Mildly Infuriating

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

I think this is about presentation,

If you had ordered a hot latte, they would have put it in a cup so it looked full.

If you order just a ice latte, then put it in a cup so it would look full.

You ordered something they hadn't designed for, and it's really up to the barista at the moment to decide how to handle it. At larger organizations they probably just have a policy, it's smaller organizations the barista might top you up.

If you're not getting a good experience, switch locations.

If your barista just presses a button and hands you a cup, you're at the wrong place for coffee.

That's just dumb. You couldn't make it up. I guess there was plenty of vocal-fry going on too?

Do you know if it's a corporate dictat thing (so I have to eat my words)?! Anyone with any common sense would just put two of those in to fill the cup up.

It triggers you to receive exactly what they offer?

Did you expect them to offset the less ice with more coffee?

In my experience, many iced coffee drinks are made a bit warm and more concentrated. The ice melts a bit, diluting the drink and giving more liquid overall.

Do they do that to an extreme? Probably. But there's also more to it than "I got a drink with less ice and it wasn't very full"

I went to dunkin'

Ordering coffee in the USA triggers me

As if Dunkin' Donuts is representative of the thousands of independent coffee shops around the US...

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.

So these comments aren't going the way you thought they'd go...

I have never heard of this in any other country

Which countries give you more coffee than you paid for just because you asked for less ice?

Have you tried ordering a medium iced latte with light ice in other countries?

Just make it at home its so much better and cheaper.

I mostly care about how much caffeine I get, which I understand to be the same regardless of how much ice there is. Generally, small or medium is 2 shots of espresso, and a large is 3 shots.

Premeasured devices have been around for awhile. Fewer user errors and they can use the customer's mug/thermos if they want to.

It's not just coffee, soda cups have ice lines and a growing number of soda machines have automated / measured filling. And if you go to a theme park your cups are RFID chipped so you can't get refills (or only a certain amount of refills).

Okay so I'm going to answer this with soda. So when people order soda no ice, they think they're being smart and getting more soda. Well, define soda.

You see, most of those drinks are specifically designed with the ice in mind. All drinks are some sort of mixture with water, and they take ice into account, they expect the ice to melt and become part of the drink. With soda, they made the drink with the ice melting in mind.

So when you order a soda no ice, you're not getting more soda necessarily, justa. More concentrated sugary syrupy drink that isn't properly mixed.

I don't get overpaying a shop for coffee. I can get over 43 16 oz cups from a 2 lb bag of whole bean. Not the cheap shit, either. I buy the good stuff from a co-op in Wisconsin. With my minimal time and labor investment, I end up paying about $0.85 for 16 oz.

Why go to a shop? Human interaction?

Edit: Look y'all, do what you want. I'm not your dad. Well, probably.