After a parade of scandals and a campaign urging users to delete its app, the ride-hailing app Uber has implemented some changes that the company hopes will make drivers happier, including in-app tipping. Since that was added to the app, the company reports that drivers have already received $50 million in tips. [More]
tips
Cheesecake Factory Customers Say They Were Duped Into Leaving Big Tips
By 8.11.17
Even though we all now have phones with handy calculator apps, some restaurant diners are still confounded by the math when trying to sort out the tip, particularly when splitting the bill. Many restaurants now do the math for you and print a suggested tip on the receipt, but some Cheesecake Factory customers say the popular chain is enriching itself by suggesting misleading tips on split bills. [More]
Survey: Male Republican Baby Boomer Northeasterners Are The Best Tippers
By 7.11.17
Among Americans, who are the most generous tippers? If you believe the results of a recent survey, if you’re in the service industry, you should hope that your next customer is a male Republican from the Northeast who’s a member of the Baby Boomer generation and pays on a credit card. [More]
Instacart To Pay $4.6M, Revise Service Amount Description To Resolve Class Action Lawsuit
By 3.24.17
Back in 2015, and again last year, Instacart shoppers took their growing ire over worker classification, as well as tip and service amount changes, a step farther by suing the grocery delivery startup claiming it broke state and federal labor laws, the company has agreed to settle the class-action suit for $4.6 million. [More]
One State & One City Voted To Eventually Do Away With Sub-Minimum Wages For Tipped Workers
By 11.9.16
If you’ve never worked in the foodservice or hospitality industry, you may not know that employees who rely on tips often earn base pay that is significantly less than minimum wage (the federal minimum is currently $2.13/hour). Tips can certainly add up to much more than the minimum wage, but they can also be cyclical and unpredictable, which is problematic for people living paycheck to paycheck. Yesterday, voters in one state and one city decided it was time to phase in wage increases that will eventually get tipped workers earning base pay that is at least the minimum. [More]
Waitress Receives “Tip” Telling Her To Stay Home With Nonexistent Husband, Kids
By 10.18.16 — Updated: 10.19.16
Here at Consumerist, we’re no stranger to the occasional restaurant receipt story: whether it’s a customer leaving a rude message, a discriminatory tip, or an employee calling customers names. In the most recent incident, a couple reportedly left a note to inform their waitress “her place is in the home.” [More]
Instacart Replaces Tips With “Service Amounts,” But Are Workers Being Stiffed?
By 9.29.16 — Updated: 10.3.16
Since its launch in 2012 Instacart has offered consumers a way to shop at their local grocery store without actually going to the store. Instead, hired shoppers would be sent a list of products, grab them off shelves, and drive them to a customer’s home or business where they often — but not always — receive a tip. But starting next month, the company is changing the way it handles tips, leaving some contractors and customers up in arms. [More]
Drunk Customer Returns To Restaurant The Next Day To Take Back $1,000 Tip
By 6.15.16
Usually when someone leaves an exorbitant tip at a restaurant, folks ask things like, “What made them so generous? What’s the heartwarming story behind it?” But one restaurant owner was a bit more practical after a drunk customer left $1,000 on the table for servers, asking instead, “Did he even mean to do that, or will he just want his money back?” It turns out she was right to ask those questions, because he didn’t, and he did. [More]
The 8.5 Steps To Making An Effective Complaint That Gets A Solution
By 3.14.16
Millions upon millions of seamless commercial transactions — interactions between consumers and business — take place every day. But sometimes, something goes wrong. Your package arrived broken. You’ve been billed for a service you cancelled three months ago. You were called something rude by an employee. Whatever it is, it’s a problem, and you need to complain about it. [More]
5 Tips For Tackling Winter Driving Safely
By 2.9.16
Waking up to freshly fallen snow can be a peaceful, idyllic scene, but realizing just moments later that you have to drive in all that white fluffy stuff to get to work can take the serenity out of the moment. [More]
5 Cold-Weather Grilling Tips For Your Super Bowl Party
By 2.2.16
Super Bowl Sunday is a time for football, friends, occasionally creative commercials, and food, lots of food. But firing up the grill on a February afternoon isn’t exactly the same as cooking out on the Fourth of July. [More]
Restaurant Group Behind 17 N.J. Houlihan’s Sued For Allegedly Pocketing Workers’ Tips, Not Paying Overtime
By 10.2.15
A New Jersey company that operates 17 Houlihan’s restaurants in the state is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor over claims that bosses were skimming tips from employees, to the tune of $40,000 that should’ve gone into tipped workers’ pockets, but instead were allegedly “unlawfully” distributed to non-tipped employees. [More]
Alabama Restaurant Owners Claim Wells Fargo Won’t Fix Issue That Cost Workers $30K In Tips
By 8.26.15
An Alabama restaurant has plastered signs around a Mobile neighborhood accusing Wells Fargo of being run by liars, after the bank reportedly cost employees of the establishment tens of thousands of dollars in tips and refused to remedy the situation. [More]
Lawsuit Filed By Former Pizza Hut Delivery Drivers Claim Company’s Fees Cut Into Workers’ Tips
By 8.24.15
It’s not easy being a delivery person — you’re entrusted with getting hot food to its proper destination quickly, and then have face-to-face interactions with customers. The better you perform at your job, the more likely you are to get a nice tip for all that hard work and driving around. Two former pizza delivery drivers who worked for Pizza Hut are suing the company, claiming that their work wasn’t always rewarded as it should’ve been. [More]
Workers Say UK Restaurant Chain Keeps Their Tips, Makes Them Lie To Customers About It
By 8.21.15
When you’re eating at a restaurant and they impose a “service charge,” where do you assume that money goes? While laws regarding the pay of tipped workers are different in the United Kingdom than here, they do have the custom of tipping. Except at the chain restaurant Côte, which reportedly imposes an optional service charge which isn’t distributed directly to waitstaff. [More]
One Of World’s Most Expensive Restaurants Caught Keeping Tips From Waiters
By 7.2.15
Celebrity chef Thomas Keller’s Per Se restaurant in Manhattan is one of the world’s most expensive eateries, with diners paying a minimum prix fixe of $310 each for dinner. And yet the restaurant has been caught charging certain customers for “service charges” that didn’t go to pay the people performing that service. Now it faces having to pay $500,000 in restitution to employees who should have received this money. [More]
Customer Grateful For D.C. Restaurant’s Gumbo Leaves $2,000 Tip On $93 Bill
By 5.28.15
It’s always nice to be appreciated for your hard work in any form, but when someone goes out of their way with a hefty chunk of change, you better believe it makes people excited. Thus was the case with a regular customer at a D.C. restaurant who loved his gumbo so much, he tipped $2,000 on a $93 lunch bill. [More]
Would You Tip Your Lawyer Or Your Dentist?
By 5.6.15
In discussions of the custom of tipping, you never hear typical consumers wish that they were expected or asked to tip their service providers in more industries. Yet Square, a service that lets small businesses accept credit card and direct mobile payments on phones and tablets, gives any business the opportunity to prompt customers for a tip. [More]
