withdrawal from a cash machine. Account debited money not dispensed

sgraham27101955

7 days ago I withdrew a large sum from a cardtronics machine. My account was debited but  no cash dispensed. I rang the number on the machine. I was told they could tell they had not dispensed the funds. Then they put me through to my bank. Nat West has told me it will take 17 days to credit me. If they can tell me, by phone, they know the money has not been dispensed why can’t they tell the bank  the same in less than 17 days. Why am  I ‘out of pocket’ for so long. I’ve tried complaining to the bank but all I get is ‘I’ve transferred your query or your complaint will take 20 days to resolve. Shouldn’t the bank trust the customer, credit the cash and if not proved then debit. Why is the customer penalised and not the machine company or bank who caused the issue? 

born_again

Bank uses LINK systems to claim the money back, until they get a reply on the request. No funds are refunded. 

NatWest have no idea if the cash was dispensed, as they have to contact the ATM owner via the LINK system in place. It is not a case of just ringing the ATM owner As the only way this can be checked is by audit of the ATM machine & the balance in it.

You will be surprised how many people walk away & fail to take the cash. Leading to a 3rd party thinking it is their birthday & taking the cash. In these cases, no refund is given.

turnitround

This happened to my son a few days ago with a LINK machine. There was no phone number on the machine.
 He banks with Halifax so went in the following morning and they credited his account straight away but they did say that they need to investigate and if it shows the money was dispensed they will take it back in 30 days time which is fair enough.

However the refund done instantly.

Nebulous2

born_again said:

Bank uses LINK systems to claim the money back, until they get a reply on the request. No funds are refunded. 

NatWest have no idea if the cash was dispensed, as they have to contact the ATM owner via the LINK system in place. It is not a case of just ringing the ATM owner As the only way this can be checked is by audit of the ATM machine & the balance in it.

You will be surprised how many people walk away & fail to take the cash. Leading to a 3rd party thinking it is their birthday & taking the cash. In these cases, no refund is given.

I once got £200 like that. 

Approached a bank machine to use it, saw money sticking out of it and unthinkingly pulled it out. I looked around and couldn't see anyone nearby.  Phoned the number on the machine for reporting anything suspicious - take it into the bank. It isn't a bank, its a supermarket. Well take it into the supermarket. I did, they logged it, took my details and I assumed that would be the last I heard of it. 

A few weeks later I got a letter from the supermarket saying it hadn't been claimed so they had handed it to the police. Some time later (3 months?)  the police wrote saying the lost property you handed in hasn't been claimed and you are now entitled to it. I went to the police station and said - this money was sticking out of a bank machine. I'm sure you could have found out who owned it. The policeman said, you've done what you needed to do, it hasn't been claimed, so it is now yours. He counted the notes out of an envelope and gave them to me, so I was up £200. It did concern me that someone else might also be down £200......

boingy

Years ago I went to use a Halifax machine but it wouldn't accept my card. I then realised that the previous user had left their card in the machine and was still "signed in" so I had options to withdraw cash, get a balance etc! Of course I didn't do that. I ejected the card and looked to see if there was anyone in view who it might belong to but there were no likely candidates (I really hadn't paid any attention at all to the person in front of me).

So I went into the branch, joined the queue, explained to the cashier what had happened and handed her the card. Except she wouldn't take it from me. She said she was not authorised to handle customer's cards and also said that I shouldn't have handled it either! So I had to wait for the manager to be summoned and he did take the card from me but asked me for an assurance that I hadn't withdrawn any money (that would have made me the world's most stupid thief...) Overall he gave me the impression that it was all somehow my fault and he certainly didn't say "thank you". So that left me a bit grumpy, especially as I had to queue at the cash machine again to make my withdrawal.

sgraham27101955

Thanks for your responses.  Why should we accept that Banks have a right to deprive you of your cash until they complete their processes with Link. I did nothing wrong. The machine was faulty and they knew I had not been given any cash. They can do their checks in the background later. Halifax behaved properly crediting the account  of the person this happened to ( see replies to my post) and going through process in the background on the understanding that if there is a problem they will debit within 30 days. I got my credit this morning only because I made a fuss and went to CEO with my complaint. 

lohr500

Nebulous2 said:

I once got £200 like that. 

Approached a bank machine to use it, saw money sticking out of it and unthinkingly pulled it out. I looked around and couldn't see anyone nearby.  Phoned the number on the machine for reporting anything suspicious - take it into the bank. It isn't a bank, its a supermarket. Well take it into the supermarket. I did, they logged it, took my details and I assumed that would be the last I heard of it. 

A few weeks later I got a letter from the supermarket saying it hadn't been claimed so they had handed it to the police. Some time later (3 months?)  the police wrote saying the lost property you handed in hasn't been claimed and you are now entitled to it. I went to the police station and said - this money was sticking out of a bank machine. I'm sure you could have found out who owned it. The policeman said, you've done what you needed to do, it hasn't been claimed, so it is now yours. He counted the notes out of an envelope and gave them to me, so I was up £200. It did concern me that someone else might also be down £200......

It's good to know that there still some honest and decent people in this world. I bet most would have pocketed the cash and said no more. Or am I just becoming increasingly sceptical about today's society? 

MrFrugalFever

Another reason to avoid the use of cash. Glad it got sorted though.

Bigwheels1111

Not had that issue, but don’t like cash machines.
Best friends wife was a bank manager, so I’ve heard all the stories.
I used to only use over the counter withdrawals.
Now that the banks don’t have counters, or even banks I use the post office.

lohr500

sgraham27101955 said:

Thanks for your responses.  Why should we accept that Banks have a right to deprive you of your cash until they complete their processes with Link. I did nothing wrong. The machine was faulty and they knew I had not been given any cash. They can do their checks in the background later. Halifax behaved properly crediting the account  of the person this happened to ( see replies to my post) and going through process in the background on the understanding that if there is a problem they will debit within 30 days. I got my credit this morning only because I made a fuss and went to CEO with my complaint. 

Sadly I suspect making a fuss and going to the CEO had zero effect on the time it took for you to receive the credit. They probably quote 17 days as a worst case scenario and in many cases, like yours, resolve the matter sooner.
Knowing how multi-national corporations work, your complaint to the CEO is probably still stuck in someone's inbox and hasn't been seen yet.

Notwithstanding this, I 100% agree with you that it shouldn't take that long to resolve.

PennyDD

Bigwheels1111 said:

Not had that issue, but don’t like cash machines.
Best friends wife was a bank manager, so I’ve heard all the stories.
I used to only use over the counter withdrawals.
Now that the banks don’t have counters, or even banks I use the post office.

Is it possible to withdraw money over the counter?  Usually the cashiers insist you use the cash machines and I've even heard of certain banks charging to withdraw cash from the counter.