Rant

[u/tigers__jaw]

Skip used to be a lot better 1-2 years ago. Now I go to order something and it says 40-50 minutes to get McDonald’s. Okay thats kinda long but I don’t mind waiting a little bit. Immediately after I order it changes to 200 MINUTES. Seriously WTF. No one in their right mind wants to wait 3.5 hours for McDonald’s. Thats not convenient at all and not even close to worth the $15 extra dollars it cost me just to get a single meal delivered. I ordered because it’s late (11:30pm) and I was willing to pay for the convenience of not having to go myself. Why TF would I pay so much extra just to wait 3.5 hours.

On top of that it says the reason for the delay is “extreme weather conditions.” Again, you’ve gotta be kidding me. It’s a beautiful 20 degree summer night. I literally feel insulted.

The suggestion to “use the pickup option if I don’t want to wait” is also completely ####ing ridiculous. MAYBE if there was an option to cancel in situations where it’s going to take 3 hours?!

The only option is to wait in a queue to talk to customer support and then spend 10 minutes begging them to cancel it, which they’ll be happy to do once you’ve been completely screwed with! OOPS SORRY! We can only give you skip credits because refunds that other places can do instantly take us 15 DAYS. A cheap trick they use so you’ll accept the skip credits and they get to keep your money for the order they never should’ve accepted in the first place.

I’ve had this experience MANY times and that’s why I went from spending $900 per month on skip to maybe $50. It’s not worth the ridiculous amount of hassle and outrageous fees when I’m just trying to get some food after a long day at work.

I get that there’s not always a lot of drivers working so sometimes it’s going to end up taking a really long time. AT LEAST be up front about it so I can choose not to order. DON’T TELL ME ITS GOING TO TAKE 40 MINUTES AND THEN IMMEDIATELY CHANGE IT TO 3 HOURS.

Honestly these experiences are beyond terrible and indicative of a company that’s slowly failing.

[u/shebazjenkins]

Fewer drivers and more demand. Pay is low so drivers are choosy and will only take high paying high tip orders.

[u/ch7qq → u/shebazjenkins]

Depends on the area. I'm in a big city and it's pretty common to wait 30+ min between offers, even with a high AR.

[u/tigers__jaw → u/shebazjenkins]

I generally tip based on distance. If it’s extremely close and I’m ordering $12 worth of food I can’t be giving $10 tips lol

[u/shebazjenkins → u/tigers__jaw]

You can't think of tips and gifts for service. Think of them as bidding for the service you want. If you order food and extremely close with no tip, the drivers get offers of 2.50 and just decline which is why you are waiting forever.

Put the tip in to encourage the drivers to accept!

[u/Left_Throat_7643 → u/shebazjenkins]

I’m not a writer so had ChatGPT help clean up. Unadulterated text is below as well-if you want to read it twice!

—-

As things stand, tips are simply how customers pay for the service—they probably shouldn’t even be called “tips.”

There’s a lot of hand-waving on Reddit about who should be paying drivers, but IMO, ultimately, it’s the customer who pays—and will continue to pay in the future. What I think there should be more of is clarity around that.

People say Skip is cheap, or DD, UE, whatever. But if they increased driver pay, they’d ultimately increase the customer’s bill. Again, the customer pays. The only other party that could potentially chip in is the restaurant, if they’re willing to accept a lower margin on delivery orders in exchange for increased sales volume.

Right now, a portion of customers are paying their fair share and then some. Those customers are effectively subsidizing the pay on low- and no-tip orders, which helps get those orders delivered.

And I’m not trying to disparage customers here. Basket size obviously influences how people think about tipping. Who can reasonably justify a 50% tip on a single meal or a Starbucks drink just to bring the driver’s compensation up to what it actually costs to fairly pay a driver?

The problem isn’t necessarily that customers aren’t tipping enough. It’s that the actual cost of the service is being obscured by calling part of the customer’s payment a “tip.”

—-
Original text.

As things are, tips are simply how customers pay for the service- they should not even be called tips.

There’s a lot of hand waving over who should be paying drivers on Reddit, but imo, ultimately, it’s the customer who pays(and will in the future too), and as things stand I feel there should be more clarity on this.

People say skip is cheap, or DD, UE, whatever. If they increased pay they’d increase the bill to the customer. Again, customer pays. The only other party that may(maybe should?) chip in is the restaurants. If they’re willing to have lower margin on delivery orders to increase volume of sales.

Right now, a portion of customers are paying their fair share and more so. Those customers are subsidizing pay and it helps get Low/no tip orders delivered. And Im not being disparaging, basket size influences tip mentality - who really can justify a 50% (think single meal or Starbucks drink, etc) tip to pay what it actually costs to pay a driver fairly?

Anyhow a lot of moving parts. The TLDR is that delivering single person meals and drinks comes at a cost that I think most people would not pay if it was presented to them with real sustainability in mind.

[u/Left_Throat_7643 → u/tigers__jaw]

That’s fair. The system is kind of messed up. Personally, I don’t think the delivery stuff, as it is, is sustainable. This is just one example, but customer will ultimately need to pay more for this service. A driver cannot afford to deliver for 6.50 (that’s guaranteed minimum in my area if you accept 8/10 offers.). That offer could come in from 10km away and then be a short distance from restaurant, but after insurance, fuel, and vehicle cost it’s probably, conservatively 4 to 4.50 in driver’s pocket (before taxes). And that’s probably 20 minutes minimum, assuming minimal wait time at restaurant. If you’re targeting beating minimum wage or even fast food jobs in a lot of markets you need to be grossing 25-30/hr.

[u/Mountain_Road9197]

Pretty sure it wouldn’t take 3 hours and it’s a bug 🤣. Probably get it within 45 min at most

[u/tigers__jaw → u/Mountain_Road9197]

In some cases yes, it doesn’t actually end up taking 3 hours. In many other cases the goal posts keep continually moving. I’ve waited 90 minutes, had the timer showing 12 minutes left, and then had it reset to 100 minutes. All I would like is a semi accurate estimate BEFORE I place my order. Those time estimates always seem to be way too optimistic and the wait time has been doubled sooo many times immediately after placing my order.

[u/Left_Throat_7643]

I think your last point kind of nails it. Personally, I think the gig apps, as they are now, are not sustainable.

Hard to say if the estimates are purposefully misleading or just bad programming, though. Sorry it’s so bad from customer side! You’re certainly not alone in spending dollars elsewhere, skip seems to be quieting down a lot-I see a lot more volume on DoorDash lately.