Posts Tagged ‘ATM machine’

Georgia Lottery selects ATM Network for lottery promotion

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Want to win a real ATM filled with cash?

You can…. if you play the Win For Life game run by the Georgia Lottery.

Nonwinning tickets can be entered in a second-chance drawing. On July 31 a grand-prize drawing will be held. The top prize? A real Tranax 1700W ATM, provided by ATM Network and filled with $52,000 in cash.

The ATM itself is worth a couple of thousand dollars, so it’s really a $54,000 payoff. And if you find a location to install it (with free processing from ATM Network), it could be the start of a business.

The promotion is being advertised with full-size cardboard displays (that’s what the picture’s of) in more than 8,000 stores statewide, with the ATM Network logo right in the center.

Who says ATMs can’t be fun?

Tags: ATM, ATM for sale, ATM machine, ATM machine for sale, ATM machines, ATM Network, Cash machine, Endorsements, Fun
Posted in Company news, Endorsements, Fun | No Comments »

Tranax files for bankruptcy

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

After losing a $5 million court fight with former partner Nautilus Hyosung, ATM manufacturer Tranax Technologies has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

Tranax Technologies Inc., an ATM manufacturer that sells machines to independent sales organizations, has filed for Chapter 7 voluntary bankruptcy, citing debts of $1 million to $10 million. Tranax said its assets equal its estimated liabilities.

The Hayward, Calif.-based company filed June 11 in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. In its bankruptcy filing, obtained by ATMmarketplace.com, Tranax listed 13 creditors, including Hyosung Corp. of America.

Tranax’s bankruptcy filing occurred less than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker entered a judgment May 25, ordering Tranax to pay Hyosung America Inc. and its parent company, Nautilus Hyosung Inc., $5.01 million plus daily interest of $1,742.52 until Tranax pays its debt. Nautilus Hyosung had to wait 14 days from that date before taking action to seize property to satisfy Walker’s ruling. Walker issued his ruling May 6.

As noted in our earlier post, there may be more to the bankruptcy than first appears:

In 2008 Tranax was acquired by Hantle USA. This year, the company announced that Hantle would take over ATM marketing, while Tranax would focus on kiosks, scanners and ATM components. Hyosung is now suing Hantle USA, alleging that Hantle USA has taken over many of Tranax’s assets, making it difficult for Hyosung to collect the judgment.

Chapter 7 means Tranax will be shut down and its remaining assets sold off to satisfy creditors, including Nautilus Hyosung. But while the Tranax name will go away, Tranax’s line of ATMs and ATM products will continue to be sold and developed under the Hantle brand.

However, if Nautilus Hyosung persuades a court that Hantle improperly transferred assets out of Tranax in order to avoid paying Nautilus the $5 million court award, then Hantle USA or its parent could be on the hook for the money.

In any event, a name associated with the explosive growth of the non-bank ATM industry is going down in a lawsuit-inspired bankruptcy.

Tags: ATM, atm industry, ATM machine, ATM machines, Cash machine
Posted in Industry news, history | No Comments »

Tech Tales: The case of the bad protocol

Thursday, June 24th, 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.

One day the ATM Network service department got a call from a bar and grill in southern Minnesota. Their ATM had suddenly stopped contacting the transaction processor, rendering it useless. When it printed receipts, they said “System unavailable.”

The technician had the owner print out the machine’s electronic journal, which showed that the the ATM was running into “protocol errors”. That usually meant that transactions were getting interrupted in the middle of processing. The most common causes all involve the phone line: too much static, interference from a DSL connection, a shared phone line or (for technical reasons), phone service provided by cable companies.

Further questioning, however, revealed that the bar didn’t have cable TV, much less cable phone service. It didn’t have an Internet connection of any sort, so there wouldn’t be any DSL interference. And the ATM had its own dedicated phone line.

That left static on the line. The tech called the local phone company, which checked its lines and said they were fine. But just in case, they installed a DSL filter to block DSL interference.

A couple of days passed, and the customer called back: the ATM still wasn’t working. In the meantime, the techs had gotten another call from a customer in a neighboring town. He had two machines: One was on an Internet connection, and it was working fine. The other used a phone line, and it was having exactly the same problem as the first customer.

The tech asked which phone company owned the line. It was the same company that served the first customer. This wasn’t unusual: the company serves a large swath of southern Minnesota. The tech called the company and told them a second machine was down. The company checked that line, too: it was fine.

