Arguing a dispute, where do I stand

Ryan2024

Long story short, I was in Morocco back in October and withdrew £500 from an atm within the bank.
The bank made the noise like it was counting, but then displayed an error and dispensed no money despite giving a receipt for a withdrawal.

I immediately notified the clerk, who simply stated I needed to contact my bank, they didn't look at the machine or anything, didn't even take it offline (the same thing happened to multiple people after, I did try to warn them but there was a language barrier)

I contacted the bank who said it would likely show as pending and then default back.

With this I used the adjacent machine that was working correctly (as advised by my bank) as a fellow traveler had just used it whilst I was using mine.
(They witnessed the issue)

Fast forward a day and both amounts come out of my account.

The dispute refunded it pending investigation but have today deducted it back from my account as the bank said the (singular) atm balanced.

I've raised a complaint with my bank as both the independent witness and CCTV confirm not only it happening to me, but happening to various other individuals.
The clerk advised me that they can't contact witnesses or ask for CCTV (so I really don't know what they investigate)

But the clerk  did say they may have just used the information from the terminal that was working correctly as I'd used two, but I said what if it's straight up fraud and the banking clerks there had tampered with the machine for the cash to get stuck, and then they've simply taken it themselves.

With an independent witness and CCTV that proves the case where do I stand on getting my money back?
Is it a case of raise it as a police report?
Go back to Morocco and raise it there?

Any advice is appreciated

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Your best bet is to follow the official complaints procedure of your bank and see what the response to that is, if you aren't happy with their response to an official complaint you can then go to the ombudsman. 

Ryan2024

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Your best bet is to follow the official complaints procedure of your bank and see what the response to that is, if you aren't happy with their response to an official complaint you can then go to the ombudsman. 

Do you think it's worthwhile making a police report? As well as I do believe the likelihood is fraud.
If not it's complete incompetence.

And it's been raised as a complaint, but naturally until that's resolved I'm going to be out of pocket

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Ryan2024 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Your best bet is to follow the official complaints procedure of your bank and see what the response to that is, if you aren't happy with their response to an official complaint you can then go to the ombudsman. 

Do you think it's worthwhile making a police report? As well as I do believe the likelihood is fraud.
If not it's complete incompetence.

And it's been raised as a complaint, but naturally until that's resolved I'm going to be out of pocket

Unless the bank ask you to I don't really see the point, can't see the police will do much in this instance   

IIRC the bank have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint after which you can go to the ombudsman, if the bank hasn't treated you fairly you might be able to ask for compensation, but I'm not sure of the specifics on that point. 

Ryan2024

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Ryan2024 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Your best bet is to follow the official complaints procedure of your bank and see what the response to that is, if you aren't happy with their response to an official complaint you can then go to the ombudsman. 

Do you think it's worthwhile making a police report? As well as I do believe the likelihood is fraud.
If not it's complete incompetence.

And it's been raised as a complaint, but naturally until that's resolved I'm going to be out of pocket

Unless the bank ask you to I don't really see the point, can't see the police will do much in this instance   

IIRC the bank have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint after which you can go to the ombudsman, if the bank hasn't treated you fairly you might be able to ask for compensation, but I'm not sure of the specifics on that point. 

It's just with the bank saying they can't speak to witnesses or request CCTV, I feel it's pretty redundant when it comes to investigating.
Whereas at least if there is a police report those things can be actioned.

I'm tempted to go back to Morocco to file it locally tbh

eskbanker

Ryan2024 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Ryan2024 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Your best bet is to follow the official complaints procedure of your bank and see what the response to that is, if you aren't happy with their response to an official complaint you can then go to the ombudsman. 

Do you think it's worthwhile making a police report? As well as I do believe the likelihood is fraud.
If not it's complete incompetence.

And it's been raised as a complaint, but naturally until that's resolved I'm going to be out of pocket

Unless the bank ask you to I don't really see the point, can't see the police will do much in this instance   

IIRC the bank have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint after which you can go to the ombudsman, if the bank hasn't treated you fairly you might be able to ask for compensation, but I'm not sure of the specifics on that point. 

It's just with the bank saying they can't speak to witnesses or request CCTV, I feel it's pretty redundant when it comes to investigating.
Whereas at least if there is a police report those things can be actioned.

I'm tempted to go back to Morocco to file it locally tbh

I don't believe that your UK bank would involve witnesses or CCTV in/from a foreign country, with or without a police report - all they'll do is communicate with the Moroccan bank and if they're told that the ATM reconciled then I doubt that they'd pursue the matter further.

Hoenir

Reconcilation of the ATM on a daily basis is a standard proceedure. The bank in Morocco is not going to commit fraud by lying about the matter. 

born_again

Banks can not request (unless it within one of their branches) CCTV & 30 days is the normal storage for CCTV anyway.
Not sure which CCTV you would be talking about, as CCTV can not be recording the actual ATM, as they could pick up PIN etc.
Same with witnesses. banks are not police & have no power to do this.

System works by CIRRUS & requests the ATM owner to run a balance enquiry. If that comes back showing as balanced then nothing further can be done by your bank. Used to get a copy of tally rolls to confirm, but that stopped a couple of years ago.

All you can do is raise a complaint & hope your bank simply decides to refund you. If they won't then it is down to FOS to decide. 

Murphybear

Hoenir said:

Reconcilation of the ATM on a daily basis is a standard proceedure. The bank in Morocco is not going to commit fraud by lying about the matter. 

It hasn’t always. I worked in a main Post Office in London.  We got an ATM and it was reconciled once a week, the same day all the counter accounts were balanced.