Drive through cash points

[Smudge]

A new sign in the Bank Lobby reads:

Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through ATM machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles.

Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts."

"After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE Procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender."

MALE PROCEDURE:

1. Drive up to the cash machine.

2. Put down your car window.

3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.

4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.

5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.

6. Put window up.

7. Drive off.

**********************************************

FEMALE PROCEDURE:

1. Drive up to cash machine.

2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.

3. Set parking brake, put the window down.

4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.

5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.

6. Attempt to insert card into machine.

7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.

8. Insert card.

9. Re-insert card the right way.

10. Dig through handbag to find diary; with your PIN written on the inside back page.

11. Enter PIN.

12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.

13. Enter amount of cash required.

14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.

15. Retrieve cash and receipt.

16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.

17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook.

18. Re-check makeup.

19. Drive forward 2 feet.

20. Reverse back to cash machine.

21. Retrieve card.

22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided!

23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.

24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.

25. Redial person on cell phone.

26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.

27. Release Parking Brake.

[kite]

[drpellypo]

All this makes me think of is the big lazy americans who can't even be bothered to get out of their car to draw cash out.

[ashleyadam]

[ QUOTE ]

All this makes me think of is the big lazy americans who can't even be bothered to get out of their car to draw cash out.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have red routes where you live? I can see a use for Drive in Cashpoint in London can be a nightmare sometimes, find parking space, park up, pay meter, then walk to bank just to get money out to buy newspaper.

[drpellypo]

No, but I have some really narrow country roads where there is literally nowhere to park! DIfferent world up here matey..

As for US - the drive through ATM's, for the most part, are not in congested areas - they are in the middle of nowhere. I stopped my car once and walked into the garage to pay for fuel, then walked about 20 steps over to the ATM and someone stopped me and asked me what I was doing. "I'm using the ATM" "So why don't you use your car?!" That wasn't a drive through - it was a normal ATM, but they were baffled that I had walked. Seriously, it's that bad out there. Really really scared me.

[SeanKHotay]

[ QUOTE ]

...As for US - the drive through ATM's, for the most part, are not in congested areas - they are in the middle of nowhere. I stopped my car once and walked into the garage to pay for fuel, then walked about 20 steps over to the ATM and someone stopped me and asked me what I was doing. "I'm using the ATM" "So why don't you use your car?!" That wasn't a drive through - it was a normal ATM, but they were baffled that I had walked. Seriously, it's that bad out there. Really really scared me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Holy cow, that is absolutely absurd!

Honestly, it's not that bad here...but it is admittedly not w/out a few absurdities. But I bet we can find them everywhere, right?

Like with the guy reading the paper while driving at 60mph, nature should eventually take over..

I hate those drive-up ATMs myself. Either too high or too far to reach from inside the car...Myself, I prefer the walk-ups which seem to be the majority version based on my experience (NE and MW US).

Doc, where were you staying in the States? It must have been a pretty bad experience. From your recent postings here in the RR, I really get the impression that you developed a serious distaste for us Yanks.

[garcon magnifique]

What I could never fully grasp in small town USA was that there were no pavements (sorry, sidewalks) ... every store has its own parking lot, everyone drives, no-one ever walks from one store to the next, and it has never occurred to planners that sidewalks might be used.

That and the fact these places had no centre - just a 'strip' full of fast food joints and drive-thru hardware stores.

[garcon magnifique]

By the way, I love the USA. Partly because, compared to Britain, it's so fecking huge, and so utterly different from state to state - moreso than travelling from country to country in Europe.

[SeanKHotay]

[ QUOTE ]

What I could never fully grasp in small town USA was that there were no pavements (sorry, sidewalks) ... every store has its own parking lot, everyone drives, no-one ever walks from one store to the next, and it has never occurred to planners that sidewalks might be used.

