- A worker revealed on Reddit that an office vending machine has dispensed two sodas for the price of one for three years.
- The employee kept the glitch secret, taking the extra drinks home to his children and tallying roughly 600 bonus cans.
- Online commentators rallied behind the worker, arguing that the machine’s $4.25 price tag per can was an egregious markup.
Office Vending Machine Glitch Yields Hundreds of Free Sodas
An office worker recently turned to the Reddit community r/confessions to disclose an unexpected workplace loophole he kept hidden from colleagues and leadership alike. Under the username u/fruitninja8, the employee shared details regarding an ongoing mechanical error in his office building’s beverage dispenser that transformed a routine purchase into an ongoing supply of complimentary refreshments.
The poster explained that the breakroom machine carried an unusually steep retail price, which originally led to the discovery. “There’s one vending machine on our floor and it charges $4.25 for a can of Coke Zero,” he explained. “Three years ago, I put in a fiver and pressed C4 and two cans dropped out. I figured it was a one-time glitch, but it wasn’t. It happened every time, but only when I pressed C4.”
Domestic Dilemma and Hundreds of Bonus Cans
Capitalizing on the repeatable hardware flaw, the worker continued targeting slot C4 during his workdays. Over the course of three years, he calculated that the glitch had yielded approximately 600 complimentary sodas. Rather than consume both beverages at the office, he opted to bring the second can home to his family.
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However, the secretive arrangement created an unexpected rift at home. Because he maintained total secrecy regarding the malfunction, his spouse assumed he was burning through household funds on office drinks. “I’ve never told anyone. I take the extra one home for the kids. My wife thinks I’m spending a fortune on pop. She’s furious. I can’t tell her the truth because the truth is worse.”
Online Community Reacts to Breakroom Pricing
The post amassed thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments on Reddit, prompting fellow users to share their own historical encounters with malfunctioning automated retail machines. One user recounted an elaborate setup from their youth: “Once found a soda vending machine that if you pressed the button repeatedly and quickly while it was dispensing it would give you two and sometimes even three cans of that soda. If it was the last of that soda then your money would still be available for another purchase. So you were guaranteed between 2-5 sodas for the price of one,” wrote one commenter. “Next to it was a snack machine that would refund your money but still give you the balance. So you’d put in two dollars, press coin return, get your two dollars back, and then make a purchase. Only told two friends and that summer we lived like kings.”
A significant portion of the discourse shifted toward the pricing structure imposed on employees. Rather than criticizing the poster for keeping the malfunction quiet, many commenters argued that charging workers $4.25 for a single can represented an excessive cost. “$4.25 for a Coke! It’s 60p here in the UK (not even a dollar!) You are getting massively ripped off even with BOGOF,” one commenter wrote.
Another commenter echoed the sentiment, critiquing workplace concessions: “A company milking their employees for a few bucks on a can of effing soda in the break room is some of the lamest sh*t I have ever heard.”
Why This Matters
Workplace amenities and vending margins frequently become friction points between staff and management. With inflation elevating everyday food and beverage prices across commercial spaces, high price tags in communal employee areas often draw sharp criticism from staff who expect basic conveniences to be affordable or subsidized. While mechanical errors in third-party vending machines technically fall under vendor property loss, public sympathy often tilts toward the consumer when baseline pricing is perceived as predatory.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did the employee get extra drinks from the vending machine?
The employee discovered that pressing code C4 after inserting money into the office floor’s vending machine caused two cans of Coke Zero to drop instead of one, an error that repeated consistently for three years.
How many extra cans did the worker receive?
According to the employee’s calculations, he collected approximately 600 complimentary cans of soda throughout the three-year period by consistently using the specific selection button.
Why was the employee’s wife upset about the beverages?
Because the employee kept the machine glitch a complete secret from everyone, his wife assumed he was spending an excessive amount of family money purchasing sodas at the steep price of $4.25 each.
