Dont shake the vending machines stupid!!

[ShugoAC]

I got off a very very long day (about 26hours of straight work, between two jobs and a emergency double i was required to pull) and I had some lovely customers who noticed the following:

There was a bag of skittles hanging percariously from the vending machine. It *looked* like it wanted to fall, but trust me it wasn't going anywhere for free.

So for 16hours of a double shift at my hotel job, i had to interrupt people checking in and *run* to the back where the vending machines are to yell at people who were rocking the vending machines trying to get the free bag of skittles. >.< That's right... for 16hours people, instead of paying a buck and getting 2 bags for the price of one, decided they'd ignore the cute pictures of stick figures getting crushed on the front of the vending machine and try their luck.

After yelling at the same kids 3x for rocking the vending machine, I put a dollar in the machine and left the 2 bags of candy behind the counter for my coworkers.

Cost me a dollar to not have a lawsuit on our hands due to some mentally deficient customer.


*sigh*

[IT Grunt]

Still, in today's sue-happy society, a buck's worth it to avoid million dollar lawsuits. Sad, but true. In reality I think it would be better to let these fools kill themselves off, do the gene pool a favor.

[Dave1982]

I must admit that I've done that before. BUT the one time I did it with a snack machine, the item fell with a very gentle nudge, and it was something I'd already paid for but the machine gyped me on. I wasn't stupid enough to ROCK the machine.

[IT Grunt]

I must admit that I've done that before. BUT the one time I did it with a snack machine, the item fell with a very gentle nudge, and it was something I'd already paid for but the machine gyped me on. I wasn't stupid enough to ROCK the machine.

I've done that myself if it fell and was just barely stuck. Sometimes a good bump to the machine will knock it loose, but if it's wedged in there good I just file for a refund. There's one machine in the lunch room here though that has a nice feature. If the sensors don't detect that your product fell into the tray, you get to pick again. If it still doens't detect it, then it refunds your money. Sometimes I've been able to knock the first one loose with the second, and get two for the price of one.

[Sheldonrs]

That's actually part of my job now, sort of. My desk is next to the kitchen and we have vending machines in there. Whenever someone attempts to buy something and it gets stuck, the next thing you hear is my name being called because i seem to have a talent for getting the machine to cough up the goods with little fuss.

[Sterlingbond]

Reminds me of something that happened to me a couple weeks ago. I was working my usual day shift at the bowling alley, sitting at the desk as per usual. Just around the corner from us is a snack machine. One day, just before a class was about to begin in the bowling alley, one of the female students went to get a quick bite at the machine. SHe wanted a small bag of popcorn, but when she keyed her entry in, the bag didnt quite drop. She then came to me at the desk and asked if we had the keys to the machine, which we don't considering we don't operate them, the best we can do is give refunds. After i told her that we didn't have the keys she managed to conjure up the high-pitched bitchtone for her voice and said *awesome* and walked away. She didn't even let me offer her a refund, and i certainly wasn't going to after that. There is an upside though. Later on, her teacher went to the same machine to get something, and her bag of popcorn came out with it. Only he didnt want it, so he gave it to me.

If people used their manners more often, they'd come out of these situations in a better mood, no?

[Lingering Grin]

I've worked in two places that had vending machines the employees could use.


One had them bolted to the floor to prevent people from rocking it
(and it was ONLY for the employees, we didn't even have customers lol)


and the other place had the key that unlocks em, and allows the door to swing out, and they were silly enough to give the front desk people access to it... I never payed for candy or soda there lol

[Lots42]

I've been in similar situations. I put in an extra buck and now we have TWO dangling snacks. ARGH CRUSH KILL DESTROY.

[PepperElf]

personally i don't see how they would have a right to sue
hell there's even a sign ... and it's in pictures so you can't claim "i can't read" or "don't speak english" as an excuse

[roadgypsy]

/shrug I'm bigger than the machine so i just press the top till front legs are about an inch off the ground and let it drop, but always ready to catch it should the legs break off, much easier to let gravity work than rocking it in random directions to try and shake it loose and risk it falling in an unpredictable manner. Granted that's only with unnattended machines, I"ll ask for help if it's there.

[RedRoseSpiral]

Last week I was going down to the student lounge to get a drink and saw a bag of swedish fish just dangling there. Not being able to resist, I got a dollar out and got two bags. ^_^

When I worked for Walmart one of the machines would get certain candy bars stuck. I always had a few dollars on me so I'd just put one in and get the item above the stuck one. It would hit the stuck one coming down and I'd get two.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I would have bought the candy after the first person I caught trying to mess with it. Preferably with them watching as I walked away with two bags of Skittles. Taste the rainbow!!

[fireheart]

OK first question....what are Swedish Fish?

Second question...who's stupid enough to do the above?

And my experience: I once had a packet of chips that were wedged and couldn't get out. I rang them, but in the end, I had to give it a gentle nudge to get it going...I couldn't be bothered hanging around. The drink machines are cool though...they have an arm or a conveyor belt which heads up to your located drink, the machine spits it out onto either the conveyor belt or the arm and it then drops it and "hands" it to you. Only problem I've encountered is that the code I punch into the machine doesn't always correspond to what it spits out (usually it's the same drink)

[JustaCashier]

fireheart, IIRC, Swedish Fish are Gummi Worm type candy shaped like fish.

Mike

[BookstoreEscapee]

OK first question....what are Swedish Fish?

http://www.afriendyoucaneat.com/



Where I worked in college we had one of those old-school candy jars filled with Swedish Fish that we sold by the pound. It was on the counter and we didn't sell all that many. We probably ate more of them ourselves while we were working (the night manager was always offering). We also ate quite a few balls of frozen cookie-dough. Yum.