Then a third customer called with the same problem. Different machine, different model – but the same phone company.

The tech thought about it for a little bit, then looked up the phone company’s service area and began calling ATM Network customers in the area. He found four more clients with ATMs that couldn’t communicate with the transaction processor.

He called the phone company for the third time and told them what he found. They still insisted it wasn’t their fault, and suggested it might be ATM Network’s server.

The tech seriously doubted that, but to be sure he called up merchants who had ATMs from competitors that didn’t use our processing network. They, too, reported processing problems.

He called the phone company a fourth time. The company said it couldn’t be their fault, but they’d look into it.

Two days later, everything started working again. The phone company never admitted anything.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs, Cash machine
Posted in Company news, Fun, Maintenance, Tech Tales | No Comments »

ATM Network contributes $3,000 to ATMIA fund

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

ATM Network has donated $3,000 to an industry fund that will help educate consumers and legislators about the ATM industry, as well as explore options regarding fees charged by credit-card networks.

The donation comes after independent ATM operators faced two direct threats to their businesses in less than two months.

BACKGROUND
In early April, Mastercard unilaterally reduced the transaction fee it pays to independent ATM networks while tripling the fee it charges to process Mastercard-branded cards or use its Cirrus network. Bottom line: Mastercard will siphon an additional $26 million a year from independent ATM operators — a transfer of wealth from thousands of small-business owners all across America to one of the world’s largest financial companies.

Then in mid-May, during Congressional debate over a financial-reform bill, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) proposed an amendment that would have capped ATM surcharges at 50 cents — making most nonbank ATMs unprofitable to operate. Its passage would have resulted in ATMs disappearing from business establishments of all kinds, as well as destroying several thousand jobs.

Thankfully, the Harkin amendment was defeated. But the prospect of it being reintroduced in some form, as well as worries about future moves by Mastercard, has prompted the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) to address the problem head-on with the creation of a “defense fund”.

THE FUND
The fund, made up of voluntary contributions from members and nonmembers, will pay for two things:

1. Legal advice in the wake of Mastercard’s profound changes to the industry’s fee structure.

2. A “white paper” on the nonbank ATM industry, to better explain what it does, how it works, and why proposals like Harkin’s would be disastrous for it.

ISSUES THAT AFFECT EVERYONE
Why should anyone outside the industry care? Let’s take a look.

In the case of the Harkin amendment, it’s pretty simple: a limit on ATM surcharges would make many ATMs unprofitable to own and operate.

Sen. Harkin clearly doesn’t understand the economics of nonbank ATMs. He assumes the only cost associated with an ATM transaction is the cost of processing — a cost erroneously estimated at 36 cents by Harkin’s staff.

But that ignores the cost of the ATM itself, as well as the time and cost of installation, maintenance, insurance, supplies and cash. Harkin seems to think that merchants would be happy to install and maintain a money-losing ATM. That’s simply ridiculous.

In the case of Mastercard and Cirrus, anti-competitive behavior hurts everyone who uses an ATM. Mastercard’s fee changes mean processing a Mastercard or Cirrus transaction is more expensive for merchants than, say, processing a Visa card. That leaves merchants with few choices — including raising surcharges for everyone (even if you don’t use Mastercard or Cirrus) or removing the machine because it’s no longer profitable.

None of the available options are good for either merchants or customers. The ATMIA fund will help the industry explore legal, regulatory and market strategies that would let us avoid such harmful choices.

WHAT CAN BE DONE
ATMIA has asked each member company to donate $500 to the fund. ATM Network has donated $3,000. We strongly urge others to step forward, too. You can donate online at the following links:

ATMIA members
https://www.atmia.com/unitedstates/membership/membershiprenewal

Nonmembers
https://www.atmia.com/unitedstates/membership/join

Thank you for joining us in this effort!

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
Posted in ATM operators, ATM owners, Company news, Industry news | No Comments »

Senate passes financial reform — without ATM fee caps

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Good sense prevailed in the nation’s capital on Thursday, when the Senate passed the financial-reform bill — without even considering an amendment by Sen. Tom Harkin to cap ATM fees at 50 cents.

Thank you to everyone who called, faxed or wrote their senator to oppose this ill-considered amendment.

