@xianc78 What's even crazier is how much control the vending machine company has over the vending machine in question.
I used to run into this a lot back when I worked in hotels; basically the vending is, for all intents and purposes, a unique entity to the building its in.
The company that services it is the one who does the supplying, maintenance, handles payment and refunds, etc. the business gets a percentage of their profit, but that's it.
In other words, if a vending machine eats your dollar, you can't get a refund from the store, because technically its not their machine. You call the number on the side of the machine, and if you don't get filtered by customer service, they check you a check. For a dollar.
My understanding is that this is better in other countries, EG: why Japan is so vend-crazy, but my experience is in the US so... yeah.