You can't always get what you want

Today is the last day of my full-time freelance gig in the office where I've been copyediting, and I have one more tale of vending-machine woe to relate. Previous tales of my encounters with said machine can be read here and here. As a coda to that second one, I should add that the machine did, eventually, charge me for all of my purchases -- weeks later, and all at once. I had just gotten used to the idea that I was getting free snacks, and then one day I held my ID up to the sensor and the display greeted me by name. Eep. That's when I knew the party was over. I checked my card's account history when I got back to my desk and found this list of purchases:

6/11/2008 12:05 PM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:21 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:19 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85

Boy, somebody was hungry on June 11! I would have liked to have been able to review these purchases with their actual dates and times (that's many weeks' worth of snacks, I swear!)... But getting charged all at once did cure me of the Peanut M&Ms habit I was developing.

Anyway, rather than tell you this week's story, I'll let these photos (taken by coworkers) do the talking:


And a close-up of the offending snack, still hanging on for dear life several days later:


We've submitted the top one to FAIL Blog, but since it's my purchase dangling there, I figured I had a right to share it with all of you in the meantime. And in fairness to the machine, I should tell you that there is a happy ending to this pathetic tale. The machine can sense that nothing has dropped through the door at the bottom (O brave new world!), and after a moment it dispensed another bag, which did not get caught on its way down. So I got my snack. The caramel-flavored "Soy Crisps" turned out to be lousy, though, so maybe the ending isn't that happy after all.