Monday, February 26, 2007

ATMs and Murphy's Law

Everyone knows Murphy's Law's corollary regarding queues.
Whatever queue you're in is always the slowest one.

I had to go to the bank earlier, to transfer some money to my travel agent for a job-hunting vacation I am taking next week.

The agency I went to has five ATM machines and for once, they weren't too busy, with only one or two people waiting at each. So I stand in line at one of them, and (you see it coming) the person in front of me takes forever. I counted four people going through each of the other machines in the time I wait there.
And sure enough, as soon as I change lines, she's done...

I could rage at that person, call her names... but I don't, as I am a generally quiet and polite person. But that does not stop me from being quite irritated.

As I look around, it occurs to me that this bank has quick cash deposit machines, quick cheque deposit machines, quick passbook update machines, quick balance check machines...
It has quick everything except quick ATMs...

Furthermore, as ATMs now include more and more services (transfers, bill payments, tax payments, etc...) ATMs are becoming slower and slower.

Would banks consider having ATM express lanes? If you have more than 4 ATM machines, then at least one should be a fast one, where transactions are timed. 60 seconds after logging in, your card gets spit out. If you try to insert it again, you get redirected to another ATM line.

Sure, some people would rage at the whole hurry, hurry mentality, but that is the world we live in. At least in this city...

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