Doordash Announces that it will Update and Change its Pay Model

As many readers here know, truthful information about the Doordash pay model has been shared on this blog for a very long time. Since the very beginning of 2018 we have been explaining to our readers about how the Doordash pay model worked. We've explained how easy it was for somebody to come to the conclusion that Doordash was stealing driver tips, and I am happy to say that we are pleased with our efforts. This satisfaction does not come from trying to attack a company for no reason. Instead, this satisfaction comes from trying to inform drivers and customers about a company that was in our eyes being very deceitful. It seemed like we reached a lot of drivers, but honestly it seems as though many customers were still left unaware about where their tip money was going.

This is what Doordash customers would see on their phone. Wouldn't anybody assume that their dasher received their tip?

 

Of course this little old blog here has a limited audience. It took the big honchos out there to really spread the word about what was happening. In February, when NBC News and other large media outlets began covering Doordash's tip policy it put a bit of pressure on Doordash. Word about how they include customer's tips to the driver's guaranteed pay amount instead of adding the customer's tip on top of what the dasher was already making was exposed to many customers.

Doordash was not alone in this controversy though. Instacart, which engaged in the same type of tipping tactics, also found themselves in heat. Instacart though listened to what their workers and customers were saying and immediately changed their tipping policy to what it should be. Customer tips on Instacart would now be normal. What a customer tipped on Instacart would be on top of whatever else it was the driver was earning.

What was Doordashs initial response to media attention about their tipping policy?

Doordash, even though they acknowledged the media coverage that they were receiving, continued to defend their pay model. They continued to say how Doordash drivers were satisfied with their pay model and how they were going to continue paying drivers the way they have always done since introducing this controversial pay model in 2017. They then claimed that they were going to meet with drivers in selected cities to hear their opinions. An email was also sent out encouraging drivers to send in their feedback about all of this. Of course, after all of this was said and done, they claimed that the majority of drivers want the pay model. In my personal opinion this is all made up lies in an attempt to go on with this crooked scheme as long as possible.

Doordash did make some changes though. After each dash, drivers were now able to see the pay breakdown. There would be no more secrets to the way dashers were paid. Upon completing an order, drivers could see that Doordash payed the initial $1 that they had to pay, the amount of the customer tip, and the additional amount that Doordash had to pay to reach the driver's guaranteed amount for that particular order. This is what Doordash calls, or at least used to call Pay Boost. Basically, as Doordash likes to say, they were being more transparent.

The funny thing about all of this is that all it did now was show Doordash drivers how they were being ripped off. Yes, many dashers have known for a while that Doordash was stealing their tips, but now Doordash was showing everybody how they stole tips. At this point in time, all drivers that are paying attention should know that Doordash was stealing their tips. One thing that the Doordash CEO Tony Xu ha stated before was that many dashers did not understand the breakdown of their earnings. My answer to that is well, now it is very clear with the breakdown that is shown after each delivery. If a particular dasher does not understand from that how Doordash is stealing their tips, then they will never understand. Of course I take it that that person is only one out of 1000 - I hope.

 

Recent New York Times article causes more heat for Doordash

This past weekend, the New York Times covered Doordashs tipping policy. Also, a reporter actually went out dashing and saw first hand how Doordash was stealing customer tips. The reporter noticed that he wold earn the same amount the great majority of time whether a customer tipped or not. He understand how customers were being deceived in to believing that their tips were actually going to the driver when in fact they were not. He understood how Doordash has been using trickery with words to protect themselves. When it says on the Doordash website that drivers receive 100 percent of customer's tips, he understood the play with words. You know, when you are telling a lie, but you can convince yourself and try to convince others that you were telling the truth by your sleek words.

 

Doordash announces that they will change their pay model

Doordash drivers have been sent an important message out via email about upcoming changes to the Doordash pay model. The email apparently has been sent by Doordash CEO Tony Xu as it has his name at the end of the message. In this email, it starts out with an explanation about how after a lot of consideration, they will be changing the pay model. I must say that this is a day that I certainly seen coming. I did not know when, but I knew that Doordash could not steal tips forever. They did give it a hell of  a run though, and they continued this shady tipping practice for a very long time. Honestly, as I have mentioned before, I feel that their goal here was to keep their crooked tipping practice in place as long as possible. If the day comes when they feel like they are being forced to change their tipping policy they would do so, but they felt for the time being that they would milk company profits at the expense of customer tips as long as they could.





