Class action lawsuit filed against coin counting kiosks following Action News Investigation on accuracy

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- An Action News Special Investigation a few weeks ago is getting action and protecting your dollars and cents.

In February, we first uncovered problems with coin counting kiosks that are supposed to turn loose change into cash.

Both TD Bank and PNC have pulled those machines out of service, on the heels of our report.

Now a class action lawsuit is calling their accuracy into question.

Our Action News Investigation spanned across the Delaware Valley testing the coin counting kiosks at 17 different TD Bank Penny Arcades, PNC Change Depots, and Coinstar machines. Out of 17 tests we ran, only one machine was accurate.

Matt Ventrella of Royersford, Pa. contacted Action News after he says he was shorted $44 at a local TD Bank. It was money his family was saving for their first vacation to Disney World.

"It was a pretty significant difference," Ventrella said.

So we took $100 in rolled coins to various stores and banks.

One TD Bank location actually paid us three cents extra, but a kiosk in Warrington was $2.33 short, and another Penny Arcade was 21 cents off.

The PNC Bank on City Avenue returned nine cents extra.

On Wednesday, we found the machines removed or shut down.

PNC Bank released a statement saying: "PNC made the decision, effective last Wednesday (4/13), to take all of our remaining in-branch coin counting machines out of service. PNC began the process of phasing out in-branch coin counters last year for a variety of reasons, including low customer use. In addition, we have taken recent media reports, calling into question the accuracy of coin counters in the industry, very seriously."

TD Bank also released a statement saying in part: "All of our coin counting machines are in the process of being taken out of service, and will be evaluated and retested. Our machines will be brought back into service when we are satisfied they meet our performance requirements."

But TD Bank would not respond to the class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York City, saying it is ongoing litigation.

Resident Jeffrey Feinman says he was shorted 56 cents one time, and 95 cents the other.

The complainant says there could be hundreds of thousands of others who did not get back the proper amount of money back.

The Ventrellas say they do not plan to join that lawsuit because following our report, TD Bank did refund them their $44.