Should you tip for carpet cleaning?
Asked by
Supacase (
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June 30th, 2011
I purchased one of those daily deal promotions to have my living room carpet cleaned. I saved 50% but then I noticed the Groupon coupon had a note about tipping. Are you supposed to tip for carpet cleaning? I did tip him based on the non-discounted price, but wonder if I really needed to or not.
I believe it is his own business and he also does all of the work, if that makes a difference.
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I have never heard of that before. We clean carpets as part of our construction buisness and to my knowledge, our guys have never been tipped.
It is going to depend upon where you live. In some countries, tipping is not part of the culture.
Considering that it was noted in the flyer, it sounds like the above statement (mine, not Judi’s) isn’t applicable. Here is my personal rule: If happy with the service, then I tip. If an agent doing the work is reliant on tips because their hourly pay is supplemented by tips, then I tip, but the amount is based upon the service and never below 10%. If it is an independent owner who does all of the work, then I assume that their prices are based upon their expertise. I still tip them, if pleased with the results, but it isn’t based upon the cost of the service.
Unless they went above and beyond the call of duty, I’d say no. I’ve offered to tip carpet cleaners before and they politely declined, saying that they were just doing their job. But they’d appreciate good word of mouth more. I’ve since sent more jobs their way.
Tipping is an arbitrary act, to me there’s no set rules. Whoever you want to tip & however much you want to tip is entirely up to the individual.
Tip carpet cleaners??? No. They would have to go way above and beyond to get a tip.
I guess I have a different perspective. I worked for Stanley Steemer for almost a year, many moons ago. Tips are not required, but if the guys that come out are super polite, go out of their way to keep your house clean and ordered, and especially if they move any furniture for you, it would be very nice and thoughtful of you to knock them an extra $5. They would appreciate it, I’m sure.
The reason I say this is that I worked with some guys who did not give a shit at all. But then, I worked with some really nice, thoughtful guys that cared a lot about the customer and their home, often taking extra steps to be good guests and respecting another’s home, and I personally would tip those guys because that kind of behavior should be rewarded.
Lastly, they’re not supposed to move furniture for you, so if you ask them to and they do, they are possibly breaking company rules. A tip is a nice ‘thank you’ in this situation.
The one caveat is when you’re dealing with the owner of a business; you shouldn’t worry about tipping in that case.
No, you paid for the service and there is no earthly reason to do anything except to call them back if you liked the service and schedule further service.
I always tip workers who perform services for me. I even give a financial “gift” to our mail delivery woman.
I might give them a bottle of water or a soda for the road.
@YARNLADY I tried to give our mailman a Christmas gift. He returned it with thanks because he said that as a Post Office employee, he’s not allowed to accept gifts from his customers. He’s a contract, rural mail carrier, do they have different rules than regular mail carriers?
@Ron_C No, the rules are the same. I always put the gift in a greeting card so she doesn’t know until she opens it what is inside.
After having a couple of days to think about it, I’m glad I tipped him. My daughter totally f***ed up the carpet with outdoor paints while painting the birdhouse she built with her dad. (5 year-olds can get into trouble faster than I can brush my teeth, pee & wash my hands – literally!) I scrubbed and scrubbed. I got most of the color out, but our carpet still looked embarrassingly bad with big grey dirty water/paint spots.
Now you can barely see an outline on a couple of the places. He was so nice, did a great job, gave me some good advice and offered a discounted quote on cleaning the carpet for the entire house.
On the other hand, I way over-tipped him! I didn’t notice the tip comment until the very end and I was flustered. Math is not my friend and the quick calculation in my head was way off. I tipped 50% of the non-sale price! Yes, my math was that bad. I bet he’ll remember me next time I call.
@YARNLADY my mail carrier kept the card but returned the money. I guess it depends on their interpretation of the rules.
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