For example, a bag of Cheeetos is marked as $0.80. But when I put in $1, it gives me back $0.80 change. I have done this twice now.
Previously, the machine was hooked up the other way: it wouldn’t give change at all. At least 4 times I used the machine to buy my Cheetos…put my dollar in, and did not get change. I would have stopped buying, but damnit, I wanted my Cheetos…so I just said “screw it” and paid the $1.
Now that the machine is giving too much change, do I have to suffer through life without Cheetos just because the guy who programs the machine doesn’t know what he’s doing?
I already know the answer is “Yes, I should do without the Cheetos”, especially now that I’ve gotten back the money I lost when the machine wasn’t giving change. But, I’d love to hear your opinions.
(1) Ring or write to the vending-machine owner, telling them the problem.
(2) When you do that, say how much you think you owe them, and that you’ll happily give the money back if they send an agent round to pick the money up from you.
Why should this be the answer? Get Cheetos whenever you want Cheetos. If you feel bad about getting them for 20 cents, call the number on the machine and let them know about it. Once you do that, I would say you’re 100% in the clear.
The “wrong” thing to do would be to buy up all the Cheetos for $2, stash them in your desk drawer, and repeat as soon as the guy fills it back up.
I always figure I break even in the long run with vending machines. I’ve been ripped off by them. I’ve also gotten two for the price of one and more change back than I actually put in.
There used to be a vending machine on campus that sold 20 ounce bottles of cherry Pepsi for a quarter. Guess who had a cherry Pepsi on the way to class every day?
Here is the flaw: someone gets to pay for that problem & its usually not the guy that programs it or the guy that owns the company. The guy that pays for shortages is usually the guy that fills the machine, the same one that makes it possible for you to get your merchandise without having to lug it from home or go to the store to get it every time you want something. So, I guess you could enjoy your discount Cheetos - as long as you don’t mind taking food off the table for the kids of that guy.
Well, they won’t know, if the machine just started doing this, until the next time they fill it, do an inventory, and reconcile it against the takings. (Did your Dad do that for every machine, ASAKMOTSD?) Even then, they don’t know which product is being mischarged without taking some sort of diagnostic tool to the circuits in the machine. Or buying each product, I guess…
Or did you imagine each vending machine sending a signal to central headquarters every time you bought a Snickers bar?
SiouxChief, If you write a letter to the address (if any) on the vending machine, you’re doing more than most would, meanwhile, enjoy your $.20 cheetos. What else can you do? If you put 60 cents in and walk away, you’re just discounting the next person’s purchase. Bet they keep the extra change.
The Sam’s Choice cola machine at work malfunctions about every other time I use it, where I will put a quarter in, and the quarter will come out the bottom, and I hit the button, and it gives me my diet soda. I think that someone at work has figured out how to jimmy the coin return, because it seems odd that it would mess up the same way so often.
But that means he also pockets the extra cash the machine steals. Thus, it does come out somewhat ven, and in fact, I have no doubt at all, he will make more than he loses.
You should call the number on the machine and let them know about the problem. Having done that, if you receive more incorrect change you should save it for them if they want it back.
It’s tempting to chalk it up and say over the long run it evens out. But there’s some guy whose livelihood depends on you paying the posted price. Just because someone else’s machines have shorted you in the past does not give you license to cheat the machine’s owner. So do the right thing- you’ll sleep better.
You know it is somehow amazing that people report it when they lose money & want a refund, yet they just keep the extras without offering to pay. I have no doubt when you apply this notion to the situation that you would realize that a shortage was about all he would see.
The inventory was performed monthly, by the way - a process that actually took days to account for everything. It was not like he had one machine. He had all the machines in several auto plants. Inventory on a daily basis was just not feasible.
My main point in all of this is that the money comes from someone - not a machine or a faceless company. It literally comes out of someone’s paycheck.
You know the new-fangled soda vending machines with a conveyor belt that slides up and down to catch the soda and deliver it to the slot without shaking it up too much?
You can get two sodas for the price of one by tricking the machine. Every time. No, I won’t tell you how to do it.
I’ve only done it once, just to see if it works. It does.
We could solve this problem if they paid people to wear racks of Cheetos and Cheese Whiz and Cheese Doodles. We could just walk up, drop a buck in their pocket and yank off a package of Cheese Doritos.
This would not work outdoors, as these people would be targets for hungry dogs.
The above is pretty much my experience, too. Our work canteen used to have actual human being in there, serving food. Then they cut costs by sacking them, and putting machines in. In the old days, there were still a few machines, but if they screwed up, you’d just go and tell the staff, and they’d pop the register open and hand you back your coins. These days, they are plastered with signs saying “STAFF ON SITE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REFUNDS” and “Call this Toll Free Number”. One time, I called the number, and weeks later, I received a freakin’ cheque for $2. So that’s a trip to the bank. I gave the cheque to somebody else.
I probably lose about $50 per year in those things. I probably gain about $2 to $5, maybe (pulling this numbers out of my arse, but I think they’re ballpark ok). One time last year, a machine just started giving me all the change it had, and didn’t stop until it had run out. Maybe $20 or $30 worth. I handed that in, but to be honest, I did so because I don’t want to be fired, not because I felt any ethical compunction to do so. The whole vending machine thing is based on the fact that you are assumed to be a thief, and the machines have security mechanisms designed around that. I understand you can’t have an honesty system in place in the real world, but still it is insulting to be reminded of it, especially when we used to be able to by food from a real person. But when the machine is the thief, you are SOL and supposed to take it on the chin.
I also do the Homer Simpson machine bashing when my packet of chips hangs out and doesn’t fall to the tray. Sometimes I have dislodged other products at the same time. I take those remorselessly (but usually give them away).
A vending machine is basically a blind and retarded sales clerk. They’re easy to cheat, if they get confused. How badly does anyone need sixty cents? Sometimes it’s still a lie, even if no one hears. Two bits and a dime buys a lie from you?
For pity’s sake. You know what things cost. Pay for them. If a machine cheats you, call the number or see the clerk and get your money back. And if it cheats in your favor – guess what? Each vending machine you visit is not part of some giant addition problem, nor a turn of some karmic wheel. What if you accidentally die ahead of the game, and are brought before Saint Peter as a (on balance) thief?
