The PepsiCo Inc. vending machines on campus have given students issues by taking money without providing product and only accepting cash due to the card reader not working.
Eric Magallon, the Enterprise Services manager, said Pepsi will put stickers on the vending machines with a number students can call if the machine is broken or something is wrong. However if students need a refund, they should go to The Range at Citrus, Magallon said.
“If it’s a cash issue, then for right now they come to the range here,” Magallon said. “… But they have to report what machine it was and then fill out a form and then they get reimbursed.”
Magallon said it is easier for students to just say whether it is a drink machine or food machine and about where it is on campus when making a report.
Magallon said the issues with the vending machines do not affect the relationship with Pepsi as there are problems all over. The age of the machines contributed to the amount of issues the campus had with them, Magallon said.
“We kind of had the worst of them because our machines are so old,” Magallon said. “ … And if COVID hadn’t happened a lot of these machines would have been replaced.”
The food vending machines come from First Choice Vending. The First Choice machines were new before COVID-19 and have had few problems, Magallon said. The only issue for the food machines was the card reader needing to be replaced due to the change to 5G. This affected Pepsi machines as well with some machines still having card readers replaced, Magallon said.
Magallon said machines can last five to 10 years but vandalization and design may make the lifespan shorter. Usually the vendor would take the machines that are having problems out and replace them, however supply issues have stopped that, Magallon said.
“The supply and chain problem has just hit everything,” Magallon said. “I was talking to the rep and they were saying aluminum, plastic, glass a lot of the Starbucks drinks are having problems with keeping in stock.”
Magallon said they just opened the range less than a month ago and when they placed a Pepsi order, there were a lot of drinks they did not get because they are out of stock.
Ron Robinson, a first-year student, said he had issues with getting his change back from the Pepsi vending machines.
“(I) try to stay away from using vending machines because you never know when it’s going to give your change back,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the machine has sometimes given him the wrong item or the item gets stuck. Robinson said even though it happens all the time, he has not gone to get a refund.
“With everything there’s a chance that something may go wrong,” Robinson said. “You got to look at that when you’re going to use certain services.”
Robinson said issues he had with the vending machines are not a big deal and that changing the design may help solve the issues.
Another student who had issues with the vending machines was Daniel Jimenez, a second-year student.
Back in the winter session Jimenez said he had an issue with the vending machines by the Haugh Performing Arts Center.
“I had put in cash, right?” Jimenez said. “And it accepted the cash and once I put in the number it wouldn’t dispense the drink that I wanted. And I was like ‘OK?’ So then I tried one of the snack vending machines to maybe munch on something, I also put in the cash and even then it didn’t want to dispense my thing.”
Jimenez said there were no warning signs on the machine. Jimenez said he was not aware of where to get a refund and did not consider it a big deal.
Magallon said if students see an issue with a machine do not use it.
“If anything looks wrong with the machine or if it looks like the credit card reader isn’t working or they can’t read the LED screen, don’t use the machine because we’re working on replacing those,” Magallon said.
Students can go to the range, bookstore or Owl Cafe to get drinks because they are indoors and usually work better since they are not exposed to the elements, Magallon said.
