The Union Change Machine

[Elvis]

They spend ££££ on tarting the place up in the summer yet we must still use the world's worst, oldest change machine.

If a note's even remotely crumpled, it won't take it. In fact if it's in perfect condition, there's a decent chance it won't take it. Half the time the note gets stuck in the machine until it stops working all together.

It's too old to take £2 coins.

I only think the union keeps it there because it makes them money by shortchanging people. On more than one occasion I've lost a pound from that machine and the rigmarole involved in reclaiming a single pound coin really isn't worth it: find a porter, go to desk to fill out a form, go back some point in the future (memory permitting) with said form to some office to reclaim pound.

And yes, I realise there are more important things in life but I felt like a rant.

[flarewearer]

and there is a special, unique wrist action you must learn if you ever eant to make it take your £1 coin

[hr][s]Have you ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow?
You need butter, milk and cheese, and an equilateral chainsaw.[/s]
http://www.magnificentoctopus.com/

[Haunted]

I agree, down with the machine.

Furthermore, why the hell do the bar/offsales staff get so irate when you ask them for change???
Guys, that machine doesnt work so well, please sympathise and break my twenty

[md25]

The other day I put a fiver in and got four twenties and a BJ from it. It really is all in the wrist.

[Elvis]

Oh the bar staff are instructed to tell people to be persistent with the machine to prevent the bar from running out of change.

It's an evil machine. I'm sure they keep it as some sick joke.

[Legion]

The union want to get rid of it as much as anyone else, but as they don't own it, there's not a great deal they can do.
This is why there's such a problem when claiming back money from it - it doesn't belong to the union.

The people in the union have been asking for years for it to be replaced, but the best that's happened is that the chips have been upgraded.

If you want anything to be done about it, write a (polite) letter and address it to the Financial Controller. Hand it in to the General Office.

[Elvis]

Thanks! I might actually do that!

[Mohawk]

the word is the note reader will be sent away over the easter holidays for refurbishment, this should solve the problems

[papercutheart]

Why is it I keep an air of pessimism over that view?

[David Bean]

[s]legion wrote on 00:13, 22nd Mar 2005:
If you want anything to be done about it, write a (polite) letter and address it to the Financial Controller. Hand it in to the General Office.


But the PS/FC doesn't own it any more than the SSC does. Surely the only likely way to get something done about it would be to petition the SSC to start playing hardball with the company that owns the machine, saying that either they upgrade it or we cancel the contract and switch suppliers? Surely there must be some other firm out there willing to supply a machine that actually works.

This, I think, illustrates the problem with student politics: it requires a confluence of a problem being identified, and someone being around who's willing to take steps to do something about it.

Maybe I could try and bring it up at SRC tomorrow, though doubtless I'll be shot down because it isn't a representational matter...

[hr]
"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?- Matthew 16:26

[David]

hmmm does the union pay much to have the machine? becasue it (supposedly) should make no profite except from shortchanging etc.

[Steveo]

Quoting David Bean from 03:13, 22nd Mar 2005
Maybe I could try and bring it up at SRC tomorrow, though doubtless I'll be shot down because it isn't a representational matter...

Yes, I'll shout at you.

[hr]

[s]Alone at night, I feel so strange, I need to find all the answers to my dreams[/s]

[Legion]

Steveo, that doesn't sound like a very productive method.

David Bean, you sound like you know what you're talking about.

David Bean to the rescue! Shall we give you a week to sort the problem? Good luck!

[Steveo]

Quoting Legion from 12:24, 22nd Mar 2005
Steveo, that doesn't sound like a very productive method.

David Bean, you sound like you know what you're talking about.

David Bean to the rescue! Shall we give you a week to sort the problem? Good luck!

He was right, it is nothing to do with SRC - the R standing for Representation.

SSC on the otherhand, where the second S stands for Services - there is where you need to complain.

[hr]

[s]Alone at night, I feel so strange, I need to find all the answers to my dreams[/s]

[Legion]

I trust David Bean. I reckon he can solve the problem of the union's change machine.

[David Bean]

Yes, I know it's a services matter, but the point is that if all the relevant people are in the same room and we're on AOCB, what in the world is the point in leaving off mentioning it until after the Easter holidays when I'm not on the SSC and nobody else will remember?

[hr]"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?- Matthew 16:26

[Al]

Surely he'll be too busy saving the world from battery eggs to look into the matter of the Union change machine.

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.

[Al]

Surely he'll be too busy saving the world from battery eggs to look into the matter of the Union change machine.

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.

[Elvis]

[s]David Bean wrote on 14:14, 22nd Mar 2005:[i]
Yes, I know it's a services matter, but the point is that if all the relevant people are in the same room and we're on AOCB, what in the world is the point in leaving off mentioning it until after the Easter holidays when I'm not on the SSC and nobody else will remember?

Glad to hear someone willing to take on the Evils of the Change Machine!

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Consecutive DORs have made NO effort to replace the airhockey table and have left the broken, money stealing table there for well at least 5 years.

Why should the change machine be any different - further proof of the utter indifference/ineffectiveness of the Union if any was needed.