Archive for the ‘Company news’ Category

Phil Rock statement on ATM fee caps

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Today, ATM Network founder Phil Rock sent the following letter to key senators regarding a proposed cap on ATM fees.

If you agree, please link to this post. You can also email a copy of the letter to your senator using the links at the bottom of this page. Or sign the ATMIA petition.

May 17, 2010
The Honorable Christopher Dodd
448 Russell Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator,
I am writing to urge you to oppose Amendment #3812 to S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, which places caps on ATM surcharges.
I own ATM Network, an independent ATM company based in Minnesota. For the past 14 years, my company has sold and provided transaction processing for nonbank ATMs; we now have more than 5,000 customers nationwide, including grocery stores, bowling alleys, bars, restaurants, amusement parks, nightclubs, stadiums, retail stores and gas stations.
The case for ATM fees is simple: Without them, most nonbank ATMs wouldn’t exist. ATM owners must buy the machine, maintain it, keep it loaded with cash and paper, provide it with power and a communication link and pay other costs such as insurance and installation. None of this is free. The fees are what make such an investment viable.
This amendment would immediately reduce the number of ATMs available, slash the value of existing investments in ATM equipment, hurt the bottom line of hundreds of thousands of small business owners nationwide and put thousands of entrepreneurs out of business.
The Harkin amendment is promoted as “consumer friendly”, but how do consumers benefit from seeing ATMs disappear from stores, restaurants and gas stations? How does the economy benefit by removing machines that dispense billions of dollars in cash annually — money that drives sales and boosts our economy? How does cutting jobs and hurting small businesses help anyone?
Government intervention in market pricing may be justified when the free market is unable to set fair prices. But in this case the free market is working just fine. ATM surcharges are transparent and easily avoidable, and the sheer number of ATMs means customers always have a choice. They can go down the street to a machine with a lower surcharge, or to an ATM owned by their bank. Or they can skip the ATM altogether and pay with credit cards or checks.
With so many alternatives, an ATM surcharge is a purely voluntary payment for convenience. Anyone who doesn’t want to pay the fee can either use an ATM owned by their bank or get cash the old-fashioned way: by standing in line at a teller window. Most consumers don’t want to do that. They have grown up in a world filled with ATMs, and they expect easy access to ATMs. They appreciate the convenience and choice that nonbank ATMs provide. Because of ATM fees, customers can get cash nearly anywhere, at any time. Without the fees, they won’t.
The Harkin amendment would take us 10 steps backward and be disastrous for small businesses across the country. It will hurt the consumers it purports to help and damage our economy just as we’re pulling out of a deep recession. I strongly urge you to oppose this amendment and avoid harm to hundreds of thousands of hardworking American citizens.

Sincerely,

Phil Rock
Founder and President
ATM Network
10749 Bren Rd. E.
Minnetonka, MN 55343

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Write to your senator
You can email your home-state senators, as well as the heads of the Senate Banking Committee, using these links:

Senator Christopher Dodd, Chairman, Senate Banking Committee

Senator Richard Shelby, Ranking member, Senate Banking Commitee

Senator Tom Harkin, amendment sponsor

Senate Banking Commitee

Find your home-state senators

Tags: ATM, atm fees, ATM machines, Cash machine
Posted in Company news, Industry news | 4 Comments »

Mastercard raises fees for ATM owners

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

With little warning and no consultation, Mastercard has changed the ATM fee structure for Mastercard-branded cards, as well as its Cirrus card network.

The changes are complicated, but they break down into two basic categories:

1. Mastercard pays an “interchange fee” on every ATM withdrawal involving its Mastercard/Cirrus networks. As of April 1, MasterCard cut those payments by 30 percent.

2. Mastercard charges a fee for any transaction involving its Mastercard and Cirrus networks. As of April 16, Mastercard more than tripled that fee.

Added together, Mastercard is cutting its per-transaction payment by more than 62 percent on most transactions — dealing serious harm to every nonbank company that deploys ATMs. Overall, the move is expected to cost the nonbank ATM industry up to $26 million a year.

Other cards and networks currently are not affected.

