# Is it wrong to use a vending machine **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472 "2007-08-13T20:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Queuing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Queuing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queuing)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/21 "2007-08-16T03:10:26Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] 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. Yeah, my dad filled vending machines… [/QUOTE] Is this still true? It sounds to me like making the delivery boy pay for the pizza, something that is not done anymore. If it was me I would probably rip the machine off completely. I would even think of then selling the bags to people who had yet to discover the error at a discount. Just think about it though. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/22 "2007-08-16T03:21:34Z")
[QUOTE=The King of Soup] What if you accidentally die ahead of the game, and are brought before Saint Peter as a (on balance) thief? [/QUOTE] As several have posted, there is no chance if being ahead of the game. Why should I waste my own time and money making phone calls, receiving cheques, going to the bank or the post office etc, just to claim my $1? That’s not even worth turning the ignition key in my car. When the machines that give me an extra 50c are the SAME ones that have previously robbed me of $$$ on multiple occasions, we’re not talking karma but simple accounting (and I’m still in the red). Also, the “poor guy” who has to make up the change out of his own pocket when he fills the machine is also the same guy that doubtless scoops off the change that some poor schmuck put in only to have the machine ineffectually go ‘click’ and dispense nothing. Do you really think he returns that money to head office when the machine’s books are balanced anyway? The vending machines, companies, and employees do better out of machine faults than the users do. Period. There may be a guy who is “ahead of the programme”, but I’ve yet to meet him. A bit like a guy who has never used a slot machine before, pulls the lever, and gets a jackpot, never to use one again. I’m sure there are some out there. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/23 "2007-08-16T05:04:21Z")
[QUOTE=The King of Soup] 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? [/quote] To whom would you be lying in this case? I mean, you put your 1 in the machine for an .80 bag of Cheetos. Out comes .60. Taking the extra .40 makes you a liar and a thief? Wow. Ouch. > [@](#): > > For pity’s sake. You know what things cost. Pay for them. The OP tried to pay and got extra money back. He also said he lost money in the machine in the past. Did the guy who deals with the machine go to anyone with the extra money and say, “Someone overpaid. Give him back his $1 for me, please?” Nope. > [@](#): > > If a machine cheats you, call the number or see the clerk and get your money back. There’s never a clerk present who can help with these things. Call the number? I don’t think I could be bothered over dimes, just like no one can be bothered to give me back my dimes when I lose them (though pay phones, those dinosaurs, have historically been far more guilty of eating my change than vending machines). > [@](#): > > 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? When the karmic wheel spins in front of St. Peter-cum-Pat Sajak, I think I’ll come out OK, despite taking a dime or two off a faulty vending machine, esp. considering (on balance) I’ve lost far more $$$ in vending machines than I’ve accidentally gotten in my favor, as have most people. And I have never seen a vending machine worker get as worked up over taking people’s change accidentally in a vending error as you have about the reverse. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/24 "2007-08-16T06:20:49Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] 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. . [/QUOTE] I generally agree entirely with your well written post, but in some company canteens I have seen “honesty food” with a rack and a coin box next to it. You could take it all and pay nothing. Since no one was mad at “the machine stealing from them” few did steal and most paid in full or even over. I use coin laundry and calls for refunds are never paid off, so if I get a free wash or dry, I shrug and think they still owe me. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/25 "2007-08-16T08:40:31Z")
[QUOTE=The King of Soup] Each vending machine you visit is not part of some giant addition problem, nor a turn of some karmic wheel. [/QUOTE] Ha, I love it. No matter how many times someone points out that “two wrongs don’t make a right”, there always seem to be people who think it does. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/26 "2007-08-16T08:43:49Z")
[QUOTE=lowbrass] Ha, I love it. No matter how many times someone points out that “two wrongs don’t make a right”, there always seem to be people who think it does. [/QUOTE] Absolutely! I take the extra few cents, and I’m _still_ many dollars out of pocket. Oh wait, I guess that’s not what you meant. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/27 "2007-08-16T09:29:43Z")
I wouldn’t use the faulty machine. I’ve lost some money when I’ve used such machines before now – so I just don’t use them. I’d certainly feel bad about habitually getting too much change again and again. Everyone’s situation is different, I guess, depending on how much they need their snacks or soda or bottle water. But I’d do what I could to advise the machine’s owner – and just not use it 'till it was fixed. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/28 "2007-08-16T09:39:37Z")
Depends how much you’re willing to roll over and be ripped off, I suppose. Everyone’s situation is different. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/29 "2007-08-16T09:51:03Z")
