I've been to four places without tipping in restaurants, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. I would say all of them had better service than here in the US. In particular, the East Asian countries I visited all have _excellent_ service without tips.
I suspect quality of service has a lot more to do with cultural factors unrelated to tipping.
American restaurant service is by no means good, despite waiters/waitresses supposedly being motivated by tips. It's expected that people are paying the tip regardless, so there really isn't any motivating factor anymore.
America has the problem where calling a waiter over is rude, so you have to wait for them to come over to your area. I can't count the number of times I've been waiting 15-20 minutes just to start my order, and this is often in restaurants that are fully staffed and barely busy. I don't encounter this elsewhere.
I lived in France for a year before moving to the US. Even though French waiters are notorious for having terrible service, I always received excellent service by being very polite to the waiters.
The idea that you are entitled to excellent service because you are paying is pernicious. If you want excellent service, treat people excellently.
Excellent service should be the default, and you only lose it by being an asshole; in other words, I'm not paying for the privilege of having to work extra hard just to get decent service.
Literally the only thing you are paying for is service (the services of cooking and waiting on you), otherwise you'd be eating at home.
I live in Australia where tipping is either frowned upon or reserved for exemplary service.
Perhaps your idea of “good service” is coloured by your own culture. For example in the USA it is rude to summon a waiter while everywhere else it is rude for the waiter to intrude.
There are also different signals such as ROTW putting cutlery together to signify “I am finished” and crossed to signify “still eating”, or whether to place your napkin yourself or have the waiter help you. Then there are different habits such as paying staff a proper wage and not relying on a hangover from slavery to support waitstaff.
You are the second comment that claims it is due in America to soon a waiter... As an American that is complete news to me, and I would think many other Americans would be shocked to discover it is rude.
How else are you supposed to get something?
Of the countries in which I've lived, 2 stand out as regards tipping culture, Spain and France.
Spain has a tipping culuture and the service is mediocre; service is sometimes chaotic (eg food arrives before drinks) and slow, eg asking for bill, paying bill, getting the change takes a long time.
France has a no-tip culture; service is correct, friendly and efficient, despite the stereotype of Parisian serving staff.
My theory is that quality of service isn't related to the tip, but is related to the cultural acceptability of shit service.
I lived in France for years, have visited China maybe ten times for several weeks each, and traveled around other European countries. None of these places has a tipping culture for restaurants, and all of them have excellent service despite that.
I don't remember any time that I've had bad service anywhere in the world. I'm sure I have, but I don't collect that memory and press 'save'. People who have strong opinions on service are too uptight
The servers returned more often in the US than in UK to just check on the table, they returned to get drink orders more often. They brought the check more quickly in the US when we were ready to leave.
As someone who has waited tables as a kid, I know why they did all those things in the US more often. People often tip more on alcohol and you can also get your table turned over more quickly during your shift. In the UK there's no incentive to get more alcohol to tables nor to turn over the table.
Now, I'm not going to explain myself or reply any further, as I'm getting DV.
I suspect quality of service has a lot more to do with cultural factors unrelated to tipping.