Counterfeit coins. Increased by 2012% in 17. The consumer desk calls for more controls on the companies that manage vending machines and parking meters
(Jamma) The new 5 euro banknotes are unusable in vending machines and also in video lottery terminals. The terrible discovery is one that deprives sleep, above all of many diligent journalists who have not failed to write about this terrifying news in the last two days. The problems that arose with the appearance of the first copies of the new 5 euro banknotes occurred both in petrol stations and in those for bus or train tickets, and also in those for medicines and snacks, cigarettes and parking lots. No possibility of use also in gaming machines of the video lottery type. But a good journalist doesn't stop at the news and starts with a real investigation. And here come the journalists of Repubblica and those of Tg5 who tried to use the new banknotes with the face of Europe on the hologram in ten cities Milan Turin Bologna Naples Genoa Palermo Parma Florence Bari and Rome The percentage of vending machines that accept the new 5 euros goes from a maximum of 30% in Rome to nothing in Naples, Bologna and Milan.
The software is outdated and does not recognize the new ticket. The banknote is promptly spat out as if it were a piece of paper or a counterfeit banknote. Updating software, the national newspapers reveal today, will not be quick, nor, above all, cheap. Making a single machine compatible costs between 60 and 100 euros. It takes months. But the problems don't end there. Is it really useful to update the software now when the new 10 and 20 euro tickets will soon be released, ask gas station attendants and other traders?
A terrible question that fits perfectly with our doubt: that it is just another opportunity to talk about slots and the like.
