Okay, ATM’s are notorious for being horribly programmed, and this one has probably come up a time or two. But hang on, let me check my calendar… yeah, it’s now 2015. Surely some improvements have been made, but there is one bit of stupidity that my bank still has programmed into it’s ATM’s:
Pressing each digit one by one to specify how much cash you want. When the machine only dispenses ten or twenty dollar bills, there’s no reason on this green earth that I should be able to type in amounts like these:
0.01
0.10
1.00
Anybody here work for a bank’s IT department can explain this stupidity? I used to be a system engineer, so I understand how features sometimes have to be de-scoped from a project. But something as completely brain-dead as this never being fixed in, what, three decades now? Hello?
I hate that inconsistency shit. My normal machine is one of those so I get used to typing 2–0--0–0--0–Enter when I want 200 bucks.
But then I get a panic attack when I go to another machine to get 200 bucks, and it tells me insufficient funds, not realizing for a bit that I had asked for $20000.
There might come a time when ATMs dispense money orders or similar instruments that could have penny-accurate amounts, so better to have the capability now then try to add it later.
While your bank (and perhaps that particular ATM) dispenses only ten and twenty dollar bills, there could be other ATMs that do otherwise.
If someone is entering how much they are depositing, it could include cents. The subroutine or function that is being used to ask the user for input is generic and needs to accept all increments.
Oh, you’re probably right about that. Still, it’s a horrible user experience, as Wolfman above describes. I’m always tempted to try to withdraw ten cents just to be snarky.
Horrible in a first world problems sort of way. I really can’t say I’ve ever gotten pissed off about having to type in a couple extra digits at the ATM, many of which offer a fast cash type option anyway.
I think it would be oh-so logical for an ATM to default to a certain amount when a user selects a withdrawal – say, $60. Then the user could press up and down buttons to adjust the amount by $20 increments (or $10 if it’s one of THOSE ATMs). So if you want $60, you just press “Enter.” Want $100? Press Up, Up, Enter.
Want $200? Then it’s Up, Up, Left, Trigger, Select, Down, Down, Left. Then you get $200 and an extra life.
And it would probably increase confusion and user error if the procedure for typing in a withdrawal amount were different from the procedure for typing in a deposit amount.
All the ATMs I’ve used recently let you select one of the most commonly withdrawn amounts from the touchscreen. I can’t remember the last time I actually had to enter a withdrawal amount.
TD Canada Trust ATMs let you define your own default withdrawal and whether when you ask for the default amount you do or do not want a receipt. Assuming you have set up a default you just push the “My favourite withdrawal” on-screen “button” and you get it. I rarely get anything other than my programmed default, but I seem to recall (I’m sure one of the other Canucks will correct me if I’m not) that if you don’t want your default you still only have a specific list of amounts to choose from with on-screen “buttons”.
The problem is that if you changed how the keypad functioned on your ATM some of your users are going to be confused by the change. Someone who is used to typing 2-0-0-0-0 to get $200 is going to be confused when the suddenly have to type 2-0-0 into the ATM to get the same thing. It’s looking like ATMs are leaning toward the “quick-cash” buttons right on the home screen (as Boink said) for popular withdraw amounts, but leaving the keypad functionality the same – this makes the new feature obviously different enough to require inspection to use, while those who are content with their current method of using an ATM have an unchanged experience.
Bizarre, I have no idea what the OP is talking about. On any ATM I’ve used in the past decade or so, you enter 1-0-0 if you want $100.
Actually, what you really do, is you press the preset keys which has a single button that you push for $100, $80, $60 (Also known as “quick cash”) $40, $20 and then there’s one other button that says: “Enter amount” which allows you to enter a more specific amount in denominations of 10’s or 20’s, I can’t remember.
And as far as no improvements, that’s just crazy talk. My bank’s ATMs have a feature that allow you to make cash deposits. All you do is take the stack of cash and cram it into the hole all at once and the machine magically counts it for you. No need to stick a single bill in at a time, just take the whole stack of cash and cram it in there!
I have never seen any of those. Maybe it’s because I only use credit unions, but ours went from shove whatever you want in an envelope, to no envelope-auto check reader systems. But that is no cash at all, all cash deposits have to be made to a teller.
Every ATM I’ve used had a screen with a bunch of optional amounts ranging from $20 to $200 or $300, plus another option for “Enter another amount” if you want something that’s not there.
99 times out of a hundred, I take the same amount from the ATM, and my bank was smart enough to recognize this and basically just assume that’s what I want. When I put my card in, I get the password screen and a big button with my preferred amount on it. Push the button, get the cash. I do have to remember to enter the password first, though, which I forget about a third of the time. If I do want an alternate amount, I just select from the pre-existing buttons in $20 increments.
