Power pack vending apparatus, system and method of use for charging packs with biased locking arrangement

A power pack vending system for providing charged power packs to power portable electronic devices, the power pack vending system comprising:

• a central management operation and at least one vending kiosk in communication with one another;
• wherein the at least one vending kiosk comprises:
• a user interface portion;
• a magazine having a plurality of slots, each slot having a kiosk slot identification number;
• a plurality of rechargeable power packs, each power pack in the vending system comprising an outer case identical in physical size, having its own unique identifier and sized to be received within one magazine slot, and each power pack having one of at least three types of device connector, each type of device connector adapted to connect to a different type of portable electronic device;
• a charging unit for charging a power pack;
• and
• a kiosk computer for receiving the unique identifier of each power pack received within the magazine, the specific slot each power pack is in, and current power pack information of each power pack received within the magazine, and the kiosk computer controlling the charging of the plurality of power packs by the charging unit;
• and
• wherein the central management operation comprises:
• a central computer for receiving, storing and processing information received from the at least one vending kiosk, including information regarding customer transactions and the unique identifier of each power pack at the at least one vending kiosk by the kiosk slot identification number, the central computer sending information to each of the at least one vending kiosk;
• and
• a central database for storing and maintaining the unique identifier of each power pack at the at least one vending kiosk by the kiosk slot identification number, the central database comprising:
• a power pack database for storing power pack information for every power pack distributed in the power pack vending system;
• and
• a customer database for storing customer information for the power pack vending system.