'He's going to call the store manager and complain': 15 Pizza delivery workers share their worst tipping customer stories

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 11, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

After being stiffed on tips a few times, these pizza delivery drivers are fed up. 

There's an ongoing debate about tipping, and no one seems to know quite what the appropriate amount to tip is. It definitely depends on the service you're getting. That's why it's nice to tip a waiter who brings you your food and drinks, or a barista who makes a latte with a nice cinnamon heart on top. It seems like a good idea to tip pizza delivery folks, too. For one, pizza is usually a really cheap food, at least compared to other types of take-out. Secondly, if you get it delivered, a person has to drive to your home from the pizza parlor. It doesn't matter if you're one mile away or fifteen, if you're in their delivery radius, they'll bring it to you. But the delivery person is burning gasoline driving to you. They're often using their own car. It's a nice privilege to sit in your home and wait for another human being to bring you yummy food, so it's polite to offer a tip for their time and effort. 

These pizza delivery workers aren't staying quiet any longer about the people who've stiffed them on tips, as you can read about down below. And next, this micromanager is going to regret messing with his employees. 

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  • 01
    FREE DELIVERY PIZZA BY THE SLICE MAMAS PIZZA PEST GA SAUSAGE inau CANADIAN BACON & PINEAPPLE HOUSE VECI 11 CREATE YOUR OWN WITH A PLAIN CHEESE PIZZA OS DOLLAR PER ALEZ WILSON HELP WANTED We Support STATE EMPLOYEES STATE EMPLOYEES BUSINESS HOUR
    via Dylan Mullins on Unsplash
  • 02
    What is your worst "stiffed" story? I have delivered pizzas off and on for about ten years with various shops so I have had my share of "stiffs" but without a doubt I believe the worst one I ever endured came on a hot summers day about 6 years ago (insert wavy lines and flashback music if it helps)...
    via u/TheTheologianTrojan
  • 03
    I had to deliver 50 (yes you read that right FIFTY) pizzas along with 300 chicken wings to a Yacht. Now most of you know you can get about 4 pizzas in a big bag so that meant I had to haul 13 bags in my car just for the pizzas. the wings had about 50 in a box as well so with the other six boxes for those I easily had 14 to 15 bags full of food.
    via u/TheTheologianTrojan
  • 04
    The delivery went to a very upscale hotel on the water about 12 miles from our shop (our delivery area was HUGE). I had to park in the parking lot and carry the bags across the lot, down this long pier to the boat where the customer waited to take the bags from me. Obviously I could not carry all the bags at one time so I had to go back to my vehicle to repeat the process until all were delivered. The customer did not offer to come help and there was
    via u/TheTheologianTrojan
  • 05
    not a cart or anything available to use. Upon finishing my delivery he informed me he had already paid with the manager and thanked me for the delivery. He did not give me a tip. I wasn't worried as I was already told that he paid so I assumed I would just pick up my tip when I got back (our manager/owner kept big tips secret and would give them out privately).
    via u/TheTheologianTrojan
  • 06
    Upon returning my manager asked me how much of a tip I got because the order was several hundred dollars. I looked at them like a deer in the headlights. I told them I assumed they had my tip because he offered none and seemed to think everything was taken care of. All I got in reply was a shocked look and a half sympathetic apology
    via u/TheTheologianTrojan
  • 07
    TheDanSandwich I once delivered five pizzas, two twenty-four piece wings, and four two-liters to a bunch of teenagers having a party once. Exact change. Teenagers
    via u/TheDanSandwich
  • 08
    shoelaceninja Took a delivery very far out to the edge of our delivery radius one night. This was literally down one of the few roads we go down that leads to the middle of nowhere. A few side roads with a few hidden gated communities with miles of roads, each occupied by only a few houses.
    via u/shoelaceninja
  • 09
    Get to the house and knock on the door. No answer. Knock harder and wait.... Nope. Go to my car and get my phone. I called and could hear a phone ringing through the upstairs window. Called again. and again. and again.
    via u/shoelaceninja
  • 10
    Each time, I could see someone popping their head up to the window and just staring at me. After about 5 back to back calls some comes down and has to look for his wallet in his truck. He says he wants to pay by card. I do the whole "oh we can do that, but we'd have to call it in if you wanna do that." Yep, he really wants to do that.
    via u/shoelaceninja
  • 11
    Call it in, no tip... 45 minute round trip, normally 28-32 min.
    via u/shoelaceninja
  • 12
    SpyroThBandicoot My very first night of delivering ever.... Guy places a 4 pie order for carry out thru our online service. We make the pies and end up waiting for an hour. The guy calls and asks where his pizzas are. Manager informs him that he placed the order for carry out. The guy, who was a
