Summertime Delivery Blues

It’s very HOT in the state of Texas right now. Record temperatures are being broken almost daily. And there’s no relief in sight for well over the coming week.

For me to get anything, I have been staying inside and using online delivery services for what I need.

I created a small order for groceries. I found this second online delivery service that is far better than the first. Maybe one day I will write a post about it and show you the comparison. But that’s not important right now.

Living in a gated property, instructions were given on how to reach my front door along with the delivery and waited for the selected time in which it was to arrive.

Then the telephone rings. The driver is outside one of the many gates that stretch along the property and wants to be let in.

I verbally repeated the instructions to this woman. And the following responses from her were less than professional or nice.

Over and over again she kept telling me which numbered apartment she was parked in front of. But couldn’t find a key pad to enter a gate code to get on the inside.

A second and third time of repeating the instructions to her, she shouted back “Can’t you just let me inside?? I see a door. Just come open the door.”

I told her she was at the wrong gate and she needed to drive a little more to get to the correct gate. And more argument came from her as she screamed “Just come get me and open this door. I see a goddamned door.”

The first thing that came to mind was to tell her that I was not dressed to come outside.

She then began to cry and whimper about it. She said that if I was not going to come outside and open the door that she was looking at that she would not know how to get my delivery to me. She was obviously starting to give up and was probably getting ready to leave.

I told her that I was on the way.

I had a feeling inside of me that told me that if I actually went around to the other side of the building and opened the door that she kept talking about that she was going to find a person in a wheelchair attempting to make their way down the path and she was going to instantly regret it.

Needless to say, that I hung up on her as she was in the middle of another whining fit.

So out into the horrible heat I went. Today with another record breaking temperature today of 103°F/39°C.

As I rounded the building and she turned and saw me…. the look on her face was PRICELESS. Maybe even Internet worthy.

I did not think of it until now, but I should have went up to the door inside of the gate and told her that the door was locked and I didn’t have the key, or that the door was welded shut to keep people off the property who don’t belong here.

So I opened the door and she immediately went into this wave of apologies and excuses and then back to apologies. She claimed she saw no other gate. And I physically pointed it out to her. She still said she could not see it. So I gave very descriptive terms to her along the lengthy gate on where to find where she should have gone in the first place.

The bags were heavy and she did offer to carry them for me to my home. But I did not want her inside of my home.

I led her to the front door. And as we went along the path I explained to her how roads work and how much easier and more convenient it would have been for her if she would have just followed the instructions that I had provided for her already several times.

She walked in front of me and then I told her which apartment to walk towards. She got to the door and then she proceeded to open it. That is until I told her NOT to open the door and just leave the bags next to the door on the patio area.

Again she gave me another priceless look of disbelief. I really think she’s got a problem with following instructions. Perhaps she’s one of the many kinds of people that don’t like being told what to do. And I would think that if that was the case, she shouldn’t be working as a delivery driver.

I understand that it is hot outside. And I also could believe the possibility that she was running behind on her deliveries.

And I also understand that trying to find where I live can be very confusing. My family had plenty problems of their own when they first tried to visit me here. However the screaming, the whining, and the not following instructions is deplorable.

Just another day in the big hot sweltering city of Austin in the summertime, I guess.

Freakin’ idiot.

Gratuity

One of the things that eludes me in life is the knowledge of what exactly should be given for gratuity. I question whether or not there is a standard scale for certain services. And I also get very confused at times on knowing when to tip as much as I get confused on how much to tip.

I have my doubts on whether or not that standard actually exists because the gratuity is based on so many different factors. Certainly, it boils down to the kind of service you receive that will determine how generous you are feeling when leaving gratuity. Many services require many various services. Sometimes it is a lot, and sometimes it isn’t. So then, how do you know and what is fair, what is good, and what is considered a moral faux pas?

Restaurants and other food services are probably the most well known places in which a person leaves a tip. The things that I believe are factored in, are the total amount of the bill, how many people in the party, and of course how well the waiting staff had offered service and help.

Some say its 15%, others suggest that you should give 18% of the bill, and even still others are now saying 20% of your total bill is what is acceptable gratuity rates. And even though I have only had a couple times of experience, there are some places that actually INCLUDE a certain amount of gratuity and include it in the total bill. Does anyone think that is right or fair? And if so, do you leave even more cash gratuity… or is that just another moral faux pas?

I am definitely not the world’s best person or authority when it comes to leaving tips and gratuity. A lot of the time, I do not leave a tip simply because I either cannot afford it or do not have the cash. If it was a scenario of not being able to afford it, that means that I have only budgeted so much money for the total bill, and have money left over to go about my business and be able to live. Mainly though, I tend to lose cash if I am not paying attention and so I don’t carry it all of the time. But I am more than happy to leave something extra on the credit card slip.

On the other hand, I have gone out of control with tipping. Once I’ve established some kind of a relationship with waiting staff, I am more than happy to let them have more than what would commonly be considered your usual tip.

I once tipped one waitress over $200 in a span of six months, all because I enjoyed her repeated awesome service for one. And because we had established a friendly connection. After frequenting the restaurant many, many times in that time span, I dumped so much cash on the table or just given it to her directly that I literally had to stop and think, “Why am I giving THIS MUCH to her? Was her service that valuable?”.

Probably not, but that’s what I had done.

Needless to say, that since that awakening I have only given her up to $5 on top of the usual gratuity.

Tipping is also important because you will want very awesome service should you happen to be in a situation where you are again with the same waiting staff. If you want their service to be the best it can be, well… let’s just say that they will remember you by what you tip. Believe me, its true.

Waiting staff, taxi drivers, bartenders, and deliver drivers all work solely on the tips that they receive. I have experienced in some ways, both sides of it. One half as the person leaving the gratuity, and the other person having hearing about how crummy people can be when they stiff the people in which they have been receiving service. These people receive squat in terms of wages, and they must live on what they receive for tips. So I really just do not know if there is a rate that is “set in stone” when it comes to gratuity.

This afternoon, I had ordered some fast food delivery. I signed off a tip on the credit card slip AND I gave some extra in cash. The delivery person looked at me like I was handing over the keys to the kingdom with his eyes bugging out of their sockets when I handed him the cash.

There are websites that try to help you determine what you should leave for tips, but again, I question it. According to this chart I read online, it said “$1.00-2.00 or 20% of total, whichever is greater.” I calculated what I had given as gratuity and found that I had given 24.5% of the total bill. So I guess I’ll live to see another day of food service delivery, if I chose to order from them again.

All in all though: I just don’t get it.