What's your attitude about tip screens?

[Robin Garr]

How do you react to getting a tip screen, especially when you see it at a place where you didn't expect to tip?

The NY Times podcast The Daily has a good conversation about this issue today. Here's a gift link that will whisk you past the paywall:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/podc ... =url-share

There is a phone/tablet repair store near my house which I will not name. So yeah, tip screen. It’s just out of control.

No skin off my back. I have no problem hitting "no tip" and moving on. My tip for tipping (see what I did there)...I usually tip 20% + but round it up so that my total with tip comes out to a even dollar. That way when reviewing my transactions if I see a charge with odd cents I know something is amiss.

The move of tips from cash to credit card is one of the most nefarious things to happen as the result of our digital economy. Who knows what happens when you press that Tip button? Who is really getting the money? In the "old days" if I gave a waiter a $10 bill, I knew that they were getting the money. Now, I wonder.

Who regulates the digital tipping process? I'm guessing, nobody. But I don't know.

Who is paying for the digital tipping service that collects the tips? Do the people running the tipping software get a cut of people's tips?

Who is in charge of distribution? Let me guess - the store, hotel, or restaurant manager.

Did we see a case of a local coffee company stealing tips not too long ago? I think they received a huge fine.

Maybe the government needs to step in and regulate digital tipping services. I just think there is a lot of opportunity for something shady to go on in this space that hurts the most vulnerable among us.

[Robin Garr]

The move of tips from cash to credit card is one of the most nefarious things to happen as the result of our digital economy. Who knows what happens when you press that Tip button? Who is really getting the money? In the "old days" if I gave a waiter a $10 bill, I knew that they were getting the money. Now, I wonder.

Who regulates the digital tipping process? I'm guessing, nobody. But I don't know.

Who is paying for the digital tipping service that collects the tips? Do the people running the tipping software get a cut of people's tips?

Who is in charge of distribution? Let me guess - the store, hotel, or restaurant manager.

Did we see a case of a local coffee company stealing tips not too long ago? I think they received a huge fine.

Maybe the government needs to step in and regulate digital tipping services. I just think there is a lot of opportunity for something shady to go on in this space that hurts the most vulnerable among us.

Mike, those are all very good questions. I imagine the more people get irritated, the more pressure there will be on legislators to do something. I don't see this as a particularly red or blue issue, either, although I've been wrong before.

Mike, those are all very good questions. I imagine the more people get irritated, the more pressure there will be on legislators to do something. I don't see this as a particularly red or blue issue, either, although I've been wrong before.

If Corporations are lining their pockets with some of these tips, I believe it will become a blue/red issue.

I gladly tip professionals for whom tipping is traditional -- servers, bartenders, delivery drivers, barbers, etc. At least 20% unless the service was genuinely poor.

I generally hit the "No Tip" button at fast food, fast-casual, counter-service type places unless the service/preparation is something that takes genuine skill and craft, like an espresso-based drink (vs. drip brew) at a coffee shop.

I will say, while 20% is my standard rule of thumb, I admit to being influenced by any pre-suggested options that are presented. My barber's checkout screen is preset to 30/40/50% tip options and I usually don't have the gumption to hit Custom and type in a lower amount. Contrariwise, if the establishment presents me with 15/18/20% options, I sometimes take that as tacit affirmation that those lower amounts are OK to choose.

I was just in Italy where the idea of tipping at a restaurant (much less other service outlets) was almost non-existent. In 10 days I had one server hand me a payment device with a tip screen visible. It was rather refreshing (the part of not getting solicited!).

[Robin Garr]

TP, my last trips to Italy and France pre-dated tip screens, but I noticed that people typically leave a few coins but never paper money behind on the bill tray. In Japan in the '90s it was so unheard of that servers would come running out at you, waving your cash and telling you that you forgot your money.

TP, my last trips to Italy and France pre-dated tip screens, but I noticed that people typically leave a few coins but never paper money behind on the bill tray. In Japan in the '90s it was so unheard of that servers would come running out at you, waving your cash and telling you that you forgot your money.

Agree completely, Robin. 10% seems about right. I tipped our drivers a bit more (driving in Rome seems to be a dangerous exercise!). I had the experience you described from Japan during a trip to Bangkok three years ago when a server chased us down three blocks away from the restaurant to try to return the tip.

I've been thinking about this since the initial posting.

Based on this, I asked several workers at Little Caesars a few days ago when I picked up a pizza for my son. The first guy told me that he tells people not to tip because he doesn't think that they see it at all. Two others told me that they do receive tips distributed as per the hours they work. However, they have no idea as to how much vis-a-vis the total tip take.

Thats enough to give me pause to dumping tip money into a corporate black hole. I'll continue to add a tip to local entity screens. But until I receive assurance that all the money goes to workers--no mas!

As a side note, I was an officer of a local non profit that was a recipient one year of a high profile corporate annual fundraiser initiative. We were to receive all proceeds.

Well, we learned about the legal interpretation for "proceeds." It meant, at least in this particular case, money generated after costs. So to our dismay, we received only 20% of the funds raised. We were disgusted that the corp actually made money and left the community thinking that they were doing great things! We felt violated! But it was legal.

So returning to tip screens, there is probably some IRS hocus pocus that allows the companies to skim off the top.

[Robin Garr]

Jim, that's very annoying, and thanks for sharing it. I've been involved with a couple of non-profits that took advantage of a similar program - maybe even the same Kro<backspacebackspacebackspace> company. Good to know ...

Robin,
I don't want to create a ruckus. So I won't go any further here in public.

[Robin Garr]

Understood!

I had new smoke detectors installed by a pro electrician. And, yeah…there it was, an entry line for a tip. And I had supplied him with the ladder to install! I thought tips were implemented when foodservers were not making minimum wage like everyone else and tipping helped fill the gap?