BOTTOM LINE
Here’s what it means for ATM owners and operators: As of April 1, Mastercard is taking an additional 28 cents or so from every Mastercard-related transaction processed by a nonbank ATM.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
We will give the Mastercard deduction its own line on our monthly statements, so you can see exactly how much this affects your residual amounts.

We recommend raising your surcharge to cover the Mastercard/Cirrus pass-through. You might consider urging your customers to use any other card, such as Visa, Discover, American Express or regional banking cards.

You can also contact Mastercard/Cirrus directly at 1-800-627-8372.

For further updates, announcements and current industry headlines, check the “News” section on our ATM Network home page.

Tags: ATM, atm fees, ATM machines, Cash machine
Posted in ATM operators, ATM owners, Company news, Finance, Industry news | Comments Off

ATM Network adds online ATM feature comparison chart

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

ATMs are powerful, flexible pieces of equipment. They accurately and reliably encrypt data, process transaction, dispense cash, communicate with customers and prevent theft.

But that also means they can be complicated. ATMs come in a bewildering array of shapes, sizes and features. Figuring out which machine is best for your situation can be difficult.

Probably the best and easiest approach is to call an independent distributor like ATM Network and speak to an account representative. Independent distributors sell ATMs from lots of different manufacturers. They know the products and don’t have a stake in a particular brand or model, so they can discuss the pros and cons of each machine and how it fits your specific situation.

But for people who like to research things themselves, or just want to get an idea of what kind of questions to ask, ATM Network has created an interactive ATM feature comparison chart on our website.

Choose up to three machines, and the page will list their features side-by-side in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand chart.

Want to have the list handy when you talk with an account rep? Just print it out for easy reference.

ATM Network has always considered an informed customer our best customer: we’re confident that the more you know, the more you’ll appreciate ATM Network’s combination of value, experience and service. The new comparison chart is just one more way we put our money where our mouth is.

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ATM Network moves customer statements online

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Tax time can be a headache for many small business owners. It’s not just that business tax rules can be confusing and arbitrary. Spring is the time when you have to go through a year’s worth of saved receipts and paperwork, trying to find a specific number or form, and hoping you didn’t accidentally throw out or misfile an important piece of paper.

At ATM Network, we understand this very well. Every year at this time we get a lot of calls from our customers. Usually it’s because their accountant needs to know how much money they made on their ATMs last year, and they didn’t save all the monthly statements we sent them with their checks.

It’s an even bigger headache for people who own a lot of ATMs. Someone with 80 machines has to keep track of — and add up — nearly 1,000 different monthly statements. The headache can be enormous.

Then there are the checks themselves. Paper checks can get lost, stolen or damaged. They take days to arrive. And machine owners have to take them to the bank, physically endorse them and deposit them.

At the end of 2009, ATM Network took a big step toward making things easier for customers by switching from paper checks to electronic payments. Customer profits are deposited directly in their bank account — automatically, without risk, and usually 10 days or so earlier than with paper checks.

Now ATM Network has taken the next step with Webstatements, its online statement archive.

Instead of receiving and storing a paper statement, customers can login to their Webstatements account to view their machine’s financial results.

They can see total activity for all of their machines, or view each machine individually. They can sort results by month and year. And if they do want paper copies, they can print out individual statements for all of their machines with a single click of the mouse.

The online statements contain all the information that used to be on ATM Network’s paper statements: profit information, daily activity, network activity, and more. So it’s easy to see at a glance how a machine is being used and how profitable it is.

Webstatements works in conjunction with ATM Portal, an online reporting service that tracks up-to-the-minute activity and keeps track of daily operating items like how much cash remains in each machine. ATM Portal provides daily reporting; Webstatements provides monthly summaries, as well as customer-specific financial information unavailable through ATM Portal.

It’s just one more way that ATM Network provides its partners with top-of-the-line service and accountability.

Tags: ATM, ATM for sale, ATM machine, ATM machine for sale, ATM machines, ATM machines for sale, ATMs, ATMs for sale, Buy ATM, Buy ATM machine, Buy ATM machines, Buy ATMs
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ATM Network launches online store

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Great prices. Great selection. Great service. Straightforward pricing and ongoing customer support.

