They meant that they promised X dollars (X = "the whole amount owed for the service provided). DoorDash then assumed that a consumer would tip (x-y) dollars, and they would provide the balance. This allows them to pay their employees, because that's what they fucking are, even less.

Both consumers and Dashers assumed that the equation was instead X promised dollars PLUS Y tip dollars.

(e.g. A dasher is promised 5 dollars for a delivery. DD assumes that the customer will pay 4 dollars in tip, meaning the cost for DD should be 1 dollar. If the customer tips 2 dollars, they will "make whole" the Dasher by paying them 3 dollars in addition to the tip. This is all horse shit and people were pissed by this deception.)

You may not understand that sentence for cultural reasons because even for someone familiar with how tipping works in the US they might not understand the sentence either because it is the very definition of "gaslighting"[1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

Ok... but like literally what does it mean even if it's misleading?

> make-whole. Verb. To restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or otherwise favorable condition.

It's referring to their practice of boosting your per-delivery earnings to $6.85 if the customer does not tip you enough to meet that minimum payout.

A term you'll often hear wrt paying back creditors/investors/options, making them whole.

"To be made whole" means to fix a wrong doing, or restore something to the way it should be. They're saying they thought they were making it up to the employees when a customer didn't leave a tip. Which is just them trying to save face.