I heard about this from a coworker but I didn’t believe it, until it happened to me. The vending maching in our lunch room gives out free sodas. The machine is also tempramental, the bottom four buttons won’t function at all if the front isn’t closed just right after being restocked. One of those four is Diet Pepsi, which I prefer over the rest. Lately, I’ve taken to depositing a nickel or dime and pressing the Diet Pepsi button to see if it functions. If it does function, the readout will display what would cost to get me one (.65). If not, the display will continue to show what I deposited. If it’s the latter, there’s a good chance that pressing the Diet Pepsi button after .65 or more is deposited will result in a Mountain Dew. I despise Mountain Dew!
If it’s not the bottom four buttons not registering, it’s the Mountain Dew button sticking, which results in a Mountain Dew dropping as soon as .65 or more is deposited. It’s easy to tell when the button is sticking, the decimal point flashes when no money is deposited and .65 flashes if anything less than that is deposited. Whenever I’m in the lunch room and I see that display flashing, I give the Mountain Dew button a sharp whack to dislodge it.
When I needed a snack this afternoon, I put in a dime, pressed the Diet Pepsi button, and the display stayed on .10. Needing my quarters for laundry, I put in a dollar and pressed Pepsi. I got two Pepsis and .45 in change! Just like my coworker said happened to him. I probably should report this trick to someone, I’ve been trying to get this machine replaced with one that works without the malfunctioning buttons needing service every other day and this ought to be just what I need.