FAU Soda Machines and Gold Dollars

Soda Machines in Indian River Towers

The first big problem with the switch from Pepsi to Coke was the 25-cent increase on soda in 2004. Although the switch happened in 2003, the soda went from $1 to $1.25 after Pepsi was the only allowed soft drink vender on campus. Stacey Volnick, who works in the University Center and was on the committee, said the switch was written in the contract and agreed to.

But that's not the only problem with the soda machines. The other day, freshman Ryan Miller had a $5 bill. The soda machines don't accept $5 bills - but the ice cream machine does. So he bought a $2 ice cream and received three, one-dollar bills in return. He then went to the soda machine and attempted to put a dollar in the machine. The dollar taker didn't work. So now he needed five quarters.

So he did what any smart college student would do: put two of the dollar bills in another vending machine and press change so he would receive quarters. Instead, he received gold dollars and quarters. Weird, but whatever.

So he took the gold dollar and put it in the soda machine. Not only did the gold dollar go into the machine, but it didn't register as a real coin. And so he pressed "coin return" and nothing came out.

Here's a tip FAU/Pepsi: If your vending machines distribute gold dollars, they should accept them to.

Any thoughts? Similar problems from anyone else?