This machine is like money

[Long Run]

How do ATMs always get it right? Most machinery at some point wears out or has a glitch or whatever, but I have never seen an ATM not give the right amount of $20 bills, nor have I heard of someone saying it happened to them. Doesn't matter if I am getting $40 or $300, it comes out right, reliable as can be. (I have seen ATMs closed, so they obviously need servicing). Pretty good experience record, but then when you're dealing with people's money, it had better be good.

[Big RR]

I recall reading that modern ATMs identify and count money by 2 methods, a surface scan and a thickness determination of each bill before it is dispensed; any deviation and it sent to a discard tray and never dispensed. that's why most (if not all) ATMs are limited to dispensing bills of one denomination (usually $20 in the US).

[oldr_n_wsr]

How do ATMs always get it right?

Good engineering and routine maintenance is my guess.

[Big RR]

I imagine there are occasional errors, but they probably are kept pretty quiet; no one wants to admit that their bank is unsafe.

[Gob]

Atms in Aus dispense $20 and $50 bills.

[Econoline]

I remember when ATMs in the U.S. used to dispense $5 and $20 bills.

[Guinevere]

Some ATMs still dispense $5 bills - just not many of them.

What freaks me out now is the depositing without a deposit slip, even cash. But it has worked every time!

And now of course, I can deposit checks using a photo and a mobile app. Crazy!!

[Big RR]

That's something I've never done; deposit cash through an ATM. I'm sure it would be pretty safe, but it just makes me nervous.

[dales]

NEW ORLEANS


Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Xerox Corp blamed each other on Monday after Louisiana food stamp recipients stripped bare the shelves of some Walmart stores when a computer glitch left their debit cards with no limits.





Managers of Walmart stores in the small, north Louisiana towns of Springhill and Mansfield alerted police on Saturday night that throngs of shoppers had flooded into the stores and were buying groceries using electronic benefit cards that contained no credit limits.

EBT cards are debit-type cards issued under the state's food stamp program and coded to show the amount of money available for individuals to spend. Food stamps are a federal government subsidy program for low-income people that is administered by the states.


When word got out Saturday that the EBT cards were showing no limits, card holders rushed to area Walmarts to take advantage.

"Some people had eight or 10 shopping carts full of groceries," Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd said on Monday.

Xerox said on Saturday that its systems that process EBT transactions suffered an outage stemming from routine testing of backup generators that malfunctioned. Louisiana was one of 17 states affected by the outage.

Kayla Whiting, a spokeswoman at Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, pointed to Xerox as the source of the problem and referred further questions to Xerox.

Xerox corporate spokesman Bill McKee provided a written company statement saying that Xerox has a "documented process for retailers like Wal-Mart to follow in response to EBT outages."

But the statement left unclear who would cover the unauthorized spending, and it referred further questions to Walmart.

Louisiana officials said they had no intention of being left holding the bag. "The outage was the result of failures by our contractor, Xerox," said Trey Williams, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.

He said emergency procedures in place with Xerox allow retailers to call a phone number and receive authorization for purchases any time the EBT system is down. "Some retailers chose not to follow the process," he said. "Those businesses are only being reimbursed for the (maximum) amounts on individual cards," he said.

Williams said that amounts transacted above the cards' available balances were returned to Wal-Martmarked "as insufficient funds."

He could not provide an estimate of the total amount of overspending or say who will cover it in the end. "That's a conversation between Xerox and the retailer," he said.

CARTS FULL OF GROCERIES

Springhill's Lynd arrived at his town's Walmart store at about 7 p.m. local time and found a few hundred shoppers jamming checkout lines with carts filled to overflowing.

Lynd said he told the manager that the store had a right to refuse service, but the manager said she had contacted Wal-Mart headquarters and was told to accept the cards.

The shoppers "decimated the grocery section of Walmart," Lynd said.

The shoppers broke no laws, Lynd said, adding that police intervention was not required to disperse the crowd. At about 9 p.m., Walmart said that the glitch had been fixed and the EBT cards were again showing appropriate spending limits.

"When they heard the announcement, people just left their carts in place and walked out of the store," Lynd said.

Mansfield Assistant Police Chief Gary Hobbs reported a similar scene in his community. He said that several other grocery stores in the area temporarily stopped accepting EBT cards when they became aware of the glitch, but Walmart continued.

[Scooter]

The shoppers broke no laws

I don't know about that. Shoppers who were going away with 8 or 10 shopping carts full of groceries clearly knew they were getting stuff to which they were not entitled.

That being said, there was a process in place to cover such contingencies that Walmart chose not to follow, probably because it was time consuming and would lead to confrontations with customers. Their choice, so they should eat the loss.

[dgs49]

Stealing food breaks no laws? I guess what people say about Louisiana is pretty much true.

[Big RR]

I agree with the crime; these people must have known they had no right to the baskets of groceries they were charging to their cards. And while I have no problem with Walmart eating the loss, neither would I have a problem with them trying to recoup it from those who took the groceries. Of course, all (or neatly all) of these people are virtually judgment proof , so good luck.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Whatever happened to personal integrity? I cannot see myself taking advantage of this situation. Maybe if I or my family was deathly starving I might "go over" my limit a bit, but not to the tune of multiple shopping carts.
Whatever happened to peoples morality?

[Big RR]

Oldr--I think there's kind of a pass some people give themselves if they somehow beat the security. I recall years ago one of the department stores near me used to have a machine that dispensed shopping bags when you put in a coin (5 or 10 cents, it was a long time ago); however, everyone knew that if you just gave a bag a quick tug, the machine would dispense it for free, and most people did just that (even my mother and grandmother). At some point, I guessed the store noticed this and put in a new dispenser, one with just a coin box and no locking mechanism; people were expected to take a bag and leave the coin the box, but nothing stopped them from just taking it. According to someone we knew in the store management, the bag pilfering rate dropped to near zero when the store took this action. Sure, a few took them without paying, but most people did the right thing and paid, even if they hadn't before.

I think that's probably like what happened here; people who wouldn't ever shoplift or rob a store decided they beat the machine security, "won", and took their prize. Not right, but I think a common trait in many people. People who would never switch a price tag are willing to take the item at a lower price if the scanner messes up, people will take the extra soda dispensed by the machine in error but never take one from the case and walk out of the store, and people will hunt for the broken parking meter rather than pay a quarter to park their car. After all, it's a prize they "won".

[oldr_n_wsr]

I guess it's the "I got away with it" gene we all have that activates from time to time (me included).

Much of my drinking problems starte with "getting away with it". The thrill of the game.