I got free coffee from Starbucks for about six months. This was around fifteen years ago when I was working in NYC, and I used to take advantage of Starbucks’ free refill policy for drip coffee. The offer was really meant for people sitting in the store, but I would buy my morning coffee and then bring the cup back around one or two in the afternoon to get a “refill.”

The funny thing was that in NYC they apparently were not allowed to actually refill the same cup because of some health code rule. So every time I came in they would toss out my old cup and hand me a brand new one. That was the moment I realized there was a loophole just begging to be used.

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I kept five of the cups and took them home. Then I started bringing one each morning and asking for my “refill.” The baristas always replaced it with a fresh cup. I did this every single day and by the end of the week I’d have five crusty Starbucks cups piled at my desk. I took them home every Friday and restarted the cycle on Monday. I didn’t pay for coffee for months. Honestly, it felt like beating the system even though it was such a small, harmless scam.

Then one day I walked in, handed over my cup, and suddenly froze. All of the cups behind the counter looked different. It was almost the holidays and they had already switched to the seasonal holiday cups. Meanwhile I was standing there holding the old plain cup like an idiot. The barista looked at me and I knew the game was over.

I started paying for coffee again after that. It was a good run while it lasted.

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