Who's Fault?

zookeeper1

I am writing on behalf of my mother who is disabled and in her 60's. This morning she called a taxi to take her to the local cash point attached to the post office to withdraw some money to pay her bills and do shopping etc. The cash machine is a link and owned by cardtronics uk ltd and when she put the card in it swallowed it and left her without access to her money. The taxi driver who drove her obviously wanted his money which was around £4 at the time but he wasn't willing to trust my mother by paying at a later date. The bank was called and my mother was told she had to go in branch. The problem is her local branch is closed for refurbishment so she had to travel 16 miles to the next town where a branch was open as the driver was not willing to leave. During this time the meter is running and he tells her he will drive her to the bank. The whole fare came to £59 (when you call for a quote it's £28-£30) which is an expensive hit to her disability income and he even followed her into the bank to make sure she got the money. I have called the taxi company who refuse to name the driver and have justified his actions. I have called our local bank who refuse to accept any responsibility even though they closed the local branch and I called cardtronics uk ltd who said there is no registered fault and won't accept liability. Our bank said there was nothing wrong with the card and there shouldn't have been as it was issued in the last 6 weeks with no prior issues. I have since found out that a minimum of 9 people have lost their card in the same machine and there is no warning sign or out of order sign attached. Should we accept this or is someone responsible for this mess? Is my mum entitled to compensation?

oli356

I've no idea about entitlement. But I'd be going after cardtronics. Regardless of if there were any prior faults, the card is still in that machine. 
I don't think the bank could be at fault and the taxi company obviously shouldn't be out of pocket, though it would be nice if the taxi driver had let her pay the £4 later, though I understand they must get all sorts of excuses of why people can't pay - so understand that they need payment now. 

xylophone

I have called the taxi company who refuse to name the driver and have justified his actions.

Your mother can make a formal complaint in writing. To insist on a customer running up a near £60 bill seems like exploitation of the vulnerable.

 cardtronics uk ltd who said there is no registered fault and won't accept liability. 

It is possible that there isn't a fault - that said, it seems odd for the card to be swallowed unless your mother tried to input the wrong PIN more than once.

How could the bank say that there was no fault with the card unless the card had been retrieved and examined?

eskbanker

Even if it could be proved that the machine was faulty, that wouldn't actually make Cardtronics responsible for indirect consequential losses like this, and neither the bank nor the taxi firm could reasonably be held liable either IMHO, so I think it'll need to be written off as an unfortunate set of circumstances.  Easy to say with hindsight of course but it would obviously be sensible in future for your mother to ensure that she has means of payment available for taxis before starting the journey....

zookeeper1

xylophone said:

I have called the taxi company who refuse to name the driver and have justified his actions.

Your mother can make a formal complaint in writing. To insist on a customer running up a near £60 bill seems like exploitation of the vulnerable.

 cardtronics uk ltd who said there is no registered fault and won't accept liability. 

It is possible that there isn't a fault - that said, it seems odd for the card to be swallowed unless your mother tried to input the wrong PIN more than once.

How could the bank say that there was no fault with the card unless the card had been retrieved and examined?

Well cardtronics said they can't find any reading for her card (10:15am) and said the last record of any card they have was 5:15am. I'm unsure of what's what with the machine but my mum was defiantly taken advantage of by the driver but the firm are justifying his actions. 

zookeeper1

eskbanker said:

Even if it could be proved that the machine was faulty, that wouldn't actually make Cardtronics responsible for indirect consequential losses like this, and neither the bank nor the taxi firm could reasonably be held liable either IMHO, so I think it'll need to be written off as an unfortunate set of circumstances.  Easy to say with hindsight of course but it would obviously be sensible in future for your mother to ensure that she has means of payment available for taxis before starting the journey....

What also of the bank closing there only branch in the town for refurbishmnet and forcing people to travel 16 miles?

spadoosh

If they have a twitter account (the taxi firm), sound off on twitter and tag your local newspaper and the taxi firm. Leave review on anything they have where you can leave a review. 

Ridiculous running up a £59 fare to pay £4 because a bank card was swallowed, they couldnt have asked her for some ID and sent an invoice? They should hang their heads in shame for that. Its as scummy as the reason they will use to justify it. 

Where did he pick her up from? Her house? What a tool. 

eskbanker

zookeeper1 said:

eskbanker said:

Even if it could be proved that the machine was faulty, that wouldn't actually make Cardtronics responsible for indirect consequential losses like this, and neither the bank nor the taxi firm could reasonably be held liable either IMHO, so I think it'll need to be written off as an unfortunate set of circumstances.  Easy to say with hindsight of course but it would obviously be sensible in future for your mother to ensure that she has means of payment available for taxis before starting the journey....

What also of the bank closing there only branch in the town for refurbishmnet and forcing people to travel 16 miles?

What of it?  They'd obviously recognise that travel would consequently be necessary for branch services but unless they were announcing that they'd reimburse associated travel costs during the refurbishment then expecting them to do so seems optimistic.  No harm in trying to appeal to their better nature with a carefully-worded complaint, but if you've already gone in all guns blazing trying to hold them formally liable then the opportunity has probably passed....

Tildaplum

I agree with Spadoosh - your real gripe is with the taxi company and I think your local paper etc would be very interested in the story

Regarding the retained card - these things happen and surprisingly often - you will just have to get a new card issued from the bank and the old one cancelled.

SevenOfNine

I'm happy to stand corrected, but don't taxi's have to be licensed by the local authority? If so, perhaps go down that route to complain, if necessary via thre councillor for her area.

The taxi driver doesn't sound like he was being massively reasonable, but I suppose the fare would have been double that by the time he drove her home again, but still!  Perhaps mum didn't want to go back home with no money either, so unless she's slipped a bit mentally, they are both to blame to a certain extent. 

boo_star

SevenOfNine said:

I'm happy to stand corrected, but don't taxi's have to be licensed by the local authority? If so, perhaps go down that route to complain, if necessary via thre councillor for her area.

The taxi driver doesn't sound like he was being massively reasonable, but I suppose the fare would have been double that by the time he drove her home again, but still!  Perhaps mum didn't want to go back home with no money either, so unless she's slipped a bit mentally, they are both to blame to a certain extent. 

Where is the evidence that the taxi driver wasn't licenced?
I'd estimate my local (licenced) taxi firm to charge about £59 for 16 miles. They're not cheap.