I went to dunkin’ the other day and asked for an iced latte with less ice because it’s winter and I wanted less ice. They gave me a cup that was halfway full of coffee. So I asked why and they told me they press a button on a machine, it fills it halfway full with coffee and then they add ice. So when you get a medium iced latte, you’re not actually getting a medium latte, you’re getting a small or a kids size nowadays of coffee, and then they just fill the rest of it with ice. If you ask for less ice, no screw you, you’re not getting the full amount of coffee that you paid for…
I have never heard of this in any other country. What the hell?
You must log in or register to comment.
Go to a real coffeeshop.
Man unless they state somewhere that each drink only contains x oz I’d be a cunt and tell em to keep pouring. After that: yeah last time I’m visiting that chain. Customers aren’t always right but in this case they probably are.
I truly pity the cities that don’t have a coffeeshop in an old photomat.
And experience the exact same thing. A real iced latte will still be a standard amount of espresso and milk.
Except with better service, better atmosphere, and no premixed crap being spat out of a big machine, all while you support a local business instead of a multinational anti-labor behemoth.
A lot of bootlicking going here…
OP voted with your money and next time just deny the parasite profit.
This ain’t negotiation and a lot of these consumer discretionary business forgot who pays them. Too much daddy owner attitude, not enough work.
But I guess normies LARP it, so why would am owner respect the customer?
Any coffee with milk is a milkshake and is for children. Drink your coffee black like your God intended.
I went to dunkin’
What did you expect? If you want a coffee, and not dirty asswater, go to an actual coffee shop.
Removed by mod
sick of everyone’s shit
This is exactly the problem with most retail employees: they treat everyone like the small fraction of scammers that exist.
If it were my coffee shop, I’d just spend the few cents to fill that cup and I wouldn’t treat it as a problem until a significant portion of people were obviously gaming the system.
Penny pinching just gives off the impression that one doesn’t care about one’s customers.
In my opinion, commerce is a platform upon which community takes place. The people are the point.
Removed by mod
Mods! Civility 🤡
Dude you’re comparing something stupidly expensive like liquor to coffee. like what?? 10 years ago, you could get an iced coffee less ice, it had like 5 ice cubes in it. Now they just give you half the amount of coffee what the hell? How can you even justify that? If we’re talking about some expensive top shelf liquor that costs $30-80 a bottle, sure, I get that. But this is literally sugary coffee and milk!
What do you mean “in the USA”? You went to a Dunkin Donuts… Lol. That’s not a Cafe, that’s a place to buy mass produced, shitty donuts.
This was entirely your fault is your were after a great cup of coffee.
Go to a real coffeeshop. Even we know Dunkin isn’t real coffee.
Premeasured devices have been around for awhile. Fewer user errors and they can use the customer’s mug/thermos if they want to.
It triggers you to receive exactly what they offer?
You asked for a hamburger with no toppings and are surprised that you just got meat and buns.
They didn’t give you less meat they just gave you less toppings. You’re noticing the sandwich is pretty empty, because you ordered it that way
This is rather silly. I’ve seen people order drinks with no ice tons of times, and they always fill it to the top. That’s probably what they would’ve done here, too, if given the choice.
But they explained it isn’t the choice
The explanation was fabricated to make the customer ‘go away.’ Which they should: to a different location that isn’t so profit oriented and staffed with drones that lack common sense.
It’s not fabricated, the machine dispenses a fixed quantity, expecting ice.
A subway sandwich is made to have a fixed quantity of deli meat, even if you ask for no other toppings. You’ll find the sandwich is quite empty in that case. Sure an employee could just load that bitch up, but I bet they wouldnt want their manager to “know” actively. In the case of the coffee, they’d have to mix a second portion of drink in s, m or l, and hope it fits in the m cup. That’s way more obvious, and more effort than the subway employee just slapping a few extra slices on the otherwise empty Sammy.
Indeed folks should prefer small coffee chains. The product is way better and the servings aren’t portioned by a machine, and asking for adjustments at such a place doesn’t put the employee in a spot of potentially getting in trouble.
You don’t know the Starbucks employee’s life, and them following the rules isn’t choicefully being a “drone”. They just want their wage, and want to serve customers shit off the menu.
Arguably they have more “common sense” to keep their manager off their ass by just serving from the menu, rather than doing custom stuff
It’s not fabricated, the machine dispenses a fixed quantity, expecting ice.
Which is customized per drink based on specifications arbitrarily selected by the franchise. It’s literally a fabricated value. If you think they don’t adjust that and don’t think it’s configurable I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Further: it’s a coffee shop. Custom orders are not foreign. Easy ice isn’t even that unheard of. There were a variety of ways to approach that situation as the cashier and the ‘nope’ that OP got was not one of them. Hell they could have offered to cut it with regular coffee to top it off and not used the machine. Kid behind the counter was being lazy and made an excuse. Simple as that.
