A former DoorDash driver has gone viral on TikTok for his approach to low-or no-tipping customers, igniting a fierce debate on boundaries when it comes to customers’ interactions with delivery drivers. DoorDash confirmed his account's deactivation to TODAY.com.
On Jan. 4, TikTok user @dashingtrader posted a video that quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views. In the clip, captioned “Multiple CLOWN Encounters,” the Sioux Falls, South Dakota delivery driver confronts several DoorDash customers he claims were low-tippers.
“You ever heard of ‘no tip, no trip?’” he says to a woman standing at the front desk of a Homewood Suites hotel, who does not respond.
“How much is the tip on this order?” he asks. Her response is edited out of the clip.
“Yeah, that ain’t enough when it’s zero degrees outside, and it’s icy, and I gotta drive my car and wait for it,” he says.
The video then cuts to a rack with a shelf full of orders ready to be delivered from an unnamed restaurant with the on-screen text, "Non Tipper Orders," then to the man in his car where he explains, "Non-tipper orders sit for longer."
The video then cuts to clips of other customers whom he asks why they didn’t leave tips on their orders. One customer claims they left a tip for $2, but the Dasher counters by saying that his delivery payout “showed up as $2.50 and that usually means there’s no tip on there.”
Subsequent clips show freeze frames of the customers' perplexed reactions. The delivery driver confronts a total of four people in the video, asking them repeatedly if they've heard of “no tip, no trip.”
He ends the video by giving a customer’s order to an unnamed man.
“I take all the bad orders. You hungry?” he asks the man. “I got you, man.”
Comments on the video are decidedly not on the Dasher's side, with many people taking umbrage at the way he is ambushing paying customers.
“The audacity on the driver,” one user commented on the TikTok.
“This dude really harassing customers,” said another user. “These customers are the reason you have this side hustle in the first place.”
“Bros mad he’s gotta do a job he signed up for,” someone else commented.
“I don’t care what anyone says, the tipping culture in America is messed up,” wrote another person. “Frankly creators like this are mad at the wrong people.”
When reached for comment, a DoorDash spokesperson confirmed that the Dasher's account had been deactivated.
“We expect all members of the DoorDash community to treat each other with respect, and this behavior is clearly unacceptable,” the spokesperson tells TODAY.com. “The Dasher was deactivated, and we apologize to the customers for this uncomfortable experience and not meeting the high expectations they deserve.”
The TikToker spoke to TODAY.com under the condition of anonymity. He says he was first inspired to record his experiences when he “was duped” into delivering an order that had offered no tip.
“I Just Don’t Play no Games and I hit record,” @dashingtrader tells TODAY.com via email.
His TikTok account has been focused on his experiences — both positive and negative — as a DoorDash delivery driver.
One video from December 2022 with over a million views shares how he made hundreds of dollars in one day working for DoorDash.
“This is why I quit my job. Look at that,” he says as he points to a screenshot showing that he made $554.35 in 24 hours. But, as other drivers on the r/DoorDash subreddit have said, a con of the job is that pay — and tips — can be sporadic.
@dashingtrader says that the “no tip no trip” the phrase he repeats to people in his video represents his philosophy: If customers don’t tip, Dashers won’t be as motivated to deliver their orders in a timely manner.
“Your food will be cold when it arrives or you might not get your food at all,” he says. “Doordash is a Luxury Service so if you can’t afford to tip Make a Sandwich.”
