Originally Posted by
tuapekastar
Which may perpetuate the situation? Sort of pre-empting the anticipated lack of tip on behalf of the service staff, and maybe guaranteeing no tip from the non-American customer due to the lesser and later service provided.
Quite. There are times when I'm in the US that I feel like getting a t-shirt with "I know how much to tip, OK?" written on it. Some places handle it better than others.