I have a son studying overseas, and we have a joint account where I deposit cash and he withdraws as needed.
Yesterday morning, he went to make a withdrawal at a local ATM (the bank we use is a US bank which does not have branches in that country, but he can withdraw funds from a local bank’s ATM). There’s an option for an English screen but he started with the local language and entered his requested withdrawal, but then got nervous about too much text in that language and whether he fully understood it what it might be about, so he pushed “cancel” and got the English screen. But at that point it didn’t allow the withdrawal because of insufficient funds. And sure enough, when I look at the account online, it shows a withdrawal in the original requested amount. So obviously the machine processed the original transaction as if it had gone through. My son is absolutely sure that no cash was disbursed.
He called our bank and they said they could challenge it and “investigate” - they would credit the account for the meantime, but would reverse that if the investigation failed to substantiate the claim. The guy urged him to take it up first with the local bank who owned the ATM.
So that’s where it stands now (AFAIK). What I’m trying to do is understand how these things work. How might this claim be substantiated? What type of investigation might be done? (I suppose if there’s video of the ATM, they can see if he walked away with some cash.) Which bank is responsible? How would such a thing happen altogether?
An employee loads the machine with $1,000. That action and the amount loaded is recorded.
The next day, he comes back to refill it. Before he does, the amount left in the machine is known. As is the total of withdrawals made since he filled it yesterday.
In your case, they should determine that there was $XXX more left in the machine than there should have been.
The reconciliation might not happen the on the spot, but it should happen.
Understood that they would realize it’s off by $X (about $500, in this case). But the question is how they know that you’re the guy who was debited without getting any money?
More than one person claimed they didn’t get money, and
The total they claimed “missing” was greater than the amount actually missing
If there was video at the machine, I suppose they’d look at it and see if they could tell that you walked away empty handed. They should be able to sync the video to the actual transaction.
So my son went and spoke to a guy at the ATM bank. The guy said he can’t help him because he doesn’t have an account at that bank. But he also said that if it’s true that no money came out, then it would be restored to his account by the next night. So that guy is claiming that the system would recognize it without having to manually rely on his complaint.
At this time it’s already night in that country, with no sign of anything being restored. So I told my son we’ll check again tomorrow and if nothing happens then we’ll have to take it up with the US bank. (For some reason, the guy at the US bank said they can only discuss it with my son since it was his withdrawal - though as I pointed out, I’m the guy putting all the money in )
Not so long ago my bank did away with envelopes for ATM deposits. When I asked how they kept that straight, I was advised that all transactions are so extensively videoed they know where very dollar went. If there’s an ATM transaction I’d expect there will be video of cash coming out of the machine.
I had a transaction post to my account as a withdrawal when the ATM did not dispense any money. But I did request a receipt at the time of the transaction and the receipt printout said something like TRANSACTION FAILED. I took it up with my bank and sent then a picture of the receipt. They credited my account right away.
So… any chance the OP’s son has a receipt that shoes no money dispensed?
A couple of times I have gotten “TRANSACTION FAILED”, and kept the receipt, but I never had to call the bank about it— it was sorted out automatically (or maybe a human was involved, but not I).
Once I received a bonus banknote, mangled and crumpled up into my withdrawal.
Anyway, the paper receipt is your friend, and I too assume they video everything. The lenses and cameras are not usually even that hidden.
As of now, nothing has been restored to the account, despite the assurance of the local bank/ATM guy. So I told him to take it up with the American bank. We’ll see what happens.
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