Christmas Tipping

[blowinbubbles]

I think I might have seen this topic mentioned somewhere on the board but can't seem to find it!

So, what's the scoop on Holiday Tipping? We recently moved to a new area, and it seems that the customs here are a little different. Last week, I got a Christmas card from my mail carrier. I wondered if it was a hint for a tip. However, my mom said that she thought mailpersons weren't allowed to accept monetary gifts.

So this morning, I noticed an envelope sticking out of my newly-emptied garbage can. It was a Christmas card from Fred, the Garbage Truck Driver! I'm thinking that this is for certain a hint for a Christmas tip! I've never gotten a Christmas card from the Garbage Man before!


So, do you guys tip your mail carrier and garbage man? If so, how much? And who else do you tip? Hairdresser?

I have to say, my garbage man is very nice, though. Last week we forgot to take the garbage out. When I was walking my wild, six-month old lab that morning, I saw the garbage truck, so I grabbed my garbage can and ran across my yard (5 acres) while my lab was yanking my other arm. While the garb. man at my old neighborhood would've pretended he didn't see me, this one hopped off the back of the truck and met me half way up my yard, got my can, carried it the rest of the way, dumped it and then brought it back to me. What a sweetie, I think he deserves a tip!

 

[Bob Slydell]

By law, I don't think Postal Carriers can accept tips, at least monetary ones. I think in the past, we've gotten some small gift for our carrier, at least when we were in a neighborhood where they actually walk around the block and you saw them from time to time.

These days, our carrier is so lazy she'll actually skip our mailbox if there's too much snow in front of our box and she would have to get out of her truck to deliver our mail. Last time she did this, it was three days until we figured out what was going on -- we got no notice that she was doing this.

 

[ducklite]

I had a really good mailman in NJ, and always gave him a gift (in coversation I had found out that he liked a certain type of wine).

When he retired the new mail carrier was OK, nothing special and no reason to give anything. Never went out of the way to make sure packages were dry/secure, etc.

My garbage is done by the town, again they do nothing--it's automated with teh truck hooking the can and dumping, I see no reason to tip them.

My mailman here is also nothing special, and I get 99.9% of my packages shipped to my box at the UPS store.

I gave my hair dresser a double tip last week, she's been doing my hair for three months, so I didn't feel the need to give more than that this year.

I'll do something for the waitresses at the little cafe where I eat my lunch most days, not sure what though. Service is actually pretty bad, but they are friendly, so I'll do something--maybe a box of candy.

Anne

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

We don't tip the mail carrier or the garbage collectors. We do tip the newspaper carrier...they don't get paid much at all.

Steve, I think it's understood...or should be...that the mailbox needs to be cleared of snow, and the mail carrier is not required to get out and deliver it. Any day that we don't get mail, if it's snowed, we know the mail carrier can't conveniently get to the mailbox, and we shovel (snowblow, now ) more. You may see it as just your house, but they probalby have hundreds of customers. And there's the issue of safety too. It's inconvenient not to get our mail, even annoying, but I don't blame the carrier. I blame my DH for not clearing out the mailbox better.

I tip my hairdresser more at Christmas than usual. She's a real character, and has been doing my hair for years. And I know she's struggling to make ends meet with her first house purchase, so I know how much she appreciates it.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Steve, I think it's understood...or should be...that the mailbox needs to be cleared of snow, and the mail carrier is not required to get out and deliver it. Any day that we don't get mail, if it's snowed, we know the mail carrier can't conveniently get to the mailbox, and we shovel (snowblow, now ) more. You may see it as just your house, but they probalby have hundreds of customers. And there's the issue of safety too. It's inconvenient not to get our mail, even annoying, but I don't blame the carrier. I blame my DH for not clearing out the mailbox better.

I understood the reasoning behind it, my biggest issue was not getting any sort of notice as to what they were doing or why they weren't delivering mail. That, and I admit it -- we were spoiled at our old house.

It was the first winter for our street and the snowplows didn't know where to put the snow in our cul de sac yet, so they dumped it in front of our mailbox and it froze into a mass ice chunk. Fortunately we were able to get the home builder to come out and clear a path for the mail carrier and we haven't had a problem since.

