When ordering a drink at a coffee shop or bar, there's nothing worse than getting too much ice. Businesses occasionally do this to fleece customers out of a full drink. Consequently, a generation of beverage connoisseurs have begun ordering drinks with an explicit request: no ice please.

That was the appeal of a recent customer at Borders Books after ordering a glass of chai. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work out so well. Here's his story:

When she finally called me over to get my drink, I was handed... half a cup of lukewarm chai. I thought maybe she had forgotten to add milk or something, so I asked why it was so empty. She said, very simply, deadpanned even, "That's what you get when you ask for no ice." I asked why that is and her response was, "We usually fill it up all the way with ice." I walked away baffled, spent a couple minutes sipping my double-Dixie cup sized drink before abandoning my shopping trip altogether.

He shared his grievance with Laura Northrup at The Consumerist—offering this photo of the meager-looking beverage. For her part, Northrup thoroughly sides with her reader:

I like to order my cold drinks (especially soda) without ice, because--shocking revelation--I don't really like ice. I didn't realize that all of these years, I've been running a massive scam on the eateries of America, weaseling extra beverages out of them with my innocent request. That's what a barista at a Borders store accused JD of doing... New Borders policy, or was she a vigilante anti-ice crusader?

What do you think? Is the 'no-ice' loophole legitimate or is Borders on solid ground?

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John Hudson