You're not paying the fee for "convenience," you're just a dirty scammer who was trying to get a tiny amount of "Sweet Tea" for free.

And here I thought the issue was that McDonald's, along with other chains, tends to give you a cup of ice with just a splash of sweet tea.

a "full" cup of ice would make your drink 85% water. your actually now paying a dollar for water with some tea in it, terrible.

Okay, I have to give this McDonald's props for anticipating the "Okay, give me one ice cube" thing. The sign creator is sort of an evil genius.

And to be fair Greg, McDonald's doesn't promise that you can "have anything your way".

But seriously, that's pretty dirty.

this would be ridiculous for their fountain sodas, but the sweet tea is brewed, right? (or is it syrup from a canister with water?) I would expect this from something that is brewed or pre-made... like apple juice. seems right to charge you more for a 'small' apple juice with no ice, than with ice. you are getting different amounts of beverage.

Ice on the side? I'll have to remember that.

anything to charge more for sugar water.

As far as getting a response from McDonald's, I have gotten a response every time I've contacted them, usually with some coupons.

I usually just get the ice and tell them to hold the tea... oooh I am hoping to get a no tea discount next time... sweet crunchy ice... hmmm

this mcdonald's is surely a franchise, expect the owner to get into a bit of hot water with corporate.. they are free to charge whatever price they want, with the exception of advertised promotions (2 for $3 chicken, $1 sweet tea, etc.) I just wish I knew the exact policy on 'free refills'

Now if we can just convince them to ditch the Styrofoam cups..

FFS, either way they're charging over a dollar for a few cents worth of product. If they're willing to pull crap like this on tea, I wonder what sort of corners they cut on important things (like, say, observing expiration dates on stored food, just off the top of my head)

They're nazi sweet tea practices are becoming out of control.

In my neck of the woods (Delaware), if you get a meal with a $1.19 sweet tea, they will actually charge you MORE for the Sweet Tea to make the price the "meal price".

For instance, if you have a 6 Piece nugget meal with medium fries & soda, the total is $4.95. The soda part of the price is $1.50. Logic would dictate that the nuggets & fries are then $3.45.

If you order the 6 pc nugget meal with medium fries & a sweet tea (which comes in one size, btw: LARGE)they will charge you $1.50 for the *MEDIUM SIZED* Sweet Tea, even though you could order the Sweet Tea ala cart for $1.19. Again, logic would dictate that your meal should be $.31 less, as your drink costs .31 less. But McDonalds doesnt follow logic - they charge you the $1.50 soda price & give it to you in a MEDIUM cup.

It's really great when you upsize your meal to a large & then they add .49 to the $4.95.

How is this legal?

Considering cup and all the tea costs McDs about 25¢ they are being anal about the whole thing

I hate ice. I only use ice in water, unless the iced tea is fresh brewed and still hot. That's like forcing me to use a straw, which I also hate.

Thats like charging me 50 cents because I don't want mustard on my burger.

Not really, because whether you get mustard on your sandwich or not the sandwich is still the same size. A cup without ice has much more space for your drink than a cup full of ice.

This is still pretty stupid though.

I hate ice in my drinks. It hurts my teeth. Hmm... I wonder if my tooth sensitivity has anything to do with drinking that kind of sugary stuff.

I recently visited a McDonalds on a hot day and bought an iced tea. It was at a franchise with self service beverages, and there was a sign saying that the tea was kept at room temperature, and to get the right flavor profile or something, the cup should be filled 2/3 full of ice. Had I wanted to stay there, I would have been allowed refills. I think this is just an issue of a cheap manager or franchise owner.

It also allowed me to mix unsweetened tea with a splash of sweet tea, which made for a tasty, slightly sweet tea. I am pretty sure the sweet tea is actually just tea bags soaked in HCFS.

By my reading of the sign, looks like for $1 you are entitled to a cup of Sweet Tea, PLUS a separate full cup of ice. Or, as others have said, ice on the side. Gonna have to try this.

I would ask for the ice cubes to be made out of sweet tea.

Thats like charging me 50 cents because I don't want mustard on my burger.

No, it's like they're charging you 50 cents more because you want extra meat on your burger. Ice takes up space in the cup, giving you less tea.

