Is it so difficult to programme a cash machine?

When asking for cash at this particular bank machine the customer is asked (maybe because we’re stupid and we don’t know how much we want), if we’d like 40€, 70€, 110€, etc – figures which could make sense in that they’re composed of 50€ and 20€ notes, thus making sure you get some smaller banknotes. However, after choosing 110€ I was told that I couldn’t have that amount as the machine could only give amounts in multiples of 50€.

So, fair enough, 100€ is more or less 110€ so I asked for 100€ and went home. However, when I started to think about this it made me ask whether those techies that programme cash machines can’t do it the other way around – in other words if the machine only has 50€ notes why can’t it show you that message first before the customer asks for something that they can’t have?

I can’t imagine that it’s so difficult to use logic in programming – or do the people who programme these machines never use them?

Gripe over.