A funny thing happened at the bank...

jollyroger1012

Morning All.... Just wanted to pass on my experience at Lloyd's in Bilston on 1 Sept.
I went into the branch to pay in, and it was the usual story, long queues for the cashiers. Oh well, thinks me, I'll use the machine. The first machine displayed a message that it wasn't in use, so I put my card and cash into the second machine. I then got a message that it couldn't process the transaction, and it returned my card. But no cash!
The staff soon went into action, went into the back, opened the machine, and returned my cash. I then filled in a slip, and used the "depositpoint" slot instead. All good you might think, apart from the time wasted (about 15 min.)
BUT... while all this was happening, the first paying-in machine suddenly went off, and then came back on, displaying a new message. "Loading........ Windows XP" !!!!!!
When I bought it to the attention of the branch staff that the bank was using an obsolete operating system for their machines, I was rewarded with blank looks, as if I'd just got off the mothership.
I subsequently sent in an email to Lloyd's, and got a call back later on the same day. The woman who called me, said politely (?) said I had no right to dictate to the Bank what systems it uses, it's all very secure, sorry for your inconvenience, here's £35 for your trouble.
SO..... a major high st. bank, is using an obsolete operating system, that is no longer supported by microsoft, AND, is no longer getting the latest security updates. Oh well, profits before people y'know... Discuss.

Regards, Pete

verybigchris

It's not really running XP, it's "Windows Embedded POSReady 2009", which is based on XP and shows as XP when booting, but still has Microsoft support until 2019.

kingrulzuk

jollyroger1012 wrote: »

Morning All.... Just wanted to pass on my experience at Lloyd's in Bilston on 1 Sept.
I went into the branch to pay in, and it was the usual story, long queues for the cashiers. Oh well, thinks me, I'll use the machine. The first machine displayed a message that it wasn't in use, so I put my card and cash into the second machine. I then got a message that it couldn't process the transaction, and it returned my card. But no cash!
The staff soon went into action, went into the back, opened the machine, and returned my cash. I then filled in a slip, and used the "depositpoint" slot instead. All good you might think, apart from the time wasted (about 15 min.)
BUT... while all this was happening, the first paying-in machine suddenly went off, and then came back on, displaying a new message. "Loading........ Windows XP" !!!!!!
When I bought it to the attention of the branch staff that the bank was using an obsolete operating system for their machines, I was rewarded with blank looks, as if I'd just got off the mothership.
I subsequently sent in an email to Lloyd's, and got a call back later on the same day. The woman who called me, said politely (?) said I had no right to dictate to the Bank what systems it uses, it's all very secure, sorry for your inconvenience, here's £35 for your trouble.
SO..... a major high st. bank, is using an obsolete operating system, that is no longer supported by microsoft, AND, is no longer getting the latest security updates. Oh well, profits before people y'know... Discuss.

Regards, Pete

wow you get free £35 for pointing that out, I must say well done :beer:

eskbanker

jollyroger1012 wrote: »

SO..... a major high st. bank, is using an obsolete operating system, that is no longer supported by microsoft, AND, is no longer getting the latest security updates. Oh well, profits before people y'know... Discuss.

Touchingly naive if you believe that the oldest technology in use by major banks is 21st century software!

Proxima_Centauri

I must admit I am loathe to use automated paying-in machines. But you did get £35!

I have no idea what computer system my banks use, but the online services do seem to be a bit on the slow side with CoOp bank.

Jibeddy

Another note on businesses still running Windows XP, whilst it is not supported by Microsoft for everyone. A lot of organisations, namely the Metropolitan police, still pay to have there versions of it maintained (at a fairly significant cost).

colsten

Jibeddy wrote: »

Another note on businesses still running Windows XP, whilst it is not supported by Microsoft for everyone. A lot of organisations, namely the Metropolitan police, still pay to have there versions of it maintained (at a fairly significant cost).

Did you read post #2? The Lloyds machines are not running Windows XP.

runaroundpauper

They all use xp it's light and stable .I would be more concerned about losing a contactless card in the atm if it drops inside and cannot be reached by the cash in transit or engineers to be destroyed it stays there .you can cancel the card get a new one etc but if the contactless is wireless communicating still it can be clowned by a skimmer bumping the atm fascia .I will only use a non contactless card on a atm

Jibeddy

colsten wrote: »

Did you read post #2? The Lloyds machines are not running Windows XP.

Indeed I did. Did you read my post? I didn't say anywhere that there Lloyds machines run XP. I'm actually just aiming to clear up a common misconception about Windows XP.

Hazzanet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/11834887/Banking-glitches-are-no-surprise-the-tech-is-60-years-old.html

Although the article is old, probably still relevant.

"Since almost no British universities teach Cobol, RBS is advertising for experts to join its tech development centre in Chennai."

eskbanker

runaroundpauper wrote: »

They all use xp it's light and stable .I would be more concerned about losing a contactless card in the atm if it drops inside and cannot be reached by the cash in transit or engineers to be destroyed it stays there .you can cancel the card get a new one etc but if the contactless is wireless communicating still it can be clowned by a skimmer bumping the atm fascia .I will only use a non contactless card on a atm

What a bizarre and irrelevant little story! I've never heard of anyone losing a card by dropping it into an ATM (how would you do that?) but even in this unlikely scenario surely the card holder would contact their card company advising what had happened and the company would then bear the risk of any fraudulent activity on that card thereafter. What would be the benefit to a fraudster in being able to clone a cancelled card, especially if that same skimming equipment could be used more profitably on active cards in crowds, etc?