Tags: ATM, atm industry, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATM surcharge, Cash machine
Posted in Finance, Industry news | No Comments »

In midst of recession, ATM use surged

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

The ATM business is sometimes described as “recession proof”, and stories like this are one reason why.

U.S. consumers are withdrawing more money from ATMs, likely the result of the economic recession, industry insiders say. In September 2008, when the recession was official, consumers started relying more heavily on cash and debit, and less on credit.

Gary Faulkner, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Morphis Cash Forecasting Software of Dallas, says it was around that time that U.S. ATM withdrawals started going up. He said many of his ATM customers started complaining that the Morphis forecasting tool was not meeting targets, and ATMs were often low on cash because of increased withdrawal amounts. Faulkner says ATMs that had been effectively managed by Morphis’ system for years were suddenly running out of cash.

“Starting in September 2008, customers were complaining that the forecasting was not right,” he said. “Nearly universally, our customers saw an increase in transactions and an increase in cash withdrawals per transaction.”

Faulkner says the volume of transactions increased as well. In fact, Faulkner estimates that the overall cash withdrawals from each transaction increased from roughly $65 to $75 a transaction to about $100 a transaction.

We’ve written before about the practice of using cash accounting to manage tight budgets — withdrawing a certain amount of money for holiday shopping or a weekly budget, and when the cash is gone, stop spending. We’ve also noted why a recession can be good for ATM usage.

Now the numbers are in. ATMs really *are* recession proof.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATM Network, ATMs, Cash machine
Posted in ATM benefits, ATM operators, ATM owners, Research | No Comments »

ATM maker Triton sold for $7.5 million

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

A year after a failed merger with Nautilus Hyosung, ATM manufacturer Triton Systems — maker of the popular Triton RL1600 — has been sold.

Triton Systems of Delaware was recently purchased from the Dover Corp. by a group of private investors for $7.5 million.

Triton Systems president and CEO Daryl Cornell says the new owners have expressed confidence in their ability to continue to grow the company.

“The only real change is the end of the uncertainty surrounding Triton during the protracted sale process,” Cornell said. “We believe that this sale was the best possible outcome for Triton, its customers, its employees and the community.”

The company will maintain a strategic partnership with the publicly held Dover, but does not plan a public stock offering of its own.

Cornell says Triton’s continued partnership with Dover had its advantages. But being a privately held will allow Triton to explore otherwise unavailable opportunities and partnerships.

The company will not seek a public offering, either, Cornell says. Such a move would allow Triton access to equity markets, but would be too cost prohibitive in the end.

In the short term, no major changes are expected, and no executive departures were announced.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs, Cash machine
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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.

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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Tranax not changing name after all

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Back in February, Tranax announced it was changing it’s name to Hantle USA, to better align its brand and its products with Hantle Systems Co. Ltd., Tranax’s Korea-based parent company.

But on Wednesday, Tranax said there would be no name change after all.

The name change, according to attorneys for Tranax, was never official. In fact, lead attorney Bob Freitas tells ATMmarketplace.com that Tranax is not owned by Hantle Systems at all, and that there is no relationship between Hantle Systems and the company that acquired Tranax in the fall of 2008, Korea-based Eltna Group.

In an e-mailed statement, Freitas says: “Hantle USA is a separate company that is not a subsidiary of Hantle Systems. Hantle Systems sells ATM modules to Hantle USA . Hantle USA currently intends to focus on marketing and sales of ATM equipment, modules and related products for the retail industry. Hantle Systems is an established Korean company with 18 years of history in research and development of ATM modules for the banking and other industries.”

Some significant changes have taken place. On Feb. 1, Hantle USA took over responsibility for selling the company’s retail ATMs, while Tranax is now focused on kiosks, scanners and components. Hantle USA will also handle servicing for existing Tranax ATMs. Eventually all of the company’s ATMs will be rebranded to Hantle, but the transition will probably take a long time.

The head of Tranax’s parent company apologized for the confusion.

“Tranax regrets recent incorrect statements about the company which resulted from miscommunications between an employee and the upper management of the company,” said Won Gee Lee, CEO of Tranax and Eltna, Tranax’ owner, in an issued statement. “We apologize to our customers, the media, and the public who received this incorrect information. In fact, Tranax continues as a business, focusing on ATM machines and other related products, including scanners, self-service terminals and other modules for non-retail industries, including the banking industry.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
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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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