Search this site:


Categories:

October 7, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: National City ATM

072205_2008Ghost writes:

I went to a National City ATM Machine to withdraw $75.00, but I didn't know that withdrawals had to be in multiples of  twenty (it isn't posted).  The machine, realizing this error, notified me with this non-sensical message:

"Amount requested was not a multiple of |ECL0. Please enter a new amount."

I haven't learned how to multiply |ECL0's, but entering $80.00 seemed to work.  Somebody needs to fix this.

Comments:

Maybe u should show us a more zoomed out pic, one that shows your card and pin #.........

yea its broken.

Posted by: gmangw at October 7, 2005 12:24 AM

Yeah, I primarily use a National City account, but I've never encountered this. I'm guessing whoever set up the software on that ATM never specified a "multiples" value... it does have to be secified, as one of the ATM's by my apt. requires multiples of $10 and one in the other direction requires multiples of $20

Posted by: Dan at October 7, 2005 02:08 AM

Most ATMs disburse just $20 bills, so withdrawals must be in $20 increments, although there are a few with $10 and even $5 bills allowing withdrawals in those increments.

From the bank's perspective it is much easier to load an ATM with one bill denomination (and $20 is the only one that is small enough to be convenient and big enough to allow larger withdrawals).

That said, the ATM should let you know what increments you can take (most that I have seen do, either by asking you to enter an amount in $X increments, or by just giving you a choice like $20, $40, $60, $80, $100, $200, $300).

Posted by: cmadler at October 7, 2005 08:23 AM

This relates to the "24 min" parking zone. Who the heck gets exactly $75 out of an ATM?

Posted by: Citizen Of Trantor at October 7, 2005 09:26 AM

In college (mid-90's), I would routinely get $38.75 out of an ATM. One of the machines on campus could dispense arbitrary amounts, down to the penny (and stamps, too, I think). Since I did not have an account at that bank, it would charge me a $1.25 fee, so I asked for $38.75 (for example) to make it even in my ledger. Plus, I had small bills for splitting checks with friends.

I thought this machine was a glimpse into the future. Looks like I was wrong.

Posted by: mph at October 7, 2005 11:03 AM

If you want three (3) twenty-five dollar bills you'll need to go inside. Not broken; other than the message not saying...

"Excuse me, but do you see a human bank teller sitting in a lawn chair next to this machine? If not, please enter another amount easily divisible by 'pie' until this machine decides to comply."

Posted by: First National Idiot at October 7, 2005 11:22 AM

Have you noticed that ATMs are getting harder and harder to use? I have been seeing a large number of color, fancy ATMs around. Some are just more confusing or crowded with ads, whirlygigs and other noise, but some (Citibank being the worst offender) blatantly ignore established conventions.

Posted by: brock rumer at October 7, 2005 11:27 AM

Does this not raise any red flags for people about the quality of testing being done on the National City ATMs?

Posted by: Carlos Gomez at October 7, 2005 11:31 AM

>I haven't learned how to multiply |ECL0's,

>but entering $80.00 seemed to work.

>Somebody needs to fix this.

Somebody....who? You? Me? My barber?

It would probably get fixed fast if you'd notify the bank....they may never read this blog....

Posted by: Dan Kelley at October 7, 2005 12:13 PM

>I haven't learned how to multiply |ECL0's,

>but entering $80.00 seemed to work.

>Somebody needs to fix this.

Somebody....who? You? Me? My barber?

It would probably get fixed fast if you'd notify the bank....they may never read this blog....

Posted by: Dan Kelley at October 7, 2005 12:14 PM

>I haven't learned how to multiply |ECL0's,

>but entering $80.00 seemed to work.

>Somebody needs to fix this.

Somebody....who? You? Me? My barber?

It would probably get fixed fast if you'd notify the bank....they may never read this blog....

Posted by: Dan Kelley at October 7, 2005 12:17 PM

We had one here that did $1 increments for a while,that was really cool. I think they had too many people get $4 out, ran out of 1's too often, and decided to stop doing it.

Posted by: sir_flexalot at October 7, 2005 12:24 PM

I used one of these ATM's in Las Vegas awhile back & it allowed me to play video poker while I was waiting for my cash! Of course if I lost, the deduction was automatically taken out in increments of $20 - but I had a lot of fun waiting for my money!

Posted by: Onery at October 7, 2005 01:17 PM

First National Idiot: "If you want three (3) twenty-five dollar bills you'll need to go inside..."

I want to know where I can go to get a twenty-five dollar bill. I bet it would be worth a lot of money. $25 at least.

Posted by: Manni at October 7, 2005 01:22 PM

Darn it, I can't believe someone beat me to the three 25 dollar bills comment.

Posted by: J. Scott at October 7, 2005 02:37 PM

When I lived in Japan, the ATMs there would accept change in whatever amount you wanted to deposit...you'd just dump your pocketful of change into the dish and the machine would suck it in and apply it to your account...sort of like coinstar without the 9% surcharge.

Yes, ATMs can do more than our banks allow them to. You'd think they'd use all the functionalities and charge us more to access our own money than they already do!

Posted by: Regina Franchi at October 7, 2005 08:35 PM

Looks like somebody forgot to check that their printf() call worked!

Posted by: bikko at October 8, 2005 02:12 PM

There are National City ATMs in Kalamazoo with that error, too. I discovered it because you used to always be able to get tens from the Nat City atms around here, and I tried to get 50 bucks a few weeks ago. No more tens, I guess (which was nice, if you had 14 bucks in your account til payday).

I say broken, because I swear that isn't the only error like that that I've seen since they got the new fancy touchscreen machines.

Posted by: glycolized at October 8, 2005 05:17 PM

"ATM Machine" == "Automatic Teller Machine Machine".

Posted by: Pedant at October 11, 2005 12:29 PM

"You ought to know how it works" is not a valid response. When walking up to an ATM that you don't use often, how do you know what it will offer? It might be able to dispense Earl Grey tea, for all you know. A tiny amount of coding could fix the user experience. A number of ATMs near me state: "Please enter the amount you wish to withdraw in multiples of $20" right up front.

Posted by: tigerb at October 12, 2005 03:02 PM

"I want to know where I can go to get a twenty-five dollar bill. I bet it would be worth a lot of money. $25 at least."

Actually a 25$ bill would be worth exactly as much as a 3$ bill: 0$

Both could only exist as bad counterfeit.

Posted by: Sean P at October 18, 2005 05:24 PM

Broken? Not likely. It's common knowledge that ATM's ALWAYS contain only $20 bills. It's rarely EVER posted on ATM's.

Posted by: Jason Anderson at October 25, 2005 02:24 AM

Jason Anderson

It's NOT common knowledge because, as previously stated, NOT ALL ATM's only contain $20s. I have several I go to that dispense both $20s AND $10s.

Posted by: SillyGirl at December 1, 2005 05:53 PM

Eureka, ive got it!

|ECL0 = 3.1415926 * sqrt(-7) + 15.676789 * b^6 - newtons gravitational constant * all + your / base

* are - belong * to *us

Duh! I learned that in like 5th grade!

Posted by: FrenziedPenguin at May 16, 2006 08:00 PM

Comments on this entry are closed



Previous Posts: