Brinks Shorted Me!

[DesertTumbleweed402]

So yesterday, I went to a bank and picked up exactly $470 in halves - I was skunked. I took the coins to my dump bank today and added about $10 extra dollars in coins to the dump. The Brinks coin machine in the lobby told me I dumped $408.39!! I notified the tellers that the machine shorted me and told them how much I brought in. Much to my dismay, I was told "huh, that's funny, that machine has never been off before... " I am a customer of this bank, so there was no fee. They told me they will have Brinks do an audit of the machine and give me a call later in the week. Any suggestions?

- DesertTumbleweed402

 

[cyberdan]

"huh, that's funny, that machine has never been off before... "

They mean no one has complained before. Most people bring in a small container and have no idea how much they have. Then when it gets counted (correctly or not) they just accept it.

I would fight it, that is a lot to be off.

 

[Scott (Mich)]

I had something similar almost happen to me. I mean similar as I took the results of my two boxes to the machine and I can up about $50 short.

Well the lobby machine is new and had never been wrong before so I called my wife to see if somehow I had missed opening a few rolls on my desk. There were no rolls laying on my desk, but I did happen to have a butter container full which I forgot to dump in my canvas bag. When I go through the halves I open the rolls, look them over and then throw them in a plastic butter dish. When the dish gets full I dump it in my bag. Well that week I got distracted and forgot about the last dish full.

Hopefully you will get reimbursed by your bank without too much of a hassle.

Happy Hunting,

Scott (MI)

 

[LJ]

That bites DTW. That is quite a bit to be short. I would pursue it also.

That happened to me once with a load of dimes. A bunch of them were counted as cents and i ended up about $140 short. I brought it up to the bank managers attention and this is what they did......

First, she made a copy of my receipt from the machine. These bins from the machine are all sent to the main branch to be counted and rolled into each denomination. Before they did this they re-ran this whole bin through the big machine at the main branch for a re-count. The machine was in fact wrong and they credited my account the difference. It took about 2 weeks for this process but they worked it out.

You might want to ask if they can do this with your bin. Good luck and keep us posted on the results of the outcome.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Almost happened to me a few days ago. The machine was real slow and wouldn't take my halves. When the teller looked to see what was wrong, the inside reject tray was FULL of my coins. Still don't know what the problem was, but got those coins back. Couldn't run the rest of them though, had to go to another bank.
On the bright side, bought $1000 bag of dimes on the way home. Found 11 keepers and when I dumped, I got $1022 back.

 

[GMan00001]

I have had that happen twice.... both times at the same branch..

one with nickels (was $10 or maybe a little more short in nickels.. they recounted and corrected my account)
The other was in halves when I was positive of the exact amount and they miscounted by a few dollars... they just gave the cash.

 

[DesertTumbleweed402]

So I got a call back from the bank and they told me that they re-counted the coins and ran some tests and that the machine was indeed accurate in its count from yesterday. Now what has me wondering is that could I have been shorted the $70 some dollars when I picked up the halves and not when I dropped them off?

 

[TooManyHobbies]

What form where they in when you picked up? Bag, boxes, loose? If in a bag you could'be been shorted.
BTW, If their coin machine was indeed accurate, how do they explain the .39? Was a fifth of one half dollar missing?

 

[Scott (Mich)]

So I got a call back from the bank and they told me that they re-counted the coins and ran some tests and that the machine was indeed accurate in its count from yesterday. Now what has me wondering is that could I have been shorted the $70 some dollars when I picked up the halves and not when I dropped them off?

Hmmm, we have a mystery here. If you assume the bank is correct with what they told you then you have the loss happening someplace else.

You may have already done this, but if not, I would check where the halves were when you were taking them home. Is it possible that some rolls fell out and are in your car?

If they are not in the vehicle you used to transport them to or from the bank then they might be at the place where you did the searching.

If you check everywhere and still come up with nothing there may be a chance there is a thief about. Years ago this person at my church used to rob the ladies purses. How she operated without being caught for so long was that she never took all of the money. If there was $100 in a purse she would grab a twenty. This way the person would think "gee I must be remembering incorrectly" and never realize they were robbed. What happened is that she got too greedy and too many people talked to each other about some missing money. They suspected who it was and set a trap and caught her. The thief's undoing was that she would always have to get up in the middle of a meeting and have to go use the restroom or something, thereby getting access to the place where the ladies left their purses. Why the ladies did not keep their purses within sight is unknown to me - maybe it was how things were with the older generation, more trusting and all.

I may sound a bit paranoid but I never search rolls if my wife or kids have any visitors. I do trust all of my friends but people do talk to other people and the last thing I want known to all my neighbors is that I search coins.

If there are no lost rolls or a thief the only thing to do is carefully count your dumps, then take them to the bank and see for yourself how accurate the coin counter is.

Good Luck,

Scott (MI)

 

[Silver_Fox]

I may sound a bit paranoid but I never search rolls if my wife or kids have any visitors. I do trust all of my friends but people do talk to other people and the last thing I want known to all my neighbors is that I search coins.

Paranoid? Sounds smart to me. I am the same way. Out of sight, out of mind

 

[DesertTumbleweed402]

The .39 cents came from some pocket change I got out of my car that I threw in with the dump. When I picked them up they were in rolls, I have never found a place that will let me buy bags, unfortunately.