Atm's stealing cash

clarissa · 30 December 2004 at 3:25AM

I'm not sure whether this the right place to ask for advice, but I will anyway!

Four weeks ago my partner went to the Natwest ATM to get £150 out (his current account is with Barclays.) He put his card ina s normal, followed by his PIN. The cash came out, but went back into the machine before he could get hold of it. He immeditely went into the Natwest and reported it. They said they could do nothing because it was a VISA and nothing to do with the bank, but it would be sorted out within two working days when the bank did a check on the cash in the machine.

He went to a Barclays Bank down the road and took another £150 out. When he got home he rang Barclays and rang their helpline and informed them what had happened. They said basically the same, two working days to sort out. Three working days later he phoned again to find out what was happening. It would take another 4 working days. He has phoned several times since (to both banks) that tell him that they will contact him regarding the outcome. The £150 has been debitted from his current account (£150 from Natwest and £150 (which he got) from Barclays ATM's) He still hasn't got any sort of response from either bank.

What should he do now? It's a month later he still hasn't got the £150 back and is getting fobbed off left, right and center. Does anyone know what to do to get the money back?

Tayus · 30 December 2004 at 3:31AM

stand outside the bank in question and hand out leaflets with the title - " HOW NATWEST STOLE MY £150!" the bank manager will be out before you know it, offering to sort the problem out personally!

Tim_L · 30 December 2004 at 1:46PM

Tricky one this, because there are three companies involved, and they can pass the buck between each other for ages.

I'd suggest putting a complaint in writing to Barclay's complaint handling department. The money has after all been taken from a Barclay's account, and it's up to them to put it back, regardless of where the problem came from (somewhere between Natwest and Visa).

They should be able to access a cash reconciliation for transactions on their accounts from Natwest for the machine in question, and as they initially said this should have been sorted out within a couple of days (though it's likely Christmas intervened, I guess).

When you complain, point out that if you failed to keep an engagement to the bank they would charge you a fee, and ask for a £30 ex-gratia payment to compensate you for your time and trouble, and repeated attempts to get it sorted. 9 times out of 10 you'll get this, and it's a nice bonus.

redstone_2 · 30 December 2004 at 3:09PM

From my point of view, for what is worth, the responsibility is Nat West the faulty machine was their, an excuse to blame anbody else, certainly not Barclays.

I would also suggest standing in Nat West and making a very vocal scene, writing to the Banks ombudsman and the local paper.

The excuses must stop ant Nat west must resolve this sitution ASAP.

My opinion of Banks service is at a low, I am constanly appalled at their totally inability to shown any concerm for their customers. ??? :-X

jonesMUFCforever · 31 December 2004 at 12:47AM

First lets have a few facts here. 1 Transactions between different banks where atm errors occur that do not automatically clear will not get sorted in 2 days.
2 You should get to Barclays (being the account holding bank) and fill in ATM no cash dispensed form with full details (eg time,date,exact location of withdrawl etc).
3 This gets sent to a central point where inter bank errors etc get sorted but this can take up to 20 working days ie 4 weeks (notwithstanding recent bank holidays).
4 Not sure where you are in this equation but if you have not signed a declaration at Barclays stating that money has been withdrawn but not dispensed then this procedure will have not started.
NB If he was able to get to a Barclays machine to do second withdrawl why did he not go there to begin with as he has a Barclays account? IMO this dispute COULD have been sorted out within 2 days if it had been a Barclays withdrawl in a Barclays machine.
I'm sure that you will get your money back from Nat West eventually but you will have to be patient.
Eric

omega27 · 31 December 2004 at 1:57AM

NB If he was able to get to a Barclays machine to do second withdrawl why did he not go there to begin with as he has a Barclays account? IMO this dispute COULD have been sorted out within 2 days if it had been a Barclays withdrawl in a Barclays machine.

Nasty West machine might be more convenient - closer to home, nearer to parking. Surely you should be free to use whatever machine you want, that's the point of the Link network isn't it?

Fatboy_NSS · 31 December 2004 at 4:34AM

Nasty West machine might be more convenient - closer to home, nearer to parking. Surely you should be free to use whatever machine you want, that's the point of the Link network isn't it?

True but maybe this is a lesson to always use your own bank's machine if you can. Things do sometimes go wrong and it makes things simpler if you try to limit the number or parties involved.

Also to everyone who seems to think there was some kind of fault with the ATM in question, all ATMs will take the cash back if it isn't taken within about 20 seconds. This isn't a fault but a security feature. However you would need to report this to your bank, who would then chase the machine owner for the refund.

Walletwatch · 31 December 2004 at 5:42PM

True but maybe this is a lesson to always use your own bank's machine if you can. Things do sometimes go wrong and it makes things simpler if you try to limit the number or parties involved.

Also to everyone who seems to think there was some kind of fault with the ATM in question, all ATMs will take the cash back if it isn't taken within about 20 seconds. This isn't a fault but a security feature. However you would need to report this to your bank, who would then chase the machine owner for the refund.

Agreed. What might help also is to always make a withdrawal with receipt, as this would help the Bank guys doing the recon at the Bank whose ATM is being used drill down to the specific transaction that has failed to dispense money.

If you have the receipt in this case, might make sense sending a copy to Natwest to aid their investigations.

Tim_L · 31 December 2004 at 7:13PM

I disagree that this is intrinsically difficult to resolve: it has happened to me once, and it was resolved in less than 48 hours (which is what I was told it would take) - in my case the money was not dispensed at all, and the withdrawal was at a third party bank.

The real issue here is that the original poster has been given the runaround, and this is why it is worth a complaint. It should not be necessary to go into a branch (if you can find one and get to it) to fill in a form, since this is a simple easily verifiable mistake that should take one phone call max to sort out.

jonesMUFCforever · 31 December 2004 at 11:32PM

You would be amazed ! how many try it on saying that a machine failed to dispense cash but when asked to put it in writing decline to do so. Draw your own conclusions!
Eric

clarissa · 1 January 2005 at 1:16AM

Thanks for all the replies.

My boyfriend rang up today and everything has been sorted out and the money has gone back into his account

It's taken about four weeks. He wasn't asked to fill in any forms by either Barclays or Natwest.

Just for info though, he went to the Natwest cashpoint because it was on the way to work and the Barclays one isn't. The money bobbed out and back in too quickly to grab it!

Thanks again for all the advice.

Atm's stealing cash

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