Those are the principles that ATM Network was founded on 14 years ago. Those are the principles that have made us one of the largest and most successful ATM companies in the country. And those principles drove the design and construction of ATM Network’s new online store, now open at http://www.atmnetwork.net/store.

Naturally, you’ll find all the things you expect from an online store. Compare features and prices on ATMs from major manufacturers like Nautilus Hyosung, Triton and Hantle USA (formerly Tranax). Build your own ATM, adding only the features you want. Browse our selection of parts, supplies and accessories. Taxes and shipping are calculated automatically based on your shipping address. When you’re ready, buy your selections using our secure checkout system.

But we didn’t stop there. Here are some things you’ll get from us that you won’t see at our competitors:

1. Transparent pricing. Add an item to your shopping cart, and you’ll immediately see your tax and shipping charges. Too many stores try to hide that from you until your purchase is nearly complete. You can also change your shipping options at any time to see what each option costs.

2. Free shipping, processing and sign package with every ATM. Every ATM includes free shipping anywhere in the continental United States, free transaction processing, and a free sign package, including a colorful door sticker and a neon sign to advertise your ATM.

3. Custom options. Want your own customized ad screens? We can make them for you. Want to advertise or print coupons on your customers’ receipts? We can do that, too.

4. Upgrades. We can take a dial-up machine and let it hook into your Internet connection. We can take any machine and equip it to use a wireless connection, freeing you from phone lines and Ethernet cables.

5. Paper in any quantity. Most online retailers require you to buy rolls of receipt paper by the case. Who needs that? With us, you can buy paper in any quantity you want, from one roll to multiple cases.

6. Merchant services. We’re not just an ATM company. We offer a full range of merchant services, including free check-collection and low-fee credit-card processing.

As a full-service ATM company, we also deliver extras that the wholesalers can’t match. When you buy from us you get more than just a hunk of machinery. You get a nationwide installation, training and service network. You get 24/7 customer support. You get free transaction processing. You get free online monitoring and management of your machine and your income statements.

Come visit our site to learn more about us, and our store to see what we have to offer. Then you’ll understand why so many ATM owners choose ATM Network as their partner.

Visit us at http://atmnetwork.net/store.

Tech Tales: The Case of the Silent ATM

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Editor’s note: ATM Network technicians have the experience to solve even the thorniest problems, and routinely go above and beyond to do so. This is one such story.

About a month after installing an ATM in a bar in western Minnesota, the machine stopped communicating with the transaction server, making transactions impossible. A tech went down to check it out.

The machine worked properly when it was installed, so the technician figured that a component must have gone bad. He replaced the communications cable and several circuit boards, including the mainboard, but it still didn’t work. So he called in our troubleshooting team.

The first thing the team did was re-replace everything, just to be sure. Nothing helped.

Then they examined connections. The bar had a local computer network. The machine was hooked into that, using the network’s Internet connection to transmit transactions instead of a dedicated phone line.

So they began to ask the bar owner questions: Had there been any additions or changes to the network? Any differences at all? No. Further, the owner’s computer used the network for Internet access, and it worked just fine. That suggested the problem was with the ATM, not the network.
Then the bar owner mentioned that he had installed some security cameras in the bar, and that they weren’t working, either. And come to think of it, the ATM had stopped working after the cameras were installed.

The team went to look at the cameras. They were hooked into the network so that they could send their images to the owner’s computer. But why weren’t they working? And how could they have affected the ATM but left the owner’s computer unharmed?

On the Internet, central computers called DNS (domain-name servers) keep track of the location – known as “IP addresses” — of everything connected to it. Think of them as a giant directory, listing the address of computers so that messages can be sent and received from them. If a machine isn’t listed in the DNS, it’s invisible.

Networks like the one installed in the bar connect to the Internet through a router. Each router does two things: it keeps a list of devices connected to the network, and serves as the gateway connecting those devices to the Internet. That way the DNS only needs to know the address of the router; the router takes care of distributing incoming and outgoing messages for everything on the local network.