A subway sandwich is made to have a fixed quantity of deli meat, even if you ask for no other toppings.
This is apples and oranges. Meat is a high cost item with low margin. Drinks are literally the opposite of this. But to your point if someone asked for double meat you’d just tell them there’s a charge for it… because it’s quite literally built into the POS system. Extra shot of espresso? Yep that’s there. 2oz more coffee? Not there. Why? Because it costs more to pay someone the extra 2 minutes pushing the button in the POS system than it does to just pour the drink.
In the case of the coffee, they’d have to mix a second portion of drink in s, m or l, and hope it fits in the m cup.
From what I read it doesn’t sound like pushing the button a second time would have overflowed the existing cup and honestly? There’s a spill tray. This is low effort and the clerk cba to make even the most basic effort.
Indeed folks should prefer small coffee chains. The product is way better and the servings aren’t portioned by a machine, and asking for adjustments at such a place doesn’t put the employee in a spot of potentially getting in trouble.
I promise you the manager wouldn’t have batted an eye at filling the cup, and would likely be more pissed if a complaint came in over this exact incident. I can almost hear them saying “WTF were you thinking”… and “if you weren’t sure come get us.”
You don’t know the Starbucks employee’s life, and them following the rules isn’t choicefully being a “drone”. They just want their wage, and want to serve customers shit off the menu.
Find me a Starbucks (or any coffee chain) that doesn’t take custom orders on… their entire menu… The drone comment was quite frankly accurate. If you can’t do basic problem solving why the fuck are you there. The customer could just push the button and… to that point this is why a LOT of drink machines are self serve.
Arguably they have more “common sense” to keep their manager off their ass by just serving from the menu, rather than doing custom stuff
I covered this above. There was more to gain and less to lose over the mere pennies that second button push would have cost… and checking with a manager is quite literally part of the job.
edit:
speaking of fabricated - I checked the prices (see other post)
The iced large late actually costs more than the hot large late lol. The prices are literally made up in this case. Arguably the only difference in cost is… the ice… which he wanted less of so…
Technically you got the coffee you paid for. You got the same amount of coffee as you would have if you got normal ice. It’s priced based on the amount of coffee provided not the size of the cup. The cup being not full is more psychological than anything. If we want to get real technical, the price of a coffee is mostly labor and overhead not the ingredients. Thats why a large doesn’t cost that much more than a medium.
Bootlicker logic spotted…
Well akshually, 🤡
Are you a corporate apologist or something? cause your reply sounds like the most absurd logic ever. Back in 2010 I remember dunkin giving you more milk if you got a less ice coffee, it wasn’t an automated machine.
No, thats just the real world dude. It’s the same math that a locally owned coffee shop has to use.
I feel like it makes sense. If you order coffee you pay for the amount of coffee not the overall volume of the coffee and ice. This is actually a good thing because you won’t be wondering if they watered down your drink more than usual due to an error by the barista.
This “triggered” you?
I have to say, as a therapist who treats people with actual trauma, I find it mildly infuriating that people today use the word “triggered” to refer to something that mildly infuriates them. The concept of a mental health trigger refers specifically to something that reactivates a traumatic memory and induces serious distress in the person triggered. Using the term to refer to something that just annoys you trivializes and dilutes it as a term.
I get that language is a living thing and people who use the term this way don’t mean to be trivializing the issues of people who have real trauma, but it still irks me whenever I see people use that word this way.
You do you, OP, don’t take this as serious criticism. I just felt the need to get that off my chest.
The iced latte incident. Just like back in 'Nam
The concept of a mental health trigger refers specifically to something that reactivates a traumatic memory and induces serious distress in the person triggered
the trauma or stress is that everything costs more now in the USA, and provides diminishing returns. This is definitely a trigger. Everything is more expensive, and every place is giving you less of it than they were a decade ago or more. When I was in high school around the 2000s-2010s, you go to a coffee shop, there was no malicious hyper-profit maximizing bullshit. $2-3 max for an iced latte or coffee, and you could just have it customized. You want more milk, less ice? Sure! Now everything is maximum cost, and no. No, we can’t customize that, but it costs 250% more than it did 5 years ago. So yeah, it’s triggering, and I can say it’s triggering because we are FUCKING TIRED OF THIS SHIT. EVERYTHING COSTS SO MUCH MONEY. $6 for a coffee which is HALF ICE??? I can go get a huge ass bag of ice FOR $3!!! Why am I paying SIX DOLLARS… FOR A CUP OF ICE???1???
Ordering coffee inthe USA triggers meYou might be saying it ironically but honestly: yup. This thread is littered with examples why.
No irony or sarcasm. The USA really triggers me.
ExtremeDullard
You are actually getting exactly the same amount of coffee you paid for, without the ice.
Which is half a cup full.By the way, this isn’t a “coffee in the USA” thing. It’s a Starbucks thing.
