What Ive Learned From Working As A Teller

[CherryPickinTeller]

What I've Learned From Working As A Teller

Okay, so I have worked at Td Bank for three years and I just thought I would fill you all in on what I've learned. (Besides the fact that Td Bank sucks)

I've gone through thousands and thousands of rolls while working and heres my analysis:

We would all buy boxes of Q's D's N's & P's from the main vault and take them out of the box and put them in trays and then into our own coin vault. The first year I worked there we had clear rolls and it was basically like taking candy from a baby. Silver Quarters and Dimes in every box, most times there were a few. They are both still out there, tons of them. I would estimate that me and one of my friends who was a teller found over 500 Quarters that year (2010) and about 700 Dimes. I don't understand why people don't do quarters because they really are out thee still. Unfortunately, I didn't collect nickels at this time and probably would have found a plethora of them.

The following two years we switched to paper wrapped rolls and the silver game stalled. I still managed to find over 100 Silver Quarters and Dimes just by putting rolls onto my teller tray over those two years. Yes, Quarters are still out there.

Halves were rare. Only finding Silvers in the Penny Arcade machine and having to swap them out with clad ones. Over the three years me and the only other teller who looked have found over 150 90% halves and about 200 40% halves.

But let me tell you a little secret for finding the Silver Quarters. Open up a Td account and use their Penny Arcade machine. Even if you don't dump there, just bring in a few bucks worth of coin and use the machine once a day at a random time (usually between midday and end of the day) and check the reject tube. I have found over 1000 Quarters with my other teller just by checking the reject tube a few times a day.

Another trick is to make the machine run again after all your coins are counted and see if you hear anything spinning around inside still. Tons of people throw IKEs in not knowing it doesn't take them. If you hear something, just call a teller over and let them know you put one in by accident and they'll open up the machine for you. Even bring an IKE every time and throw it in just to have them open the machine and see if you find anything that couldn't make it out of the reject. I've even found Peace dollars in the machine!

Lastly I just want to tell you all about dumping your coin. I know all tellers are not the same but heres what I realize. We have three CRH's who dump at our branch. One guy comes in, doesn't ever bring in any treats for us for helping him all the time, but he is always respectful if we have long lines and always chats with us and is the friendliest person ever. He even gave me an old red-book guide and an old jewelers loupe he had. He is the guy that I would stop everything I am doing to go help, just because he is the nicest guy consistently every time he comes in. Another guy comes in and complains when theres long lines and we cant help him and he's always rude. Yet he brings in treats all the time. But he still acts like an A$$ and I try and stall with my customers just to piss him off more and make him wait longer.
So just be a nice person and talk with tellers and be friendly. No need for treats, just be a friend. I even give the nice guy some silver I find. Try and get a guy teller, girls hate having to carry bags.

So, go search Quarters because they are out there, and be a nice person when you're dumping

 

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[vpnavy]

Thanks for sharing CherryPickinTeller!

 

[CoinFetcher]

Great to hear it from our tellers.

THANK YOU!


I try to be super super nice to everyone. I have not ventured into the treat game...

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

The one guy who dumps at our branch is someone I look forward to see whenever I go to work. He knows I know everything, so he shares with me everything about what he's been finding. We talk about everything, not just coins. Be like him, you will get coin for under spot too. He tells me whenever I am ready to sell, bring in my coin. When I bring it in, I give him a call and he comes in on my break. We go outside I get the coins from my car, he calls up the local coin shop and asks what he will buy silver for. If the coin shop says 16x face, he gives me 18x.. If coin shop says 20x, he gives me 22x. He will always out pay the dealer by 2x of face in order for me to win by selling to him at a higher price and him to win by still getting silver under spot.

 

[CC-Hunter]

Thanks CPT. I am always nice and friendly to the tellers, but this just validates it. It's not an act, I prefer for my bank visits to be pleasant.

The other day I posted about a huge amount of coins (almost all foreign, I presume) stuck to the magnet inside a TD penny arcade (not the hopper on the top). A couple of tellers have told me that they have to "send it all in." Other tellers have given me the foreign (at least the foreign stuck to the hopper magnet). What's the real deal? Do tellers collect the foreign for the bank or keep it for themselves?

 

[FormerTeller]

Lastly I just want to tell you all about dumping your coin. I know all tellers are not the same but heres what I realize. We have three CRH's who dump at our branch. One guy comes in, doesn't ever bring in any treats for us for helping him all the time, but he is always respectful if we have long lines and always chats with us and is the friendliest person ever. He even gave me an old red-book guide and an old jewelers loupe he had. He is the guy that I would stop everything I am doing to go help, just because he is the nicest guy consistently every time he comes in. Another guy comes in and complains when theres long lines and we cant help him and he's always rude. Yet he brings in treats all the time. But he still acts like an A$$ and I try and stall with my customers just to piss him off more and make him wait longer.
So just be a nice person and talk with tellers and be friendly. No need for treats, just be a friend. I even give the nice guy some silver I find.

This. I rarely bring in treats - maybe twice in the last 18 months - but I am always friendly and respectful towards the tellers. I've found that tellers that are jerks aren't going to be any less of a jerk if you try to bribe them. Friendly tellers, on the other hand, are even more so when you build up a relationship with them. Treats help, but they surely don't do the job by themselves.

 

[maverick]

Thanks CPT, interesting about the Penny arcade. Ok, so what if you are a nice guy ( like me) and bring in treats ( like I do), I would assume you would like to deal with me too right, I am super nice to all my tellers and do talk to some that know what I look for about what each of us have found ( you guys get the good finds). I have a branch that I bring in 8-10 boxes on a set day of the week to ( she said it was totally fine to do instead of running all over dumping) and I bring them 2 dozen donuts every morning I show up there with my dump, I think the treats do help a little bit for some, maybe some tellers don't care, but I know these love having 1 day a week that they know they are getting some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and the time and gas they save me is well worth the $14.00 it costs me every week. HH, Maverick.

