Woman has to freeze her card after an alleged airport smart fridge glitch could have seen her pay for everyone else’s food

A woman on TikTok has warned against using “smart fridges” after she claimed an automatic vending machine at an airport allegedly did not work the way it was supposed to. The woman said that she had to freeze her card because the machine didn’t finish her purchase, meaning her card could be used by others to buy food.

“Stay away from the automatic vending machines at the airport y’all,” TikToker Makayla Rae warned viewers. “I’m about to get charged for everybody’s food that comes and gets food here,” she claimed. 

According to Makayla, customers who used the allegedly faulty vending machine were supposed to tap their card, take the food, and push the door shut. They would then be printed a receipt after it was done. However, she claimed that the machine was stuck on the third step, as it didn’t register that she had shut the door. She showed herself opening and closing the door, but the machine did not register the movement, “It still says that I’m shopping.”

Makayla said she had to catch a flight, so she couldn’t stick around. In a later video, she claimed that she froze her card and phoned the vending machine company to inform them of the error. Makayla said that the company didn’t answer at first, but when they called her back she was told that workers had reset the machine shortly after she had called them and to contact them if she had “any weird charges” on her card to contact them again.

AI vending machines and errors

According to vmfsusa.com, smart fridges operate by allowing customers to tap their card, which unlocks the door. They can then take whatever food they want from the machine, and cameras will see what was taken and automatically charge for it. When the door is shut, the session is ended, and the next customer can tap their card and get what they want.

The machines do run into problems from time to time. The known issues usually come from one of seven systems. These include the cameras, weight systems, payment reader, door locks, network connection, refrigeration, and the software that ties them together. Problems with these pieces of software can result in the door not unlocking, the wrong items being picked up by the cameras, and wrong charges being given to the customer, among other things.

Although errors with AI vending machines are not common, Makayla admitted that she was still hesitant to use them in the future, “because that was too much of a headache.”