businesses in America today turn scams into the norm: forced tipping

By N.S.

all sorts of businesses pad their bottom line via extortion and theft.

a neighbor told the following story, on a local message board, with an accompanying receipt, of a visit to a subway fast food joint.

“BEWARE - I went to the subway shop in arverne yesterday. as I was filing my receipt I was shocked to find they charged my credit card 20% tip without telling me. this is a very deceptive practice on their part and you should be aware of this when shopping there. you can click on the receipt to see the charge.”

N.S.: a couple of weeks ago, we tried to do our grocery shopping via instakart. the tab came to $403.63 for groceries that would probably cost about $300 in the store, but was also padded by numerous ridiculous “fees.” The company waived the delivery fee, but exacted a “service fee” ($24.22, supposedly marked down from $36.33), and a “heavy order fee” ($3.83) for buying a few 52-oz. bottles of OJ, as if carrying weight were some additional service. instakart acted as if it were some philanthropic agency, rather than a cut-throat, overpriced business, asserting that it needed the service fee to maintain its Website. Then it tried to extort a huge tip in advance, as if it weren’t paying its delivery man a salary, and as if I weren’t already paying and paying and paying for their service. “Reward Extra Effort with a Tip.” “For orders this heavy, a tip of at least 10% is suggested—it all goes to your delivery person.” In 5% increments, it went for between $24.76 and $99.04—on top of the $403.63, the “service fee,” and the “heavy order fee.”

If they’re unwilling to carry weight without further charging and charging and charging me, they’re worthless as a service. Besides which, the whole idea of a tip is that it’s the customer’s prerogative AFTER service has been rendered.

I repeatedly refused, and then the program asserted my card had been declined, which was a transparent lie. So, I used a different card, just re-ran the purchase (without tip), and it was approved. I chose an odd delivery time (ca. 4:30-9:30 a.m.), because they gave $5 off for that.

When our delivery never came, and they sent no emails or text messages by 11:30 a.m., I called to complain. The Indian guy on the phone (not in India, however. But he had an Indian accent, and The Boss confirmed that his name, Bashti, was Indian) said my order had been cancelled, while claiming not to know why. He apologized. I told him I knew exactly why they’d cancelled our order, and assured him that his company would never get our patronage. And so, instead of paying app. $300 in the store, instakart sought to squeeze me for, at minimum:

$403.63
$24.22 (“service fee”)
$3.83 (“heavy order fee”)
$24.76 (minimum “tip”)

$456.84

That’s an overcharge of app. 52%.