Bubba Murarka

My relationship with Wells Fargo is one of love and hate.  They bought Crocker Bank back in the day and thus I’ve been a customer since I was 11 years old (give or take a year).  I have every possible number for them memorized and know people at several branches so I get personal service.  On the other hand I agree with Omar that they are a “nickel and dime” shop and not prevalent enough outside of the West Coast for my needs.  Thus I had finally decided to open an account elsewhere.  But of course as I’m putting this plan into motion Wells Fargo goes and does something pretty neat.  Rat finks!

I was using the ATM at the MSFT SVC Campus one last time and went to look for an envelope to stuff my roommates’ rent checks in.  You see, over the years, a habit has developed to deposit checks at MSFT ATM location which is behind the badge reader in the cafe.  It always has envelopes to put my checks in.  Near my house in the Mission District of SF I can never find envelope at any of the atms (go figure). 

Friday was different.  For the first time ever there were no envelopes at the ATM.  I freaked out!  But then I read the signage (who would have thunk that RTFM could apply to ATMs).  Lo and behold, this is a brand spanking new ATM that features “envelope less” check / cash deposits!  I follow the directions and decide that…

THIS IS JUST AWESOME!

You put the stack of checks (or cash) into the loader with out having to enter the total deposited or other nonsense.  It scans each check, automatically sums them, and then lets you view each one with the amount detected for accuracy (optional).  And then you can get a print out of each scanned check on your ATM receipt…for free (yes, I was expecting them to charge for this)! 

I never even thought I needed this feature, but after one use I am hooked.  This saves me time (math…hah!), frustration, and impresses my inner geek.  Handwriting recog, UX design, Customer pain points all come together for a little party at the MSFT ATM from now on.  Nice job Wells Fargo…but why do you have to make this break up so hard?