jallison's Journal: Banks

I wrote to Bank of America to point out a few things about their ATM system and have put the note here for kicks. BofA's been running commercials here in SoCal about how wonderful their ATM system is going to be. As I point out in my note to them, the only thing I care about is the ability to deposit a check and get cash. Everything else I'll do online, or in extremis, inside the bank. Anyway, the note's below.

As a long-time BofA customer I have a couple comments on the evolution of ATMs in your system. This morning I swung by your La Habra branch (200 E La Habra Blvd) and saw that you have new systems installed there. I had intended to do a deposit/withdrawl, but all six envelope drawers were empty. So I settled for a plain withdrawl. Anyway, my comments on the new ATMs:

* I was asked if I want to use English every time, which I do. I assume this setting will be remembered. I never did understand why you did away with the old system of having dual English and Spanish prompts for "Enter your PIN and press this key." That got two operations with one key press.

* Fancy LEDs around the card slot. Do we really need this? I think most people will figure out where the card goes.

* Touch screen. This has got to cost more than the old softkey approach, and there's only one place this money comes from (me, the customer).

* Giant receipt. The new receipt is about 3.5" wide, which means I have to fold it to get it in my wallet. I think as a rule your receipts should not be larger than a piece of US currency.

Upgrades are great, but they should have a purpose. I suppose the touch screen enables a bunch of new features, but I doubt that I'll use any of them. For me the ATM is for deposits and cash dispensing. Everything else I do online.

Thanks for listening.

- Jeff Allison