I'm not a customer of either services since I'm not in the US but tipping upfront before you even receive the service seems a little odd. Doesn't one tip for getting an outstanding over-the-top customer service and in order to do that, one should undergo the entire workflow till receiving the goods?

In the US tipping is standard, not for over-the-top service.

In general, higher pay for better quality goods and services is part of a negotiated sticker price. Tipping is the anamoly here. In the DoorDash context, if the user were given the option to tip after delivery, they’d most likely just forget about the app once they got their food and never tip. So there’d be little incentive for the drivers to work hard for a good tip.

Unless service is so great that you have to leave a tip. I guess the culture in the US really puts tipping in a different light. When it becomes normal or close to mandatory I would say, to tip, so that workers get close to minimum wage, it really defeats the purpose. I guess I wanna tip when I feel that I'm getting more value than the amount I'm paying for and also when I'm not obliged to do so.

Anyways, aside from this point, whatever these startups are doing, are real shady. Them carefully choosing their words in the binding documents makes it even worse since they know the potential repercussions of these actions.

What if you give a good tip first but then the delivery turns out late?

Complain though whatever feedback mechanism the app gives you. Same thing you’d do if the food didn’t show up at all.

On the other hand, what does the driver do if they go above and beyond to give you great service, but then you don’t tip?

With prepayment of tip, we have no idea how the service will be. It would make sense to just roll it into the base cost.

The server doesn’t know whether you will follow through with a tip when they decide how well to serve you. The information asymmetry goes one way or the other.

You are correct.

It's really not a fine model, though. This isn't groceries, or a package from Amazon, this is hot food ready to serve that goes cold and soggy.

Whole Foods (Amazon) grocery delivery has you tip the delivery person up-front. They still seem to screw up my order all the time. I mean, seriously, I KNOW they have the stuff on the shelves, but the delivery people flake out all the time and don't deliver half my order. What a scam.

There's also the issue of tipping for service before it's been rendered. So you might pay a big tip and still receive shitty service, and now you have to deal with customer support hoping to get a refund.

Honestly, I don't really care about all of that. If it's horrible service I can complain and most likely get a refund of some sort.

I care that I want hot food, delivered in a reasonable time, and that I can pay a tip AFTER service is rendered (based upon the actual service I get).

I feel like you're agreeing with me but don't realize it.

The issue as described here is that the service captures most of the value of the tip, so the drivers are wasting their effort when they rush to complete tipped orders.

Not if it's cash ;) Hence my point.