This isnt really a question but a theory Ive had for some time. Ive noticed that on a pretty random occurance a soda machine will steal my quarter and even worse my dollar. The most I can do, in most cases, is call some number thats never answered by a person and hope they contact me. Most people wont go through the trouble for just a quarter or even a dollar. My theory is this: I think these machines are designed to randomly “acidentally” steal your money. If you think about all the machines in this country, your talking a huge total. This money is pure profit! Happens way too often to be simply a mechanical error. What do you guys think? (Guess thats my question)
If your theory is correct (I doubt it) then I think that it wouldn’t be a worthwhile scam. From what I’ve noticed, malfunctioning machines tend to get beat up badly by angry people who just got ripped off. In this case, they would probably lose money after all the repair costs.
There’s also the risk of losing one of the most valuable sources of vending revenue, repeat customers.
They thing is you dont always lose your money. I personnaly dont use these machines because I dont drink soda but Ive seen this scam work. Ive seen people use the same set of machines at work knowing that they’ve lost money in them before. Also, these are the only source of a soda within walking distance. I think id the machine is strategically place then this would be a worthwhile scam.
I highly doubt that there’s any formal program on the part of soda machine manufacturers or beverage distributors to rip people off. It wouldn’t be worth the risk.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a few enterprising soda machine service guys have rigged up machines to let them steal a few dollars here and there.
I doubt they’re set up to steel. We used to have robbing machines at work and whenever they guy can to re-fill it he got a queue of people asking for their money back, and many of us inflated our loses slightly to make up for the hassle 9and just because we could). 
As to the OPer, who lives in Hawaii, my experience with vending machine in a generally tropical area is not good. High humidity and moisture are death to many vending machines, especially if we are talking about one at the beach exposed to salt spray. The dollar bill reader is always the first part to crap out.
In my own experience though, the machine simply won’t take the dollar, or will take it and spit it back out all the time, even if it is perfect with no rips or folds.
At my college, the Oceanographic institute had numerous soda machines located on the outsides of the library which overlooked the beach. The salt spray killed every one of these machines and by the end of each school year, none of them worked.
I don’t think it’s a scam. Machines sometimes screw up in the other way, too. Sometimes a machine will drop two sodas instead of one.
It’s not a scam where I work. The vending company leaves money in the HR department to replace any money lost.
But I doubt many companies do that.
I think many do actually. Vending companies are able to put machines in a building because of some arrangement with the company or building’s owner. If you lose money, you can usually find someone in the building to give you a refund. They’ll keep track of it and get the money from the vendor.
I have heard that the best money making vending machines are ones that dispenses condoms. If the machine keeps the money but does not deliver the product then the theory is that most people would be too embarrassed to ask for their money back.
“I have heard … dispenses condoms.”
That reminds me of the (urban legend?) sex toy scam.
Supposedly, people ordered a fancy, expensive sex toy at an attractive discount price, from a website via credit card or money order.
When they complained that they hadn’t received their order, they eventually received a check drawn on an account with a very sexually-explicit and graphic, and possibly homosexually-oriented business name.
The theory was that people would be too embarrased to actually deposit the check into their own accounts, and would just drop the matter, thus netting the company money for nothing.
I can’t find any cites. Anyone got one?
~Wolfrick
Since everyone else has an uncorroberated story… I’d heard that way back when in the U.S, pop cost only a nickel. But economics dictated it cost 6 cents; instead of modifying loads of machines to need an extra penny, the machines were filled with every 6th bottle empty. This lead to guys hanging out by machines waiting for some sucker to buy the empty so the next 5 could get real ones.
Feel free to find your own cite, as I can find none.
Snope classifies it as “low in the plausibility category” - http://www.snopes.com/risque/porn/porntape.htm