If you have their combination loyalty/prepaid card and make more than 5 purchases on it a year, you get free refills on brewed coffee during a visit (so long as you bought the first cup with the card).
So they actually don't mind if you come in and order the cheapest cup of coffee they have, camp on a table all day, and keep coming back to the counter for free refills. They just care that you do it often, and that you minimize their credit card fees when you do it.
They pretty much treat that refills as equal as actual paid refills ($0.50) and they won't even know you are getting free refill until they scan the card, too.
Of course, if they know you enough, they'll eventually figure it out by looking at your face.
Only store I had a problem was in Nacogdoches, TX -- somehow, they didn't allow refills -- citing some health law disallowing it , so I guess it can vary by store.
Since almost all stores are owned by Starbucks (some stores in airports and malls are not corp. stores), shouldn't they have a clear, firm wide policy?
For all the store I've visited before, other than indirect operation stores, pretty much have very consistent policies regarding pretty much every aspect of their operations.
The one store I was treated differently (which was a direct operation store) was little surprising to me, but might have been something to do with bizarre laws in their local jurisdiction, in which case they wouldn't have much choice.
It could have been better if they could accommodate me somehow, though...
So they actually don't mind if you come in and order the cheapest cup of coffee they have, camp on a table all day, and keep coming back to the counter for free refills. They just care that you do it often, and that you minimize their credit card fees when you do it.