Had I noticed it immediately, I’ve often thought if I would have given that machine another go. Surely I would have reported the issue then.
I’ve been stiffed by ATM’s twice, neither of them owned by my bank. Both times I needed to go to my nearest bank branch and fill out a report. Not a big deal since it’s just a couple blocks away. They might do it over the phone, I didn’t check. I was credited back the money within a week.
One time I used an ATM at a mall that dispensed 20s. I requested $80.00. Instead of four 20s, I got three 20s and a $10 food stamp. This was when food stamps were paper coupons instead of an electronic debit card as now. I went to my bank branch with the food coupon and turned it in. They credited my account so it showed I only withdrew $60.00 instead of $80.00. No one had any explanation for how a $10 food stamp got mixed into a bundle of 20s in the ATM.
I got an extra 20 once because the bills were so crisp and new that 2 were stuck together and seemed to be 1 bill until I folded them.
It’s something that is occasionally tried by wannabe tricksters who get the correct amount, then complain to the bank that they’ve been shorted. They hope that the bank can’t disprove their claim and pays again either so they wouldn’t risk a court case, or out of good will. Rarely works. I don’t want to say that it has never happened that an ATM dispensed a wrong amount, but I’m pretty sure that the cases where customers falsely claim that it happened outnumber those where it actually happened by at least an order of magnitude.
It’s long enough ago that it almost certainly was a different model of machine than is being used now, but one time I had an ATM correct itself. I asked for $200, which was normally dispensed as 10 $20s. It started making noises that sounded like counting out money (it counts into a hidden spot and then spits all of it out at once). It paused a moment, made a few more counting noises, paused, tried one more time and then spit out a smaller number of $20s and then shut down. I checked my bank account as fast as I could (I very highly doubt there was time for human intervention) and found that my account showed a $200 withdrawal followed immediately by a COR (correction) for the amount that the machine was unable to give me.
I am also fairly sure that I have received too much at least once with no subsequent action taken by the bank, but I am not absolutely certain of that; it’s more in the realm of “Huh? I’m sure I had no money before, and now I see $220 in my wallet?!”
On a vaguely related note, I have heard that it used to be possible to cheat ATM machines by withdrawing a big stack of notes, taking some carefully out of the middle of the stack, but leaving the rest in the slot until the machine decided you’d walked off like a dumbass and left the money there. At which point it would suck the cash back inside and cancel the transaction, assuming you hadn’t taken any.
I assume that nowadays they are wise to this. (And in any case, if the amounts didn’t balance at the end of the day I assume they’d look at cancelled transactions with some suspicion…)
I’ve never had an incorrect amount but I have heard of rare occasions when they’ve put £20 notes in the £10 spaces in error so ppl who requested £10 got £20 instead.
Not any more than the managers at other stores. I can’t comment on these people’s management skills, but I’m often scared by their lack of comprehension of simple math or logic. For example:
I’m amazed this doesn’t happen more often. Sometimes my bills are so crisp that I have to count it a few times to be sure, but the machine has never been wrong yet. Good hardware impresses me much more than good software.