I have to say i had always been the amongst those praising the inception of ATM's but of recent i have had reason to doubt its functionality and of recent the sincerity of the operators *operator banks and Interswitch*.
i was part of an argument about last month at an ATM when a distraught customer was lamenting how many times he had lost funds while withdrawing from these ATM machines and he really didn't know until he had to make a bulk withdrawal from his account and was told he didn't have up to that sum , and from his own basic accounting he should have enough to cover that transaction he requested for his account statement and found out some ATM transactions which he thought had gone the way of *YOUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IS NOT AVAILABLE* had actually been debited from his account.

Now to my own conclusion of how i confirmed the theory, i went to a UBA ATM to withdraw N15,000 i was to hold on for like 5mins and i get my card back after being told my financial institution isnt available, i was like 'all well and good let me get to a GTB ATM' *they are my bankers* , and all of a sudden i get a text on my phone stating i had withdrawn N15,000 with a N100 charge. i went ballistic, i went into the UBA branch to complain they said i had to take the matter up with my own Bank, i immediately left and went to my GTB branch i was told to fill out a form . this was like 17th of july and till now i still haven't gotten my cash back, whenever i go to the bank they say its being processed i have filled the form twice now, and my worry now becomes at the end of the day wont they say the data is missing or maybe a UBA staff or INTERSWITCH staff who those the collating of transaction from the ATM take out my cash and erase records? And its now embarrassing when i always have to go into a banking hall complaining *with all eyes on me* about 15,000.

And you now imagine other users of these ATM machines who don't follow their account balances or are not fortunate to have a text based acct follow up like i did.

so can i say its the banks who are ripping customers off or is it Interswitch who does, some laws have to be made about such transaction failures, lots of people are being 'automatedly' swindled.

i used to be proud of my bank GTB but of recent their cases of always loosing your forms and telling you to write another over minor issues or rude front desk staffs , have made me have a rethink. when i wanted to get my atm card i had to fill my form thrice because every time there was an issue of it not not having gotten to the head office or not received from the head office after 2 weeks!!!!it took me 2 moths to finally get the card.im a customer wit an issue, notwithstanding the figure involved i deserve some courtesy and when you flare up it turns into the scene and they even get more abrasive with their rudeness.

i have a colleague who opened a 'dom' acct and requested for a master card, he was told it was being processed and he would be contacted when its ready, he hasn't been contacted till now, only for him to get a text some days ago saying money had been deducted from his account for 'card insurance!!! and from what i know i don't think card insurance is mandatory and you should be told when applying for the card. im a customer wit an issue, notwithstanding the figure involved i deserve some courtesy and when you flare up it turns into the scene and they even get more abrasive with their rudeness.

the bottom line is for everyone to check their account balance on every transaction or much better weekly.

Just part of the corrupt system in Nigeria - even the ATMs have been 'trained' to cheat!

Srry about the 'typo' "thiefing" , my bad

Oh !SORRY FOR THAT,MAN. . . Thats a serious case i must say but i dont think the problem is from the GTBank System because this Machines are programmed and any slice (simple) mistake will affect the changes.

I think you should try to speak with the Bank Branch Manager and i'm sure he will fine a solution to it.

Cheers .

thats why i say, Nigeria has a long way to go. even ATM, chei . is problem again and another means to make extra box for banks, may God have mercy on Nigeria.

Wait o!        

Are you saying that GTBanks's ATMs are not reliable? I use GTBank o! Gbese!  

Razorr:

Wait o!

Are you saying that GTBanks's ATMs are not reliable? I use GTBank o! Gbese!

If theres any ATM i can vouch for, i think its GTBank's own. I have almost 5 ATMs but i feel safe most with GTBank's own.
ITS SOLID

unbelievable!

i think the poster had a problem with UBA Bank ATM and not GTB cos i use UBA too and it could perform badly sometimes especially if you use another Bank ATM on it. Thats am sure.

