Is there a way to ethically use DoorDash?
July 7, 2023 12:02 PM Subscribe
Someone thought they were doing a nice thing for me by giving me a $100 gift certificate for DoorDash. I've never used the service before, and every headline I see talks about how rotten their employment practices are. I'm guessing "use it all up in 1 go; tip generously" is the way to do this, but if you're more familiar with the service I'll take any other hints you have.
I don't know about all of the possible ethical quandaries, but I do know that years ago they had one that seemed particularly scummy to me, but that they then resolved*:
They would guarantee the pseudo-employee, say, at least $5 for a delivery (I am totally making the numbers here up). They would tell the customer that the entire tip would go to the pseudo-employee. A customer who tipped, say, $8 might therefore reasonably think the pseudo-employee would be getting $13.
Such a customer would be wrong. The pseudo-employee would get the $8 from the customer, yes, but since $8 is more than $5, they would get zero from DoorDash itself. Effectively, the first $5 of any tip was going to DoorDash, not to the pseudo-employee, but technically the whole tip was, at least in some absurd but strictly true or at least true-ish sense, going to the pseudo-employee, not to DoorDash.
But like I said, they resolved* this years ago.
For your question of whether tipping via the gift certificate is allowed, the gift certificate should have terms and conditions available (perhaps via a URL). If you can't find them, or can't find the answer in them, I'd suggest contacting DoorDash support.
Finally, I'd just like to say that your "use it all up in 1 go; tip generously" seems pretty hard to dismiss out of hand as being obviously unethical; I imagine that someone who wanted to argue it was unethical would need to be a pretty zealous person. This seems especially true if you, say, get yourself a sandwich and some soup, and the pseudo-employee gets the huge amount that will be left over from that. And regardless of the overall ethics, that would definitely make someone's day.
*: Or at least they claimed to have resolved it, to the apparent satisfaction of both journalists and their pseudo-employees who were up in arms about it. By "they claimed", I do not mean to imply "they falsely claimed" - I do not know one way or the other. All I know is that I had been seeing many complaints about it, then they said they fixed it, then I suddenly no longer saw any complaints about it (for years now).
posted by Flunkie at 12:48 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
They would guarantee the pseudo-employee, say, at least $5 for a delivery (I am totally making the numbers here up). They would tell the customer that the entire tip would go to the pseudo-employee. A customer who tipped, say, $8 might therefore reasonably think the pseudo-employee would be getting $13.
Such a customer would be wrong. The pseudo-employee would get the $8 from the customer, yes, but since $8 is more than $5, they would get zero from DoorDash itself. Effectively, the first $5 of any tip was going to DoorDash, not to the pseudo-employee, but technically the whole tip was, at least in some absurd but strictly true or at least true-ish sense, going to the pseudo-employee, not to DoorDash.
But like I said, they resolved* this years ago.
For your question of whether tipping via the gift certificate is allowed, the gift certificate should have terms and conditions available (perhaps via a URL). If you can't find them, or can't find the answer in them, I'd suggest contacting DoorDash support.
Finally, I'd just like to say that your "use it all up in 1 go; tip generously" seems pretty hard to dismiss out of hand as being obviously unethical; I imagine that someone who wanted to argue it was unethical would need to be a pretty zealous person. This seems especially true if you, say, get yourself a sandwich and some soup, and the pseudo-employee gets the huge amount that will be left over from that. And regardless of the overall ethics, that would definitely make someone's day.
*: Or at least they claimed to have resolved it, to the apparent satisfaction of both journalists and their pseudo-employees who were up in arms about it. By "they claimed", I do not mean to imply "they falsely claimed" - I do not know one way or the other. All I know is that I had been seeing many complaints about it, then they said they fixed it, then I suddenly no longer saw any complaints about it (for years now).
posted by Flunkie at 12:48 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Get an influencer with a large following to send an elaborate open letter to DoorDash requesting a refund for the gift certificate, so that they can donate the money to an employment rights activism campaigner.
posted by amtho at 12:52 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 12:52 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
You can tip with the gift certificate. A lot of people I know are making their living solely through doordash. Any tip over $10 makes their night. If you can do several deliveries with $20 tips you will be improving the driver’s lives significantly! Get yourself something nice to eat and leave a fat tip and you will be directly helping people who need it.
posted by Bottlecap at 12:54 PM on July 7, 2023 [26 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 12:54 PM on July 7, 2023 [26 favorites]
I agree with Bottlecap - just use it and tip well, at least 25%.
posted by pumpkinlatte at 12:57 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by pumpkinlatte at 12:57 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: DoorDash already has the money. If you use your gift certificate, then most of the money goes from DoorDash to a local restaurant and the delivery person. If you don't use it, they keep it all. So, ethically, I'd say the best thing is to use it to order from a local brick and mortar you want to support, and then tip well.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:59 PM on July 7, 2023 [37 favorites]
posted by bluedaisy at 12:59 PM on July 7, 2023 [37 favorites]
Best answer: As long as you give a good tip, I don't think it's unethical to use Door Dash occasionally. 95% the time when I use a delivery service it's because I'm sick, so I'd consider holding onto it for one of those times when you're ill and a nice hot bowl of soup is what you need to feel better.
