So, our coin machines are free to anyone who has an account at our bank. This is, normally, a wonderful thing. No more having drawer counts be off because of unverified rolls being off (we didn't always have time to check them before they got mixed in with other coin, and we could only credit/debit the account of the person turning in rolled coin if we checked their entire deposit without mixing any of their rolls in with the rolls of anyone else).
The coin machines have their own problems. We are responsible for changing out the bags, and they break way too often due to the non-coin crap that customers shove into them... or because a customer decides to wash their coin and toss the wet mess into the machine.
But for the most part, the machines are a vast improvement, and, being free, customers are generally happy with them as well.
Unfortunately, the coin machines produced a new breed of sucky customer: the coin collectors.
We were naive at first. A customer wanted to purchase a full bag of dimes ($1,000 in dimes, btw). Management didn't see any reason why not, so we did.
We sold it that week. And another the next. And another. Then a bag of dimes and of quarters too. And apparently we weren't the only branch selling our coin bags to a customer, a few others having picked up the practice. Two, three times a week. As many bags as we had full and ready for them.
Then communication channels came back around to us, and we discovered the, in retrospect obvious, follow up to our coin bag sales.
See, the customers bought the coins from us and another branch. Then they carefully searched through the bags for rare coins. And then they took all the non-rare coins back to a different branch, one where they were NOT doing the purchases, and they proceeded to fill that machine with thousands of dollars worth of coin.
And then one of the tellers had to babysit the machine to keep emptying the newly filled bags. For an hour or even longer. Multiple times a week.
Eventually management told us no more selling the bags. This caused a pause in the practice, but the customers were not to be deterred so easily. They switched branches, first. Then, discovering that we get our rolled coin from a security group instead of brand new from the federal reserve, they started buying boxes of rolled coin. My branch began to become the recipient of the purchased coin rather than the one selling. Management had to install a rule that only managers could authorize the sale of a full box of coin.
One customer started purchasing from another bank and turning in to us. A member of upper management ended up meeting with that customer, explaining that we do NOT have the staff for this level of cash handling and rather politely telling them to cease and desist or take their accounts elsewhere.
Fun fun.
The coin machines have their own problems. We are responsible for changing out the bags, and they break way too often due to the non-coin crap that customers shove into them... or because a customer decides to wash their coin and toss the wet mess into the machine.
But for the most part, the machines are a vast improvement, and, being free, customers are generally happy with them as well.
Unfortunately, the coin machines produced a new breed of sucky customer: the coin collectors.
We were naive at first. A customer wanted to purchase a full bag of dimes ($1,000 in dimes, btw). Management didn't see any reason why not, so we did.
We sold it that week. And another the next. And another. Then a bag of dimes and of quarters too. And apparently we weren't the only branch selling our coin bags to a customer, a few others having picked up the practice. Two, three times a week. As many bags as we had full and ready for them.
Then communication channels came back around to us, and we discovered the, in retrospect obvious, follow up to our coin bag sales.
See, the customers bought the coins from us and another branch. Then they carefully searched through the bags for rare coins. And then they took all the non-rare coins back to a different branch, one where they were NOT doing the purchases, and they proceeded to fill that machine with thousands of dollars worth of coin.
And then one of the tellers had to babysit the machine to keep emptying the newly filled bags. For an hour or even longer. Multiple times a week.
Eventually management told us no more selling the bags. This caused a pause in the practice, but the customers were not to be deterred so easily. They switched branches, first. Then, discovering that we get our rolled coin from a security group instead of brand new from the federal reserve, they started buying boxes of rolled coin. My branch began to become the recipient of the purchased coin rather than the one selling. Management had to install a rule that only managers could authorize the sale of a full box of coin.
One customer started purchasing from another bank and turning in to us. A member of upper management ended up meeting with that customer, explaining that we do NOT have the staff for this level of cash handling and rather politely telling them to cease and desist or take their accounts elsewhere.
Fun fun.
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