The virus killed my business. After 1 month struggling, I turned to Uber for quick money to support my family.
My first trip was a Starbucks delivery. The coffee spilled when I almost arrived. I went to a nearby Starbucks bought another one. The customer was nice and tipped me 6 dollars for compensation. Uber paid the time I wasted. I bought a basket from Walmart to secure all liquid items. I called it Liz. It is the customer's name.
This is San Jose. Yes the San Jose in California. I know what you are thinking right now. You might think generous tips. That's not true.
It was around 11pm of a Saturday. After picked up the food in downtown of San Jose, I got a call from the customer. He said the drop-off address is wrong and asked me to deliver to another address. I said OK because the current drop-off address was only 0.9 mile away. He sent me the new address. I put it in Google. It turned out 14.5 miles away in Saratoga. I know I made a mistake but I still went there because I said OK which is a promise.
He tipped me 5 dollars for 14.5 miles.
There are so many big and complicated apartment communities around Cisco in Northern San Jose. They are like mazes.
It was 10pm. I pulled over by the curb as the Uber app showed the drop-off address. It is a side door of a huge decent apartment community. Typed in the code went up to the 2nd floor. The hallway was full of curry smell. I read the numbers on those doors while turning left and right and left and right. The customer is the end unit at the hallway. It is 1 mile away from the side door where I came from.
He said there was another door close to his apartment. But he didn't leave a note on the APP. He didn't tip me a single penny.
There are many Cisco buildings around here. I used to be an early bird. So I got lots of Starbucks trips. I made 6 deliveries to a beautiful girl working in a decent Cisco building. She never tip me. But she shows me amazing smiles every time.
It was 10:30pm. The trip request was 3 dollars for 4 miles from Applebee's. When I arrived at the customer I realized that I made more than 5 deliveries for him. Again he didn't tip me just like before. You ordered Applebee's late night and the delivery fee was only 3 dollars and you didn't tip me a single dollar.
There are so many small businesses in San Jose. They usually give good tips for small party food delivery. It was a Vietnamese company. The delivery was 20 bags Pho in 4 boxes with 30 pounds weight in total. The boss accepted it when I arrived. No tip at all.
It was around 9pm. It was a delivery from Moc Crawfish. The customer's note says "Leave at door and ring the door bell". It was dark and i didn't see any sign of door bell. I turned on the flash light on my phone to find the door bell. Yes there was a door bell but it looked like broken long time ago because there was spider web on it. So I left the food and knocked on the door and finished the delivery and walked to my car. I saw 3 cats under the shrubs staring at the food. I went back to the door and knocked 2 times. I lost the tips the customer promised which is $3.84. And the second day I got a message from Uber teaching me how to do a "Leave at door" delivery.
There are so many million-dollar houses and upscale apartments here. They usually tip you 2 dollars. Customers tipping me good are those living in cozy ranch houses.
It was a hot day. It was a 10 dollars delivery from Taco Bell. The customer lives in a decent apartment. I was shocked when she handed me the tips because I saw 2 one-hundred bills. She was smiling and said your lucky day. I can't recall what I actually said. I went back to my car downstairs and just sitting there. I was thinking I have to stay a little while just in case this is a mistake she might want to take it back.
Yes she was coming down from upstairs with bare feet. She handed me a basket which was my Liz I forgot to take it back due to the shock.
I drove away and parked under a big tree. It was $224 cash in total. She is a girl from middle east. Her name is Carol.
At the beginning of September, there were lots of low-paid trips like $5 for 10 miles. I called Uber, the customer service transferred me to a specialist. This is exactly what she told me:"You can decline it."
She was right. I can decline it. So I created my APP named TipTok. It helps me track every single trip. As my customers data build up, when the trip request rings up it tells me if I made any delivery for this customer before. If yes, how many tips the customer gave me. It helps me decide to accept the trip or not. It shows me where those no-tip-at-all customers located. It helps me monitor the efficiency of my trips like average dollars per mile, per hour per trip, etc.
I appreciated all nice people who helped me and my family go through the hard time. I also gave thanks to those who make me tougher.