That and the fact these places had no centre - just a 'strip' full of fast food joints and drive-thru hardware stores.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha! You incorrectly assume planners acting in the the town's best interests were used, much less thought beyond the $...

Yeah, 'new' towns especially but even 'old' small towns are starting to reflect this capitalism run awry: strip malls, fast food joints, chain restaurants, big box stores, and huge malls built on the easy access highways and major traffic points...There's even some cities who's downtown is dead due to suburban sprawl.

It's a big issue especially negative for the city's financial survival...but you can still find small cities and towns with a true city center, however infrequent.

Another recent shopping development over here is something called a 'citywalk', quite the misnomer. It's a square block of stores and restaurants built on an empty lot where you park on the exterior and walk to/fro/within the store fronts like you did in the olden days.

Basically a glorified outdoor mall caked up to act like the downtown days of old. Lipstick on a plastic pig, I say...

How 'bout this? Did you know there is not one large food market in all of the city of Detroit?

I said there are some absurdities over here...

[SeanKHotay]

Oh, I forgot the biggest absurdity.

Drive-thru liquor stores.

[garcon magnifique]

Talking of absurdities, and back to the original post, why on earth do they put braille on the buttons of drive thru cash points?

[SeanKHotay]

[ QUOTE ]

...As for US - the drive through ATM's, for the most part, are not in congested areas - they are in the middle of nowhere. I stopped my car once and walked into the garage to pay for fuel, then walked about 20 steps over to the ATM and someone stopped me and asked me what I was doing. "I'm using the ATM" "So why don't you use your car?!" That wasn't a drive through - it was a normal ATM, but they were baffled that I had walked. Seriously, it's that bad out there. Really really scared me.

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, I've to come clean here...Just yesterday, I was in a similar situation as DrPP and GC describes.

The scene: Middle of semi-rural US, no pavements/sidewalks anywhere, two mini-market stores on opposite corners of an intersection.

The situation: My preferred store doesn't have one item for which I search so I decide to go across to the other store.

I admittedly almost did the stereotypical 'Merican thing, climbing back in the car to drive there until I think it's the silly decision, even before recalling our conversation here...

But, to the point, the clerk in the 2nd store, apparently watching me thru the window, stated she was amazed that I actually walked all the way to her store, a whole 100yds thru a 'dangerous' intersection.

(Side story: Walking across the intersection to the other store, I'm floored ('amazed', not 'pounded into the pavement, err, tarmac') by a turning-right Jeep Grand Cherokee driver who actually *stops for me* before charging thru the turn...)

[drpellypo]

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

...As for US - the drive through ATM's, for the most part, are not in congested areas - they are in the middle of nowhere. I stopped my car once and walked into the garage to pay for fuel, then walked about 20 steps over to the ATM and someone stopped me and asked me what I was doing. "I'm using the ATM" "So why don't you use your car?!" That wasn't a drive through - it was a normal ATM, but they were baffled that I had walked. Seriously, it's that bad out there. Really really scared me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Holy cow, that is absolutely absurd!

Honestly, it's not that bad here...but it is admittedly not w/out a few absurdities. But I bet we can find them everywhere, right?

Like with the guy reading the paper while driving at 60mph, nature should eventually take over..

I hate those drive-up ATMs myself. Either too high or too far to reach from inside the car...Myself, I prefer the walk-ups which seem to be the majority version based on my experience (NE and MW US).

Doc, where were you staying in the States? It must have been a pretty bad experience. From your recent postings here in the RR, I really get the impression that you developed a serious distaste for us Yanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don;t get me wrong - I love the US. I was just baffled at how many people thought Europe was a country, who thought that the only place in the UK was London, and how bad they drove! I was so determined for them to not live up to the stereotypes, but they did, and much much more. Perhaps it was isolated though, as you say. I'm sure they aren't all like that! I lived in various places around the Florida panhandle - Tampa, Panama City Beach, Tallahassee (the most boring place in the world) and I visited a few other places for a while.