[jmastrangelo]

Is that true though? "service with a smile" and "The customer is always right" are notions I've seen far far more in the US.

I think its more of a cultural thing than an effect of tipping, but service in the US is usually pretty high quality.

[robocat]

From what I can tell (traveled to US, EU, live in non-tipping culture), it is often:

"service with a FORCED smile" which I find far worse than service without a smile.

and

"PRETEND the customer is always right" which happens in non-tipping culture too (do whatever makes the least trouble for yourself at work).

[oarabbus_]

Yes, it's absolutely true.

Any Asian country I've been to had much better service than the US. France (Paris) had excellent service. Greece had extremely nice service. These are all low- or no- tipping places.

[lotsofpulp]

I would say the opposite, service in most other countries is better than the US.