Also depends on how willing the customer is to do the ripping off in turn. Repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/30 "2007-08-16T09:58:59Z")
You clearly haven’t been reading my posts. When a machine goes apeshit with dispensing too much change, I might take other measures, but a few bob here and there is not only going straight in my pocket, but I’m lying straight at night afterwards. It’s not a karmic wheel (THAT VERY MACHINE owes me mondo bucks. Not the vending industry globally. THAT MACHINE!). I’m taking a little back, and I’m still waaay behind. I do not like my morals being called into question when I’m dealing with a sleazy outfit that treats me like a criminal, and relies on the fact that most sane people won’t bother calling that toll free number. They STILL owe me. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/31 "2007-08-16T10:10:54Z")
There are others here who share your opinion **TLD** , and others who say they don’t. That’s all. Me, I’d just act according to my sense of ethics and fair play. Not using the machine and making a reasonable effort to let a fellow businessperson know they’re running at a loss is, to me, ethical. Of course, using the machines in the first place, with their high-priced captive-customer-base goodies is inviting being ripped off even when they work properly. Hence why I don’t use them. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/32 "2007-08-16T10:53:27Z")
I figure (like several of the other posters in this thread I see) that I break even over time with things like this. Many a time have I lost money in the vending machine, and I can think of maybe once of all of those I rang the complaints number to get it back. Mostly I just don’t have the time and inclination to fuss around like that for the sake of $1 or so. ---
**Author:** ![compositejoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/compositejoe/32/7232_2.png) [@compositejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/compositejoe)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/33 "2013-05-21T10:13:26Z")
When I was at college, I would sometimes have great luck with the vending machines when I used to get Skittles sweets, but it always seemed to be with Skittles sweets and not any other sweets! 😕 The vending machine would often give me two packets despite me only paying for one packet! 😃 There was one time when some idiot had even left a packet of Skittles at the bottom of the vending machine where you collect your items! :smack: I had got a drink from that vending machine, as it was a combined drinks and snacks vending machine, and as I was picking up my drink from the bottom, I find a packet of Skittles there as well! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/34 "2013-05-21T11:47:22Z")
> [@FlyingCowOfDoom](#): > > You know the [new-fangled soda vending machines](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/237/446707751_e6ed02a1d9.jpg) 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? New-fangled? Dang, those have been around for – what’s it – must be at least six years, now. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/35 "2013-05-21T12:40:23Z")
The snack machine near me at work was giving out two quarters as change when I put in one dollar for my eighty-cent pretzels. I called the vending machine company and nothing was done. They told me they were so happy I called because the guy who fills the machine would have that money taken out of his pay. I felt good. Two weeks later it was still happening so I called again. A couple of weeks later I ran into the guy filling the machine and told him about it. He said it wasn’t deducted from his pay but a week or so later it was fixed. Now, a couple of months down the line it’s happening again. I’m through with it. I tried. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/36 "2013-05-21T13:04:08Z")
In another thread: “I keep hacking the vending machine but they keep fixing it!” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/37 "2013-05-21T13:27:06Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > New-fangled? Dang, those have been around for – what’s it – must be at least six years, now. Says the person posting to a thread from 2007. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/38 "2013-05-21T13:49:17Z")
> [@AllShookDown](#): > > The snack machine near me at work was giving out two quarters as change when I put in one dollar for my eighty-cent pretzels. I called the vending machine company and nothing was done. They told me they were so happy I called because the guy who fills the machine would have that money taken out of his pay. I felt good. Any shortfalls will hit the guy filling the machine, which used to be me. One of my teenage jobs was filling a single soda machine in the ground floor of a building. The delivery guy would drop off cases of soda next to the machine at a random time of day. I had to go by there and check several times a day because people would grab sodas right from the cases. I had to pay for whatever was delivered. Then on top of that the storage room was 4 flights up and there was no elevator. I humped those cases of soda up the stairs 4 at a time, built some muscles that way. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/39 "2013-05-21T14:55:33Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Says the person posting to a thread from 2007. I’m pretty sure that was his point. Or should I say… whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472/40 "2013-05-21T16:31:36Z")
Oh, I know it’s a zombie but: my daughter and I were at the laundromat one night and we went to get drinks from the vending machine. We put the money in and hit the button for a Yoo Hoo, and it gave us…ALL the Yoo Hoos! Mmmm, Yoo Hoo! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-wrong-to-use-a-vending-machine/415472.md?page=3)