    via u/SpyroThBandicoot
  • 13
    college professor, thought that carry out meant that we could 'carry his food out to him' AKA delivery. We all facepalm. We remake his order and I end up taking it to a small college campus at the very edge of our delivery area. I get there and wait for 10 minutes for the guy to come get his food. He finally gets to the main entrance and hands me his card asking if I can run it for him.......
    via u/SpyroThBandicoot
  • 14
    'sir it says here that you were paying with cash' 'well I didn't have enough cash so I have to use my card' 'well you're going to have to call the store and have them run it for you' The guy then gets upset at me because I don't have some magical device to run his card saying something
    via u/SpyroThBandicoot
  • 15
    like 'it's 2011 for God sakes, why don't you guys have an easier way to pay for situations like this' He then tells me that he's going to call the store manager and complain and that he doesn't want his food anymore. We made 8 pies for this guy and he couldn't be bothered to get his together
    via u/SpyroThBandicoot
  • 16
    fangb Can't decide which one is more frustrating, you be the judge. -Came in on my day off because Saturday lunch is slow and my boss needed help with a $1200 order to the university. Its paid with a university purchasing card so it costs the customer nothing. Load it all up, get there, and nobody answers
    via u/fangb****
  • 17
    the phone. Unload it all onto some carts and call, no answer. Track down a person who knows the event is going on but has no idea who the person needing to sign is or who to talk to. I was asked to bring everything upstairs since that was where he event was, and after 30 minutes of this finally the man arrives. He looks at me, then down to the receipt and says "you are going to hate me for
    via u/fangb****
  • 18
    this." Big fat $0 on the tip line. -Delivering to an apartment complex that is known to be a hit or miss tip wise. Find the apartment building, call the customer, she comes and gives me cash. I give her the change, she says thanks and leaves. No tip, thanks lady. As I get into the car she chases after me. It seems I miscounted her change, and shorted her
    via u/fangb****
  • 19
    fifty cents. I apologize and dig through my car for it while she says "good thing I caught you before you left, I know its only 50 cents but I'm trying to save money and every penny counts you! know?"
    via u/fangb****
  • 20
    Tru-Queer I'm not a driver, but a coworker of mine ended up taking about 20 pizzas on a Sunday (I only mention this. because Sundays are busy due to football, so 20 pizzas is kind of a lot), which I had managed to make correctly and on time despite how busy we were. It was his first large order (he was like a week and a half new) he had ever taken, going out to a
    via u/Tru-Queer
  • 21
    volleyball game, I think. The coach stiffed him. Now that wouldn't have been so bad, except the exact same thing happened to him a week later. :/
    via u/Tru-Queer
  • 22
    Ryktech Delivered to a large meeting at a church, so around $150 for about 13-14 pies (we gave them a discount). The lady who signed the credit slip tipped me absolutely nothing. The other lady who was there even asked her if she tipped, she just responded "no" (while I'm still obviously in hearing distance). Most disappointing delivery ever.
    via u/Ryktech
  • 23
    HokTaur So we had a newer manager, who was eager to get good numbers( for some reason he thought a $200 was a huge order when it's really not at all for our store), sent me on a delivery well out of our range(like 15min drive out into the country). I was a snowing pretty bad and it took me over an hour to get there, including getting stuck in a ditch and having a
    via u/HokTaur
  • 24
    random truck pass by to pull me out. I finally get out there, call in the credit card b/c they didn't have cash, and wrote a $0 on the tip line.. Best part of it was my car bottomed out in the middle of the road on the way back and I had to dig myself out with a ice scraper. Total round trip was
    via u/HokTaur
  • 25
    just shy or 2hrs, which is 2 hrs of peak delivery time I missed out on. A different manager felt bad for me and gave me $10 for gas... Lessons learned: I now refuse to take any deliveries out of city limits when the roads are bad( it's my car and I reserve the right not to put my property or health in danger, if it's that important of an order the manager can take it) and always keep a shovel in my car as well.
    via u/HokTaur
  • 26
    annoyingSalespe... Had one delivery to a single wide tailor house,, this particular neighborhood was all trailers with permanent foundations and was hit or miss. It's the current special where the total worked out to $16.97 or something like that, so typically people would give a $20 and say to keep the change. This guy has a fairly new truck in his driveway, window stickers
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 27
