Why TikTok Is Furious About DoorDash's New Cash Policy

DoorDash has been pushing their Cash On Delivery option. In it, customers can — wait for it — pay in cash when the food is delivered. The driver will be informed that the order is a Cash on Delivery order and have the option to accept it or not without it impacting their rates. If they accept it, the money they earn from it will be deducted from what DoorDash owes them. In theory, it should work.

One TikToker was very unimpressed by the system though. In a video uploaded four days ago, Alex Serves Tea relays how one driver told them that this way of payment increases the chances of drivers getting mugged. The allegations went further, stating that the only reason for this change was to keep restaurants on the platform that would otherwise leave due to DoorDash not paying them. As of writing, this has been viewed 31K times.

A final issue raised was that drivers would also have to carry extra money in case a customer insists on change. While DoorDasher does have an option to select the "Issue Collecting Cash Payment" option in the app, it does rather defeat the purpose of paying cash as the payment will be made electronically. In the best case, though, worries are that the delivery riders will once more be trundling around in the middle of the night with money on them. 

The comments for a video unimpressed with DoorDash's attempt to incorporate cash payment were equally unimpressed. Most poked potential holes into the possbility.

"And then you wouldn't even know your tip in advance!!" one noted. "No thanks!" The point is that most DoorDashers know what their tip is when accepting an order and so factor the amount into the effort they put into fulfilling it. Even though this method can encourage tip baiting by offering high tips to get deliveries quicker before reducing them at the last minute, it's more of a sure bet than a complete unknown, as the New York Post notes.

Another common theme was that including cash defeated a selling point of the app: "The whole point of it was so drivers didn't have money on them for their safety." Terrible things could still happen, but they won't be mobile, unguarded piggy banks.

A third raised the issue that physical payments can throw doubt onto the veracity of the money used. "Or what if they get a counterfeit bill?" they asked simply. No driver is going to take the time to give each bill a forensic examination.

There were other raised points that are actually addressed by DoorDash's FAQs. If a customer tells a driver that they paid online, the driver is directed not to hand over the food. However, the work conditions of the delivers are such that a new system of payment is met with understandable skepticism.