A third reason - the branch here typically has a security guard at the door during operating hours, the chances of being mugged for cash is much less at the counter than at an ATM - especially when one lives in a somewhat lawless town …
Re screens - they are also hard to read when smashed or covered in filth …
Some banks have arrangements to allow cash deposits over the counter at Australia Post, Unfortunately ANZ isn’t one of them.
I have used another banks ‘smart’ ATM and coin counter and found them easy to use and quicker than using a teller, especially if there is a queue for tellers and the ATM is available. The ATM I used sat within the branch and behind/within the branch behind the security guard - I expect ANZ ‘smart ATMs’ will be in a similar location within the branch from the information on their website.
I’ve handed parcels over the counter at Australia Post and they have lost them - a bit worried about trusting them with cash ! 
Another reason. I was caught in the Optus hack. To minimise unauthorised access to my account my bank manager organised it so cash can only be withdrawn within the bank where staff know me. I imagine other people may have also had this additional level of security.
This reminds me of the occasional use of MacDonalds at Service Centres when travelling. Some now have only screens to order (unless you flag down a staff member) and as I am invariably wearing my polarised prescription sunglasses when I go in to these centres, the screens are unreadable. I imagine it would be the same at ATM’s.
It depends on whether the screen polarises light and how it does it. I have the problem with the information screens in my car where the image is confused with colour fringes while wearing polarised glasses. If I look at my PC colour monitor, TV or tablet with polarised glasses (only for testing purposes) it goes dark at some angles but is quite viewable at normal angles. I haven’t tested an ATM as strangely many are indoors and I take off my sunnies. Apparently LCDs and LEDs have various polarising effects and some don’t polarise at all. The technicalities of how and why are getting way OT.
We have been given all these problems that may arise with the use of ATMs but I wonder how significant they really are in practice and to what degree the complaints are actually tied up with the loss of face-to-face banking services rather than ATM facilities specifically.
Look at it another way. If instead of closing branches, or reducing branch services, and having ATMs in their place, the change was from no access to cash services at all to having these new-fangled devices called ATMs. Would we still be given all these complaints about how bad ATMs are or would they be hailed as a new service that beats a long drive to go to a bank?
I’ve not noticed an issue with any of the ATM’s I use. Unable to comment on self service panels at fast food outlets.
It’s been convenient to always have two pairs of vision correcting glasses. One for use outdoors in bright sunlight and a second with clear lenses for indoors reading or just in case I need to drive at night. The ‘Man Bag’ has proven a great downgrade from the laptop bag that kept me company for many years.
I am fine in the car so who knows! Without my glasses I can’t order the food. I just need to remember to switch glasses when I go in but as I do so so rarely, I always forget!
I have given up complaining about the decline in banking “service”. For me it started when my local branch “renovated” and disposed of the highly efficient numbering system, which I note is still in effect at the much improved Service NSW centres.
So, instead of taking a number then sitting calmly (possibly doing something else while waiting), we were returned to standing in queues. I have a medical condition that makes standing still unsupported almost impossible, so I reverted to sitting away from the teller queue and waiting until it was empty. While doing this, I watched the poor elderly people trying to balance on their sticks, walkers or trollies in the queue, with all customers fuming at the wait in line.
Meanwhile, a superfluous staff member roamed up and down the queue, peering at people’s paperwork in their hands, and loudly proclaiming “What are you here for?”. The end of privacy for anyone’s financial transactions.
As businesses have known for years that customers 1. hate queues, 2. like privacy, and 3. like comfort, I can only conclude that the deliberate removal of these things is designed to drive customers away, so that they can proclaim that the branches are no longer used.
I kept moving from one branch to another, just ahead of the “renovation” craze, complained officially several times, now I have given up.
Just for the record, I like electronic banking mostly. It is just when you need a personal consult, you need it.
If you want change in particular denominations or an amount higher than your withdrawal limit then you are out of luck.
ATMs run out of cash, malfunction, and denominations are restricted. Also never use ATMs in Oz if it is windy.
Now in Indonesia, no choice - buy ATMs are clean, private, well-lit and have AC.
I never realised there are so many problems with ATMs, it is a wonder they get used at all. Yet there are 1000s of them around Oz, sometimes with queues out front.
Maybe there is a whole slice of society who should avoid the ATM as they cause so many issues for them.
I don’t have any great fondness for these machines, nor if anyone is wondering do I have any association with the industry. I have never been bothered by any of the problems mentioned and I wonder what the fuss is about. It isn’t as if I have to go to the ATM a dozen times a day, or even a week. We all have different life experiences.
Started using my bank card for purchases during Covid and haven’t looked back.
Used to withdraw cash at the ATM’s outside my local branch so that if anything went wrong I could just go inside and get it sorted straightaway.
I remember that depending on the angle of sunlight it would sometimes be difficult to see the prompts on the screen not only for the glare but also for the greasy finger smudges all over it 
Now that the branch has renovated I can see from the street that the ATM’s are all onsite, easy to access and to get assistance from staff and safer as the security guard is nearby. I haven’t been inside as yet as I do my banking online. I can understand that for businesses it would be different and it would need an ATM tailored for the business sector with all the limitations that might entail.
The way things are going there’s going to be even more changes to come, let’s brace ourselves 
Possibly if all the banks were not heading the same direction - away from what you want. Which one will you change to? If none are attempting to gain customers by personal service you are just a voice crying in the wilderness and inconveniencing yourself by changing. That change assumes there is more than one bank in town to change to.
Sounds like the part of the preflight safety briefing from the cabin staff one never hopes to need! 
My latest adventures in the big smoke and banking - ANZ being the protagonist ask a few more questions of the loss of teller service.
Observations,
For some of these the concerns will go away if we all transition to digital online only banking. Cheque and cashless!
The issues of human errors in transaction management/entry remain a concern. Our systems function blind to the endpoint while account numbers do not appear to include check digits.
I’m sure the other big banks are keenly observing. Recent first hand experience Suncorp and the Commonwealth can still offer counter service.
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Apparitions of a Cashless Society and an Online connected Life
From the Eltham CBA window…nothing like reducing customer services by a thousand cuts to encourage only those wanting and needing nothing from their bank. Since cash and thus ‘change’ are apparently on the way out the importance of this step is arguable, but.
They could be thinking they are following in the shadows of branchless ING, Macquarie, etc but without also providing the significantly better interest and features. eg ‘profits up’ is the only KPI in play.
Without comment this reinforces the banks have their game going to assure a predetermined outcome. Chase the customers away by policies and fees and claim nobody attends a branch. Close it and redirect customers to their ‘friendly ATM-X’ machine.
Could be alternative views on what is happening like a chicken-egg discussion, but.
