UPDATED 00:31 EST / JULY 25 2019

APPS

After backlash, DoorDash will change controversial tipping policy

Delivery app DoorDash Inc. said Tuesday night that it will change its tipping policy following a torrent of criticism.

The company came under fire recently for its payment policy. When customers tipped drivers, the drivers weren’t exactly getting the tips. Instead, DoorDash paid a guaranteed amount and if the tip was generous, it went to the company, not the driver.

This was recently explained in a New York Times article. The writer explained that for one order, the guaranteed payment was $6.85, although the customer gave a $3 tip. Fair enough, but if the woman hadn’t tipped, the driver would still have gotten the $6.85. Because she had tipped, DoorDash took the tip and paid the remaining $3.85. Effectively, this meant DoorDash was tipped, not the driver.

“We thought we were doing the right thing by making Dashers whole when a customer left no tip,” Chief Executive Tony Xu said on Tuesday in a tweet. “What we missed was that some customers who *did* tip would feel like their tip did not matter.”

Xu went on, “Going forward, we’re changing our model – the new model will ensure that Dashers’ earnings will increase by the exact amount a customer tips on every order. We’ll have specific details in the coming days.”

Still, critics said this was a way of exploiting workers and tricking customers. After Xu’s tweet, a barrage of comments followed, with customers saying this model was a scam and they were going to delete their DoorDash account.

So-called “Dashers” took to Reddit to discuss the news of the change in policy and some were worried that now their guaranteed amount would be reduced and if no tip came they’d be in trouble. As one person put it, the policy change echoes the story of a “genie who twists your wishes into something awful.”

“I’m worried how this is going to turn out,” said one driver. “I’ve noticed there are way more non-tip orders than I had thought ever since they’ve been showing the pay breakdown.”

Image: Marco Verch/Flickr

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