This isn't an issue at a McDonalds where you get your own drink. Also, from the way I read the sign you are getting the tea at a "discount" when you get the ice.

my mcdonalds charges more for unsweet tea than it does for sweet tea hold the sugar. but you get to put your own ice in it so i guess its all good.

I hate ice. Not only that, but those of us who grew up in Texas are well-familiar with the phrase "slime in the ice machine", and there's a good reason that catchphrase exists.

"The cashier called over her manager and they spoke in spanish, not english like I was speaking."
I love that line. It's so unintentionally funny. Nice choice of words.

Wow. At the threat of getting disemvoweled...

The poster is missing the point A LOT.

Thats like charging me 50 cents because I don't want mustard on my burger.

Its not like an employee has to stand there with two forks and manually grab the ice out of my cup, just don't put it in to begin with. Shouldn't they give me a discount for not having to spend the time to put the ice in the cup...?

The issue is not refusing to make it your way, or charging you for not doing somehthing. The issue is that a cup of tea with no ice has a lot more tea in it than one with ice. They offer a special price, but when people ask for no ice, their profit margin is cut. Like it or not, McD's is there to make a profit.

And your "1 cube" retort would have gotten you kicked out of any restaurant I ran.

Complaints like this will more likely cause the end of such promotions for everyone than reverse a decision that was make, likely hesitantly, in the interest of staying profitable.

@Eels: I'm pretty sure the sweet tea is actually brewed using real sugar. (That's what my friend told me, and he manages a McDonalds in the Boston area)

Exactly how much does it cost them to fill up a soda cup full of sweet tea? 10 cents? I hope this McDonald's doesn't go out of business due to the thousands of dollars lost from sweet tea thievery.

If they can't afford to give free tea refills (or no ice), then maybe they shouldn't be in business.

@cigsm:

don't order the combo with a tea. Order the items individually (and if the cashier punches in a 'combo' tell them not to.)

of course you might get a cashier that ONLY knows to punch in the combo number, in those cases get a manager.

@Murph1908: Really? Kicked out of a restaurant for asking for just a single cube of ice? Remind me not to patronize the places you run.

I was just b!tchin' about something like this with starbucks and their iced soy chai the other day... One sip and its gone, but that is a 4 dollar drink. You can ask for light ice at least.

Just don't go to McDonald's.

@timmus: Ew. Now I hate ice even more.

@xwildebeestx: Ice and Mustard also cost money.

@DirectAnon: How was he racist? Because he didn't like them speaking about him in spanish? That is not racist at all. They were the ones that were rude.

@DirectAnon: I really don't think it's such a huge issue to want to be able to understand what people are saying when the business pertains to you. If the two employees were just sitting on their break chattering in Spanish to one another, I doubt the OP would have batted an eye, but since they were discussing something pertaining to him (his getting charged the correct amount for his tea), then I can understand being annoyed at his inability to understand.

And I think charging extra for drinks without ice is silly. Some of us genuinely don't like ice in sodas or teas. When I used to work food service years ago, if a guest asked for a drink with no ice or "light" ice, I was happy to give it to them, no questions asked.

@xwildebeestx:

Why not just make the cup smaller then instead of watering down the flavor when the ice melts. Also a lot of people have teeth that are sensitive to very cold stuff and may not want a FULL cup of ice. I think if they are being cheap they should just serve it in a smaller cup

I can kinda see McDonald's point on this. No ice means more liquid, which means higher cost. People are making baseless assumptions on what profit McDonald's are making on this. If it's a franchise, then they're buying this stuff at who knows what price and have to turn a profit. It's unfair to assume we all know what the profit margins are on this. It does come across as unfair, but I can see the point. You're getting more of the product, inadvertently I give you that, but it's still more and why shouldn't it cost more? If he wanted no mustard on a burger, that's fine, but expecting more meat to make up the weight loss for free wouldn't be fair, would it?

This is just sad. Soda is where most restaurants make their money. Hell, the cup usually costs more than the syrup and carbonated water!

I guess since iced tea is brewed and not from syrup, it costs more.

I can get 100 tea bags for 99 cents and make 8 1/2 gallons of good strong iced tea out of it. The energy required to freeze ice and keep it frozen vs. boiling water to make tea concentrate is most likely more than the cost of the tea.

