Is Doordash Tip baiting a thing?

Tip baiting is probably the biggest enemy of drivers in the food delivery industry.

The feeling of calculating how much you make on a delivery just to be distorted by a dubious customer playing tricks is unmatched.

Not only that it cuts your earning, but it could also create a mindset where you now tend to suspect orders that could be legit, like this guy on Reddit…

So is Tip baiting something to worry about on Doordash? Well, let’s take a quick look at this.

Is Doordash Tip baiting a thing?

Well, typically not. Tip baiting is not possible on Doordash.

Editors note: Tip baiting is a process where a customer promises a big tip upfront to lure drivers to accept their order fast, then reduces or removes it after the service is completed.

While we may have seen a few complaints about this on other food delivery companies (probably the reason you’re curious), this isn’t much of a thing on Doordash.

So why?

Firstly, Even though Doordash allows customers to add tips whenever they want –this includes before, during and after delivery– you lose the right, as a customer, to change it, after adding it. This is regardless of whether you intend to increase it or not.

Doordash would only accept to change a tip when you have a strong reason for it.

And that’s left for them to approve because a customer would have to make a complaint to them with a valid reason on their live support before they could be considered for change tips.

All these are put in place by Doordash team to avoid tip baiting.

Of course, if customers can’t change their tip, tip-baiting can’t happen.

And as a Dasher myself, I’ve never been faced with these.

The idea of Doordash tip baiting only came up for two reasons

1. Complaints about customers on similar platforms (e.g. food delivery companies) using Tip baiting as a tactic to lure drivers. For instance, we’ve seen several complaints about this on Uber Eats.
2. Hidden tips on Doordash – perhaps, as a driver, you made a delivery, which you accepted tactically based on your delivery standard, and after the delivery, you discover there was more to the delivery — increased tip. And you thought to yourself, could it be there that a customer can change their tip and what if they lower the tip? Well, we talked about this in detail in our article on Is Doordash stealing tips.

Are there platforms where tip baiting is a thing?

Now, if you come to ask about whether tip baiting is a thing or not generally — yes, it is, unfortunately.

The only reason tip baiting is unlikely to happen on Doordash is due to the fact, it doesn’t give customers the ability to easily change their tips after a driver accepts their delivery.

Hence, for companies that give customers this ability, the chances of tip baiting would definitely be high. However, not as much as you may think since most people won’t think of doing that.

So let’s talk about these platforms…

Uber eats

One platform Tip baiting has been seen to be pretty much reported is Uber Eat and for one obvious reason, customers can easily change their tips after adding them.

But again, this doesn’t happen overly.

Why?

Well, first, if a customer keeps on removing or reducing their tip consecutively after a driver accepts them, that’s a clue to Uber Eats that this customer is tip-baiting.

This is one reason most people get banned from food delivery companies like Ubereats.

Secondly, not many customers are aware of the impact of a high tip– Hence, in a large population, there’s just a negligible portion that could tip bait.

Hence you may want to overlook this. Not many people worry about it either

Grubhub

Secondly, we have Grubhub.

Just like Uber Eats, on Grubhub, customers can always change their tip even after the delivery driver accepts them.

The initial intention is to create a scenario where customers can actually reward drivers with Tips that match the service they render– the actual idea behind tipping– instead of tipping blindly before a delivery.

However, there have been some dubious acts behind this freedom – tip baiting is one of them.

Editors note: If you’ve been tip baited on Uber Eats or Grubhub, it’s best you contact the respective companies through their live support on the app, instantly. You’re likely to get a refund. And if they’re able to confirm the delivery was actually tip baited, the customer could get banned.

Here’s how we recommend you do this…

Conclusion

While there’s room for tip baiting on some food delivery companies like Uber Eats and Grubhub, it isn’t possible on Doordash, as well as any other company that restricts customers from changing their tips.

For instance, Postmates, in the past, gave customers the ability to change tips for flexibility. However, this was eventually removed, as the complaints about tip baiting increased.