Disputed ATM transaction - Denied

MikeyBhoy

I've been a victim of cashpojnt robbery by LloydsTSB. On Sat 10 Apr I used their cashpoint to withdraw £200, however it only delivered £180, although the receipt says £200. I'm the type of guy who normally just stuffs the money into his pocket, but this machine dispensed some fivers which I thought was a bit strange so I counted it (I've subsequently found out that it is one of the few machines in the town where you can get fivers, so is quite popular).

The £180 pounds consisted of an odd mix of notes (about 14 x £10, then 4 x £5, then 1 x £10, then 2 x £5.

I went in to the branch straight away (missing the 2nd half of the footy in the pub) and queued up at the enquiries desk.

A few minutes later an old boy came in and asked if I had just been shortchanged by the machine (he'd been a few behind me at the cashpoint). I though he was going to say it had given him my £20, but no luck, he too had been ripped off, but only by a tenner this time. Same thing with him, it had issued 2 x £5 when it should have issed 2 x £10, so he got £70 instead of £80.

In a way I was quite pleased as if two of us had the same problem, it wasn't just my word against Lloyds.

Anyways, he spotted a spare cashier and we shuffled over to tell her what had happened. She got the lady who had filled the machine that morning over and she opened up the machine, had a look around (what for I'm still not clear on) then said they couldn't so anything until the branch closed that evening. As I was a BoS customer, I would need to raise a form with BoS (fair enough), but the old boy was a Lloyds customer and she said IF the machine total showed it had underpaid, then he would get his tenner on the following Thursday. He wasn't too happy with this and argued for a bit but got nowhere. The cashpoint filler lady was a bit arsey I thought, kept saying it wasn't her fault (no one had said it was) and that she only loaded the machine, she didn't know what was in each canister etc. etc.

When I asked if she was going to switch the machine off while they investigated in case others were also being shortchanged, she told me it was nothing to do with me as I wasn't a Lloyds customer??

Anyway, I trotted off to the Halifax to raise my complaint with them, the lady completed the Word template and e-mailed it off to the HBoS dept who deals with ATM disputes.

Yesterday I got a letter from HBOS

Dear Mr MikeyBhoy

Disputed Cash Machine Transaction

Lloyds have completed their investigation into your disputed cash machine withdrawal, which took place on 10/04/2010.

We have been advices that thye ATM journal roll shows a good transaction for £200.00 and that the machine dispensed the funds with no difference recorded at the time. Unfortunately this means that Lloyds have declined your claim and therefore your account cannot be reimbursed with the £20.00.

etc.

I spoke with the lady who sent the letter, she took a few details and reference numbers and said complaints dept would be in touch within 48hrs.

As I see it, the machine thinks that it dispensed the correct number of notes (21 in total - 19 tenners and 2 fivers)) and so in it's eyes the transaction was correct, but it wasn't and I'm down £20.

The cashpoint lady from Lloyds had told us that the machine would be checked to see if it was "up" or "down", and you'd expect it to be "up" if it was dispensing fivers instead of tenner, but the letter about the, ahem, investigation, just says "journal roll shows a good transaction"

The letter also goes on to say that as Lloyds is another Financial Institution, there's nothing HBos can do (what, even though they are owned by Lloyds?)

The account I withdrew the money from is my Savings account with about £80k in it, and it won't be staying there long if this doesn't get resolved.

What should my next step be MoneySaving experts?

TIA

Mike

opinions4u

Ring them back and tell them that you don't make up stories like this. Ask them to reimburse the £10 as a gesture of goodwill.

£10 is not an amount worth losing your custom for.

If you remain unsuccessful, raise the matter via their complaints procedure and ask for £20 reimbursement - £10 for the loss and £10 for the time take to try and resolve it.

I would hazard a guess that within 24 hours your money will be refunded.

in_spired2

I dont' know what your next step should be, but I emphasise with you. Happened to me at a barclays branch ATM some months back - £10 short (and i am/was a barclays customer). I queried it in the branch straight away. It was never reimbursed. I've opened an account with a different bank now and am about to finish closing that barclays account. Had been a barclays customer for more than 25 years and never had any problems before. I guess they have more respect for their machines than for their customers, so I decided they can shove their accounts.

MikeyBhoy

Well, never did get my call back from the Complaints department, but on Fri afternoon £20 (Cash) was refunded back into my account.

However, once bitten, twice shy, and I've now taken to drawing money from the cashier of the local Halifax branch - something I haven't done since my student days. I was suprised at how few checks were done, I just turned up with the cards, scrawled a signature on a couple of sheets and the money was mine

oliverp_2

How incredibly rude HouseHuntr.

Some Lloyds cashpoints do issue £5 notes, fairly uncommon but they do exist.

simpywimpy

I used a tesco cashpoint that didnt give me any of the £90 I requested but it was denied and all appeals were turned down as they said the machine was correct.

Toomuchdebt

My local Lloyds branch does issue £5 notes as does the Barclays next door.I suggest you get your facts straight HouseHuntr before accusing people of being trolls as you seem to do fairly often.

HouseHuntr

Whatever, this story is nothing but fiction.

pmduk

Your facts for disputing the OP have been disproven. Care to substantiate your abusive post?

opinions4u

HouseHuntr wrote: »

Whatever, this story is nothing but fiction.

It stacks up to me. Sorry.

MikeyBhoy

simpywimpy wrote: »

I used a tesco cashpoint that didnt give me any of the £90 I requested but it was denied and all appeals were turned down as they said the machine was correct.

Simpy,

thats why I won't be using cashpoints anymore - it becomes your word against the banks. Now I know, and you know, that we were both diddled (and in your case for a lot more), but how do you go about proving it when the bank says everything checks out (even when the same thing happened to the old bloke two transactions later).

A colleague at work previously worked in a bank and she told me that I should tell HBoS that I wanted to see the reconciliation records for the cashpoint, as they should know exactly how much money was put into the machine, and exactly how much money was left. The 'transaction log' mentioned in my letter from HBoS wouldn't be conclusive (according to her), but that would probably be too much work for them.