Thursday is laundry day. I took my bin and detergent over to Gamertsfelder Hall, where the nearest laundromat is. I had three dollars; laundry costs $2.50. After loading my clothing into the washer, exactly one load, I headed over to the change machine to get some quarters.
The only change machine was out of order, so I decided to use the snack machine right next to it, which had instructions on it explaining how to use it as a change machine. I loaded in one dollar and pressed the change button. The machine gave me twenty nickels.
For some reason, campus laundry machines only take quarters. With no other choice but to walk to the nearest market, I decided that I would try to load the change into the soda machine next to the snack machine, I figured that the worst thing that could happen is that it would just spit the nickels back at me. I was wrong.
After I loaded 95 cents into the machine (I had lost a nickel under the machines) I pressed the button, at which point nothing happened at all. Apparently, the change button on the soda machine didn't give refunds, which I suppose is why it didn't have instructions on how to use it as a change machine. However, there was a sticker that told me I could refund my purchase at the vending station on the second floor of Alden Library, which meant I had to buy a soda, then refund it, in order to get the money I needed to do laundry. I tried to load my second dollar into the snack machine to get change to load into the soda machine, but it just spit that dollar back at me when I hit change now.
Luckily, there was a girl at the laundry that had plenty of nickels because the snack machine had turned her dollar into nickels just a few minutes earlier. She lended me the nickels I needed to buy a soda, and I bought a Pepsi because it was the first selection. After buying the soda, I walked to the market anyway to turn in my other two dollars so I could run the washing machine while I went to get a refund. I might as well note that there was no warm water in the washing machine.
So hiked from Gamertsfelder Hall to the Alden Library with an unopened Pepsi bottle. When I arrived there I spoke to an employee at the Cafe Bibliotech, who said she had never seen anyone try to refund a soda before and sent me to the front desk of library, where one goes to check out books. I asked the librarian if he was the man to see to get a refund on my Pepsi, so that I could dry my clothing. He informed me that there was a vending machine in the Cafe that had forms on it. He told me that I had to fill a form out, and place the soda back inside the machine.
The form asks you to supply information like Account Name and Location, the machine's name, and the reason for refund. The reasons you can select are No Merchandise or Change not returned or incorrect.
Once I fill out this form, I don't get my money back. The form goes to the company which owns the vending machines, AVI Foodsystems Inc. And they will contact me somehow, and probably send a check.
I tried to call the company, but it was a machine which told me to call tomorrow. As I write this, my clothes sit damp in a washing machine in Gamertsfelder Hall.
In the student elections, I will endorse the first party willing to trade me $1.25 for this bottle of Pepsi, because I am a student in need.
Nik Salontay is a freshman studying journalism.
4 Opinion
Letter to the Editor
