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.