‘I know a sum’: Michigan man suspects Coinstar is mishandling his change. Then viewers notice what may be happening inside the machine
Something strange is going on
Dealing with loose change can be an ordeal, but especially when the exchange for solid bills doesn’t quite add up. One TikToker is trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on with Coinstar and his findings have social media revisiting the grocery market staple. On the social media app, a Michigan man named Tway @__tway used his local Coinstar machine to try and convert his collection. But, the kiosk messed up the request by not counting his change correctly.
Over 1.4 million people have watched Tway’s little experiment with a dime and they have questions now too. At the beginning of the clip, the poster holds his coin up for the camera. Tway explains, “I’m gonna put a dime in here. I know a sum, I know something.” When the coin rolls into the Coinstar machine, that’s when things got weird. First, nothing happened. Then, the terminal counted his dime as two pennies instead.
Things got even more interesting as Tway noted that he got some change back. But, not the change he was expecting. He told his followers, “This is not my dime I put in here. This is a f****** penny.” And, the total is still not updated to reflect the extra 10 cents he deposited. There are multiple shots of the Coinstar screen, and it doesn’t budge for long stretches. From what the audience can see, they really took his dime and only credited him two cents.
Is This a Coinstar Fee or Something Else?
People in the TikTok comments seem to agree with Tway’s on-screen text, “Coinstar be stealing.” Now, there are more factors at play here. But, some people are wondering why he chose to go this route in the first place. One commenter asked, “I don’t understand why we are still using Coinstar… GO TO YOUR LOCAL BANKS MOST DO IT FOR FREE!!!” If you’re looking for an official statement on why this happens, the company has an answer on their official page.
“Coinstar kiosks are designed and maintained with the goal of achieving a high degree of accuracy in counting coins. However, Coinstar does not guarantee that your coins will be counted with perfect accuracy,” they write — a reminder that coin-counting mishaps aren’t unique to Coinstar. “Variances may arise because of, among other things, debris inserted into the kiosk, deformities in coins, mechanical damage to the kiosk, a software malfunction, a power interruption, or otherwise abnormal operating conditions.”
That statement from the Terms of Service makes this all very clear. Losing out on added value is a bummer as a consumer. But, Coinstar obviously knows about the possibility of these discrepancies. In effect, users are trading off the exact amount of value for their trade-in for the convenience of being able to walk away from that kiosk with the cash in-hand. In Tway’s case, this doesn’t help. But, knowing this information might be a factor for someone out there looking to offload some change.
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