Stiffing drivers on Christmas Eve

[BowserKoopa1]

Ok I know we're 2 months past Christmas, but I just now thought of this story and decided to go ahead and post it.
As the title reads, well, you can already guess what its about. We were delivering food on Christmas Eve, we weren't too busy, but enough for the drivers to make at least some decent money, right? Wrong!
1 of our drivers complained that he had gotten stiffed twice and another driver got stiffed as well. I was really confused at this point and looked at my watch for the date.... Yup, it was Christmas Eve alright. So then, why were there so many people stiffing our drivers on this very holy religous night where you would most certainly expect big tippers, not stiffers? We never get stiffed this many times on any other night, and here we were on Christmas Eve and people were being very cheap. It was the day before Christmas, so correct me if I am wrong, but aren't people more generous with money and stuff during this time of year? I thought everyone was supposed to be in the holiday spirit. And yes, I know there are sucky customers even on Christmas Eve.
The story ends on a happy note, as I told this story to 1 person I delivered to, and they left me a big tip. I'm not sure if they were originally going to do this anyway, or if they were feeling sorry for me and the other drivers, but hey, the strategy worked Point I was trying to make is, there's not supposed to be this many stiffers on Christmas Eve. Well maybe they're broke from spending so much money on Christmas gifts? Good for you, go tell someone who cares. Yeah, you're so broke from spending so much, that you can easily afford a $10 or $15 pizza. Riiiiiiight. You've already spent a shitload on presents and even more on food, what's another $2 tip gonna matter?

[Sandiercy]

Have you ever been to a shopping mall during Christmas? People are worse during Christmas than any other time of the year.

[WIphone_lady]

No, the closer to any holiday you get, the worse the customers get.

Trust me, my customers are horrible. It's not my fault that you're calling me the WEEK OF CHRISTMAS and expect to get your last minute Christmas gift on time without paying for expedited shipping. You snooze, you lose. It's even worse when not even UPS Express AM (which is not available in all areas) will get it there in time. I've actually had people tell me that I've ruined their Christmas.

Things were tricky this year. Between the longshoreman strikes on the West Coast ports and Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast, we had a nightmare of backorders this year. There are times where you wish you could just tell people that they're welcome to do your job if they think they could do better.

[Pixilated]

Unfortunately this is true. The 'Christmas cheer' we hear so much about in song and story is usually conspicuously absent in real life. You may be right about people having spent so much already that they can't spring $2 for a tip (really??) or perhaps they figure hey, you're gonna be really busy on that night and everybody else is gonna tip you really good so, really, you're not even gonna notice one tip-less delivery, right ... ?

[BowserKoopa1]

In the 20 some odd years I been working, yes I have noticed that the holiday season brings out the best (and worst) in customers. I've dealt with it before. My big complaint was how they could be so cheap on Christmas Eve? You'd figure on people being more generous than usual, but then again I guess there are sucky customers all year round.

[Seshat]

You and I and everyone here knows that if you have 15 dollars to spend on pizza, and are in a place where tipping is a person's income, you buy a 13 dollar pizza and tip 2 bucks.

Even here, in Aussieland, where drivers and waiters and so on are paid an actual hourly wage and tipping really is for 'above and beyond' service, I'll make a point of tipping - usually something small for normal days, something more on a wet, miserable day.
But I've delivered pizzas in weather that was just short of 'everyone off the road' weather: if I'm ever stupid enough to call for delivery in weather like that, I'm tipping the cost of a pizza!

[Aethian]

I've delivered packages ON Christmas before and was told I ruined their Christmas because now it couldn't be wrapped or how dare I let on that it wasn't Santa who delivered it. Blech.

[Racket_Man]

Could have not said it better. My little rant is over on the Fratching Social Woes board.

http://www.fratching.com/showthread....happy+holidays

I have posted this several places and bump it every tail end of the holidays season now.

[wolfie]

For (unfortunately too many) some people, the only "Christmas spirit" they have is the rum in their eggnog.

[ShinyGreenApple]

We had pizza delivered to the pharmacy on Christmas Eve last year. I made sure the driver got a $10 tip. I mean geez . . .

[protege]

When I had my paper route, most of my customers were pretty damn generous during Christmas. I'd come away with anywhere from $200-300 in tips! But, there was one guy up the street from my parents...who was a *notorious* cheap bastard. Since he didn't have a screen door, I'd make sure to put his paper in a plastic bag, and hang it on the doorknob. I didn't get so much as a penny from him. Never mind he was a doctor, and the Infiniti parked in the driveway cost as much as all of my parents' vehicles put together. Only time I ever got a tip from that house...was if his daughter answered the door