One morning I put 20p in and it immediately came back out. It wasn’t accepting the coin so I tried two in quick succession. Both were spat back out… but the machine registered one of them.
I of course would never exploit that repeatedly for a couple free drinks and some extra change too.
The new machines use either a basket to hold the drink instead of a conveyor belt or some sort of shield to prevent you from messing with the flap door until it knows a drink has been vended.
Now, I don't know for sure, but I like to think two different reviewers got my packets in parallel and never knew it, and upon changing my status the second reviewer probably wouldn't have seen any evidence of the last status change having been from an appeal.
Back in the days before email was common, I applied for a postdoc position at <famous prof's lab @ MIT>.
I mailed my letter to <famous prof>, expressing interest in working in his lab.
A few days later, I asked 3 profs in my graduate program to write letters of recommendation on my behalf to be mailed to <famous prof>.
After ~10 days, I received a response letter from <famous prof>, to the effect of: "Sorry, my lab is full. Won't have any openings for several years. etc. etc. Thanks, but no thanks."
I figured "Oh well.... No big deal."
But I was too lazy to inform the profs who were writing my recommendations to stop.
About a week after my "rejection" letter, <famous prof> phones me and says, "I always send a standard rejection letter because I'm only interested in people who are _aggressive_. Thanks for sending your recommendation letters. I _definitely_ have openings in my lab."
I didn't have the heart to tell him that he only got those letters because of my laziness.
Back in the early 1990s, I withdrew $10 from an ATM.
But the machine gave me two $10s (they were stuck to each other).
I then went back for a second transaction (secretly hoping there were multiple "stuck $10s" waiting to be released).
The machine only dispensed a single $10 the second time, so I stopped.
Let it be known that I owe Chemical Bank (or whoever bought them) $10 + interest.
At the time, my girlfriend (now wife) used to tell me I wasted so much $$ on ATM fees by only withdrawing $10 at a shot.
I told her I was not good at budgeting my money and I had a tendency to spend whatever was in my pocket, irrespective of the amount.
So, $10 was my way of putting brakes on my spending. Fees were just part of the cost of my budgeting method.
She married me anyway.
Back when ATMs were new, you could get any amount, including change.
The ATMs at the Chase bank next door currently dispense any bills you want, but not change. After you tell it how much you want, it asks you how you would like it and you can tap different denominations.
Last month I took out $17, just to see it work.
He could withdraw whatever amount he wanted from the ATMs at college, but since that region's ATM network wasn't hooked up to his home bank's ATM network, it took months for everything to reconcile.
He could keep withdrawing, even if he had taken out far more cash than he had in his home bank account.
On breaks, he would go back home and pick up enough hours at his part-time job to cover the difference (it wasn't unusual for people to be paid weekly or in cash back then), make a deposit, and everything was fine. He just had to keep one step ahead of the computer batch processes.
Also, I think Chemical is Citibank now. I had a Chemical account, and a Dime account. I still think of Citi as "Chemical," though.