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What is the new Doordash pay model going to be?

Nobody knows what this new pay model is going to be. Is it going to go back like the good old days before Doordash started stealing tips. It used to be $5 plus the customer tip in most markets. Some markets were $4 or $6 plus tips. It seems like most drivers would be satisfied if Doordash went back to the $5 plus customer tip pay model.

Again, nobody really knows what Tony Xu is going to decide here. I mean let's face reality. If he wanted to pay $1 plus customer tips he could. Of course if he did that he would lose a lot of drivers. Why in the heck would anybody deliver for those rates when you could work for competitor companies and make much more money. I personally think that Doordash will go back to the $5 plus tip model, and Doordash drivers should be happy with that. Anything more than that and we would all be getting a little greedy. I mean, even though many of us feel like we have been done wrong, we must understand that Doordash does still need to make some money themselves.

It has been reported that by Doordash themselves that 15 percent of customers don't tip anything at all. That means 85 percent of Doordash customers do tip. Since Doordash has been showing us the pay breakdown as of late, I have been keeping tabs of how much customer's tip, and I must say that I am really surprised at how much most customers tip. Sure, there are many $1 or $2 tippers, but I would say that about half of the tippers tip basically the whole amount of the guarantee; except for that $1 that Doordash is required to pay of course.

As I flip through my phone right now the first order that I look at is an order I did a couple of nights ago. It was a guarantee of $7.99. The customer tipped $6.99 and Doordash paid $1. Okay, so I received what I agreed to, but if it would have been a $5 guarantee plus the customer tip, I would have received $5 plus the $6.99 tip from the customer for a total of $11.99. As I scroll though my orders there are just way too many orders like this.

Sure, there are a few orders when the controversial pay model had me get paid more than if it was a $5 plus customer tip pay model. These orders are of course when the customer does not tip anything at all. Sure, Doordash puts in the difference so that I can get the guarantee, but the difference of pay in these orders is not by much.

 

For example, I had an order with a guarantee of $5.50. The customer tipped nothing. Doordash paid the $1 that they had to pay me, and they had to put in $4.50 (the boost pay.) If I had earned $5 plus customer tip I would have only been paid $5 because there was no customer tip. In this case, the controversial pay model wins, but only by 50 cents and these orders are a rarity.

As I have mentioned, Doordash themselves reported that only 15 percent of customers don't tip anything at all. Since we now have the breakdown of our pay, we can see that this is pretty much true and most customers do tip, and lots of customers tip pretty well I must say. In the example that I just gave, do you realize that if the customer was a small tipper that only tipped $1 you would be better off than the controversial pay model. A Doordash driver would have ended up with $5 guarantee and $1 tip for a total of $6 instead of $5.50.

When is Doordash going to change the pay model?

There was no exact date provided as to when the new Doordash pay model will take effect. My guess is that it will take about a month to do so. I may be wrong though, it may be next week or even tomorrow. I don't think so though as I can just picture Doordash coming up with the perfect moves for the future of their company.

I mean, they got away with this stealing tips business for a long while. The profits that they have gained from it have to be enormous. I think that there goal was hit, and now it's time to move on to new strategies. Besides that, currently there is an assembly bill in California that could have a big impact on not only Doordash, but other similar type companies. Put it this way, Doordash has a lot to talk about and will have to strategically think about their next moves.

Can I get back all the money that Doordash has stolen from me?

That is what the legal system is for. I am not a lawyer and cannot give out legal advice. Can you get back all of the tip money that Doordash has stolen from you the past couple of years? Yes. No. Maybe so. I'm sure that you have seen all of these advertisements from law firms wanting you to contact them about various Doordash legal subjects. It would be best to talk to an attorney about this.

None of us can say whether you can get back the stolen tip money or not. All of this would have to be handled in the court of law. I will say this, and I'm sure that I am not alone. If I were able to get back all of the tip money that Doordash kept due to their controversial pay model, I would get back many and many thousands of dollars. I'll leave it at that.

I'm going to end this article by saying that I am very happy that this crooked tipping policy has come to an end. I also must say that maybe we shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch. As I publish this article, it has been almost a week since Tony Xu made his announcement. Nothing has changed yet. I'm not saying that the Doordash pay model is not going to be changed. After all, Tony Xu did announce the change that is coming, and we all trust Tony Xu and Doordash. Right?