- Oct 9, 1999
- 21,017
- 147
- 106
They brought in new vending machines at work. They take cash, credit/debit cards, and even Apple Pay-style payments. 20 cent per vend surcharge if not paying cash.
The one new feature I have never seen on a vending machine before is that your change is not returned automatically.
Let's say you put in $1 and select an 80 cent item. The item is delivered... period. No change returned immediately. The display now reads "Credit 20 cents". You have to push the coin return button to get your change back. I think people have been conditioned that they don't have to pay attention - if there is change due, the noise of the change being dispensed alerts you to pick it up from the coin return area.
What I'd like to know is whether this behavior is built-in, or can be enabled/disabled by a setting in the machine. It seems kind of sneaky to me. In any case, I will now be glancing at the display any time I walk past to see if there's free change awaiting the push of the coin return button.
The one new feature I have never seen on a vending machine before is that your change is not returned automatically.
Let's say you put in $1 and select an 80 cent item. The item is delivered... period. No change returned immediately. The display now reads "Credit 20 cents". You have to push the coin return button to get your change back. I think people have been conditioned that they don't have to pay attention - if there is change due, the noise of the change being dispensed alerts you to pick it up from the coin return area.
What I'd like to know is whether this behavior is built-in, or can be enabled/disabled by a setting in the machine. It seems kind of sneaky to me. In any case, I will now be glancing at the display any time I walk past to see if there's free change awaiting the push of the coin return button.