Uber’s New Tipping Policy Is a Mistake

https://hbr.org/2016/05/ubers-new-tipping-policy-is-a-mistake

by Jerry2 • 10 years ago

33 7 10 years ago

Leynos2• 10 years ago

People claim tips as a business expense? I did not realize this. I always kept the gratuities off the receipts whenever I travelled on business. Doing otherwise would have felt dishonest, as I viewed these as a private transaction between myself and the person serving.

sb8244• 10 years ago

Best example I can think of is going out to eat with 10 and picking up the bill to expense, you will probably want to include that on expense due to amount.

Same thing for uber with multiple co workers. That would warrant a non negligible tip.

Leynos2• 10 years ago

That makes sense. Thanks.

cafard• 10 years ago

I haven't traveled much for business in a long time, but I always included tips on the receipts. I never felt squeamish about this. Having worked in restaurants as a busboy during high school and college, I regard tips as part of the cost of a meal, not as my way to reward great service. The accounting department never complained, though I suppose that if the tips had crept up from 20% to 50% it would have.

markgavalda• 10 years ago

May be the start of Uber's downfall :(

nly• 10 years ago

Here in the UK (where tipping is a different beast entirely to the US) every taxi I've ever taken has been paid for in cash. I think this is still the norm because every fixed-fare I've had has been priced a few ££ below a round-figure in expectation of "keep the change".

That said, if I was paying by card via an app (and I've never used Uber) I would absolutely expect not to tip or have to talk money with the driver at all. It just seems rather unprofessional.

peatmoss• 10 years ago

Lyft has been doing quite a lot right relative to Uber recently.

Due to my employer, I had been a frequent user of Uber's platform. A few weeks ago, I decided to give the Lyft app a try again after a longish hiatus. I found the app comparatively uncluttered and performant. Whereas Uber's app has six billion options along the slider bar, Lyft doesn't bombard users with mostly unused choice.

Coincidentally, I had a friend visiting who tried Uber's app for the first time right as Uber had rolled out some pretty massive changes to the UI and service. When his app defaulted to an interstitial prompt for carpooling, I thought he'd hit UberPool by accident, and had him back out to try again. When it happened again, I assumed something was janked with the app, and had him kill the app and restart it.

Lyft's focussed approach to on-demand mobility may be an in-road against the "do everything" approach of Uber. The subsidies they are offering means I have no cost incentive to use Uber for the moment--instead I roll a large portion of the $5/trip savings into tipping. This bumps the price back up to unsubsidised Uber levels, but I feel like I've gotten a bargain, and I know those dollars are going to the driver. In that sense Lyft is getting double duty from their subsidies. Clever, considering the goal is to build both the supply and demand sides of their marketplace.

Now the tipping feature in the app all of a sudden feels less of a liability and more of an asset. All told, Lyft's been handed some lucky cards and has been playing them well.

Uber’s New Tipping Policy Is a Mistake

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