Disputed ATM Transaction

stripeyfox

Further development to the missing 30 quid. Called into my HSBC branch today - the lady "dealing" with the matter was out at lunch but has just called me back with the following backhanded offer:
"The investigation is going nowhere but we are taking an executive decision at branch level to refund your money today". Great I thought but there was a big but - "....but if the investigation goes against you, then we will take the money back out again". I suggested that we cross that bridge when we come to it but was told "No, we will only issue the refund if you agree to these terms".
I can't quite believe it - she was basically saying they'll refund today, but could then take the money back tomorrow and I'll have no comeback. I naturally declined this. She also said that it is Woolwich's fault because they'd lost the details.

Twopints

apcorbett wrote:

I would suggest coming clean to the bank - lets face it, they know that you've got double the money, and when you might need their help in the future, I'm sure that you being honest on this occasion would have a bearing on their decision.

Also, think about the people that actually got less! If you asked for £200, you'd have only got 9x£10 notes and a £20, £110!!

Not sure about this, but if it was e.g. an HSBC machine, then customers from virtually any bank could withdraw cash from it and as far as their bank is concerned their account is correct. It is only the bank responsible for the ATM that will have "lost" money, and to put it right they would have to contact customers of many other banks which would mean going to those banks for their customers' contact details. Can't imagine them 'fessing up to that to their competitors ! Also there's probably a Data Protection issue.

virgin_moneysaver

how could they prove it? - if they contacted the customer, & they said that they asked for £50 & £50 is all that the machine issued, the bank would have to prove it - I cashed a cheque for one customer & gave them the incorrect amount, the breakdown on the reverse of the cheque confirmed that I had overpaid but when the customer was approached tactfully if she had checked her money she said she had received what she asked for & even when the reverse of the cheque was shown to her she still denied having the extra amount - we couldn't prove that she had the money -
later on that year she proved her dishonesty in other ways but we had no recourse to the funds she denied receiving - her word against ours

Fatboy_NSS

If the machine is paying out double it's the fault of the company that packed the money into the machine (usually Securicor) rather than the bank. The cash machine contains several cassettes of money, and the machine detects the cassettes as they are put in and knows whether they contain £10s or £20s. Therefore if Securicor mess up and put £20 notes into a cassette that's meant to take £10s the machine will effectively pay out double what it's meant to. However as Securicor are at fault when this happens it's far easier for the bank to just claim the money back from them rather than having to get it back from everyone who made a withdrawal at the machine in question, especially as they wouldn't necessarily know which withdrawals were dispensed from which particular cassette.

I hope that makes sense...