Article

A day in the life of an ATM service technician

What makes an ATM service technician tick? Our editor tags along on an ATM installation in an effort to find out.

May 23, 2003

Steve Bunker, a technician for ATM service companyBluewire Technologies, showed up at the Holiday Inn in downtown Louisville, Ky., ready to install a new (actually slightly used) Triton 9610 in the hotel's lobby.

The site's old ATM, a Tidel TD, was still there. And it wasn't going anywhere, because of a thick chain and heavy floor plate that anchored the machine to the floor.

Chains have long since been abandoned in favor of the four anchor bolts typically used to secure most non-bank ATMs today. So even though Bunker was packing screwdrivers, hammers, drills, 10W40, wrenches and other tools of the trade, he didn't have the equipment to remove the chain.

Uh-oh....

A hotel locksmith with an industrial-strength grinder was summoned to remove the chain. Sparks flew and a burnt metal odor filled the air as the locksmith went to work.

None of this made the hotel manager happy.

After reassuring the manager that it wouldn't take long to install the new ATM, Bunker called the Bluewire dispatch center in Florida to provide an update. Hanging up, he explained that Bluewire did not know there was already an ATM at the hotel until he had called Holiday Inn himself a week earlier to confirm that a power line and telephone line were available.

Unfortunately, such surprises are not uncommon, Bunker said.

"So many entities are involved from the time an ATM is sold to when it's installed. That's why communication is so important," he said.

Bunker, who trains all of Bluewire's new technicians, said that Bluewire tries to impress upon its techs that professionalism is important, down to the shirts they wear (must have a collar). This type of advice, including Courteous Behavior 101, is covered in what Bunker calls his "father talk" on the third and final day of monthly training sessions.

"Those are the kinds of things that are going to make or break a tech," he said, "not just how quickly he responds to calls, but how well he communicates with the customer. If he's running late, then he needs to call and let them know."

Passing the test

Bunker had driven four hours from his home in Mayfield, Ky., the day before and conducted some other Bluewire business before checking into a hotel (not the Holiday Inn). There, he ran some diagnostic tests on peripherals like the printer and card reader and downloaded software from his laptop to the machine -- after hauling the 9610 to his room.

Bolting it down.

"I stopped at the desk beforehand and told the staff I was going to have an ATM in my room to perform some tests," he said. "They didn't seem to find it all that unusual."

He only found one significant problem, with the electronic lock. He fixed it by switching the wires that connected the lock's battery and its keypad to the circuit board.

Bunker has been an ATM service technician since late 1994. He started out working for Card Capture Services (CCS), the Portland, Ore., ISO that sold its network to E*Trade Financial in 2000. He relocated to Kentucky to work for Fibervision, Bluewire's parent company, and "live a nice, quiet, easygoing country life."

He's not too far from Bluewire's dispatch center in Port Charlotte, Fla., and its parts depot in Madison, Ala., where the training sessions are conducted.

The Holiday Inn installation was relatively uncomplicated, once the chain was removed and the old Tidel freed from the floor. The maintenance manager hauled away that ATM, which was owned by the hotel.

Details, details

Bunker took some time positioning the machine just so, including laying a level inside of it and measuring its distance from the wall on either side with a tape measure. He adjusted the legs of the ATM, raising it slightly so that the door to the vault could swing open easily.

After drilling holes for the new ATM, he vacuumed away the dust. In a resourceful "MacGyver" style, he used a drinking straw to extend the reach of the hose and get into all of the nooks and crannies. I mentally filed away another important quality for a service tech: ingenuity.

At one point, Bunker whipped out a screwdriver with a built-in light. When I complimented  him on the nifty tool, he grins. "It is pretty cool, isn't it?" he said. He is obviously the kind of guy who feels a kinship with uber-handyman Norm Abram.

One woman walked up wanting to use the ATM during the two-and-a-half hours Bunker was there. Several other passersby made jokes; one wag said, "You better get that filled up before this weekend!"

The home stretch.

Indeed, many of the hotel's guests were likely planning to take some money to nearby Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. And it's likely a good number of them would need to replace their lost funds when they returned from the racetrack.

Knack for knowledge

As Bunker prepared to download the configuration tables and check the machine's data to ensure it matched up with the data on the host end, he received a call on his cell phone. It was another Bluewire tech, seeking advice on a VSAT (satellite) installation. Bunker said he became a self-taught expert on the technology in 1999 when CCS agreed to install Triton 9600s on a satellite network for the Chevron chain.

"It was like learning a foreign language," Bunker said. "Triton, the processor, the Chevron engineer and I all learned it together."

As I eavesdropped on Bunker's call, I was reminded of the "Far Side" cartoon where a dog owner is scolding her pooch for some transgression. Yet all the dog hears is: "Blah blah blah, Fluffy! Blah blah, Fluffy!"

"Is your communicator enabler blah blah? Is your blah blah card in? Your software should be blah blah," Bunker said into the phone. "Call me back if you need anything else."

I took my leave as Bunker was loading a roll of receipt paper into the 9610. All he has left to do is to load the master keys into the machine. He summed up the appeal of his job for me. "There's nobody looking over your own shoulder. I get to be here, doing my own thing," he said.

Included In This Story

---

Triton Systems

Triton FI based products • NO Windows 10™ Upgrade • Secured locked down system that is virus/malware resistant • Flexible configurations - Drive-up and Walk-up • Triton's high security standards • NFC, anti-skim card reader, IP camera and level 1 vaults are all options • Triton Connect monitoring • Lower cost

Request Info

Learn More