ATM legal theft?: machines spat the cards out with no cash!

Recently, my wife and I tried to make withdrawels at cashpoints, one at Ulster bank and the other with a private owned ATM. Both machines spat the cards out with no cash. The account had plenty of money in it.
When looking on the internet banking I was disgusted to see that the money had been taking from the account and promptly phoned the bank (BOI). I was told that the money would be refunded and this was a glitch. 10 days later and still no money! The bank gets another phonecall, this time I am told they will have to send a "query form" to the companies in question as they were not BOI cash machines. This should take 10 working days.
In the meantime, my money is missing from my account for at least 3 weeks and if this isn't resolved by the query form, then longer.
Is this commonplace or am I being taken for a ride?

Re: ATM legal theft?

Hi Starfish,
Exactly the same thing happened to me with the Permo. I was given the run around like you over the phone and at branch level telling me they had to investigate with the actual ATM owners.
I checked the complaints procedure on the Permo website and wrote a letter to their complaints department explaining what had happened (fully expecting this to be ignored so was ready to write to the Ombudsman).
I was wrong, I got a phonecall from some lady in their complaints department immediately apologising for the delay in sorting out the problem. Although they did not admit liability (obviously) and blamed a computer glitch, I received the money back in my account as a gesture of goodwill within 24 hours.
Check the BOI website for complaints procedure.
Good luck.

Re: ATM legal theft?

I would have thought it quicker to go to the people who are resposible for the cash machines. I am a BOI customer and used an AIB machine to withdraw cash. I asked it for €150 (3 x €50) but got 3 x €20 as the money was in the wrong slot.
I called the number on the ATM and the girl promptly switched off the machine (displaying that notice - ths ATM is out of order) and they tld me to go into the branch the next working day (it was a weekend) and my money was refunded to me.

Re: ATM legal theft?

At the risk of repeating myself, your bank is responsible for your money held with it. This is part of their contract with you as a customer. So all complaints which relate to transactions on your account, regardless of where the transaction was initiated should be looked after by your bank, regardless of where the withdrawal occurred.

For the same reason, if an unauthorised direct debit was charged incorrectly to your account you should have the complaint resolved by your bank rather than by the company.

The bank complaints procedures and forms should be on display in every branch, and they guarantee a quick response

Starfish... What is "a private owned ATM"??? Could I have one of these for my own use??..... All ATMs in Ireland are owned by banks - even if they are located in shops, pubs, etc

Re: ATM legal theft?

Gulliver said:

Starfish... What is "a private owned ATM"??? Could I have one of these for my own use??..... All ATMs in Ireland are owned by banks - even if they are located in shops, pubs, etc

Click to expand...

My mistake! But I'm sure you could get one for your own use, just keep it filled with cash and away you go!

Thanks for the replies, people. Much appreciated.

Re: ATM legal theft?

starfish said:

This should take 10 working days.
In the meantime, my money is missing from my account for at least 3 weeks and if this isn't resolved by the query form, then longer.
Is this commonplace or am I being taken for a ride?

Click to expand...

Hi Starfish,
This happened to me recently also. Got half the amount missing after 3 weeks and got the remaining amount after another 3 weeks. The reason it came in two installments was due to an error by bank on how much went missing originally. Don't see how this happened as I filled in query form clearly. Anyway money was received back ......eventually.

Re: ATM legal theft?

starfish said:

In the meantime, my money is missing from my account for at least 3 weeks and if this isn't resolved by the query form, then longer.
Is this commonplace or am I being taken for a ride?

Click to expand...

You are not being taken for a ride. There is a procedure there that unfortunately takes time. I had the same experience with a €100 attempted withdrawal. It was refunded in the end and so will yours

Hi,

a similar thing happened to me.
Using my irish cirrus card in spain, I tried to take out 100E. The card was returned but no money, but the 100E was debited from my account.
When I rang my irish bank to sort it out, they said the spanish bank had 50 working days to respond to them! 50 working days later, the spanish bank still hadn't answered, so BOI refunded me the money.
The banks can tell from the records what exactly was taken from the ATM in each transaction.