To Tip or Not To Tip

I'm getting 2 furniture deliveries from 2 different stores tomorrow. One is 3 pieces from Buy Buy Baby which they are bringing upstairs and assembling. The other is a futon from a local place, which they are also bringing up and assembilng. I live in a 3rd floor (2 filghts) walk up. Should I tip them? I never know what to do in these situations.

Yes, tip--especially since they are carrying it up three flights AND assembling. I would tip around $15-20, depending on how much time assembly takes and how heavy the items are.

i always tip delivery people... a bit more than usual b/c i live on the 4th floor of a walk-up.

Tip. It shouldn't be less than $20 if they're hauling your stuff up 3 flights of stairs.

Thats what I thought. Everyone always says that I tip too much or too often but I think this is a pretty clear case. A few years ago a guy came over from a neighborhood shop to look at my TV which stopped working. He spent an hour taking the thing apart and then took a piece back to the shop to fix it there. I wasn't sure if this was a tipping situation or not and I actually gave the guy one. Was this over the top?

willregistersoon wrote: Thats what I thought. Everyone always says that I tip too much or too often but I think this is a pretty clear case. A few years ago a guy came over from a neighborhood shop to look at my TV which stopped working. He spent an hour taking the thing apart and then took a piece back to the shop to fix it there. I wasn't sure if this was a tipping situation or not and I actually gave the guy one. Was this over the top?

Seems like a tip is in order, unless you know the guy was the owner of the shop. It's unprofessional for an owner to expect tips, and in your specific case, the costs of house calls would be built into the price. It always bugs me when single proprietors without employees have a tip jar on the counter.