money counting machines at Lloyds TSB

[maggeeee]

Do all of the branches have this machine? The cashiers have been loading money straight into them. On 3 occassions, they have disputed the amount that I had written down. On the 2nd occassion, there was only one £5 note in my pile of cash, but according to the machine, there was not a £5 note there.

I have seen other times when all the money was jammed inside, and had to be cleared out.

I always count my money 3-4 times before taking it into the bank to avoid these situations, but according to them, the machine is correct, and they are never willing to cooperate.

On my third time, it says that I was £20 short. After a long argument, they agreed to open the top of the machine to check if it was jammed, but it wasn't. Had they counted the money by hand first, then I could've counted it at the same time, and there wouldn't be a problem. The problem is that they don't count the money before loading it all into the machine, which cannot be 100% accurate. They have agreed to give me a call if the bank does not balance. But a lot of things can happen. £20 is not a lot of money, just 1 mistake, and it could end up somewhere else.

Has anyone had the same problem?

 

[maggeeee]

I think the OP is referring to note counters. I dont' think that they are as accurate as people are led to believe. I have only had to deal with one once, it counted differently so I asked for all the money to be returned.

Yes. I found out today that they're called TCR (teller cash recycler).

I would really like to know how they work, because from what I can observe is that money goes in, and some of it is stored, and whatever the TCR cannot count comes back out which is then checked manually. So it appears that money is stored before I can even have a say. But i cannot be sure. What i can be sure of is that it does jam.

On another occasion, less than half of the money that i handed over came back out of the TCR. On that 1 occasion they agreed to open it up to find lots of money jammed within different compartments. So my point is that they should manually count it before loading the machine such that any discrepancies can be solved before the money disappears. Even though I have been reassured that everything is stored in the 1st compartment to start off with, I cannot trust them on that.

Also, an update, they phoned me to say that the till had the correct amount to the penny. The manager also told me that she does not lie. How reassuring

 

[maggeeee]

Just ask them to hand count it when you pass the money over. Let them know you don't like the machine being used as there have been mistakes in the past.

Can't see it being much of an issue beyond you becoming know as 'that guy'.

Yes I have tried that. The cashier told me that the TCR is accurate and anything missing can be located by opening up the machine. So that was a lie

 

[maggeeee]

So they put the money in the machine and it just sticks in there, if you dispute it the teller cannot then manually count it?

Seems a bit strange, especially if you have a dispute.

if it is stuck in the there. The cashier will manually count whatever comes back out. they're not interested in what is stuck because they don't believe anything will be stuck

 

[maggeeee]

this now seems to be the most obvious answer tbh

On the second occasion I did suspect this, but on the third occasion where I could see the only £5 note going in, which then disappeared when the money came out...No

I know that nobody can ever be certain. Which is why I do not trust the machine. But based on the 4 occasions, I know that I was right in at least 2 of the 4 occasions, and managed to retrieve my money from 1 of them.