Red_eye and his wife shop at Publix, but the ATM outside the store seems to break on a weekly basis. He asked Publix to look into the situation:
Hello,My wife and I are loyal Publix shoppers but we have recently had a great deal of trouble using the at entrance ATM located at store number XXXXX. It is constantly breaking almost weekly I would say. One of the primary reasons we use it is my wife shops with cash, and if she cant get cash while at your store she wont shop there. The store management has been very sympathetic however they said to write Publix Corporate because there isn’t anything they can do, hence this diatribe. Please address this problem with the ATM/Bank owner and get them to replace this broken faulty ATM with one that works since they have to fix it on nearly a weekly basis or soon the trouble for us and many others may make is simpler to shop elsewhere.
Publix responded the next day:
Mr. XXXXXX,We’ve reviewed the maintenance history of the ATM at your Publix store…
…It does indeed have a history of problems related to how the money bills are “picked” during a transaction. A contracted technician from Diebold was at the store Tuesday trying to determine once and for all how to fix the unit. They think it may be related to how the money is loaded into the cassette by the armored courier. The courier company has also been contacted and retraining has been conducted by them with their guards. We will watch this unit and any issues with it closely.I apologize that you have been frustrated during your visits to our store. We like to say we’re good at customer service so when something goes wrong we take it very seriously. I’m sorry that it happened multiple times until you had to finally contact us. That is the last thing we want you to have to do. Hopefully the fixes mentioned above will resolve the problems, but we will continue to monitor the situation.
If you have any questions or concerns about this or any other matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your store manager XXXXX XXXXX.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Retail Coordinator, Customer Service RBU
Publix Super Markets, Inc.
Great response, Publix! It is a shame more companies don’t take the time to send detailed, personalized responses to their customers. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
(Above and Beyond highlights exceptional and extraordinary acts of service performed by individuals. To nominate someone for inclusion, send your story to tips [at] consumerist [dot] com. Be sure to put “Above and Beyond” in the subject line.)
Publix takes time out for good customer service [Patently Stupid]
(Photo: JohnKit)
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Publix is excellent, they’re usually either cheaper or only slightly more expensive than Wal-Mart, and more importantly if there’s a line for a register…they OPEN ANOTHER ONE…which I’m never seen Wal-Mart do. Publix deli section usually has more than 1 person waiting on people too, not just one brain-dead stoner kid who hates you just as much as you hate his service. Spending an hour extra waiting in the store doesn’t justify maybe saving 5$ total on my shopping trip.
They also carry your groceries out to the car for free if you want, which all the little old ladies just love.
Ive never seen a publix in my life, but if they are such an exclusive store that they carry groceries to your car, then why dont they hire GOOD programmers that know *NIX. I mean, there are a lot of crummy programmers that only know windows. Trust me, that is not a plus. The only reason its windows, is because its easy to program cause you can hack up commercial software instead of making your own…
Anyways, it looks like they are not even programming properly for windows since they are not managing memory properly. Something is forcing itself as a foreground process. Only the gui should be foreground. If they programmed it properly, then the program should create a background thread or fork into a new process, so that program is always accessible, kinda like having two programs.
Anyways, running an X11 or console app on a *nix would be much faster and it would crash rarely, but thats after several month of continuous operation….not to mention the fact that your able to run ultrasecure applications on very old hardware. Not the case with windows….especially on these crummy atms, where they are usually running windows 98 because the equipment is old to be economical….
From what I know, I wouldnt even insert my card into any atm thats running windows, especially when its something that does with monetary transactions..
@shdwsclan:
Perhaps you should write diebold and make a business offer.
Wow quite a few comments. Let me see if I can explain why we use the Presto! ATM outside. I was born and raised in California, while living there I got into a very nice credit union that I am loathe to leave. Unfortunately there aren’t any branches here in Georgia where I now live. Presto ATM machines are part of the CO-OP network like my credit union so I incur zero fees for transactions made at them.
As for why we don’t simply use debit at the checkout, we use something similar to the Envelope Method ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_budget ) so when we do our weekly shopping my wife withdraws all of the grocery money for the pay period at once and spends it as needed. Plus there is a $1 fee for POS use.
As for Publix prices being high, thats all in how you shop. If you watch the deals and buy smartly you can save a substantial amount of money there, especially with their Sunday penny item.
Publix is great around here in Cola, SC. Because of the perception of higher prices, your undesirables tend to stay away. Therefore the stores stay cleaner and less crowded.
Dirtbags will travel a long way to shop at the Walmart. I hate trying to shop there. Until recently, they used to have signs that would say that this register is ALWAYS open and it would give a time frame. More than once I would be there and half of those registers are closed but with long lines. I asked the head cashier and she said they don’t have enough employees. She then gave me the evil eye when I said ‘Then just take down the sign if you can’t hire good people’
@getjustin: HEB isn’t so bad. You could shop at Randall’s, home of triple coupons (because everything there is three times more expensive than HEB).
Wegmans owns them all! Though Publix is good. And yes, meats and stuff from Wal-Mart are absolutely disgusting (not to mention the dirtyass people that shop there and put their grimy disease infested hands all over everything).
@joeblevins:
They can’t hire good people because they don’t pay anyone enough, it’s not the head cashier’s fault. Hell, the head cashier probably doesn’t make more than $8-9/hr anyways, so at that wage I wouldn’t be inclined to do anything mroe than necessary to keep my job.
Publix Cherry Nut Ice Cream= teh awesome!
“Ive never seen a publix in my life, but if they are such an exclusive store that they carry groceries to your car, then why dont they hire GOOD programmers that know *NIX. “
I highly doubt Publix hires the programmers. Dibold probably uses the same programmers (or even program) if the ATM is outside the Dollar Store as they do if the ATM is outside Publix.
Publix is in fact made of awesomeness (though I do agree that the management at the store should have contacted corporate instead of making the customer do it).
Some products are more expensive at Publix but most are non-food items that I can get at Dollar General or buy generic. You can save money by buying Publix brand food since it actually tastes good. Clean, bright stores and friendly staff. They’ve even offered to help me get my stuff to the bus stop.
Usually the best way to “catch” someone doing it is to snap a photo of their car (cell phone camera) in the spot then call your local police (city not state) as they are the one’s that enforce these laws.
@rugger_can: Catch someone doing what?
…..@Rectilinear: Uh… probably me, sneaking back into Publix this afternoon, and buying several pounds of absolutely perfect fresh okra and a tub of Crisco. (Totally digestible!) My fried okra craving got REALLY BAD!
…..I’m now kicked back in my chair like a beached whale, listening to my arteries tighten up…
@shdwsclan: The picture leading this article is not of a Publix ATM, so you can stop rambling on about the superiority of Unix in this instance.
As far as the others with their Diebold jokes, Publix ATMs are manufactured by NCR. And yes, they run Windows, and they work just fine.
Did anyone notice how the machine was produced by Diebold?
And isn’t it an expensive habit to withdraw money from an instore ATM? How much are fees for that kinda thing?
I don’t know why so many people have the perception that Publix is expensive. I heard that all the time while growing up, but once I actually started grocery shopping, I found that it just wasn’t the case… Publix prices are usually right in line with everyone else, and you get a clean store and friendly staff to boot, and no one can make a sub better than Publix.
Regardless of the managers actions, the reply letter was almost unreal in this day and age… It was sympathetic, addressed all the customers concerns, wasn’t condescending, and outlined not just one but several steps they were taking to correct the problem.