We moved last week. I’d classify our move as pretty average in terms of difficulty. They showed up a little after 9am, packed everything into the truck, drove to Doylestown, unpacked everything, and were gone by about 1pm. They charge for their time to get home, so we paid for 5 hours of work totaling a little over $1000.

Meghan and I talked about how much to tip. Some basic online searches showed things like:

• 10% – 20% = $100 – $200
• $5 – $10 per mover per hour (there were three of them) = $75 – $150

After brief discussion, we decided $150 was good. The movers finished up and I handed the one guy $150 cash. All good!

Until it wasn’t.

---

We had to pay the remaining balance at the end, so I gave the guy my credit card, he swiped it in his machine, and it prompted me to tip one of three options:

• 50% – $500
• 80% – $800
• 100% – $1000

I was taken aback. Did we wildly misjudge how much movers are supposed to be tipped? I chose No TIp and told him I tipped the other guy in cash.

After they left we were talking if we should’ve tipped more. Should we run out to the truck and give them another $100? We felt bad, these guys did a good job, but at the same time, I mean, c’mon.

Now that some time has passed, I’ve flipped. Yes the guys did a good job, but suggesting a 50% minimum tip and up to 100% leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t feel bad at all for ‘only’ tipping $150, and if I had to recommend them or not, I’d hesitate because of how ridiculous it was. They’re trying to get one on their customer. It’s bad look, they don’t respect you.

That’s how I’m taking the ridiculous tipping from now on, as disrespect. I’m flipping the script. I will not be backed into a corner and made to feel guilty. I have no shame tipping what I think is appropriate. These guys had a 5 star review until that happened. I didn’t actually write them a review, but if I did:

“Nice guys. Great service. Wildly disrespectful. Would recommend.”