Jim Eagles: Extra for service with a snarl

I hate tipping. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind rewarding service which goes beyond the usual. I have occasionally - okay, very occasionally - even tipped someone in New Zealand because they put in a special effort.

But I hate the expectation that I should reward average or even poor service. I hate being asked to pay a fat service charge and then to tip as well.

And I hate the fact that because I'm not used to tipping I'm never sure of the rules.

The need to tip is one of the few things I don't like about travelling overseas.

In fact I'd probably be willing to pay extra for a trip if it could be guaranteed gratuity-free.

The first time I tipped was in a jazz club in Miami, en route to do the big OE in Britain, and the waitress threw the pile of small change back at us.

I was young then, and had no shame, so I just gathered up the coins. But these days I pay up to in order to avoid a scene.

To my chagrin, I've given money to London taxi drivers for being rude, Parisian waiters for being lazy and arrogant, Los Angeles bartenders for doing nothing, Roman porters for ignoring my instructions and cruise liner stewards for always serving me last.

The ultimate horror was Cairo where on arrival at 2am I had to tip the guy who met us off the plane and organised our visas - although we'd paid for them before we left - the guy who carried our luggage through the airport on a trolley, the guy who led us to our transport and accompanied us to the hotel, the driver, the bellboy who carried our bags (even though we didn't want him to) and the bell captain who stood in our room playing with the TV set and the lights until I paid him to go away because all we wanted was to sleep. And that was just the first two hours.

The final insult was that even though I gave the bell captain a lot more than he deserved, he still managed to convey a sneer of contempt at the amount.

I wish I'd been brave enough to ask for it back.

I did once give only the exact fare to a particularly obnoxious British cabbie and he became so savagely abusive that I fled the scene in fear of physical violence.

What galls about all this is not so much the money - though in places such as Egypt, where demands for baksheesh are all-pervading, it does add up - as the sense of being endlessly ripped off.

I'm well aware that the theory is that the tipping system creates a direct link between level of performance and remuneration and so leads to better service.

But in my experience, tipping generally has a lot more to do with moral blackmail than with level of performance.

There are, of course, exceptions. Service in restaurants and bars in the US is generally excellent - though I suspect that has as much to do with career structures and labour laws as tipping - and I've been happier leaving a gratuity there than anywhere else I've visited because it's usually been deserved.

But the overwhelming majority of the tips I've given have been motivated by factors such as fear of being embarrassed, not wishing to be thought cheap, or feeling sorry for poorly paid workers.

And a study into tipping by Steen Videbeck, a research associate at the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, suggests that many people may tip for reasons which have nothing to do with the service they've received.

Videbeck has brought together a lot of international research on tipping, which suggests an extremely weak relationship between the level of service offered in restaurants and the size of the gratuity.

Basically, surveys of restaurant patrons suggest they tip pretty much the same, regardless. In fact, it seems the size of the tip is likely as not governed by how good-looking the waiter is, whether she or he uses a gimmick like drawing a smiley face on the bill or touches a customer in a friendly way.

"These results are important," Videbeck says, "because they call into question whether tipping provides strong enough incentives to improve service quality."

That's hardly surprising. If surly waiters get much the same reward as their friendly, helpful colleagues they've got no particular incentive to shape up or ship out.

On the other side of the fence, many years ago I worked as a hotel porter in London, and while I can remember being delighted to get the occasional tip (most of the customers were antipodeans), I certainly do not recall varying my performance according to whether I expected to receive one, or throwing a tantrum when I didn't.

Despite the doubts about its effectiveness, however, tipping is slowly spreading to New Zealand, largely as a result of the growing number of overseas visitors for whom it is normal to tip.

That trend is being encouraged by some in the tourist industry, who argue it will lead to improved levels of service - though Videbeck's research suggests that may be wishful thinking.

The move towards tipping seems a pity. The absence of pressure to tip could be an attractive point of difference between New Zealand and other destinations.

There's also a risk of two tiers of service developing: one for non-tipping Kiwis and another for tourists.

On the other hand, at least if we become more used to tipping we'll be able to cope with it better overseas. I might even get hardened enough to refuse to tip a Parisian waiter.