    still on it. I walk past the boat and snowmobile over to his patio/porch where I have to squeeze between his motorcycle and the wall to get to the door and knock. He answers and we do the usual exchange, he hands me a $20 and I pull out my bank bag to file it away. He immediately tells me he wants the change back and he does it very sheepishly, knowing he's supposed to tip and
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 28
    knowing he's stiffing me. In the awkward silence he stumbles something about sorry for not tipping, but "I ain't got no job right now." It wasn't the lack of a tip that bugged me as much as the stupid attitude of the deadbeat. A different one that probably I me off more than it should was a stupid 12 year old boy who opened the door just enough to stick his
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 29
    head out and grabbed the pizzas from me, then quickly shut the door and said he'd be right back with the money. He's gone a couple of minutes, just enough time for me to get really anxious that he was going to try and not pay at all. He comes back with a $20, the bill was around $13 so I wasn't expecting a keep the change comment but I was
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 30
    expecting something. Being fairly new and naive I said "how much change did you want back?" to which he replied with such an incredulous tone that I debated smacking him across the face, "all of it." As if it was a stupid question, why would I think he didn't want it all back? I drive by that house a decent bit and still flick it off when I do.
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 31
    There are a ton similar to this with dumb teenagers, but the incredulous tone the kid took was just too much.
    via u/annoyingSalespeople
  • 32
    _edd I was one of two drivers working in a torrential downpour at the store with the largest delivery zone. In 4 hours, I delivered 16 orders and came home with less than $25 cash with $20 of that being the delivery fees.
    via u/_edd
  • 33
    Swagpacolypse2... Took a $400 dollar order 5 miles out of delivery radius to a neighboring town's school function, lugged all 30-some pizzas from my car through their hallways to the gym and set them up, carried their 15-20 2 liters of soda and set those up, and got a check for the exact amount.
    via u/Swagpacolypse2k12
  • 34
    ghostplush The worst stiff I've had in recent memory came last summer. I had to come in a half hour early to help make a 50 pie order on a Saturday. The delivery was going to the local high school for some band thing in the parking lot. The order total was $664.50 but they were given a $264.50 discount.
    via u/ghostplush
  • 35
    Get the classic sign and hand back the receipt, stand there for a bit hoping she pulls a 50 or something out... but nothing. I very much wanted to said loudly "wow, no tip?" just to get the attention of all the other parents, maybe to embarrass a tip out of somebody :( receipts
    via u/ghostplush
  • 36
    [deleted] $200+ order to Porsche dealership. No cart, no help, multiple trips. Check made out to exactly the order total. I did get $1 because manager did some bad math, plus our $1.50 delivery fee. Awesome.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    mystahead Been delivering 11 years. I took 188 pizzas to a school in Northeast Houston. They didn't want them at intervals. They wanted them all at one time. I tried to tell them that not all the pizzas would be hot since some would be waiting while the others cook. They didn't care just said bring them. I went into work 2 hours early to help make them. I loaded
    via u/mystahead
  • 38
    as many as I could in my car with no hot bags since they didn't care if they were hot or cold. It took 2 trips from the store to get them all there. 1500 dollars and no tip. Bad thing was they were collecting money from the students to pay for it. I
    via u/mystahead
  • 39
    wasn't expecting a kings ransom for a tip since it was a school but if you're not going to tip anything at all they should have had a catering service bring them food.
    via u/mystahead
  • 40
    Fuzzy_Gauntlets Not as bad as some stories here, but one time I delivered 3 pizzas, 2 other sides, and 3 2-liter bottles of soda, coming up to something like $65. I get there and the guy is standing in the doorway watching me. I get everything out of my car and start struggling up his steep driveway. He sees my
    via u/AbbaZabaMyOnlyFriend
  • 41
    struggle and starts laughing. As I get to the door, two other people walk up behind him, presumably to help carry his large order inside. But instead, he just takes my clipboard and they all stand around while he signs, leaving me to stand with something like 20 pounds of food and drinks in my hand. No tip.
    via u/AbbaZabaMyOnlyFriend
  • 42
    I get back to the store and apparently the other drivers. know him and he never tips. Honestly, it wouldn't have. been that bad if he just stiffed me on all that food, but laughing at me while I was bringing him his food was what stuck with me.
    via u/AbbaZabaMyOnlyFriend

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