 

[blowinbubbles]

My mail carrier is pretty lazy, too. We often get certified letters, and instead of driving down the driveway and ringing my doorbell, she just puts the Cert. mail slip in the mailbox for me to pick the letter up at the post office! And my post office is only open from 9-12 and 2-4!

By law, I don't think Postal Carriers can accept tips, at least monetary ones. I think in the past, we've gotten some small gift for our carrier, at least when we were in a neighborhood where they actually walk around the block and you saw them from time to time.

These days, our carrier is so lazy she'll actually skip our mailbox if there's too much snow in front of our box and she would have to get out of her truck to deliver our mail. Last time she did this, it was three days until we figured out what was going on -- we got no notice that she was doing this.

 

[In a hurry]

We are new to guitar lessons. Anyone know the appropriate "gift?" The lessons are $13 a week.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

We often get certified letters, and instead of driving down the driveway and ringing my doorbell, she just puts the Cert. mail slip in the mailbox for me to pick the letter up at the post office!

Isn't that what they're supposed to do??? We just got a notice for a certified letter a couple of weeks ago...so I went and picked it up. And it's not particularly convenient either...the PO in the NEXT town delivers to our house, not OUR town's. So, we have to drive past two more local post offices to get to the one with our mail. And that DOES annoy me...the fact that our mailing address town isn't even the town we live in...causes lots of problems...but either way, I'd expect to go pick up certified mail. I tend to think that things like that are far more regulated than just the whim of the carrier, but...I could be wrong.

 

[Stitchfans]

Since I do a lot of ebaying we always tip the mailman with a bottle of wine. He is real nice about bringing the packages up to the door and trying to conceal it under the mat or behind the flower pot. Our garbage men I would never consider tipping since they leave the cans and recycling bins in the middle of our driveway so it is hard for me to pull in when I get home from work, and they never do a very good job.

 

[blowinbubbles]

Isn't that what they're supposed to do??? We just got a notice for a certified letter a couple of weeks ago...so I went and picked it up. And it's not particularly convenient either...the PO in the NEXT town delivers to our house, not OUR town's. So, we have to drive past two more local post offices to get to the one with our mail. And that DOES annoy me...the fact that our mailing address town isn't even the town we live in...causes lots of problems...but either way, I'd expect to go pick up certified mail. I tend to think that things like that are far more regulated than just the whim of the carrier, but...I could be wrong.

Huh. . .I never thought that they are *supposed* to leave the slip in the mailbox! All my previous mail carriers came to my door if I was home and had me sign the slip in person! Maybe they were just being nice????

 

[aprilgail2]

This year we are giving the mailman $30.00, the garbage men 25.00...UPS guy 20.00, Poland Spring guy 20.00 the newpaper guys 10.00 each.

 

[pfishgirl]

We don't have individual mail delivery so that is 1 less tip we have..

However, I sell Avon so the delivery driver gets a tip
and Garbage man

I give coupon books or gift certificates to fast food places

 

[barkley]

mail carriers are tech. not allowed to accept any type of tip (civil service law) (and i've seen ours maybe 4 times in 7 years since we have those mass mail boxes at the end of the cul-de-sac), garbage carriers are city employees in our town so again not allowed to accept any type of tip-we read the newspaper on-line so no tip there....if my kids took music lessons i would probably have them give a gift to their teacher (if they wanted to-would'nt feel obligated to do so).

i guess unless we go out to eat in the next couple of weeks there's no holiday tipping in store for us.

i do recall as a kid, my mom putting a pint of brandy in the mail box for our postman each christmas (back in the days when they brought the mail up to the box next to the door)-she felt realy bad when she found out he was fired one holiday season for getting a "dui" while driving the mail truck (appparantly ALLOT of the neighbor ladies had given him a pint or rumballs and he had munched and sipped all along the route ).

 

[aprilgail2]

i do recall as a kid, my mom putting a pint of brandy in the mail box for our postman each christmas (back in the days when they brought the mail up to the box next to the door)-

Where the heck do they put your mail if not in the box next to the front door of your house??? We have our box right next to the front door, crack open the door, lean out and get your mail...do you have to go someplace to get yours??