In most diners, coffee shops and restaurants in the US, you get as much coffee as you want, with free unlimited refills.If they have a machine, you’re getting exactly the full amount of coffee you paid for; you’re just not getting more by removing a filler that they normally include, and that some people like. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything morally wrong with gaming the menu at a giant chain if it can be done without fucking over the staff, or that it wouldn’t be shitty if Dunkin’ has done some sneaky shrinkflation, but there is a certain mechanical clarity here that I can’t get too riled up about.
Yeah… you’re be getting exactly the same amount of coffee you had been paying for before. Getting upset at how little that coffee amounts to normally is one thing, but getting upset with the notion that you are now getting -less- coffee is just silly.
Let me pose a question here: most chains actually sell coffee at the same (or similar) price as any other fountain drink. What’s the difference then? Was the 1/2 ice too hard of an order? The machine is preprogrammed for roughly the time it would take to fill an ice filled drink. Was the person filling the drink pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve? Based on the thread responses I’m inclined to answer that as self evident.
Soda fountains keep being brought up here. If you order a soda with no ice, you typically get more soda. But that’s because the way the sods fountains fill is based on the volume in the cup, not the volume dispensed. The coffee machine in this post evidently measures based on coffee dispensed. If soda were dispensed the same way, it’s likely soda with no ice would also give you a less than full cup.
Also, don’t go insulting or blaming the worker in this instance. They likely have to follow the guidelines of the job or risk losing it. “Pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve”? Fuck right off with that. If the machine is set to dispense a certain amount of coffee, the worker would either need to press the button twice, giving away more product for free, or press it once and give a half-full cup. This has nothing to do with problem solving. Maybe the customer shouldn’t be pre-prpgrammed to expect more for less. I get the frustration of not having a full cup, but you’d only be getting a half-full cup with or without the ice in it. You are getting what you paid for.
Soda fountains keep being brought up here … The coffee machine in this post evidently measures based on coffee dispensed… If soda were dispensed the same way, it’s likely soda with no ice would also give you a less than full cup.
I’ve worked with those machines before. Most are simply time based triggers. They use knowledge of volume per second to determine pour size. It’s functionally identical to a bartender executing a free pour. The difference however is in why they are doing it. A bartender is doing that to ensure proper ingredient amount - the machine at a franchise is most notibly focused on time saving: a server pushing the button until it is full cannot do multiple things and ‘at best’ can fill two cups at once - (yes, yes, I know you can do more but… let me have this) With the machine a rep can fill multiple glasses unattended and contine working in the background. This is chiefly about efficiency (time is money.) Labor is expensive - coffee is not.
Also, don’t go insulting or blaming the worker in this instance. They likely have to follow the guidelines of the job or risk losing it. “Pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve”? Fuck right off with that.
No. The insult stands. I’ve worked over 10 years in that industry from food service to high dining. I’ve hosted, served, bartended, managed and assisted in opening two start up coffee shops. I have never, in the history of my work, seen a chain or management that would accept that behavior from an employee. Give me the chain number. I’ll call it and speak with the manager - Hell- I’ll speak with a district head. That’s how confident I am in this. I’ve seen similar behavior out of employees and coworkers before- and on days when I was being unquestionably a POS I’ve done it too… it’s wrong. Plain and simple. The marginal cost of the additional beverage is non-existent in the face of future business with the patron whom you kept coming back.
It fails the cost vs profit test, it fails the social test, and it fails the service test.
This is simply beyond reproach. If you feel otherwise please, by all means, explain to us all how a baseline employee was empowered to make a judgement call - that left a customer with such a foul taste in their mouth … that they turned the experience into a social media discussion. That action has now been seen by hundreds of eyes and will effect future purchases. All over arguably pennies in product that likely is thrown out regularly to cycle in fresh coffee.
If the machine is set to dispense a certain amount of coffee, the worker would either need to press the button twice…
(gasp.) Twice? And the problem is solved? See my lack of problem solving statement above. The kid was making excuses and at best was wrong and at worst was being a shit. I covered the machine and the rest of your comments following that above.
I’ve done my time in those trenches: as someone who’s been there: kid was a shit. As a customer, objectively, from the outside: kid was wrong - and likely being a shit. I wouldn’t give them my business following that.
edit:
Punctuation and stuff.
Amen. This Dunkin endangered a customer relationship over a triviality.
Dunkin’ has done some sneaky shrinkflation, but there is a certain mechanical clarity…
I promise you that they have done just that: like every other corporation has. The mechanical clarity is imagined but provides a fine excuse. That machine is configurable - just like any other timed / measured device. Yeah you pushed the ‘small latte’ button … but is that the same small late that x franchise sells across the street (who owns the same machine but different size cups?) It’s software. Anyone who doesn’t think that dunkin’ - a profit driven organization - isn’t going to milk the customer for every penny they can get… is either daft or willfully ignorant.
edit: wording
