[haxorito]

That issue isn’t only with Airbnb. Many other tech companies have poor customer service and more than willing to just ban you rather than deal with issues. Had incident with Uber. Driver came 30 mins late, she accepted ride, forgot to turn off her location and went to coffee shop. When she arrived, I didn’t say anything. She was rude entire ride complaining about other customers, traffic. I remained quiet. She quickly found out, pretty easy to hear from my accent, that I’m an immigrant. She started to complain about immigrants, immigration system and other nonsense like they took our jobs and how the one, back than candidate, would fix it all.

I left her one star review and very small tip.

Next day I got message that my account suspended. It took me entire day but eventually I found out that she wrote complaint to company that my wife and I physically assaulted her during ride. And based on her word alone it was enough to permanently ban me

[ryan-c]

A bunch of confused Europeans here. In the US...

No tip says "I am an asshole"

Very small tip says "You are an asshole/incompetent"

It is a deliberate insult.

[sokoloff]

Exactly. I didn’t forget; I’m not unaware; I’m making a statement.

[Handytinge]

For the record, 95% (literally) of the world are not Americans. If someone isn't an American, that doesn't make us European ;).

[sixstringtheory]

Unless they tipped $0.01, I'm going to say it was too much, and even then. 5 stars and no tip is maybe unaware/forgetful. 0 or 1 star and no tip is a clear message.

And who cares if an asshole thinks you're an asshole? If someone is a complete asshole to you for no good reason, don't reward them. This is giving them way too much space to live inside your head. It smacks of a guilty conscience on the part of the victim when it should be the other way around. But in the absence of that, the least you can do is spend your money on people who will do better with it.

There are many shades between someone who is grumpy, having a bad day, in the weeds, maybe doesn't smile but still brings your food and gets the job done well (I've been this person), vs someone that directly insults you while bringing it cold after clearly ignoring you for a prolonged period (I've had this happen to me–guess what? No tip for you!).

I look at the converse situation the same way. I get pissed when places bend over backwards to accommodate customers who clearly are assholes and exploit the fact that corporates will hand out gift cards, regardless of the absurdity of the complaint or the inappropriateness of their behavior. Why would you invite someone like that back?

Signed, waiter in America for 7 years. I was stiffed twice in that time, once by an entire family that skipped the entire bill, the other by a rowdy table I had to cut off from alcohol who then threatened to shoot me after my shift. Once or twice I had some foreign tourists tip me like 4%. Even then, I averaged maybe 19% tips over the entire tenure. Everywhere from dives to white linen tables with 4 different glasses and forks; chains and indie. Never more than $2.13/hr salary.

I've never heard what parent poster said. But now that I have, I must say that I didn't think the foreign tourists thought I was an asshole or incompetent, as everything went swimmingly between us, and I also didn't think they were assholes. I worked with a ton of people who complained plenty about that kind of thing, profiled people, etc. I still wonder to this day whether the family that skipped had some sort of emergency to tend to. It sucked at the time, I wound up having to pay it out of pocket, but in the end I made bank overall. C'est la vie.

That's all to say, the world isn't so black and white, learn how to spot outliers on either side of the average, and reward the good and disincentivize the bad as best as you can. And don't get too caught up in what you think assholes' opinions of you might be.

[shultays]

> I left her one star review and very small tip.

I don't understand such (American?) tipping system

[digianarchist]

Canada has adopted this ridiculousness even though food servers now earn minimum wage in Ontario.

[benjaminwootton]

A lot of the people operating on AirBnB are Uber are decent hard working people, but there are also some real chancers who ruin it for everyone. I’m personally back to hotels and taxis after having too many problems with the gig economy.

[haxorito]

I don’t judge all drivers. Most, majority are nice and professional folks. I’m upset how customer support handled the situation.

[septimus111]

I had a non-masked Uber driver report me for not wearing a mask (I was wearing one). It was very strange, my guess is they didn’t like me for some reason and used the feature in a petty way…?

[avree]

This one happened to me too - except it was after the Uber asked me for my destination, and then didn't like it (I was going south from San Francisco, he wanted to stay in SF.)

Instead of just cancelling the ride, he reported me for being maskless in order to get a free cancellation that didn't hurt his driver profile. When I wrote Uber Support to explain I was wearing a mask (and had completed a mask-photo before I could request my next ride), they lectured me on mask-wearing and essentially accused me of lying. Note that I have a 4.9 star rating over 5,000+ Uber rides, so it's not like I'm an infrequent customer or repeat trouble maker.

[jbuhbjlnjbn]

The driver might have got you confused with someone else.

When I get frustrated by inexplicable behavior of strangers, Hanlon's Razor helps a little distancing myself and limit the pain brooding about it would cause...

[emptyfile]

You literally tipped a racist insulting you... why?

[marcus0x62]

By leaving a small tip, he was sending a message to the driver that he was displeased with the service. Not leaving a tip at all would not send that message.

[kop316]

This comment provides a good reason: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32763149

[spoils19]

It's a social norm in the US. If you don't like it, there are other countries to eat at.

[thejackgoode]

It is inconceivable (for someone reading from Europe), that you still left a tip, given the situation

[gambiting]

When I visited America(coming from Europe) that was the biggest shock to me too - we went for a meal with coworkers, the service was absolutely terrible, food was bad, we felt unwelcome the entire time. So at the end of the service I say - well, it was an awful experience, that means we don't leave a tip, right? No no no - say our hosts - you have to leave a tip, otherwise you look like a jerk.

I was like.....but surely.....the whole idea of a tip is to reward good service, right? If the service was bad, then why would you tip?

I still think about it sometimes. It's like the whole idea of tipping "maybe" started with good intentions(rewarding good service) but now transformed into some kind of idiotic virtue signalling(because at the end of the day, what if we look like jerks for not tipping? literally none of us will ever enter this restaurant again, the only thing we achieved by tipping was rewarding bad service, nothing more nothing less).

[bscphil]

As an American, I would not have tipped in that situation. I wouldn't have even considered it. I don't think that's far out of the norm for a situation involving extremely poor service and abusive behavior. I could be wrong but I don't think "Americanism" is the explanation for what happened here, though I agree that our approach to tipping is a bit bonkers overall.

[noja]

In America a "tip" should be understood as a compulsory wage supplement paid by the customer. It can often also include a traditional "tip" (i.e. for good service).

Once you use this definition, everything becomes much simpler.

[danielbln]

In tipping countries, a tiny tip is often more insulting than no tip. Ludicrous to me as well coming from Europe, but hey, that's how they do it.

[krageon]

Even if they absolutely need it to eat or it is "normal" (as I was repeatedly informed in NA), I refuse to tip an asshole. It is not my problem that they go hungry, it is my problem that they made my day worse. Why reward that behaviour?

[8f2ab37a-ed6c]

In the US you are shamed for not tipping people regardless of how poorly they performed. The argument is that, without tipping, hard working blue collar will fall into dire straits. Them having a bad day and mistreating you doesn't mean they should be condemned to poverty.

[988747]

Not giving tip might be interpreted like you come from the culture where people do not tip. Giving very small tip is clearly an insult :)

[workingon]

I like to think he left 69 cents

[michaelwww]

I drove Uber for awhile and I believe this story falls short of being entirely factual