LIFE and that involved a waiter basically throwing my plate down in front of me, splattering me with food and then bitching because I rearranged the sugar packets in their little dish (by color). I tipped him heavily AND left a note saying that I hoped his day got better. Know what? Every since then that waiter has given me IMPECCABLE service. People are motivated by praise, not punishment. If you want to get great service then be polite, gracious, and tip well.
Not tipping says to the server “It’s not that you gave bad service…I’m just the kind of asshat that doesn’t tip.” No server says to themselves after you leave “I should have worked harder!” They say “What an asshat. I’m glad she’s gone. Next time I’ll pass that table off on someone else.” Think of it… do you ever stop during the middle of your work day and say “Damn, I should be working harder to make other people happy! I’m such a slacker! No wonder I’m not getting what I deserve!” No, you don’t. You think you’re doing a great job and when you get shit on you blame the other person.
Tipping is the kind of positive reinforcement that makes people behave well. You train a dog with treats not tasers and you train the people around you to interact with you appropriately by rewarding them for every little effort they make.
Remember… the person serving your food is just as self entitiled, narotic,and f’d up as you are.
@Dansc29625:
If you want to be called European, move to Europe.
People do tip postmen although it is illegal for a federal employee to receive a gift over twenty dollars, I think. I once sent a ranger a pound of my favorite coffee because she did a great tour for a group we took to a National Park. She made it clear during her talk that she loved coffee so I figured it was appropriate. She wrote a nice letter back and said she wasn’t supposed to receive gifts but her boss knew better than to try to take coffee away from her.
Fed Ex and UPS driver tend to make good $$$ and don’t expect their wage supplemented with tips. Although when I owned my own business I always gave my regular UPS driver a gift at Xmas and we invited him to PPV fights we had with friends.
Generosity is appreciated and reciprocated by most thoughtful people.
I’m a Delivery Driver.
Real simple.
1) The driver is absolutely wrong for adding a tip that wasn’t added by the customer.
2) Most places don’t give delivery fees to the driver. They do pay a Gas/Mileage reimbursement which ranges from 5% or the pretax order at Jimmy Johns (not NEARLY enough to even cover gas alone) to about a buck at Pizza Hut
3) If you don’t want to tip a delivery driver, get in your own f’ing car and pick the pizza up, you lazy bastard!
OP is a whiny baby.
First off, I don’t care that the delivery driver marked it with an X to draw attention, he has probably been shortchanged a lot or people overlooked the tip spot. Give the kid a few bucks, Its the only way he can make nearly minimum wage (tipped employees can make almost $3-4 under minimum wage and depend on the tips to make money). Then the CSR is helping you out and apologizes and then you have the balls to call him out and be a dick to him too? It was an extra $6.42 you were charged and your being a dick to the guy who is trying to help you out and get it credited back to your account? You sir are the exact customer that I HATE helping and the one I strive to never be like. I wish more customers were understanding, but you take being an idiot to a whole new level, and of course the consumerist rewards this kind of behavior.
@mannymix03: Drivers make above minimum wage as base and get a certain amount per run for fuel costs, When I did it I got $7 an hour and 70 cents a destination about 4 years ago. Waiters are the ones that can be paid under minimum wage not drivers.
However, not tipping with out a moderate reason is kinda rude.
@ryatziv: But the delivery charge doesn’t really go to the driver. The delivery charge is used to cover the expenses of making the delivery (i.e. gas, etc). Even with reimbursement, in most cases the driver is still being paid less than the wage they make due to the costs of making the delivery (especially now adays).
Yes, tips are optional. However, it is ingrained into the US food service industry to the point that it is culturally not optional unless you got horrendous service. There’s really no getting around that.
Wages are based off of the presumption of tips. I look at it this way: restaurants are more or less paying for the waiters to simply be present and rather than tacking on the cost of the server’s services (which is considerable more than their wage) onto the menu price, YOU are paying for it with what you deem a reasonable price.
@Egakino: It’s probably because people see delivery as a one-off service. If you’re at a restaurant, the server greets you, gets you drinks, brings your food (possibly multiple times depending on what you order), checks on you, and clears your table. That inherently has more value than just dropping off food at your door. Since it’s a one shot deal, people are more likely to just assign a single value of driving something (no matter what it is) to your door and dropping it off.
My S.O. works at a Papa John’s as a driver so I will tell you about his experience. He is paid the state minimum wage (higher than federal mimimun wage), but the franchise owner regularly tries to cut wages, and pays new hires a lower than minimum wage, hence, they are often short on drivers. The owner charges a delivery fee, which is not passed on to the drivers. That goes straight into the owner’s pocket.
My man is paid a commission of 7% on each delivery he makes, but when the minimum wage was raised, the owner toyed with the idea of getting rid of the commission or cutting it to a lower rate, but he didn’t when he realized he would lose his best drivers as a result.
Think your driver doesn’t also cook your food or touch the register? Think again. The franchise owner has to pay inside staff a higher rate than drivers, so to cut costs, he will short staff the store, or let inside staff leave early. This means drivers make your pizza and man the phones and registers. Now does it begin to make sense why you pizza might take an hour or more to get to you, when it takes about 10 minutes to prepare and cook it?
They also clean the store after closing. My guy works 10-12 hours, without a lunch/dinner break (or sick or vacation time), to bring people in the ghetto and downtown hotels and offices food. He actually loves his job – it’s stressful, and the money and customers sometimes suck, but it also an adventure every night.
Still think your pizza delivery driver doesn’t deserve a tip? Get stuffed.
@Kajj: See, I was thinking about that too. What if it was the cashier who added that money to the total themself and took the money? Someone took it, yeah, and that’s wrong but Papa John’s said they would look into it. They responded quickly. It probably takes time because they probably have to get the signe dcredit card slip from the store. They didn’t ignore the OP and he is understandably upset about the overcharge, however, overcharges don’t just disappear right away. Give them a day or two to invetigate and refund the money before complaining about their service.
Also, yeah, in the US it’s rude to not tip. Yes, the drivers may get the delivery fee but they don’t at all places. If it got there, was correct and on time, at least tip something. If the driver was helpful and courteous, tip more. I have to order food at work and since it’s alway large orders, I tip well. They usually have to make multiple trips up and down a few flights of stairs. Tipping well has done me a great service, though. The places we order from know me, get the food there quickly and will often give us discount or throw in extras. Niceness gets you further than being rude.
Seriously Roz, are you going to ban half the people in this thread?
@twophrasebark: Everyone in this thread should have read the Consumerist Comment Code. If half of them choose to ignore it and get banned that’s on them.
There is a difference between saying the OP is wrong for not tipping or being short with the CSR guy and saying that the OP deserved to have his money stolen.
If people deserved to have crimes committed against them they wouldn’t be crimes. The OP doing something people don’t like isn’t not an excuse for theft. It’s not even close.
We avoid the tip issue in the first place by picking it up ourselves. Our PJ isn’t too far and we always get it faster and fresher.
@dveight: This is a warning. You know that you’re violating the rules; you chose to do it anyway. No more.
Comments are being turned off on this post due to consistent disregard for the Consumerist Comments Code.