Not just GTBank's ATM, its applicable to all ATM machines. I have been in the same situation several times but fortunately for me, the systems credits me back within 24hrs. Something must be wrong in Bani's case.

mishoo:

i think the poster had a problem with UBA Bank ATM and not GTB because i use UBA too and it could perform badly sometimes especially if you use another Bank ATM on it. Thats am sure.

really?
damn!

@ poster . . . .
eyaaaaaaaa, sorry!
have you gone to the branch of the bank where u opened ur acct?
u may get better treatment there

abyways. . . . soriiii

Bros thanks for the information. This is unacceptable. Hard earned money being lost to "ATM con Machine". God forbid.

Thank you Bani for the Imformation about the ATM issue. I am a good ATM user. and i am not sue to checking my Account balance.

unfortunately, the infrastructure in the country affects the way even the most basic technology functions, so sorry to the poster and all others who have had issues with ATMs. Believe me it is so much better for the banks to have the ATMs working well, as it reduces so many overheads least of all the queues in their banking halls.

In any case, most times when the machine processes your transactions without paying you cash, it will recredit your account within 24hours, meaning by the following day when the bank server has been booted, all wrong debits would be automatically corrected. There are usually some however that the system does not auto correct and for this you would have to go to the bank, fill a form for your complaint and usually it woudl be corrected. The trouble with the manual correction is due to the fact that investigations would have to be carried out to ascertain the veracity of your claims and if satisfied, the bank would credit your account back. Now since the staff are not "witches", there is no way they will know your account was debited and you were not paid especially if you withdrew from another bank's ATM unless you complain.

So please everyone, you have a responsibility of monitoring your cash balances in your account anytime you withdraw from the ATMs. The machines have an inquiry request button that work even if your "financial institution is not available".

I will say again, even if N100 is missing from your money, you have a right to ask for it, so do not hesistate to raise the roof in your bank and if you meet with an irresponsible officer DO ENSUURE that you ask for the MANAGER who is usually a more mature person who will handle your transaction.

I heard several cases of ATM 'frauds'.And I'll say they swing both ways.
A friend of mine got an error from an ATM machine,changed his mind about withdrawing and left for another ATM where he got his cash.
At the end of the month,he was credited with the amount he 'supposedly' withdrew.
Most of the cases Ive heard are negative though.I know of someone who got to an ATM and found cash in the slot-Probably an error occured and the account holder left.
Also,Ive heard several complaints very similar to the Posters'
@Poster
You've done the right thing by complaining immediately.Problem is that with the ATM,there are no witnesses,no signed documents(deposit/withdrawal slips) and stuff like that.
Hopefully,u will get ur money back

@ Bani,

There should not be much worry, your bank GTB will surely credit back your account. I have had similar experience with Sterling bank twice. The first time my account was credited back after many days since they have to get confirmation/approval from their Head office and Interswitch. Secondly the Machine was able to regulate itself. I leart from the e-banking people that the machine has been programmed to regulate itself mostly by 12.00noon and at other times depending on the bank and machine type and and like your case that was not credited, you can ask for computer print out of your transactions using the ATM from the Bank. What I did was to stop transactions using my ATM, until the whole thing was resolved in case of arguements. Your can complain for your money from any bank even if it is 500 naira. I was credited back on the two occassions you can also be creditted.

@bani

I will like you to check the statement of your account up either on the internet or you request for the paper one. Then look for date when the transaction happened. Check if your account was debitted, without being creddited correspondingly.

This ATM out-of-service syndrome has happened to me before but anytime it happened, I would just go to the nearest Cafe to check my statement online, and lo and behold the credit would have cancelled out the debit.

I hope this helps

Hmm
am surprised too
even GTB?
I use their ATM and think it is the most efficient

SO EVERYBODY SHINE YOUR EYES oo
Thanks for the text they sent to u if not you would have not known

MT:

@bani

I will like you to check the statement of your account up either on the internet or you request for the paper one. Then look for date when the transaction happened. Check if your account was debitted, without being creddited correspondingly.

This ATM out-of-service syndrome has happened to me before but anytime it happened, I would just go to the nearest Cafe to check my statement online, and lo and behold the credit would have cancelled out the debit.

