Why don't Indians from India tip well?

Question

I am a pizza delivery driver and I do realize one thing and that is Indians from India do not tip well. I have never received a good tip from them, and if I get 2 bucks I feel the need to bow down to them. They live in these nice homes and and are like the cheapest people I have ever met. Is there a cultural thing to this and why? This also goes the same for Muslims.

Answer 1

Sue, one of the top contributors said - " I'm sure it depends on their cultural intelligence. They may just not understand that that's where you get your income."

I need to disagree on both counts - to Sue and to your question. Its unfortunate that you got some Indian customers who are stingy or are they!!

In general, the tipping habits can be categorized.

1. USA allocates large quotas of people for work, they come on H1, L1, H4, L4 visas. There are brokers between the worker and the company these workers work for and they fleece the worker, These workers, typically live sharing apartments. They may look well to do, because of how they are back home (India) - well to do. Better work experience bring them to work overseas. Then they need to take care of their families back home as well. To achieve all this, they work 60 or more hours every week. - You may think that they are stingy, but literally they are in the same boat as you are - scrounging for hours of work or better tips to suppliment the incomes.

2. In India in most of metropolitan cities, with the type of compitition in service industries including food industry, the deliveries are free & fast - in and out. And the delivery persons are satisfied with the tiping non-standards - there are - whim of who is at the receiver end -



= young one may share the pocket money and tip better, typical so called modern generation - get to know about tipping standards via western media, movies, presentations etc.



= grandparents were self doers or typically surrounded  with servant(s) to bring stuff from market places. So, are not used to tipping & they do not tip because of habit.

= Middle aged have seen the transition from servants to services out-sourced, some have learned  to suppliment the out-sourced while the others are still habituated as though with servants.

= The professionals - from National institutions, universities, businesses (who are not included in 2 above), enterprenuers, etc - do know the standards and they are typically lavish in tipping.

The customer base corresponding to the these categories when visit or move to USA:

- their habits overcome tipping standards here till they come across - a party discussion on tipping usually in connection with IRS concerns about income disclosure or reading on media or internet or friends - may tend towards adopting local standards.

On personal experience basis - I have been tipping 25% on high side to 5% or none on low side. 5% or none, is typically for the service persons attitude (chip on the shoulder), bad service, wrong or missed order.

A vegetarian sandwich at Subway costs about $4.90. Sometimes, I would just call them 5-15 minutes before, pick up perfectly made sandwitch according to my standards, would pay $6 and say hello and leave.

Other times, going to a restaurant for a business or a family meal, I shall take a box of chocolate about $5-7, give it to the hostess when she is seating the party. The service staff always loved this gesture. The tipping follows the meal as the final step - the standard or above standard.

Answer 2

I'm sure it depends on their cultural intelligence.  People in other countries tip differently.  It's one of the biggest cultural differences there is.  They may just not understand that that's where you get your income.

Here's what I used to do.  I used to just assume that those people who didn't tip me well, just got theirs some other way.

People never know for sure why bad things happen to them.  I live in a tourist community, and I just consoled myself by assuming that if they didn't tip me, they were going to have a flat tire on their way to the airport, and then miss their plane, and have to pay thousands of dollars extra to rebuy their plane tickets for the whole family, and wouldn't it have been easier, and cheaper to have spotted me 5 bucks for their pies?  HA!  (I never felt like I had to get even with them...Gd does it for me! - and if it didn't work out like I imagined, well, I was never the wiser, either)

Answer 3

ha ha there cheap!

Answer 4

spit on there pizza next time, haha j/k I hate it when people, not even just Indians, but people who can afford to cut you a break for working a minimum wage job don't. They are selfish. they think they are superior to you or something and shouldn't have to pay up or something.

Answer 5

h**l yeah dude. at my work they come in and head straight for the clearence and dont buy anything for more than two dollars.

Answer 6

it's a cultural thing. also, ppl tend to not understand how tipping works or why you are suppose to tip. ppl think "oh that's your job, why should you get tipped." but tipped person almost always get minimum wage (or less in some states) because the tips are suppose to bring the wages UP TO what they should be getting paid.

i am a sever i get tax on everything i sell plus they assume i am getting tipped so they tax me on an assumed tip. so if someone DOESN'T tip, i loose money.

as a delivery person i am guessing you have to pay for your own gas (could be different depending on the company) and ppl don't realize this.

it's sad that we live in a country where ppl can't even educate themselves about their own cultural norms.

good luck!

Answer 7

lol... Indians are the richest minority in America. There's nothing you can do about it, so suck it up or get their pizza to their houses faster. :)