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I'm pretty sure the joke is that she was inside the bank, likely talking to... A teller, asking about an automated teller machine.
Just talk to the people inside and ask them to help you. It's literally their job.
You’d think, but my bank is actively becoming hostile towards people walking in.
My debit card literally never works at the ATM, so I just take the 2 minutes to walk in and fill out a withdrawal form. It’s fine for the occasional need for cash.
Last time, they basically told me, in the future were requiring your debit card for security. There isn’t any reason for you to come in.
I would counter that with: "if you'd give me a debit card that worked, I wouldn't have to"
Yeah they want to fire at least some of the tellers.
I just hand them my debit card inside and tell them what I want. Usually with an apology that I haven't filled out a deposit/withdrawal form. Most of the time the teller will say it's fine and the same amount of work for them either way. I'm sure it depends on the bank or branch, and I personally try to avoid the bigger banks like Bank of America or Chase just because their fees are so much higher and I hear their service is worse, so that's probably a factor as well.
I walked into a big bank ™ once looking to take out a loan.
They said: "Sorry, we don't do personal loans anymore."
I blinked for a moment and went: "You are a bank -- who doesn't do loans?"
She blinks back and says: "We do business loans, and we have mortgages but that's all online. You can download our app."
I'm like: "Yes, but I came into the bank, to take a loan, in person."
She just stood there and smiled.
I felt like I was taking crazy pills, but she told the truth. Most banks are for/about business transactions. Our personal accounts are a drop in the bucket for them. Even if they stand to make ~10% interest on a giant loan -- it sometimes doesn't pay for them to bother.
That's why capitalism will fall apart eventually -- the idea of "too big to fail" and capital concentration removes the fear from these institutions in carrying out their basic purpose as defined in their corporate charters :)
Last time i talked to a teller, he walked me to a machine and explained me how it worked.
Apparently that person wants to be unemployed.
Apparently you don't do a lot of banking.
I try to avoid banks. They generally don't make my life easier.
Edit: I'll add that, if tellers direct everyone to the ATM, so much so that the ATM is the only thing people use, then tellers won't be needed anymore. Thus unemployed.
Short story: when I was working grocery, at the tail end of my tenure was the start of the self-service checkout. The boss wanted us to encourage people to use self service checkouts. Nobody did, for obvious reasons.
Just talk to the people inside
Some banks literally charge a fee to do the same transaction that is cheaper/free at an ATM from what I've heard.
Sounds like a good reason to change banks
No, it doesn't. You don't have enough information to say something like that. Maybe the ATM fees they offer are the cheapest transaction fees in the city, and you are a customer who needs to optimize for transaction fee. Someone with those needs is going to prefer a bank that charges more for services that cost more to provide and offers a price break on services that are not as costly to provide.
Really licking the boots of an entity that exists to hold your money while making money off your money.
If it makes you feel better to see it that way, that's okay with me.
There are things that you can do at an ATM that you can't do at some banks, or will have shorter overall wait times.
You can't always walk into a small credit union and withdraw money/deposit cash from a bank account with a different institution, but you can do that at their ATMs.
I find that regardless of bank, if you talk to a teller, you need to have an account with the bank you are physically in.
There's very little they can do for you without it.
I've had banks I don't have an account with occasionally replace a damaged dollar bill of some value or another, or do some limited currency conversion, eg, getting a roll of quarters or something, in exchange for the cash I have on hand... Beyond that, they basically tell you to leave.