Actually… why can’t Malaysians use coins in auto pay machines anymore?!

Before we start, a poll!

Frankly, we at CILISOS face that problem almost everyday and we’re sick of it la. The parking machines won’t take our coins buttt give us coins as change. What in the world??

Aiyo, what to do with all those coins?? We can’t help but to wonder if there is something going on with these machines. So, we decided to go full Inspector Gadget mode and investigate what is actually happening. It turns out that…

It’s not the machines… it’s car park operators who are fussy af

So we knocked on the digital doors of autopay machine suppliers, but to our surprise, they told us that their machines memang accept coins… but they need to cater to the wishes of their clients, who are the car park management operators.

“However, as a principal to the brand, we are selling our auto pay (machines) based on our clients’ order. This means if our client orders the APS (Auto Pay Station) without accepting coins, then we have to deliver what they order.” – Francis Pang of Evoxen told CILISOS.

Another supplier from Amano, Kevin Ong mentioned that they would block the coin slots if car park operators don’t want those machines to accept coins.

Although this depends on the demand of those operators, Francis told us that his company prefers if their clients request for machines that accept coins as this would mean that they can sell those machines for a better price (aka more money la). This may be the reason why car park operators refuse to use machines that accept coins.

And, generally, car park management would collect money from the auto pay machines. But they don’t keep this money anywhere they like. Kevin Ong told us that a loooooong time ago, when we didn’t have machines to help us count those coins, car park operators had to count them by hand.

But, nowadays, they have to bank-in those money and, if there are coins in used, those coins might have to be exchanged to notes at banks. Francis mentioned that banks would put some extra charges to exchange those coins so this means car park operators need to fork out more money la.

We contacted a representative from Maybank, Ahmad (not real name) who mentioned that we can generally deposit our coins through the coin deposit machine at bank outlets. If ya’ll dunno what it looks like, here’s an image of it:

And you can also deposit coins in bulk over the counter (but this only applies to business accounts). In general, depositing coins is waaaay more expensive than depositing cash. Ahmad mentioned that there are surcharges when you exchange coins and different rates charged for depositing coins and notes:

Depositing coins:

• First 1,000 pieces =Free
• Next 1,000 pieces = RM10

Depositing notes:

• First 2,000 pieces = Free
• Next 1,000 pieces = RM10

For instance, if you were to deposit RM5,000 worth of coins, you may have to pay about RM40 as compared to paying only RM30 if you deposit the same amount in notes. But this is subject to taxes la.

Maybank isn’t the only bank with charges like this. Other banks have somewhat similar rates in terms of charging business accounts for depositing and exchanging coins and notes.

Sometimes, car park operators are fussy about choosing these machines because… there are naughty customers who might have attempted to cheat the parking system by inserting other things into the coin slots. We managed to speak to our car park operator, Uncle Malik and found out that vandalism was why he blocked the coin slots.

“Some people will put other country’s coins or token into the coin slot, causing the machine to get stuck and malfunction.” – Uncle Malik told CILISOS.

Uncle Malik explained that these machines are able to read coins based on their size and when they roll into the machine. So, when the machine couldn’t read foreign objects inserted into the slot, the object will be stuck in the machine lor. Then, Uncle Malik will have to come, sometimes after his working shift, just to fix those machines. 🙁

Actually, not everyone can be responsible when paying parking fees. At the time of writing, we discovered a thread on Lowyat Forum about a fellow Malaysian who tried to cheat the parking system after losing his parking ticket but failed.

“My friend and I came in 2 cars. We drove one car out from the parking lot, went to the entrance and take another ticket, and reverse. Then, my friend went back into his car dengan jalan kaki, tried to exit his car from the parking lot. When masuk ticket, ticket invalid.” – taiping… from Lowyat Forum

Some may try to cheat their way out as they may think that coins (or in the case above, losing a parking ticket) are mafan. But guess what? Coins aren’t just mafan in that cents sense…

Haiyo, parking rates can increase if auto pay machines don’t accept coins?

Coins can generally be a pain in the a$$ la. But one thing we also found out is that parking rates can change because these auto pay machines don’t accept coins! Wait, how??

A few years back, customers can still pay parking fees with coins. Well, that’s according to Kevin la.

“For example, RM1.50 per hour. Now, car park management (operators) for the shopping malls/buildings will increase or decrease the price to make it become ringgits.” – Kevin told CILISOS.

Basically, car park operators who are, again, in charge of determining the parking rates will either raise or reduce them by rounding off the amount. A RM1.50 parking rate, for instance, can either go up to RM2.00 or down to RM1. Kevin mentioned that suppliers like him would only change the rate for them upon request.

Okay, maybe the hike in parking fees might be painful for everyday Malaysians like all of us but some of us also complain about how some machines only accept coins. Eh, really??

Some of you may be familiar with this blue parking machine which accepts ONLY COINS. People who use this complain about how inconvenient it is to bring coins everywhere. While the new coins are supposedly smaller and lighter, according to Bank Negara Malaysia, it may still be heavy once you carry many of them all at once. Imagine carrying coins worth RM10, you can throw it to a robber and he/she may end up pengsan.

“Who brings so much coins to work? It is difficult to carry so many coins.” – An angry car user wrote to The Star.

For those who find it hard to carry coins around, CityCarpark argued that there is another alternative to pay for parking; TouchNGo. So, ugaiz needn’t worry about getting saman la.

But if ugaiz feel like paying with or receiving coins as change is super mafan, then there are other parking apps, aside from TouchNGo, that are able to help you pay your parking. Those apps are like JomParking, Smart Selangor Parking and ParkbyPhone, among others.

And, yea, you might probably guess it. It’s a very  s l o w  news day at CILISOS these days. 🙁