Cash Machine (ATM) WTF



  • Ok, so I go up to a cash machine (ATM to residents of the former colonies) and ask for £10 (Pounds Sterling). I get presented with this:

     
    OK, so it's run out of £10 notes, fine, but what does the £0 at the bottom mean?

    Well, it's offering to change my withdrawl to £0! WTF!? It should offer to change it to £20 (it says that's the minmum, after all) or just cancel it.

    Obviously, as I don't have access to the machine's innards, I must assume that it is correct, so I tell it so, and it actually tries to proccess a withdrawl of £0! WTF?! Of course, it then displays this screen (rather predictably):

    So I go back to the menu and do a withdrawl of £20. It works.

    Does anybody test these things? By the looks of it, the machine is quite old (all the new ones run Windows, another WTF), so surely they know about this bug? 

    Sorry for the poor quality images, they were taken with my phone camera. (Well, you don't expect me to carry a decent camera around with me do you?)



  • The first screen was expecting you to type in another amount, I think. So if you'd typed in 20 on the keypad it would have given you £20. I suppose it should have mentioned that, though :)



  • Oh, I see, so it's not so much of a bug, but a missing instruction. 

    I guess if I had entered the amount to begin with, rather than just selecting from the menu, I would have noticed that the screen layout was the same or something...

    So, WTF #1, allowing me to select unavailable amounts from the menu, WTF #2, not making it clear that I need to enter a new amount (I'm sure I'm not the only one fooled by that one).



  • If you insist on presenting invalid selections, you should at least mark them as invalid.

    Its like having an "Ok", "Cancel" box, and when click okay, you get a "Sorry, not implemented yet" message. If its not implemented, don't give me that option!



  • [quote user="mallard"]

    [/quote]

     

    Hmmm... actually I doubt you were supposed to enter a new amount. I mean, there are three options listed:

    - Press button if correct

    - Press button if incorrect

    - Press cancel to stop request (see bottom of the screen).

    If you were supposed to enter a new  amount, that would be what...? Accept/Cancel/Cancel, respectively? Well that'd be another WTF on itself, but I doubt that.

    It's much more obvious what it stands for if you can't type in a new amount, namely: Accept this amount/Change the amount/Cancel, respectively.

     

    But that again, I might be completely off... 



  • I can only assume that none of you have used a cash machine in England before :P That's a standard screen, you type in the amount you want.



  • Same method in Australia... You type an ammount at that prompt. I think it's a bit dumb not telling you that, but from memory, the old ATM at my bank was the same (just assumed you knew to type an ammount).

    Our new ATM (put in about 1 year ago) is still an old looking one though. 16 colours now though instead of 4, and has a better keypad, but thats it. Most of the other banks in town have photos on them, we get EGA graphics. And yes, it's one of the biggest banks in Australia. 



  • Seeing the picture I just thought: "Nice, a C64". But wtf, it's an ATM?!? I can't even remember having ever seen an ATM with such an interface.



  • I was going to mention that most of us Yanks could figure out that a cash machine is an ATM. But on second thought, I'm not so sure.


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