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

CC-Hunter, The foreign is supposed to go into the vault, and we ship it about 2 times a year. The guy who comes in to dump and I talk to all the time collects foreign so I usually save it up and give it to him. I have kept all the $2 and $1 Canadian coins though, and about 300 steel wheats stuck to the magnet. However, you can just take that top part out before the tellers come over and swipe whatever is stuck to the magnet. Be careful of nails and pins that are also stuck to the magnet. If a teller or bank rep asks what you are doing, just tell them you thought you dropped a ring or something in it and took the top thing out to try and stop it.

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

You need to have a good relationship with a teller as the one CRH's has with me in order to get the foreign from the magnet in the hopper.

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

Maverick, the treats are nice once in a while, but they are not a must if you have a good relationship. Personality is the key ingredient for getting tellers on your side.

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

If anyone wants to know any information about the penny arcade machine, feel free to ask. I've studied that thing for three years haha. Any other questions are welcome as well.

 

[fistfulladirt]

There are guy tellers? Weird, never seen one in the last five years I've been roll hunting.

 

[OtlFrutiger]

Great post! Thanks for the info!!!

 

[maverick]

Maverick, the treats are nice once in a while, but they are not a must if you have a good relationship. Personality is the key ingredient for getting tellers on your side.

Thanks for the info, I deal with all women in my dump banks, they are the ones I bring in goodies for, dudes, no, though there might be a guy teller that I don't deal with that gets some of what ever I bring for the ladies.

question for you, what is the largest dump of coin you've had to deal with, and do you have any that bring in a big dump of rolled up coin weekly? I'm curious about rerolled not bags, I know what I can bring in bags. Thanks.

 

[CherryPickinTeller]

Maverick, the most anyone has ever dumped was about 5k loose into the machine. Our branch doesn't accept rerolled coin, they have to unwrap and throw it into the machine. However, if someone comes to me with rerolled coin, I simply tell them that we have a policy where you have to dump into the machine, but I would gladly deposit what you say you have now, and then run it through the machine later and credit or debit your account if there is any difference. That way I could CRH the coins as I throw them into the machine after the customer leaves. I wont take it if it is a ton of coin in half dollars because I know it would be that persons dump.
A funny story about how I started doing this.. A couple came in and I told them they would have to unroll and dump into the machine, but I said I would help them unwrap the rolls because they had a lot of coin. In the middle of dumping I noticed a few silvers and I couldn't just take them from the customer so I had to put them in. It was only maybe like 3 Quarters and 5 Dimes. A month later, I did it for the first time and told a customer I would deposit now and credit or debit their account after I put them through the machine. They had about $250 in rolled coin. Then they say " oh wait, we have a bag of dollar coins too". I thought they were all IKE's but turns out there were 7 Peace dollars, and 3 Morgan dollars. Went to dump their coin.. there were 4 rolls of halves, all full rolls of Walking Liberty halves. In addition to that, I got about $20 in silver quarters and $5 in silver dimes from the coin they had saved.

 

[Nydus Touch]

Oh wow: many thanks for many GREAT ideas!

 

[Bigheed]

completely unrelated to the post, but I love your avatar Nydus Touch ! Clever name and great to see another SC player!

 

[Yinzi50]

Welcome to T-Net. I have a question: of all the branches I've been to, only one branch's Penny Arcade was programmed to take $500 of halves per bag (the rest have to re-click the bag after each $100). Do you know about re-program the machine? Is it something just for the service technician from the coin counting machine manufacture to do or any trained teller can do it?

 

[mercury1]

CPT, thank you for the insider info. This was a really informative and interesting thread. It's been my experience that you are right on about the friendly respectful hunter getting the best customer service, even without the treats. I am always polite and friendly and usually can get on tellers good side.
Example: I started dumping my cwr of halves at TD. (Fun fact; TD in my area does not have penny arcade) I usually didn't have very much, 60, 200 or whatever amount I had picked up the previous week. Exchange rolls for cash and off I go. Then I finally got a bank to order me halves and now I've got two boxes to dump, all rerolled. Feeling like this rerolling is too much I'm looking to get them to let me use bags. So I lug my dump boxes in and as the attractive older woman is taking my coin I notice she has rings on every finger. I use that observation to start a conversation about something I know she likes, the rings. As soon as I mention it, ice is broken, she seems to relax,drop her guard, and we're chatting. Then at what seemed like the right moment, I hit her up about using bags. Well it turns out she was the head teller and made it happen for me. Been working great ever since. Too bad my boxes are all skunks. Anyway thanks again for the great info and keep picken the cherries.

 

[jerico1835]

Thanks Cherry for the great info. I was wondering how often do the tellers empty the reject tube? Once a day? Once a week? Only when asked to? I imagine its done once a day near closing time. It was only after dumping for nearly an entire yr that I realized coins get backed up inside this reject tube. I actually pulled out $2.30 worth of change and thought there was a hole in one of the coin bags because of all the change I grabbed. I told the teller I thought there was a hole in one of the coin bags and she reassured me it was just change from the reject pile. I couldn't believe it! I had total faith that the machine would pour any rejects into the reject tray not realizing the rabbit hole goes even deeper. This week I have found a nice little collection of foreign coins and one silver dime all from one location which had me getting all these wild ideas about maybe divvying up my zincolns and taking each pile to a different td bank in my area just to have an excuse to check the reject pile in each branch. I was also wondering if its possible to cash in my voucher on a different day of the week other than when I dump. Also, when the teller asks if I am a member of TD Bank and asks for my account number, can they access a record of where an when I cashed in my vouchers in the past?