If I knew how to fix computers, would I be working here?

[Rhania506]

Ugh... idiots. What if they go to the bank and the teller's computer crashes? Do they get upset when the teller doesn't have the ability to replace a bad hard drive on the spot?

Yes. Yes they do. Loudly.

We just upgraded to a brand new teller system a few months ago and the bank is still working out some of the kinks. One of those kinks is that the program will sometimes just shut itself down in the middle of a transaction. When this happens, we have to restart the computer. It takes about 5-7 minutes to get back up and running. One of my coworkers says that this is what happens when you try to run a Playstation 3 game on an Atari.

This happened to me on Thursday on my last customer of the day. He is one of our regulars who usually comes in about 5 min before we close. He brought about 25 little deposits. All going into the same account. All that he insists must be done separately. Program fails at about transaction 17. Shit. I explain what happened and that it will take a few minutes to fix. By this time, the branch is closed and my coworkers are already balancing their windows or I could have passed the remaining deposits to them while the computer rebooted. He flipped out first on me and then on my manger that he is in a hurry and we are incompetent. And I shouldn't be a teller if I can't run an f-ing computer. I hate this entitled asshat.

[XCashier]

...He brought about 25 little deposits. All going into the same account. All that he insists must be done separately. Program fails at about transaction 17....He flipped out first on me and then on my manger that he is in a hurry and we are incompetent.

If he's in such a freaking hurry, why'd he come late in the day and bring 25 seperate deposits for the same account?! What an asshat. Pity you can't ban him, or at least some sense into him.

[TimmyHate]

Quick bit of advice... most computer crashes can be cured by turning them off and then back on.

I tried that once but the customer got all upity when I tried to find their power button

[lordlundar]

Quick bit of advice... most computer crashes can be cured by turning them off and then back on.

Good advice in theory, not so much in practice with kiosks. See, to prevent people from doing stupid stuff, the software is hardened (aka anything not needed for it's intended operation is locked out) and the hardware is locked up. The most accessible kiosk I have ever seen doesn't allow you to turn off anything more than the monitor.

At least, the well designed ones are like that. There are ones that are not properly hardened and the fun really begins.

[otakuneko]

There are ones that are not properly hardened and the fun really begins.

And when that one is an ATM......

Unfortunately, it's more common than most people now....

[Dreamstalker]

The most accessible kiosk I have ever seen doesn't allow you to turn off anything more than the monitor.

At least, the well designed ones are like that. There are ones that are not properly hardened and the fun really begins.

Ours have the screen power button more or less publicly accessible (but not obvious). The main power button is behind a small cover behind the monitor, and you can't see it at all from the front.

What's been happening is that a few customers will hard-shutdown the kiosk if it freezes; they've seen us do it before, so know where the magic button is

Being that it is a touchscreen, it is possible for one to get into the application/system setup on the main Windows screen (which ideally should not be possible) IF you're quick enough. Which one or two SCs have figured out how to do; they don't know what they're looking at past that, so haven't figured out how to be dangerous. Yet.

[DerangedHermit]

Ours have the screen power button more or less publicly accessible (but not obvious). The main power button is behind a small cover behind the monitor, and you can't see it at all from the front.

What's been happening is that a few customers will hard-shutdown the kiosk if it freezes; they've seen us do it before, so know where the magic button is

Being that it is a touchscreen, it is possible for one to get into the application/system setup on the main Windows screen (which ideally should not be possible) IF you're quick enough. Which one or two SCs have figured out how to do; they don't know what they're looking at past that, so haven't figured out how to be dangerous. Yet.

My store's new ones are like that. But on the older SCO's we have, the emergency power switch is a big red button under the stand where you put your basket and hidden behind a easily lifted cover, and I've actually had kids that played with the cover and accidentally hit the switch because they didn't know any better.

I haven't had any customers be as obnoxious as that, though. If the machine freezes, I'll shoo them off somewhere else first, then fix the register. The S*-It's are usually the cause of the machines freezing though (especially the older ones), and thank god it's pretty easy to recover it from the gun.