Never received cash from machine

[nikkiscappo]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help.

Back in October 2011 I attempted to withdraw £250.00 cash from a Co-Operative cash point. The machine malfunctioned and never gave me my cash nor a receipt. It had completely blacked out and shut down.

I waited for approximately 15 minutes to see if the machine would spring back into life, but it never did.

I immediately called Natwest and explained the situation, and was told to report it to my local branch the following morning. This I did followed by months and months of constantly chasing my money, and having to call into my branch to complete paperwork that they had lost, eventually they paid the money back into my account.

Yesterday I received a letter from them dated 29th February 2012 telling me they had received a log from co-operative to say the cash had been dispensed and there were no problems reported. They stated in there letter they would re-call the £250.00 from my account.

I checked my online banking last night and found that they had already withdrawn the money on 2nd March 2012, now making me overdrawn.

I never received this cash and will contest till I am blue in the face that I never received it.

HELP please, £250.00 is a lot of money to lose.

Thanks,

Nicola

[labman]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Hi Nicola,
What a horrible thing to happen. I'm not sure this is the best way, so wait for other replies too, but I'd be inclined to do a Statutory Declaration and submit it to Nat West with a demand for your money back. The coop must physically check the money in the machine, so whatever their automated log says, they must know they were £250 over that day.

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Co-operative have told Natwest that they have checked the log for that day, the money was dispensed and they have no report of a problem with that particular machine despite the fact it malfunctioned and blacked out.

Nicola

[teaboy2]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Did you have a witness with you?

Did you report the fault with the machine to the co-op?

Its obvious the log file will show it as being dispensed and it will have logged you press the button that would have triggered the machine to dispense, but it does not actually log the money being push out through the slot, even if it counted it and logged it counting it, especially if it was in the process between counting it and pushing out of the slot when it crashed of suffered a powercut. Chances are when it came back on after you were gone, that it pushed the money out and someone else took it.

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Hi

There were many people waiting in the queue behind me but unfortunately at the time didn't think to get any details from them, wish I had now. People were making comments in the queue about the fact that this particular machine always has issues but by that time my card was already in the machine and it was too late.

I rang my bank Natwest immediately whilst I was at the machine and was told the best I could do was to go to my local branch in the morning and report the matter.

Nicola
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See my problem is trying to prove that I never had the cash nor a receipt to prove anything.

How can co-operative say there were no problems with the machine when quite obviously something disastrous had gone wrong with it????

Do these machines have built in cameras that can be checked?????

[teaboy2]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Well the onus off proof is on you i believe, am sorry to say, to prove you did not receive the money. What would be interesting to know would be whether the log Co-op looked at was an error log or a system log as the system log would not show the error, whilst the error log would show that their was a problem with the machine at the time.

[leclerc]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Co-operative have told Natwest that they have checked the log for that day, the money was dispensed and they have no report of a problem with that particular machine despite the fact it malfunctioned and blacked out.

Nicola

They need to check that the ATM balanced for the week because if a malfunction happened usually the log would only show where money was retracted back into the machine. The ATM should be balanced weekly and any differences either shortages or overs(should be over) passed to an internal account.
It's unusual that a machine malfunctions and does not re credit the account. Did it give you your card back?

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

They need to check that the ATM balanced for the week because if a malfunction happened usually the log would only show where money was retracted back into the machine. The ATM should be balanced weekly and any differences either shortages or overs(should be over) passed to an internal account.
It's unusual that a machine malfunctions and does not re credit the account. Did it give you your card back?

Yes I got my card back, the machine was still blacked out when it did so, but now cannot use it over the counter nor at cash machines for some strange reason.

I did hang around for a good 15 minutes after it went wrong but nothing happened nor did it dispense any cash.

[leclerc]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Yes I got my card back, the machine was still blacked out when it did so, but now cannot use it over the counter nor at cash machines for some strange reason.

I did hang around for a good 15 minutes after it went wrong but nothing happened nor did it dispense any cash.

Have you asked the bank to replace the ATM card?
Further to this, if the bank say that they believe money was dispensed then effectively I would think this was theft since clearly you did not take them money. I'll ask bluebottle to take a look at this one for you.

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Natwests exact response was:-

'We have received a daily log from the Co-Operative bank confirming that the withdrawal made on 28th October 2011 was successful, the cash was dispensed and there was no error in that particular day's work'.

'In light of the information received to support the transaction, I trust you are in agreement with the item being re-applied to your account. You need take no further action and the amount £ 250.00 will show on your next statement.'

The letter is dated 29th February 2012 and I received it yesterday, 5th March 2012 and they had already deducted the money from my account on 2nd march 2012, giving me no time to even reply to them.
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Have you asked the bank to replace the ATM card?
Further to this, if the bank say that they believe money was dispensed then effectively I would think this was theft since clearly you did not take them money. I'll ask bluebottle to take a look at this one for you.

Yes, I have requested a replacement but have yet to see it arrive.

[leclerc]

Re: Never received cash from machine

I have asked Bluebottle, who is a former policeman, to have a look at this thread to advise whether or not there is any crime committed based on the whether the money was left at the ATM. If there isn't then the route left is gone and you will have to take the hit.

are you in an unauthorised overdraft now as a result of the withdrawal?

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

I have asked Bluebottle, who is a former policeman, to have a look at this thread to advise whether or not there is any crime committed based on the whether the money was left at the ATM. If there isn't then the route left is gone and you will have to take the hit.

are you in an unauthorised overdraft now as a result of the withdrawal?

Ah, thank you very much.

Yes I am now in unauthorised overdraft

[leclerc]

Re: Never received cash from machine

Ah, thank you very much.

Yes I am now in unauthorised overdraft

That part of it, I think is a little unfair since that now means that you will be charged on top of not receiving the money. A little bit of fairness on their part ie a partial increase on the overdraft might have been useful so that you could cut back on any spending to get back into credit. Now not only are you £250.00 light as a result of an ATM but are not likely to be charged for not having the money(I do wish they had not refunded prior to investigating the issue).

[nikkiscappo]

Re: Never received cash from machine

The thing is my account was in credit but because they have taken the money out, it now means my direct debits are not getting paid and I am now overdrawn which will obviously incur charges.

After working myself up about it all day, I have written them a letter which has finally ended up being three pages long.

I will see what reply I get and let you know the outcome.

[labman]

Re: Never received cash from machine

I find it hard to believe there is not a way of physically checking this. Surely they must know how much money is put into the machine and how much is then taken out.

There must be a £250 discrepancy somewhere. How can a normal member of the public access this? What bank terminology do they need to use to ask for things to be checked? It must be possible.