Argh! They fixed the soda machine! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

Here at my office, you could put a nickel into the soda machine, hit the coin return and it would spit out a quarter! So, you could get your 50¢ soda for 10¢ (if you did it twice) And, if you had a bunch of nickels, you could actually make money on the deal.

It was sort of an unspoken secret around the office. After a new hire was broken in.. someone would reveal the soda secret to them once they were worthy and could be trusted.

I realize it's dishonest, but we wouldn't abuse it.. I would only resort to it when I needed to or if I had an abundance of nickels in my pocket.

However, over the past few weeks, the "exact change light" was flickering and the whole coin slot mechanism was making a horrible buzzing noise. Apparently, its generosity over the past four years or so has taken its toll.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to paying full price for soda.

Just had to vent.

 

[Win Joy Jr]

Back in New Mexico, our church had a soda machine that would vend, then spit back your coins randomly...

 

[Greg*go]

Losing stuff like that is hard...

At my job, if you bought a diet pepsi, you got a diet pepsi, and a regular pepsi. I have no idea what the problem was there, but it did it for about 6 months.

And then there's the vending machine next to it that accepts my money, then doesn't let me buy half the stuff in it because it thinks it's out (even though you can see the candy in there) then it doesn't refund my money so I end up buying something I hate, like salt & pepper chips.

 

[Malcolm R]

Apparently, its generosity over the past four years

FOUR YEARS!!! And the owners of this machine never wondered why they were not making $.50 per soda?

 

[JoshF]

JoshMom mode on:

You're all better off without that crap anyway!!

JoshMom mode off.

 

[Philip_G]

the washer upstairs costs a dollar, but if you put 4 quarters in the tray and slide it in just until it barely clicks to hold the tray in, you can pull the quarters back out with a gentle tug and it "arms" the washer.
normally I would feel bad, but they keep the temp turned WAY down on the dryers, so it takes 2 or 3 spins at 75 cents a spin to dry your clothes, I call it even

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, the company never noticed that the amount collected didn't equal the amount that's been discharged by the machine. I presumed the machines have some kind of counter so they know how much soda has been served and by then you can calculate the amount of money that should be in the pot.
At least your companies don't seem to gouge you on soda, here they charge you a stinkin $1.25 for a 20oz bottle of soda AND then got rid of the can vending machines. I never drink the whole 20oz so it's like spending (more) money on stuff I would never finish.
But then I rarely buy soda at the vending machines here anyway, I always bring 16oz snapples from home and that I get for 40 cents or less by the caseload and snapple doesn't go bad unlike soda.
Jay

 

[Dave Poehlman]

And the owners of this machine never wondered why they were not making $.50 per soda?

I often wondered about that... and I figured they would just fix the machine at some point. Until I saw the soda guy come in and just empty the cash into a big bag. He didn't seem too concerned about how much/little was there.

They did make up some of it.. the snack machine wouldn't always give change.

 

[Mark C Sherman]

This happened to me a while back. My Dad Worked at Logan Airport And my Brother and I would often go into work with my Dad. There was a Cigarette Vending machine that had a little quirk. You Could Put your money in Get your pack, hit the coin return and Get the 2 bucks back. Well My brother and I Knew This. We would hit the Coin return 4-5 times a day it was like Hitting a Slot Machine. But then we Also realized that we could make Evan more money. We decided to take the money that we got when we hit the coin return and Bought Every pack of smokes in the Machine for only 2 dollars since the money came out after every sale. We then went around to all my dads Co workers who smoked and sold them at a discount. I cant remember how Much we made but it was alot. The machine was soon fixed after that

 

[Scott Strang]

One time I was playing with a cigarette vending at this garage owned by a friend of my dads. I was about 5 or 6 at the time but I remember pushing buttons on the machine and cigarette packs coming out without me putting any money in the machine.

My laughed and gave them to his friend.

I guess I missed my big chance to be hooked on smokes.

 

[Scott Strang]

I sold condoms in high school to people that were too embarrased to buy them at Eckerds.

Didn't bother me any and was able to sell them for $5-7 each.

Nice profit.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I sold condoms in high school to people that were too embarrased to buy them at Eckerds.

Scott, can I send you a private message? :b

These stories remind me of when I was about 13, my friends and I would go to a local pizza place's video game room. Well, one of my friends found out or heard someplace that you could take a straw, stick it into the Donkey Kong machine, wiggle it up and down and you would get free credits. Apparently there was some sort of switch in there. Well.. the pizza place instituted a new rule: "No straws allowed in game room"

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

You know, for a second I was wondering if I should get on a moral high horse regarding theft from the vending machine.
Then I thought of all the times I've been royally screwed over by the vending machine... glad someone out there is getting even for me.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Beavis vs. the Vending Machine comes to mind.

 

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

When I was stationed at Mare Island CA, there used to be a junk food machine that had a bad button. This was before the soft touch buttons you see on most today. If you held this certain button down it would keep the little spiral thingy spinning until you let go. I happened upon this problem one day when talking to a friend. I held it a little longer than normal and got two of those delicious cherry center, icing smothered pastries. Yummy! As long as you held the button down they kept on coming.

 

[Lance Nichols]

Used to be my company offered free Coke (the drink) and other soft drinks, juices, etc. to it's employees (Chilled even). Not anymore, well except for the free coffee from the vending machine that is so bad everyone goes to the local Tim's anyway.
Turns out the fridge full of cold drinks was an EXECUTIVE perk. When the bosses found out that everyone was drinking the stuff, they put a stop to it. Mainly by putting a lock on the executive snack room. Except they would be to lazy to close the door. a few months after the lock incident, the budget mysteriously did not have room for the drinks.
Shortly after that, the coca-cola machine for the peons started dispensing coke for a dime, even though the think thought you had fed it a loonie.