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Was just in Sweden where our local office has a vending machine. No buttons on the machine, but a QR code. Leads to an app download. Installed. The menu is onl

Was just in Sweden where our local office has a vending machine. No buttons on the machine, but a QR code. Leads to an app download. Installed. The menu is only visible after creating an account. Created account. Chose my snack. Asks for Swedish payment system. I don’t have that. Tiny option for credit card. Hope. But only Swedish cards accepted. Arghh.

perryizgr8 3y ago
> Was just in Sweden where our local office has a vending machine. There is a chai vending machine in a WeWork I visit sometimes. It has a screen to choose your chai, but you can also scan a QR code. The code simply takes you to a webpage with all the options. One touch on your preferred chai, and it dispenses. I quickly figured out that the QR code is a regular URL. I can copy it and open it in my home and spam the buttons and waste their chai all day long. I didn't do it, but I could.
- sofixa 3y ago
  > I quickly figured out that the QR code is a regular URL. I can copy it and open it in my home and spam the buttons and waste their chai all day long. I was just thinking how useful it would be to be able to preorder from your desk/on the way to the vending machine, but indeed, it sounds easily abusable.
  - perryizgr8 3y ago
    You need to keep a cup underneath the spout! So you absolutely have to walk to it first. Otherwise it will just pour the chai down the drain.
ekianjo 3y ago
So the whole point is to prevent you from buying things?
CrampusDestrus 3y ago
>No buttons on the machine, but a QR code. Leads to an app download. Installed. The menu is only visible after creating an account. Created account. Chose my snack. Asks for Swedish payment system. I don’t have that. Tiny option for credit card. it seems obvious to me: >what can we do to lower operating costs? >remove coins and banknotes from the machines and only allow credit cards, so we don't have to pay people to collect all the money! >ok, so should we install a POS on every machine so that people can pay with the card? >no! that would cost too much! just install a QR code so the customer has to use an app with an account and pay there, so our machine is basically as dumb and featureless as possible!

perryizgr8 3y ago

> Was just in Sweden where our local office has a vending machine. There is a chai vending machine in a WeWork I visit sometimes. It has a screen to choose your chai, but you can also scan a QR code. The code simply takes you to a webpage with all the options. One touch on your preferred chai, and it dispenses. I quickly figured out that the QR code is a regular URL. I can copy it and open it in my home and spam the buttons and waste their chai all day long. I didn't do it, but I could.

sofixa 3y ago
> I quickly figured out that the QR code is a regular URL. I can copy it and open it in my home and spam the buttons and waste their chai all day long. I was just thinking how useful it would be to be able to preorder from your desk/on the way to the vending machine, but indeed, it sounds easily abusable.
- perryizgr8 3y ago
  You need to keep a cup underneath the spout! So you absolutely have to walk to it first. Otherwise it will just pour the chai down the drain.

ekianjo 3y ago

So the whole point is to prevent you from buying things?

CrampusDestrus 3y ago

>No buttons on the machine, but a QR code. Leads to an app download. Installed. The menu is only visible after creating an account. Created account. Chose my snack. Asks for Swedish payment system. I don’t have that. Tiny option for credit card. it seems obvious to me: >what can we do to lower operating costs? >remove coins and banknotes from the machines and only allow credit cards, so we don't have to pay people to collect all the money! >ok, so should we install a POS on every machine so that people can pay with the card? >no! that would cost too much! just install a QR code so the customer has to use an app with an account and pay there, so our machine is basically as dumb and featureless as possible!