There are two ways for a router to handle addresses for its devices. A device can have a fixed, “static” address that never changes, or the router can assign a new “dynamic” address every time a device connects to it. Dynamic assignment is generally preferable, because it doesn’t require manually setting addresses for each individual device. It’s managed using a DNS setting on the router.

A quick check showed that the cameras and the owner’s computer had static addresses, while the ATM used a dynamic address. Which was confusing, because of the two devices with static addresses, one worked and one didn’t. The problem wasn’t as simple as “static good, dynamic bad.”

Thinking it over, the team decided that maybe the problem was with the router. So they checked it – and discovered that the DNS settings weren’t enabled for dynamic addresses. As far as the ATM could tell, it was properly connected, but its communications were hitting a wall at the router.
The owner enabled the settings, and the ATM worked perfectly.

But how had the problem occurred in the first place? Remember that the ATM worked when it was first installed, then stopped working when the cameras were installed. And the cameras, despite being on static IP addresses, still didn’t work.

After another round of questions, it turned out that the camera installer inadvertently disabled the router’s DNS settings during installation, knocking the ATM off the network.

And the cameras themselves? They weren’t working because of a separate installation error. Their problem was totally unconnected to the problem that took down the ATM. But it *looked* related, complicating the diagnosis of the problem.

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‘I don’t feel like a client; I feel like I am their friend.’

Friday, November 13th, 2009

A letter we received this week from a new client:

Over the past 3-4 weeks we have been converting our ATM machines to ATM Network. At first, the task seemed insurmountable. We were in a race against time with our previous vendor, who temporarily locked us out of the data-tracking website; shut down one of our machines; removed another one of our machines from a very profitable site and replaced it with his own machine without any discussion with us; and then, it appears, starting changing system and maintenance passwords….

Our initial contacts with Steve Fisher gave us not only confidence in your company, but hope to save our small business. He is diligent about returning e-mails and phone calls and communication was our lifeline. He, in turn, got (service manager) Tom James involved; and I cannot tell you how helpful, kind and patient Tom has been through all of this. With Tom walking me through every step, we did a whirlwind of conversions. I made mistakes, dumped screens, etc. but thankfully became more proficient with each conversion. Although I have not met Tom … he is one of the most decent, caring and helpful individuals I have ever communicated with.

I don’t know how many clients give you feedback; but I wanted you to know what a fine team you have put together. … Most of all, I don’t feel like a client; I feel like I am their friend.

Lori Manning
Independent OSO

Read more customer testimonials on our testimonials page, or by clicking on the “Endorsements” category in the left column.

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Tech Tales: The Case of the Tampered Keypad

Monday, November 9th, 2009

keypad

Editor’s note: ATM Network technicians are so experienced that they routinely uncover and solve problems that the manufacturers themselves missed. This is the story of one such incident.

Because ATM transactions involve money and personal financial information, they are heavily encrypted – the data encoded so that neither the ATM owner nor anyone who sees the data stream can read it.

Specifically, whenever a customer types information — like, say, their PIN number — into an ATM keypad, the keypad takes the number and runs it through a mathematical algorithm that encodes the PIN so that only the transaction-processing server can read it.

Because the algorithms are the key to reading the encrypted information, they’re treated with a level of security normally reserved for nuclear launch codes. The manufacturer keeps control of the algorithm, and distributes a randomly generated “master key” that can decode it. The key is broken into two halves. The manufacturer keeps one half; the other half is split in half again and the pieces sent to ATM Network. Each piece is entered by different people, and the ATM downloads the manufacturer’s half from a secure server. So no one has the whole key.

A few years ago, a major manufacturer’s machines began dropping their encryption. Rather than send unencrypted information, the machines took themselves out of service, displaying an error code saying the keypads had been tampered with.

Except the keypads hadn’t been tampered with. Plus it was happening a lot: some merchants were calling twice a week. And every time it happened, the only way to fix it was to install a new master key — which meant sending out two techs with the two halves of the code, or sending out a tech with one half and mailing the other half to the machine’s owner. Either way, it was a lot of expensive service calls.

