Determined to ensure that their ATM fleet will perform reliably, allU.S. Credit Union in California has switched to Dolphin Debit.

The Salinas-based credit union serves the employees of Monterey County as well as the local community. It moved to Dolphin Debit, the full-service ATM management company, after tiring of its former service provider’s inability to maintain the fleet in good working order or even to determine when some of the ATMs went completely out of service.

As an example, CEO Patrick Redo recalls thieves actually stealing one of the ATMs that the credit union had placed in a Monterey County facility. The previous provider didn’t realize the theft had taken place until the county’s security people discovered it.

“On a weekend the thieves came in and attached a chain and dragged it through the door,” Redo said. “But it was typical because our prior vendor never knew when the ATMs were operating or not.”

If ATMs went down, the credit union usually learned of the outages from cardholders attempting to use the machine.

Dolphin Debit now manages the ATMs that allU.S. has placed in various county facilities and government buildings while the credit union still manages one branch-based ATM on its own.

For allU.S., ATMs are powerful promotional items in key locations where potential members work or do business, making dependable, working machines top priority for the credit union. But Redo points out that the ATMs can only help strengthen the credit union’s name recognition and visibility if they’re working.

“We used to experience about 10 ATM incidents per month. Since we moved to Dolphin, we don’t see any,” Redo said. “We wanted better service, and we feel like now it’s ‘mission accomplished.’ ”

“There really isn’t much use in having a fleet of ATMs if a credit union can’t count on them,” said Joe Woods, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships for Dolphin Debit. “Our clients will tell you that dependability, reliability, and quick service when problems do occur are some of the biggest reasons why they continue to be so pleased to work with us.”