A number of food delivery drivers have expressed their anger over “tip-baiters,” i.e. folks who dangle the promise of a high tip to ensure that their orders are delivered in a timely fashion, only to snatch it away upon receiving their items after the fact.
One Uber Eats driver, Brandy (@brandyy.rose), decided that simply making an angry post about it and uploading it to the internet wasn’t enough: She contact Uber and threatened to make deliveries for rival application DoorDash instead, in a bid to get the money she was initially promised on an order.
Brandy says in the video, “Remember the other day when I said I got tip-baited on Uber Eats? So I was supposed to get $16 and I ended up only getting $3 from Uber because that person like went and changed their tip. So I’m mad about it, and my level of petty is like just underneath going back to their house and knocking on their door and be like, ‘Why did you fuck with me?’”
@brandyy.rose #ubereats #doordash ♬ original sound – Brandy
She goes on to say that she decided to take the matter up with corporate, “So I called Uber and I told them ‘Hey I’m coming from DoorDash. I’ve been DoorDashing for four years that shit has never happened to me. I try Uber Eats within the first week I got tip-baited out of $13. I was like, ‘Why do you guys allow people to do that to your customer or to your drivers?’”
Brandy then said she told the Uber representative that she was no longer going to deliver for the platform and would be returning to exclusively delivering food for DoorDash instead, “I’m about to take my ass right back to Doordash where that doesn’t happen. I was like if a customer does that you guys should be compensating the drivers because like the business is nothing without the drivers.”
According to the TikToker’s video, it doesn’t appear like Uber Eats addressed the issue on the same phone call, but rather that said they would follow-up with her at a later time: “So they’re looking into it and I’m hoping that they are going to compensate me. Cause I’ll go right on the DoorDash.” She accentuates her statement with a swift bite of what appears to be a hot Cheeto.
“The only thing that’s better about Uber Eats than DoorDash in the first place is that with Uber Eats you can log in whenever like you don’t have to schedule time. With DoorDash sometimes it’s hard to get in because you have to schedule something. So that’s the only difference I think you make more money on DoorDash anyway. So we’ll see,” she added,
In a follow-up video, Bradny revealed that Uber did indeed get back in touch with her. The TikToker says that the application told her that there was essentially nothing that they could do and drivers ultimately take orders “at their own risk,” when it comes to gratuities.
However, that answer didn’t sit right with the TikToker and she repeated that she will no longer be working for Uber Eats if they maintained this stance, stating that she would rather spend her time doing deliveries for DoorDash instead.
That seems to have changed the Uber support rep’s mind.
As a result, Brandy said that the application awarded her $25 in credits for the “inconvenience” of dealing with the customer, but she suggested to them that they implement a “risk” warning associated with patrons who have changed tip amounts on orders to leave the decision up to the driver as to whether or not they want to make a delivery to potential tip-baiters.
She added that she was proud she stuck up for herself, which is a trait she learned from her mother.
One TikToker agreed with Brandy and also thought that Uber Eats should “flag” customers who’ve changed their tip amounts after the fact: “They should flag customers accounts that do that.”
However, another said that they’ve adjusted gratuities in the past whenever drivers don’t follow the delivery instructions they append to their orders: “I only do it if drivers don’t follow delivery instructions.”
Another TikTok user shared that they’ve been on the receiving end of a tip-bait in the past and that it was so frustrating they wanted to verbally chew out the patron over the phone: “I got tip baited for the first time this week and I was soooo close to calling her job and screaming through the phone. But I stopped myself lol.”
One commenter said that tip-baiting isn’t an issue on GrubHub, as customers aren’t allowed to change their gratuity amounts after the fact: “deliver for GrubHub. as a GH User, you can’t change your tips. as a GH Driver, there’s the best tips / pay.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Uber Eats and Brandy via email for further comment.
