An Uber Eats driver says that a customer backed out of a tip after she completed the order and shares others signs of potentially stingy customers.
In a now-viral video, TikTok user Epic Roaming Adventures (@epicroamingadventures) says that she recently experienced “tip baiting.”
According to the TikToker, Uber Eats allows customers to edit their tip up to an hour after the delivery is completed. So, to attract Uber Eats contractors, some customers will promise a sky-high tip in-app just to edit it to a lower amount later.
What is ‘tip baiting’?
Other platforms—like DoorDash—do not allow customers to remove their tip. Instead, if they have issues with the order, they are directed to customer service.
The TikToker explains that she had a Target order that required her to shop in-store. “This order was kind of low for what it was,” she says, noting that the original quoted pay was around $9.
When she dropped off the order, she says that the customer was overenthusiastic saying, “Thank you so much! I could have done this without you today.”
“Usually when they’re overcompensating like that it means they’re not going to tip you more or they might reduce it,” she explains.
Sure enough, she says that the customer reduced her tip shortly after she left—leaving her with just $6 of pay for the order.
“It was completely not worth my time,” the TikToker laments.
How can Uber protect driver pay?
In the comments, viewers criticized Uber’s tipping policy and suggest ways for the company to protect their drivers’ pay.
“Uber needs to monitor that, and after doing it 3 or 4 times, you get an automatic $5 ‘driver assurance’ fee added, refunded if the tip remains the same. If not, driver gets it,” one user wrote.
“I think the company should pay you enough that it’s worth your time and a tip should just be a nice bonus. Lowering the tip shouldn’t be an option but still, the company should pay,” another user said.
Other Uber Eats drivers validated the TikToker’s theory by sharing their own experiences.
“That’s definitely the one thing I hate about it. Happens a lot where I’m at,” a commenter said.
“I delivered an entire shopping cart full of groceries and they took tip away,” a third added.
Tip baiting vs app glitch
Tip baiting is definitely a thing. In fact, the CEO of Uber even reportedly experienced it while working under cover as a driver.
However, a driver on this Uber Eats forum encourages others to wait before jumping to conclusions. “Sometimes tips don’t register for a few hours. In my experience this has only happened on stacked orders. Thankfully it’s very rare it’s happened to me about 10 times in 17000 deliveries with Eats. I generally wait 3 hours to verify if it’s a legit tip bait or not,” the driver wrote.
He continued, “Don’t be like me and get [expletive] off at what I thought were tip baits but upon further investigation they weren’t tip bait baits at all.”
@epicroamingadventures #uber #ubereats #tipbaiting #doordash ♬ original sound – EpicRoamingAdventures
The Daily Dot reached out to Epic Roaming Adventures and to Uber via email.
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