The McDonalds would probably come out ahead financially if customers took more tea rather than more ice.

I know Greg is pissed at being told there is an extra cost for a custom order... but come on 69 cents?... is this worth the fight? Is it worth the frustration? Is it worth your time, money, blood pressure?

Anyway, pick your battles carefully. Now when you get the suite certified as class action... let me know.

@coren: Most people will do that just to be a jerk. Not because they really want one piece of ice. Because of the amount of jerkiness, everyone would have to pay the price...no one piece of ice even if you are sincere. No, you don't have a right to hold up the line to be a jerk.

I hate warm tea. Either hot or cold. If it is to be cold, the entire cup of ice is usually needed. That stuff never cools off.

But if you don't like what this place is doing, brew your own and carry it with you. Get your McD to go.

This is probably not official McDonald's policy; let's keep in mind that freezing water into ice, storing it and dispensing it probably costs more than a straight, full cup of drink without ice.

A&W refuses to sell drinks with ice due to the fact that it "dilutes the flavor". I'll go with that.

@shufflemoomin: you know what's unfair? FILLING a cup with ice and then pouring a beverage in it. this results in a 32 oz. cup that actually only has 12-14 ounces of beverage in it. that's what anyone I know would call "a racket".

I just ask for a sweet tea with half ice, and they give it to me, and everyone's happy. maybe I'm lucky in that every location around me isn't run by beverage racketeers.

besides, having that much ice makes the tea too damn cold, it hurts my teeth.

Wow, I've been in multiple states, and I've never been inside a McDonald's where you couldn't get free refills. Even the tea. I'm sure there are more, but outside of New York City, I've never been to a city where bottomless beverages weren't the norm-I mean there are always a few anomalies, like the Japanese place I like that has cans instead of a soda fountain (which pisses me off).

The sweet tea at my local McDonalds definitely comes out of a pitcher/jug, because it's room temperature and only gets cold after I slush it around with the ice a bit.

@spenc938: How is it rude to speak in Spanish? Chances are it was their native language, and they were holding a private conversation. Maybe if they were speaking Spanish while pointing and laughing at him, then he might be offended.

@Murph1908:      The profit margin on drinks is outlandish anyway, and since most people don't request no or less ice (In my area at least, I've never noticed anyone ask for it, but I do) I would say beverages are still a healthy profit line.

I think the issue here is TEA. They have to brew the tea, and people asking for no or low ice means more brewing more often, with possible periods where they are completely out.

Regardless, an establishment pulling this on me would just result in the loss of my patronage. I don't like paying 90% or better profit margins on principle, but beyond that, I don't like a lot of ice in my drinks, because they quickly turn into somewhat-drink-flavored-water.

@spenc938: how is it rude for coworkers to speak in a language they both understand thoroughly?

Is it rude for them to try and communicate rapidly?

Argh.

Racist or not, I think it's rude to demand that people all speak English, esp. when they're not even talking to you. Oh how dare they not speak American, a hyuk.

As for this post...

I don't think it's ridiculous for McDonald's to charge more for a no-ice cup of tea. I mean... yeah, sure, it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter either way, but hey, it's their bloody choice.

Is it so ridiculous that they charge you more if you ask for more? When you ask for extra meat on a sammich, you pay extra. Is this really so insidious?

I hope "full cup" just has to do with to do with the language barrier and is not literal. When someone wants ice, it is reasonable to fill it a little more than halfway, maybe two-thirds of the way full. But up to the brim with ice, and that's starting to encroach on my soda

@Murph1908: First off, charging anybody $1 for a cup of ice with only a hint of drink is ridiculous. When you buy a beverage at a fast food restaurant, you are paying for the cup, not the beverage. the beverage itself costs McDonalds a couple of pennies per fill. The average cost of a beverage at a fast food restaurant (brewed or otherwise) with ice versus without is fractions of a penny per drink served. Charging an extra $0.69 is outrageous.

And would you mind sending me a list of any restaurants you run so I can make sure to avoid them? Kicking somebody out for asking for a cube of ice is about as awesome as charging $0.69 extra for an ice-less drink.