Delivery story 333 Armyjournalist writes: I've been delivering for Domino's Pizza in Alamogordo for more than two years now, and I've pretty much seen just about everything described on this site. I even adopted a dog I hit while returning from a delivery. These two stories are sadly only a glimpse of the many frustrations a driver faces that could be easily avoided if the customer cared to pay a little attention to what they were doing. Several months ago, twice in the same week, customers give me excessive tips, knowing how much money they gave me, only to call the store back later to complain. Now, if I realize a customer accidentally gives me more money than they intended to (say $39 on a $16 order when they say, "here's $19") I'll go back to the house and tell them what happened. I'm not a total jerk, after all. The first time, I made a $26 delivery. A 12-year-old answers the door, hands me two twenties and says "keep the change," then closes the door. A large tip, sure, but I've gotten those before. When I get back to the store, my manager is not happy, reporting she got a phone call saying I didn't give any change back. I told her what happened and she called up the customer and gave him a lecture on having his son handle the money. I agreed to return the change so there wasn't any hard feelings. The tip I ultimately got was $2. Less than a week later, I delivered a $36 order to a different house. There, a woman in her 30s hands me two twenties and nine singles ($49), takes the pizza, says thank you and closes the door. Seemed pretty obvious to me, so I returned to the store. As I walked in, the phone started ringing and I recognized the caller ID number as my last customer. The first thing she said was "the pizza guy didn't give me any change and I gave him way more money than he should have expected for his tip." I replied, "Yes, ma'am, that was me, and I was assuming you were being generous as you took the pizza, said thank you and closed the door." Turned out she actually wanted me to give her back a $10 bill (as if we actually carried those on a regular basis) but forgot to tell me that when she handed me the money. Sigh... to keep the peace I returned that change as well, eating the extra cost in gas and lost deliveries. If you want change, PLEASE SPECIFY. Many customers assume "keep the change" is implied, but many don't, so complications can arise. Also, if you DON'T want change, PLEASE SPECIFY because I don't like standing there feeling like an idiot fumbling around in my pockets until I figure out what you want. return to top