If you want to eliminate the driver exploitation part, you can do a big pickup order and order high margin items you might not ordinarily get that will help offset the fee that Door Dash charges the restaurant.
posted by Candleman at 1:04 PM on July 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
If you want to eliminate the driver exploitation part, you can do a big pickup order and order high margin items you might not ordinarily get that will help offset the fee that Door Dash charges the restaurant.
posted by Candleman at 1:04 PM on July 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ethics are pretty personal and I think my ethical meter is calibrated differently from yours when it comes to food delivery, but I do peruse subreddits like r/doordash to get employee perspectives on what types of customer behavior is fair/beneficial/annoying/unacceptable and perhaps this is a good question to ask there or answer by perusing existing conversations.
For my part, I would say that as long as you tip well (I would personally say that "well" is the greater of 25% or $5), don't order anything egregiously hard to handle, give good ratings, and (obviously) don't tip-bait, you're fine.
You can also use the gift certificate to order pickup if you want to sidestep the question of delivery ethics/employment practices/gig economy altogether. Doordash will still get their hefty cut, but other than that the money is just going to the restaurant like any other order. Plus, hey, your money goes farther food-wise that way.
posted by mosst at 1:39 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
For my part, I would say that as long as you tip well (I would personally say that "well" is the greater of 25% or $5), don't order anything egregiously hard to handle, give good ratings, and (obviously) don't tip-bait, you're fine.
You can also use the gift certificate to order pickup if you want to sidestep the question of delivery ethics/employment practices/gig economy altogether. Doordash will still get their hefty cut, but other than that the money is just going to the restaurant like any other order. Plus, hey, your money goes farther food-wise that way.
posted by mosst at 1:39 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
You could use the voucher to buy meals for someone in need. Give it to an impoverished friend, or you could feed a homeless person, or purchase items to donate to a local food bank/toiletries bank/animal shelter - animal shelters always need supplies of litter, treats and food.
Of course, tip the driver well too!
posted by wandering zinnia at 2:04 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Of course, tip the driver well too!
posted by wandering zinnia at 2:04 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Tipping in cash always avoids the questions of whether or not your tips are actually going to the driver
posted by Jon_Evil at 2:24 PM on July 7, 2023
posted by Jon_Evil at 2:24 PM on July 7, 2023
One thing about tipping in cash- technically DD drivers cannot see the tip before accepting an order, but they can see the total payout they will receive. I don't know what the number of drivers is in your area, but to ensure you're not waiting for a driver to accept you'd want to at least give some sort of tip through the app, and then you can tip cash on top of that (but this entire thing is sort of moot if you're looking to spend a gift certificate).
posted by oneirodynia at 2:34 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by oneirodynia at 2:34 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
I got a Doordash gift card from my boss once and was able to just pick up the food myself since getting food delivered by strangers kind of squicks me out.
posted by jabes at 8:33 PM on July 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by jabes at 8:33 PM on July 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
I follow the /r/doordash reddit, and the best thing you can do is tip the drivers fairly for their time. Doordash has the money already, now its up to you on how you divy it to the drivers. Tip at least $5 plus an extra $2 a mile minimum, make it super easy for the driver to find you, and have them drop it off no-contact. Youll be the one of the best deliveries of their night.
posted by cgg at 9:20 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by cgg at 9:20 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you want to reduce DoorDash's total revenue, give the gift certificate to someone who would use DoorDash already -- that way they won't give DoorDash additional money.
And if you explain _why_ you're giving them the gift certificate, there's a chance they'll shy away from using DoorDash in the future.
'Tis better to give than receive, no?
posted by amtho at 9:46 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
And if you explain _why_ you're giving them the gift certificate, there's a chance they'll shy away from using DoorDash in the future.
'Tis better to give than receive, no?
posted by amtho at 9:46 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
So I won't (can't) use DoorDash anymore. I had my bank block their transactions, because they kept charging me every month, even after I got a new credit card after reporting fraud from this on the old one, for a nonexistent DashPass account that even their customer service couldn't find. I tried shutting down both my DoorDash account and my Caviar account, and even then the charges didn't stop. So I've blocked them and can never use them again, and good riddance. If you search, you'll find a fair number of people who had to do something similar.
The other thing they still do that's totally unethical is that in my experience, even if they end up replacing an item with a different one or a smaller one, they won't refund you the difference. They charge you prices based on some kind of estimate of what items might cost at a given store, not what they actually cost, and the company keeps the difference. That's just wrong to me.
So yeah, I used to use it on occasion, and last used it to get crutches for someone quickly, but never again.
posted by limeonaire at 11:40 PM on July 8, 2023
The other thing they still do that's totally unethical is that in my experience, even if they end up replacing an item with a different one or a smaller one, they won't refund you the difference. They charge you prices based on some kind of estimate of what items might cost at a given store, not what they actually cost, and the company keeps the difference. That's just wrong to me.
So yeah, I used to use it on occasion, and last used it to get crutches for someone quickly, but never again.
posted by limeonaire at 11:40 PM on July 8, 2023
Basically, if you can use it without ever giving them a payment method besides the gift card, or ever expecting honesty and transparency in pricing, cool! Use that up. But otherwise, you might look into selling it or gifting it, as others have mentioned.
posted by limeonaire at 11:46 PM on July 8, 2023
posted by limeonaire at 11:46 PM on July 8, 2023
Response by poster: I appreciate all the smart answers. I didn't realize you could do pickup, so I will definitely do that and just try to blow it all in one go.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:44 PM on July 10, 2023
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:44 PM on July 10, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:08 PM on July 7, 2023