jamming money counting machines at Lloyds TSB

maggeeee

Hi
I have an account with Lloyds TSB. They've brought in these fancy machines (TCR) that counts money and detects counterfeit notes. Good? No

on 1 occassion, the machine said that i was £10 short even though i always count my money to be paid in 3 times. I asked if the machine was jammed, and they said that there was nothing they could do. They can only give me a ring after they have opened the machine in a couple of days time. I accepted that.

On the second occassion, I only had 1 £5 note in my pile of cash. But according to the machine, I was £5 short. It was clear to me that the money was jammed inside the machine. I have also seen others complain. I have seen occassions when money was found to be jammed inside the machine. They refused to open it, up and again i was sent home.

Today, the machine said that i was £20 short. I was really angry. The cashier even raised her voice over me until another customer said that he had the same problem with that particular machine, which was when she backed down, and started counting the coins in the drawers. She then said that whatever's in the till matches the computer. Do i look stupid or what? I paid in notes, and she went to count the coins. After a heated discussion with the manager, she agreed to lift the top of the machine, to reveal that nothing was stuck, and I have to wait for them to empty the tills the next time which could be in a few days time.

If they had counted the money beforehand, then there wouldn't be such a dispute. Because now there lies the problem as to whether the money was stuck, whether it dropped onto the floor, whether it had been placed somewhere else. Machines cannot replace humans. I have never had such a problem at other banks, which means that I CAN count. 3 incidences in the past year is way too much. If another mistake takes part on the same till, then it might cancel out my £20. I have to say that 320 is an extremely small amount of money compared to what they take in, so are they going to find £20? I don't think so.

Has anybody else seen these machines and had the same problem?

opinions4u

Machines cannot replace humans

Are you sure about that?

maggeeee

opinions4u wrote: »

Are you sure about that?

Well my point is that they trust the machine too much. The machine cannot count ripped or creased notes, so obviously, it cannot replace humans.

They said that it is correct. It is a very expensive piece of equipment. Then the manager says that it is generally correct. If money can get stuck in it, then it is not always correct. Why do they always refuse to do a simple check to see whether money is stuck inside? Why do they always assume that it is the customer who had miscounted? Why does the damn thing take in some of the money then spit out creased notes when there could be a dispute with the amount of money? Surely its not the right way to do things.

Also, I have asked them nicely to count the money first on previous occassions. Their response was the machine is correct. If there is any dispute, then it can be opened.

When i asked them this time why they don't count the money by hand first, they said that the queue would be very long, so I told them that the queue was long because they didn't count the money first to prevent this incident. I believe I counted correctly 3 times before going into the bank, but if they had counted before loading it into the machine, then at least I could've counted the money with them to prove myself wrong.

agrinnall

I don't really understand why you are continuing to use this service, surely by now you would be thinking it's more sensible to pay the money in over the counter and insist they count it manually - and if they won't do it take your account elsewhere.

maggeeee

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't really understand why you are continuing to use this service, surely by now you would be thinking it's more sensible to pay the money in over the counter and insist they count it manually - and if they won't do it take your account elsewhere.

I have been paying over the counter. They introduced this new machine to take over manual counting. I only decided to stay because I didn't want to sort out all my direct debit payments, but after this incidence, I will leave them.

HoneyAndLemon

I think people are confusing what you are talking about with the immediate deposit machine.

I know what you're talking about, the little note counter things. Is it made so that they can't run the cash through more than once?

On a separate note, the reason the cashier would have counted all the cash in the till, including the coins, is to make sure the till balanced.

Macca83_2

Is it a big metal box that sits between tills? There's a slot that they hold the notes against and it gets sucked into the machine thus preventing the ability to take it out and retry if the total doesn't match?

Id imagine that they can't open it during branch hours as it would pose a huge security risk to customers and staff

maggeeee

HoneyAndLemon wrote: »

I think people are confusing what you are talking about with the immediate deposit machine.

I know what you're talking about, the little note counter things. Is it made so that they can't run the cash through more than once?

On a separate note, the reason the cashier would have counted all the cash in the till, including the coins, is to make sure the till balanced.

I have noticed that money comes back out, but they have said that money is stored inside and they have no access to it which is fair enough, but there are several comaprtments where money runs through. The very first time that it happened, which i have not mentioned, I didmanaged to retrieve everything. I had a large pile of cash. Only a small amount came back out (less than half). They had to get the security and open by lock to find that all my money was stuck in several compartments.

The cashier only counted the coins to balance the till. She did not count the notes.

alanq

I had problems with an HSBC machine. I tipped in a pile of coins that I had counted a few times so I knew that I was right. The machine said that I was 34p short of my figure. I informed a staff member who took the machine out of service and the adjustment to my balance was made at the end of the day. Anyone not knowing how much they had would have lost out.

Better surely for the machine to count the money, then ask if you agree. If not then everything inserted should be returned. I certainly wouldn't take the risk when depositing notes.

maggeeee

alanq wrote: »

I informed a staff member who took the machine out of service and the adjustment to my balance was made at the end of the day.

Good for you. Wish they could close the till and use another one for me. Too bad they didn't accept that it was their fault

maggeeee

The machine is a TCR (teller cash recycler).

They phoned me today to tell me that all of the money at the till has been counted manually and it had exactly the amount that they expected. Not even 1p difference. How amazing is that!

And most of all, the manager does not lie