Ditto. Our boiler is serviced by a small business. The Jr Mechanic rate is $300/hr. That’s on par with some lawyers or accountants. I expect he is compensated well.
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Tesla mechanics charge $250/hr for labor. Ford outdid them - $260/hr. Not sure how much others charge. So no, no tipping there. 
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I agree with you on those with a regular service - i.e. septic tank cleaning - this is a big service around where I live and the workers make decent money but they typically stay on the job with fairly large companies. I do agree on that scenario…just not sure how to explain the difference but it almost seems apparent to me. Movers and furniture delivery, yep, I tip the guys hauling furniture in/out. My irrigation guy and my landscaper - nope. I doubt people expect the $$s but they appreciate the $20/$50/$100 when they get it. You do tip the boat captain/crew when you go snorkeling/diving/deep sea fishing, tour guides?
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Your story reminds me of when we had pipes replaced in our old house. The guy who was doing it charged us a ridiculously low price, and it took him many many hours. We wound up giving him significantly more than he asked for.
BUT, if someone bid on a project for example, and you accepted the low bid, you do NOT owe that person more if it takes extra time. In your case, where he didn’t have to help you like that, it was going above and beyond and I’m glad you gave him more.
You don’t tip car mechanics. You pay the bill.
There are luxuries charging north of $400 in high cost areas.
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When DH crashed our car in Poland, we were stuck on the highway at 11 pm. I called our travel insurance company and they said someone would come to tow the truck and somebody else would give us a ride back to Krakow (about an hour and a half away). We waited quite awhile and nobody contacted us. It was chilly! Finally the tow truck showed up. A young driver who didn’t speak much English. My son was able to communicate to him that we were trying to figure out how to get back, and he offered to give us a ride to town, since that’s where he was taking the car. He really didn’t have to do that and it was so appreciated! When he dropped us off, I gave him a pretty good tip. I know I didn’t have to, and he did look very surprised, but he helped us out in a tough spot.
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That’s exactly my point.
I promise I am not arguing with you. I am genuinely interested. Seems to me that the weekly landscapers deserve a tip much more than a one off moving guy. But I don’t tip the landscaper, who makes plenty of money off me.
It isn’t clear to me at all why you might tip the one off movers but not the once-every-two-year septic tank cleaning guy, who is typically alone, doesn’t charge that much, and definitely has a, ahem, shi**ier job 
No, I do not tip the crew of a tour boat, but I haven’t done a tour boat since I was about 22. In fact, I am going on a tour boat in a few weeks, in Europe. So I am going to check first and see if a tip is expected. I booked a private tour guide in Washington DC a couple of years ago. I did tip him. Edit: Actually, I am doing a free walking tour in a few weeks too, and they state that tips are absolutely expected. So I will be tipping.
I tip for outstanding things. I don’t give tips for regular things and I always check to see if tips are expected, included, or very much optional.
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We purchased a new mattress. Delivery and haul away is included in the purchase price. Do I tip the deliver person/people?
Hahah - you sound like you’re on my Grand European Viking River Cruise in a few months! Yes, we have always, my entire life tipped tour guides and bus drivers - not the boat captain, but the crew…etc. I don’t think you are arguing - we just are definately from different parts of the country. Grew up all over the world with military dad who retired in Texas and moved to Atlanta as a young 30 something. My folks tipped like that as well and my husband does too. Now we do grumble over the entire no taxes on tips thing (if it passes), but we do tip.
You might like $10 each. But if you don’t it’s ok too.
We just had 2 wall unit a/c units replaced, probably $1200 all in including installation and removal (if removal was extra I would’ve refused, we have bulk pickup once a week, and scrap metal gets picked up independently quickly). H tipped them. Around here st least folks tip for things like appliance/furniture delivery.
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Had our house power washed last week. Was a college kid, he owned the business, did not tip him.
When we had movers, they informed us that they expected to be tipped. So I did.
My mom sent me flowers for my birthday. Had no idea. The delivery person was in his car and gone before we even tried to find money to tip him.
Our golf course hires kids to drive a cart to your car. It annoys me because we are perfectly capable of getting our own cart and the kids don’t do any service other than dropping off the cart and maybe getting your clubs out of the car. We tip them because it’s expected. Find it annoying
On our river cruises, on Viking, it’s customary to tip your guides and bus drivers. It says on the FAQ. There’s a service charge for each day, no other tipping is necessary. But we’ve always tipped extra. Your room steward and waiter are from usually 3rd world countries and are far away from their families for months at a time.
I feel better tipping those than I do the cart kid at the golf course.
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I was wondering about tipping National Park Rangers but everywhere says absolutely not, not even gift cards with monetary value. It is recommended that one sends in a positive comment in lieu of gratuity.
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I was annoyed because on my last tour, we were told that tips were included but then a lot of the customers decided to tip on top of that anyway and made those of us who wanted to keep from having tip escalation feel bad. I don’t get it—they raised the prices so they could include tips and now you tip as well?!?!?
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But you made a choice. You didn’t need to. You fell for peer pressure.
If you were told the price increase was to compensate for this, then you’d have been ok not tipping.
In the end, no one has to tip. It’s 100% voluntary in most every instance.
I didn’t tip and didn’t go with peer pressure.
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I misread. Sorry. Glad you stuck to your guns and hope they didn’t make you feel bad.
We just had 4 guys came to install new appliances, a fridge, a stove, a dishwasher, a washer and a dryer. 2 guys did the heavy lifting and left soon after moving the appliances into the house. The other 2 did actual installation and hooking things but so they stayed over an hour.
They had a good chat with my husband. My husband, who loves cooking, had them try his home made sour cherry jam. They loved it so he gave each a jar. They were happy. One said he would have it with toast for breakfast. The other said he could not wait for breakfast and would have at dinner that evening.
We had a plumber to do plumbing two weeks ago. No tips. We don’t tip trade people. We tip pizza delivery person, ice cream stand scoopers, hair dressers, etc. We tip at typical restaurants but not self-served places like Panera Bread or Chipotle.
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I agree with you on that. If there is a stated policy that tips are included in the price, do not tip extra.
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