Our troubleshooting team got involved. Since the error code mentioned keypads and the keypads were part of the encryption process, they began replacing keypads and sending the old keypads back to the manufacturer for examination. That sometimes solved the problem, but more often than not the replacement keypads would fail, too.

The manufacturer wasn’t being particularly helpful, so the team sat down to examine the keypads.

Each pad had a circuit board on the back that contained the encryption chips. The board drew power from the ATM, with a battery backup in case the power went out. The team tested the board, checking connections, looking for broken circuits and so on. Everything seemed fine.

Then a tech noticed that the backup battery appeared to be loose. Closer examination revealed that it wasn’t soldered to the board. A quick test confirmed that it was able to move just enough to disrupt the circuit bringing power to the encryption chips.

But so what? It was the battery backup, not the main power line. The problem would only affect the machine if it lost power.

Unfortunately, the machine was designed so that resetting any error code — including “out of paper” or “out of cash” messages — required turning off the power. Some quick checking confirmed that the problem only cropped up when the machine lost power or was turned off.

The solution? Resolder the battery to the board.

ATM Network alerted the manufacturer, which addressed the problem in a technical bulletin. But instead of fixing the problem by properly soldering the boards during production, the manufacturer just updated the machine’s software so error codes could be reset without turning the machine off.

Because of that, the problem still crops up from time to time. Every time it does, ATM Network technicians fix the problem permanently by resoldering the boards.

Neither the manufacturer nor any other company had managed to solve the mystery. Indeed, the manufacturer was spending a small fortune on replacement keypads. Only ATM Network had the expertise and dedication to find a solution.

Postscript: Issues like this are one reason ATM manufacturers are starting to build in remote key capabilities into their software: it allows master keys to be sent and managed electronically, increasing security while cutting down on the need for technician visits. Listen to this remote key webinar if you’re interested in learning more about them.

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Tech Tales: The Case of the Missing Internet

Monday, October 26th, 2009

404

Editor’s note: ATM Network technicians have the experience to solve even the thorniest problems, and routinely go above and beyond to do so. This is one such story.

When ATM Network installed an ATM in a county licensing bureau, they set it up to use an Internet connection instead of a phone line. That was both faster and cheaper for the client, since the government office where it was located already had a high-speed Internet connection, and using it meant the ATM didn’t need a separate dedicated phone line.

There was only one problem: the Internet connection didn’t work. The machine kept reporting that it would connect to the transaction server, only to have the transaction server drop the connection in the middle of transactions.

ATM Network spent two weeks and five visits troubleshooting. Our techs met with the county’s IT department, who assured us that their network was working fine, and the problem had to be the ATM. But our troubleshooting team couldn’t find anything wrong with the ATM.

The team ran Internet traces and got a puzzling result: the machine reported that the server was dropping connections, while the server reported that the machine was dropping connections. It should have been one or the other, not both.

Finally, the team hauled the machine back to the ATM Network warehouse, set it up there, and ran a test transaction. The Internet connection worked flawlessly.

Certain that the problem was with the network, the team went back to the county’s IT department and began asking questions, tracing the exact path that the ATM data followed through the network.

It turned out that the data first went through a city router (the licensing bureau was located in a city-owned building), then a county router, then a state router before being sent on to the transaction server.

The team tracked down each router and examined them. They discovered that the middle router — the one owned by the county — had a web filter on it.

A web filter is software that restricts access to certain sites. So if you don’t want your employees playing online games, you would set your filter to block the addresses of known gaming sites.

For some reason that filter had decided it didn’t like the address of the transaction server, and was blocking it.

Rather than totally disable the web filter or risk it blocking transactions again later on, the team gave the ATM a unique “static” address and then exempted that address from the filter. The machine has worked perfectly ever since.

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ATM Network on Facebook and Twitter

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

ATM Network is now on Facebook and Twitter! Now it’s easier than ever to keep up with ATM Network, industry news and the best collection of just-plain-fun ATM photos and stories on the planet. Subscribe to our Twitter feed and get email alerts about new blog posts — and be the first to hear about specials and new products.

To subscribe, click on the links or images. If you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account, you’ll be prompted to set one up. It takes just a few seconds, and then you’ll be connected to the ATM Network, er, network.

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