I hope this helps

How can one do that can u give us the link pls for GTB?

I can imagine what you must have gone thru. I had a similar experience like this and the amount was 20 thousand. I use GTBank and had gone to their Bode Thomas branch after trying out at the Adeniran Ogunsanya branch of First bank, both In surulere, I checked the print out and it said I had withdrawn the said amount while it did not give me any money.

I called my branch in Broad Street, where one Eba or something took it up, tracing the transfer from Their branch to Interswitch and then finally to Bode Thomas, where the fault was finally discovered.According to the findings, the money was debited but a problem during the giving out of the cash caused the problem and so my money was in limbo,rtechnically out of my account and not yet in my hand. Anyway, Bode Thomas looked into it and paid as soon as the findings were done. It took about five days or so.

So, methinks your money is witgh one of those banks. Interswitch will be able to tell which of them will do the  payment. I will suggest you call customer service of your bank, since you are using GtBank. Thay will get to the root of it. Thats what I did. I do know that my case was an issue in that brach cos I put alot of pressure on the CS person who escalated it and they had to deal wity it as soon as they can.

This is pitiful! Is there hope anything will ever work in this country of ours?

wetin go work for Naija? PHCN, GSM, Traffic, maintenance culture? The list is endless except for 419!

Peeps,

I think the awareness about ATMs are not properly done by the banks thats why we have all this misconceptions.Although what Bani said has happened to me before, it should not serve as a deterrent to ATM users.

First and foremost people shld understand that Interswitch is just the intermediary btw the various banks' host applications, so sometimes if "YOUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IS NOT AVAILABLE" is displayed, the problem could be frm interswitch and not the bank itself.

Secondly, after the ATM confirms ur acct. balance from the host application, the first thng it does is debits ur acct. of the amount u requested, so if u r nt paid due to one reason or the other (e.g netwrk fluctuation because the ATM has to inform the host dt the transaction has been completed ), ur account is supposed to be credited back ASAP.

In my own case, after i filled the form at my GTB branch i had to write a letter at the First bank branch where it happened,it took about 5 wrking days to get it reverted.

So i think the Banks shld be givin some kudos for the ATM thing and because its still in the teethin stage some room shld be given for one or two mistakes.

I have observed this problem with UBA's model of ATM.

y'all should bear in mind that its more of a technical problem than a person problem.the only person who can 'steal' the money is the person handling the atm

. i think its more to do with incompetent /poorly trained staff than a nigerian thing.do you actually think ATM 'non dispensation of cash 'does not occur in yankee?

i've had the problem like three times, and the money has always been repaid.typically, i go to zenith, report the issue, fill out a form with the details of the transaction and submit.

always check your balance before and after ATM transactions if you don't have mobile/internet banking.it was uncertainty about a debit that made me opt for internet banking in the first place.be warned though, it appears that the encryption(at least for zenith ) is outdated.thats the warning message my opera browser always gives when i log on to my zenith account

atm

eiya a friend wrote extensively on this atm 'THEIFING' on his blog. www.deboatobatele..com, its really annoying why everythin 9jerian always has to go this way, Gambia is less than the size of Lagos n u never hear of such sick complains, their banks make less profit but never compromise.

LA WAO FOR US OH

i'm not surprised, it's happened 2 me b4 with uba, but neve happened in my gtb account

i'm not surprised, it's happened 2 me b4 with uba, but neve happened in my gtb account

Hmm, food 4 thot.When do we begin to arrest an ATM for theiving?

sorry man shit happens.

The normal thing is for the amount you claim was not paid (15,000) to be reversed. i.e. you will be credited with the above amount within 24hrs.

ATMs have sensors to know when cash is dispensed. If it does not dispense, the transaction is reversed.

@author:
It is obvious there was a communications issue at the point of getting your account details from gtbank's host. therefore, it is not an ATM problem and your money will definitely be paid.
The right thing for u to do now is to go through your account statement. It is possible the 15000 has been credited back to your account.
Make a formal letter to both banks (uba and gtb)
For future times, always keep a copy of the ATM receipts.