 

[minniecarousel]

i do recall as a kid, my mom putting a pint of brandy in the mail box for our postman each christmas (back in the days when they brought the mail up to the box next to the door)-she felt realy bad when she found out he was fired one holiday season for getting a "dui" while driving the mail truck (appparantly ALLOT of the neighbor ladies had given him a pint or rumballs and he had munched and sipped all along the route ).

whoa! he couldn't wait 'til his workday was over?!

I tipped my hairdresser $50. Will probably send something to the 2 newspaper delivery persons. We don't tip the garbagemen or mail carrier.

 

[Buckalew11]

My mailman will get some candy. My dad was one of those wonderful mailmen you all speak of ( ) and I know they really aren;t supposed to accept gifts but a little candy won't hurt.

I don't tip the UPS man or the garbage man.

I do, however, tip my hairdresser. If you ever have had a bad hair day then you appreciate your hairdresser keeping you from having too many of them and know the value of a good, skilled hairdresser!

 

[tiggerlover]

I have been on the fence for about a week about tipping my newspaper carrier. About a week ago there was a card in with our paper addressed to Newspaper Patron (he doesn't even know or care who we are) and inside it was signed by the carrier with his address. To me that was screaming SEND ME A TIP and for some reason this has really rubbed me the wrong way. Before moving to this state I used to have weekly contact with my carrier when he came to collect and I always gave a tip. But in our new home we send our payment in the mail and never see the carrier. Does our paper arrive at our house before we wake up, yes. Do we have to move our car sometimes to reach our paper, yes. Does he deserve a tip, maybe. Should the tip blatantly be requested, no. Am I going to tip him, I haven't decided.

As for the hairdresser, I went the other day and I gave my regular tip plus $20. I have been going to the same girl for a year and a half and I wanted to give her a little extra.

As for the mailperson, my homeowners association has cluster boxes for mail delivery, so my mail person drives up to a mass of boxes and slots the mail. Have I ever seen her, no. Has she ever gone out of her way to leave a package at my house, no. Am I going to tip her, I don't think so. In my opinion a tip is for someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty or gives exceptional service. In this case my mailperson is doing her job and no more so I don't feel the need to tip.

Now on the flip side of tipping....I do buy gifts for DS's bus driver. She always has a smile and a wave and once when DS forgot his lunch DH stood at our driveway and when the bus came back around she let DH board the bus to give DS the lunch. I also buy gifts for his afterschool program aides (3 in all) and I buy gifts for his two main teachers. I treat my office to huge cookie platters too to show how I appreciate my co-workers. So I do show my appreciation where it is due and the jury is still out on the newspaper carrier.

 

[grlpwrd]

Here's the official policy about tipping USPS employees: http://www.usps.com/purchasing/supplierinfo/ethics_print.htm

I think in general the limit is "$20 or less value/$50 per source per year" for a non-business relationship, like our mailperson delivering to our home whom I consider a friend.

I have given my mailmain $15 to $20 GCs and I will do this for Christmas, too.

 

[barkley]

Where the heck do they put your mail if not in the box next to the front door of your house??? We have our box right next to the front door, crack open the door, lean out and get your mail...do you have to go someplace to get yours??

yup. all the newer housing developments are pretty much this way. they build a centralized mail box (locked cubicles one for each house) every block or so on each street. you put your outgoing mail in a slot, you unlock your portion of the box to get your mail each day. if you receive a package they put a key to one of the 2 large boxes (at the bottem of the of the unit) into your locked box and you use it to retrieve it.
the post office pushed it through as a cost savings measure (one driver can do allot more routes by just driving up and doing 20 or so houses at one time). i have to say that it's much more secure than having an unlocked box at the door (we had one at our last home and someone scouted out the nieghborhood (figured out which houses had noone home during the day), grabbed preapproved credit card applications, filled them out and then checked the box each day until the card was received ). on the down side-who wants to walk a half a block in the rain to pick up their mail?

 

[Bob Slydell]

Where the heck do they put your mail if not in the box next to the front door of your house??? We have our box right next to the front door, crack open the door, lean out and get your mail...do you have to go someplace to get yours??

Our old house had the box outside our back door, but our new house has the mailbox at the foot of our driveway. Before our street was completed, though, we had that group mailbox thing at the entrance of our development.