Constant nuisance: Technical glitches irk ATM users

Delay in banks’ coordination makes matter worse for customers .

ISLAMABAD: Complaints by customers against transactions through Automated Teller Machines (ATM) have increased with money being debited from their accounts without the machines supplying them with cash.

Customers who fail to get cash from ATMs despite the transaction being recorded, often end up running around banks to recover their money.



Shams Abbasi, who fell victim to the technical glitch, visited various banks near Raja Bazaar Rawalpindi but despite trying his luck at quite a few ATMs of various banks, he was unable to transact any money.

“I tried almost eight to nine different banks but failed to get any cash as the ATMs were showing different signs that said “invalid account, link down, transaction is not possible,” etc,” he said.

However, when he checked his bank statement the next day, Rs10,000 were debited from his account. “When I approached my bank branch and spoke to a member of the staff, I was told that the money would be credited back to my account by the next working day,” he said, adding that he had to make many trips to the bank after that before the money was transacted.

“They told me that an amount of Rs10,000 had been debited from my account through Dubai Islamic Bank’s ATM situated in Commercial Market, Satellite Town Rawalpindi many days before.” On his frequent persuasion, bank officials told him that until the reconciliation between the banks was not complete he could not get his wrongly transacted amount back.

A high number of customers have been facing similar problems in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, and seldom get any relief from the banks.

A former banker told The Express Tribune that the cash that does not come out of the machine after a particular transaction automatically goes to a ‘cash divert tray’ fitted inside the machine. But there is no guarantee that the cash accumulated in the tray is either returned to the respective account holders or to the bank. The cash that remained undelivered in this manner is often pocketed by those who periodically open the machines to replenish it with cash.

“As the bank does not keep a tab on such failed remittances on a real time basis, they obviously fail to notice that the cash accumulated in the ‘divert tray’ is picked by those who are entrusted with the job of replenishing the ATM with cash,” he said.

Customers face the prospect of losing their money as banks question the customer’s claim in the absence of any proof and do not look at possible mishandling of money by their own staff,” he informed further.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2014.