TD Bank retires coin counting kiosks following Action News investigation

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- An Action News investigation has prompted a big change at TD Bank.

The company announced Thursday that it will permanently retire their coin counting kiosks known as the "Penny Arcade".

Back in February, Investigative Reporter Wendy Saltzman found inaccuracies at the machines.

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.

TD Bank, which is headquartered in Cherry Hill, had previously pulled the devices last month to test them.

The decision also comes on the heels of a number of lawsuits the bank has faced from consumers who claim they were short changed.

TD Bank said Thursday they determined it would be difficult to ensure consistency at the kiosks.

"Offering free coin-counting to our customers has been a long-standing service at TD," said Michael Rhodes, Head of Consumer Bank, TD Bank. "However, recent accounts regarding the performance of our Penny machines have led us to reassess this offering. We have determined that it is difficult to ensure a consistently great experience for our customers. In addition, the usage of our coin-counting machines has declined steadily over the past few years. For these reasons, we have decided to retire the fleet and provide alternative coin-counting solutions to our customers. We will continue to assess the Penny experience and intend to appropriately address customer impact."

In place of the coin counting machines, TD Bank says it will continue to accept pre-rolled coins for deposit from retail, businesses and non-profit customers at no additional charge.