I want a badge!!! Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!!! It's not fair! Waaaahhhhh!!!!!

[42_42_42]

The vending machines on the college campus I attend have card readers that work with both the student id card (has their dining dollars on it) and credit/debit cards.

[Sonoma]

It really shouldn't even matter to the SC if your employer gives you a free Rice Krispie treat & a free Dr. Pepper. When I worked fast food, management staff got free meals while on shift. It was part of the perks that went with the position - one of those tradeoffs for not necessarily getting to eat on any type of schedule.

My current employer gives a discount on healthy items from our cafeteria. Show my badge, save 35% on those items. Our cafeteria is open to the general public, so not everyone gets the 35% off. If you want the discount, I'll show you where job postings are listed.

[EricKei]

I know in Philly you can pay by cash/card and get a receipt with the end time printed on it, you must display that on your car dashboard for it to be valid. (If it's upside down/on the floor you WILL get a ticket!).

Same here in NOLA. The tix have to be oriented correctly, on the dashboard, on the sidewalk side of the street. It actually surprised me when I discovered that it actually accounted for times when Parking fees do not apply (meaning, weekdays after 6p or weekends, period) -- If you go up to a meter at 5:30, the machine will not charge you for more than half an hour. ... (we're a teensy bit techno backwards in some ways, here)

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

So, he decries a person with a perk he doesn't have as being a "freeloading bum" and then demands that he be treated just the same, in other words, like a "freeloading bum"

Looks like his wish was granted, so what's he complaining about?

Never thought of it that way.

However he did *not* get his wish of being treated the same way as the other freeloading bum that he mentioned.

I got my dessert and my caffeine and got to sit at my desk and watch a new computer get installed with the proper software (a three hour task) in the comfort of Air Conditioning and a few episodes of Babylon 5 on my iPad.

He on the other hand got escorted out without such niceties.

So if I was the freeloading bum, then one has to wonder what he was since he was clearly treated by the universe at large in a far worse manner than I was.

Oh and...My Bad! I meant to put it into "sightings" but totally spaced it. Blame it on the SC that was so stupid that he lowered my IQ by being too close to him.

[lobo94]

Sorry, I've got to do this..."Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

[RealUnimportant]

Same here in NOLA. The tix have to be oriented correctly, on the dashboard, on the sidewalk side of the street. It actually surorised me when I discovered that it actually accounted for times when Parking fees do not apply (meaning, weekdays after 6p or weekends, period) -- If you go up to a meter at 5:30, the machine will not charge you for more than half an hour. ... (we're a teensy bit techno backwards in some ways, here)

Most London-based machines will still charge you a minimum of an hour, but stretch it so it's on both sides of the free period - so one place I park, I can pull up at 12:30 on Saturday, pay for an hour, and it's covered until 9:00 Monday

[Sapphire Silk]

Both the hospitals in my local area have a similar system to Mongo's. A LOT of employees make use of it.

We get a lot of family members demanding free food when they visit. Most of them are the kind of free loading bums Mongo describes; they want to come in, watch free tv, make use of the free wi fi, and get free food. They'll even eat the patient's food if the patient isn't up to eating, or will try to order food (we have room service in our hospital, each patient orders when they are hungry, and are not fed at a cattle call anymore) and get upset when told the patient is NPO (nothing by mouth) or not on a regular diet.

Then they hit up the nursing staff for the snacks we keep in the nourishment room (off limits to patients and family). We usually keep some sandwiches for the diabetics or patients admitted after the cafeteria closes; the free loaders invariably want one.

I refuse. I tell my students, a Pepsi is OK for the family member who is sitting vigil with the sick person, but Uncle Frank from Nebraska can go to the cafeteria or snack machines and pay like everyone else.

I've often wondered when the ability to use a debit/credit card would trickle down to the last things that are still "loose change" operated like vending machines and parking meters, a lot of people I've noticed don't pay parking meters because they rarely have change on them.

I must be missing something obvious or else they'd do it, seeing as they'd make a lot more than they do chasing people down for unpaid tickets

I've seen machines like this; vending machines that take debit cards, and parking meters as well.

And you'll always chase people for unpaid tickets. There will always be people who can't read signs on which meter to use, how to display the ticket, or who just plain won't pay.

But it does take the I ran out of change excuse away from them, if they ever really had it.

[Dreamstalker]

in japan many establishments - especially ones near the train stations - let you do this with your cell phone or prepaid train card. With the phone it just tacks it on to your phone bill. With the card it just debits your account. and that was 5 years ago.

When the MBTA introduced the CharlieCard, I recall seeing something about how they were going to do that (it's an RFID card, so in theory you could just tap it on a card reader the way you would for the RFID-enabled credit cards). Not sure whatever happened to that, maybe it had something to do with limits on how much value can be on a given card at one time.

I've seen something called LevelUp that lets you use your cell phone to pay, but you have to link a debit card. Intriguing, but I'm wary about linking my real debit card; tempted to pick up one of the prepaid reloadable cards to use with it.

[ThirdGenRetail]

OT: hehe..We *cough* I mean.. my son was watching Phineas and Ferb and Major Monogram said that right as I was reading it.

What? it's a good show...

Is that where everyone's hearing it? I hadn't heard it since the first episode of Dexter's Laboratory featuring... Lemme see if I can spell this off the top of my head! Koosalagoosagoop(Koosy, for short)

Going back ON topic... Nothing in life is free(In some cases, not even breathing, sadly)... So why did that dude think he could get food for 'free' just because his daughter's 'dying'? What an EW! (Same goes for Food Stamp Dude!)