[borgia]

>I am from Denmark. 10 years ago tipping was only something you saw in movies. Today some places are trying it and they ask upfront "Do you want to leave a tip?". It seems so forced and wrong. It just makes the whole experience end in on weird note.

This is so weird. I'm European and last lived in Ireland for quite a few years. When I first got there tipping was basically not a done thing, at all, and then it started to creep in. When I left last year it had somehow become the standard in restaurants, etc.

It has crept into Europe from the US but without the conditions that made tipping necessary in the US and the customer service experience you get in Europe, despite the tipping culture having now been seemingly normalised, you do not get anything near the level of customer service experience you get in the US.

I'm a software engineer, people don't tip me for making good software, it's what is expected of me. When I was in college I worked in various retail positions. People did not tip me there because providing good customer service was expected of me. So why, when there is a decent minimum wage in place, are waiting staff somehow different?

It's incredibly frustrating.

[madsravn]

> you do not get anything near the level of customer service experience you get in the US.

I don't know. I have experienced both. Being a waiter is a proud occupation. People takes a sort of long education to become it and they really seem proud of making the dining experience a good one for their customers. And I guess this is true everywhere - not just when you work under the expectation that you get more tips the better you serve.