Campus vending machines are awful

The vending machines on campus are very temperamental—personally, I have had multiple experiences where they would not accept my student ID, so I stood there trying to get it to work, consequently almost making myself late to class. Oh, the struggles of not being a morning person and trying to get breakfast when I am already running late. 

Last week, I found a vending machine that worked in Fraser Hall, but when it said that it was vending my item nothing happened—no movement whatsoever. Now I am out two dollars and twenty-five cents, which leads me to the fact that everything in these machines is way overpriced; and, I have no idea if there is a way to get my money back—how would I be able to prove that I did not get my Big Texas Cinnamon Roll? I get that the company has to make a profit, but I don’t want to spend so much on these snacks just because of their convenient location if I could easily get them at the dollar store.

Speaking just about the company, Crickler Vending Company seems great overall, as they typically have items stocked well; but if anything is wrong with the machine you have to put in a work order through their website. I have only had to do this once, though there are many more that I could have done around campus, but you need to keep track of serial information from stickers on the screen, and then the company sends an automated email with a confirmation—a highly complicated process. It is not the student body’s responsibility to submit these work orders, and it is more than annoying when a machine is broken for weeks and nothing is done to fix it. I am lucky enough to know how to send in a request, but I know it is not expected of me and therefore I tend not to stress about it and am content with my annoyance.

Also, how do all machines, at some point during the year, decline ID cards or say that the ID card cannot be authorized? It wastes everyone’s time to wait for the purchase to go through, only for the machine to decline it. Then you are sad, because you did not get the snack you needed to get yourself through that late evening class. 

In a dream world, the vending machines would work perfectly (and accept the tap payment method, like it says it does). That dream would also include a Big Texas Cinnamon Roll in each and every vending machine.