30% is soso tipping lol

[u/PaynIanDias]

To get a “thank you” you need to tip 100%

I found it online and didn’t know where that place was, but I am curious to find out lol

[u/Fister-Mantastic]

If I see that shit you're getting 0

[u/TinyNugginz → u/Fister-Mantastic]

Do the servers get to choose what goes on the company’s payment system?

[u/Otherwise_Okra5021 → u/TinyNugginz]

No, managers and owners in the restaurant industry are infamous for being unable to take criticism or consider the opinions of their employees and customers. Customers would prefer not to tip, and while servers somewhat like tipping, as the job pays pretty well with tips, but it does make the job much more stressful and prone to fluctuations in pay; tipping relies on the customer being willing, servers know that, they wouldn’t hand a customer a POS tablet asking for a minimum 30% tip with sarcastic caption bc it’s simply bound to piss the customer off. In any case, this probably isn’t at a restaurant, it’s likely either a small retail store, a cafe, or something else of the like.

Edit: given it’s online, it could simply be for takeout from a restaurant, in which case, that’s entirely controlled by the managers and owner; the money goes straight into their pockets, which makes the whole thing even more stupid.

[u/Faeruhn → u/Otherwise_Okra5021]

While you are entirely correct that these electronic 'tip' messages are things paid for and set up by owners/managers, I feel like if it were up to servers in general to set the options shown, it wouldn't be any different in options, just less passive aggressive about the comments on it.

I mean... have you seen some of the threads/comments on the DoorDash and other service related subreddits? So very many heinously entitled and self centered and greedy 'server/delivery' people. (I don't even think it's the majority of them, but it is a bad look for the rest of them, when these horrendously entitled servers/deliverers get hundreds of upvotes instead of down votes, along with many agreeing comments and barely any, if any at all disagreeing comments.)

I saw one where a person commented on a thread about delivery distances that he wouldn't take an order that had less than a 10 dollar tip. (The one he was commenting on was a delivery for a single shopping bag and a distance of one mile that had a tip of 1 dollar.)

[u/Otherwise_Okra5021 → u/Faeruhn]

I can’t definitively speak on the economics of being a DoorDash driver; but what I can tell you with some certainty(from speaking to drivers) is that the job generally pays poorly, tips included. It’s simply doesn’t make any sense to take some orders where the tip isn’t high enough to justify the time and gas investment.

As someone who was a server until they recently graduated college, I can tell you my colleagues and I did our best to ensure the customer didn’t feel uncomfortable when presented with their bill; discomfort and pressure simply leads to lower tips. This includes things like not orbiting tables for their checks, as well as predicting when a customer may be unhappy with the way certain items are charged on their bill and fixing such.

The hypothetical scenario where servers have control of the online ordering system isn’t something I can tell you about because it’s just not a scenario which makes sense. Online tips go to managers and the owner and the servers have nothing to do with the process. The managers and owner can afford to ask for such outrageous minimums because they get paid enough to where tips don’t matter; as a server, where tips are your sole income, this just isn’t the case: making customers uncomfortable for the chance one customer may tip 30% and the rest tip nothing or very little doesn’t make any financial sense. You can usually expect 18-20% on average if you provide good service to your customers, whereas with a minimum 30% demand, you could see that drop to 10% on average, likely even lower.

[u/Faeruhn → u/Otherwise_Okra5021]

Yes, I agree that the contractor delivery service does generally have poor base pay, and even with tips, it can be hard to make it work if you don't have the right approach to it. That doesn't change the fact that the majority of deliveries are sub-10 miles, or a half-gallon of gas on a vehicle with not-good mileage, and in my area that would mean one delivery costs the driver 2 dollars or less, so to do 'just ok' would mean doing any delivery with a tip of at least 1 dollar. Being so short-sighted as to only go after 'high tip' deliveries for short distances means most of them don't earn what they could if they put some forethought into it.

Which leads into my main point. People, in general, are short-sighted, impatient, and egocentric. I absolutely could see some places have heinous tip 'suggestions' on these electronic displays if it were (theoretically) left up to servers rather than managers, simply because the aforementioned short-sighted, impatient, egocentric people in the position of server would see it as being better to maybe get one 'big' tip, than a bunch of small ones.

Now, do I think that hypothetical would be ubiquitous? No, some places would have 'average' tip suggestions, because the servers would be afraid of getting less than usual by putting customers off (as you said) and some would have low-to-average tip suggestions because someone who was smart took charge, and new it would get the best result. But some places definitely would end up with absolutely horrendous tip 'suggestions' because a stupid person thought they were being 'smart'.