Pennies just became a little bit more useless. TD Bank’s Penny Arcade coin-counting machines have been a useful perk for the bank’s customers and non-customers, letting them convert jars full of loose change into useful cash. After an NBC news test turned up inaccuracies in the machines and a customer sued over his miscounted coins, TD Bank is ending the program and will eventually remove the machines.
Since an April NBC report, the bank’s branches had just suspended the change-counting machines, saying that they were under re-evaluation. Machines were supposed to be tested daily for accuracy, but a team from Today found that the final count varied when they dumped in exactly $300. They were off by amounts as low as $.05, and as much as $43.10.
The bank’s head of consumer banking explained to CNN that while free coin-counting was a longtime service for their customers, it was time to end the Penny Arcade program.
“[R]ecent accounts regarding the performance of our Penny machines have led us to reassess this offering,” he explained. “We have determined that it is difficult to ensure a consistently great experience for our customers.”
The amusing irony in all of this is that TD Bank is the United States offshoot of Canada’s Toronto Dominion Bank, and Canada began phasing out pennies from their currency back in 2012.
Horror! TD Bank dumping Penny Arcade coin machines [CNN]
Coin-counting machines may be shortchanging you [Today]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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