That was nice and generous of you, @teriwtt. I’m sure you made their day.
Congrats on the move to your new home!
These guys were a hoot; they said they actually have fun working - and there was a lot of bantering going on back and forth between them, and eventually we all just sort of became slap happy.
But at some point, I wondered if they were talking code about something. I think four of the guys were hispanic, and they spoke mostly Spanish to each other while working. So I’d hear a bunch of bantering back and forth in Spanish, then all of a sudden I’d hear, “Cincinnati.” At first I thought they were just talking about someone they knew in Cincinnati, but over the course of twelve hours, I heard it so many times I thought they couldn’t be telling the same story over and over again. They do do some national moves although they’re a local company, so maybe they were talking about a previous job they did, perhaps.
gads,
just realized I forgot to tip the nice electrician today. And I thought he was hanging around just to talk.
I will send something with the final payment, in a separate envelope. Small company so hopefully he will receive it.
Yea, I still have not taken care of the two guys who packed on Tuesday. But they were only there about five hours, and really did not do the heavy lifting these guys did for 12 hours. I will need to call the company and ask how to best get the tip to them. All in all, they were all very friendly and easy to get along with.
There were six guys in the crew, including the crew chief, for my move, so the tip I gave ended up being $100 apiece for a day of 9 hours or so, including quite a bit of packing at the beginning (I hadn’t finished). My vague understanding of the reason for a standard tip of 20% – and the crew chief certainly implied that that was the case when he told me halfway through the day that he hoped I was planning to be generous! – is that the crew members basically were working for tips, and weren’t getting anything from the moving company itself. Is that really true? I have no idea.
I think it would be illegal for companies not to be sure workers get AT LEAST minimum wage. If they are working did tips, they can never know if they will get ANYTHING. I’d be tempted to report that crew chief to the company.
I think where I live the moving companies are hard-core union shops. They are definitely NOT working for minimum wage. Gotta make at least $20-$30 per hour of loading. If you hired non-union movers, they’d probably throw them out the window (though other than that little eccentricity, they seem to be nice guys who are very professional).
I was moved in a corporate move and asked the coordinator, who is a government contract and does this all day, every day what to tip. She said she couldn’t talk about it, that some people do and some don’t. I certainly wasn’t going to tip even 10% as it was a $12k move and I would have done it for a lot less if I’d been paying myself. In the end, I just bought each guy a gift card to a restaurant. They actually seemed surprised, and thanked me.
Tipping the electrician, cable guy, repairman? Nope.
I live in NYC, so for some of those moves there were traffic delays. I would ask the owner to give me a discount for travel time and give better tips to movers. Donna is from NYC, and it is the norm to tip 15-20%.
Am I supposed to be tipping the guy who fixes the washer and dryer? He does hang around for a long time; I thought he was just lonely…
I typically tip a $20.
I know that this is not a lot but each time they act sincerely grateful.
I do not tip the owner of the operation should the owner be here with the crew.
The owners is always pleased.
For years we were told to not tip on military moves. They definitely do not work for tips only.
Anyone in my area doing electrical or plumbing work would be making $40 to $60 per hour. I have a hard time imagining tipping them. A friend’s family owns a moving company, and will check with her on our area, Madison. I am rather shocked (and dismayed) with a move in the works.
I moved about 10 years ago. Corporate move team. I did not tip, but did order/pickup lunch for the guys each day. Saved them a lot of time hunting for food in an unfamiliar area.
Now I feel like a fool for tipping so much. But it was almost a year ago, so it’s too late to do anything about it. I just hope I don’t have to move again anytime soon! Besides, in the grand scheme of things, the $600 wasn’t so much, and I had greater sums to worry about, considering that I had to pay almost $40,000 in cash (a year’s rent in advance, plus security deposit, plus broker’s fee) in order for the landlord to agree to rent the apartment to me, because I was (and still am!) unemployed, and obviously couldn’t meet the standard minimum salary requirement (40x monthly rent) for renting an apartment in New York City.
@DonnaL, you were kind and have nothing to feel bad about. I’m sorry that crew boss was so nasty and bullying to you. It’s nice to give folks a tip. I’m sure they DID appreciate it, since as you can see, we are all over the map on tips.
Tipping drives me crazy sometimes. If you pay with “square”, it seems a tip box automatically pops up. My plumber was delighted to see that, so I tipped him that one time. He owns his own company too!
Now what about the dog groomer? She actually comes to my house and works out of a van. The dog goes in, and is done in about 40 minutes. He likes her, and he doesn’t have to be dropped off for hours. For some odd reason, dog grooming is expensive around here. I can get a good haircut for $45 but it costs $70 to groom my little Maltese! We keep his hair rather short and don’t do anything elaborate.
I checked at pet stores and since they have nail clipping, ear cleaning, expressing the anal glands, etc., all as extras, the price is about the same or a little less. So do I tip her? It makes me feel guilty that the box comes up and I have to do something with it. She works for herself too.
Around here the going rate is either 10% or 15% depending on you.
I would tip $10 for your dog.
I had a hair coloring for $101 today and gave $15.
I gave the dresser before him 20% as I had been with her for decades and she would always go above and beyond.
At a pet store I would not tip at all.
I think of tipping for services as part of building a relationship–and hopefully keeping it!
@greenwitch - have you ever seen this list?
Our tipping with house related people is kind of random. If we have Sears come check our furnace, we don’t tip. We had a guy install 5 ceiling fans and do a couple of other electric jobs. He works for himself and didn’t charge us much. We gave him a “tip” by rounding up to the next 100. We have a contractor in our neighborhood. When we have used him for jobs, we haven’t tipped him. He charges a fair amount, so I don’t feel the need to tip.