How to make life that bit harder

[Lilith7]

Its a private service that no one is compelled to use, i.e. if you don't like the fee then don't use their service.  Note that these are non-bank ATMs, so they're not an ancillary service that can be funded from fees received on other banking services; if these service providers don't charge fees for withdrawing money, they have no income at all.

As to whether or not $7.50 per transaction is "too much", that is a matter of opinion, however their response suggests even they though it a bit much.  Having said that, as the Massey University "banking expert" said, they're unlikely to be making huge profits, as even at $7.50 per transaction, they need a lot of transactions to cover the cost of supplying and maintaining the machines.  But it is really no different to my local dairy charging $6.80 for a 2L bottle of milk that I can get cheaper elsewhere: they're simply hoping that customers will accept their high price for the sake of convenience.

I think they tested the water with their pricing & got a bad reaction, as they deserved. And they wouldn't seriously be doing this out of the kindness of their hearts; there has to be a profit in it for them somewhere.
And if they try this on a large scale, then I suspect their ATM's will be given a bypass by most.