I stopped by an ATM earlier this morning to get a couple ‘o’ bucks, and happened to remind myself of this question. What can you possibly do if an ATM “stiffs” you (as in you ask for $100, but only get $80–yet your reciept is printed $100).
I mean, it’s a machine. I know everyone says that they ensure their security and their counting ability, but it’s a machine–it could happen. It’s not like a real-live teller at a bank to whom you can say, “Hey, I need another $20.”
Nope, it’s a machine. Do you drive off and call someone? Do you call someone on the spot? What if you’re in a completely random city?
Tripler
It never happened to me, but I am curious.
I would imagine that you should contact the bank that owns the machine and let them know what happened. The next day when the machine is balanced, they will notice that the machine is $20.00 over and should refund you the money.
Turn your ATM card over. See that (hopefully) toll-free number printed there? You can call those folks and report the issue. All the cash that’s put into those machines is manually counted and recorded. If there’s any discrepancy, they can catch it. If it’s a machine in a bank, your best bet would be to go inside and report it. Ideally, they could shut the machine down and do a count out right there and to and verify the problem. In any case, they’d want to know that one of their machines screwed up, for sure. Privately-operated ATMs usually have a telephone number on a label someplace on the front of the machine. Definitely hold on to your receipt, you’ll likely need it to resolve the issue.
Although it’s a machine, it is still “settled” (or balanced-choose your term) like human tellers. The audit printer will show what it is supposed to have disbursed, and the bank knows what it started with. Excepting failed dispense cycles, the unit should settle $20 over, assuming yours was the only erroneous transaction.
FWIW-dispense errors are extremely rare. The units that I serviced checked bill thickness and dimension across the short side (to eliminate bills stuck together or not feeding singly) counted the physical number of bills from each hopper, and then checked the total ($85 requested = 4 x $20 + 1 x $5 = 5 total bills) before dispensing the counted stack. If the machine had run out of a denomination during the count phase, the incomplete stack would have dumped into the miscount bin, and the transaction then restarted with another denomination, or if that wasn’t possible ($85 requested - no $5 note counted, after one count failure, the screen directs customer to choose a multiple of $20).
I was stiffed for $500 twice in the same month by the same machine at my place of work here in Panama. (The second time immediately after the technicians had left after “fixing” it.) I got in touch with the local bank who operated the machine, who told me to contact my own bank. I filed an error report with my own bank, and they put the money back in my account pending a check with the dispensing bank. I don’t think I even had to send them the receipt - they were able to determine that that machine had been having problems.
I once had an ATM spit out a 10 instead of a 20. I figured, though, that the time it would take me to pursue the matter was worth more than $10, so I didn’t do anything about it. I carefully check what the ATM gives me, now, though.
A friend just recently told me her story of going to get $300 for her husband - the money was shot out into the little tray thingy, but the door never opened! She called her bank the next Monday and they immediately credited her account and within a few days she got a letter saying the malfunction had been verified and the credit would stand.
I pulsed out $40 but was talking to somebody (not paying much attention to my transaction) and all that happened was that a receipt printed out but no cash.
Without thinking about it I repeated the process and the same thing happened only this time I looked at the receipt(s) and they showed that I had just done back to back $40 transactions but received no cash.
I had to go to a bank branch and fill out some affidavit info and wait a couple of days for them to balance out the machine or something then the money was put back into my account.
I had this happen maybe 10 yrs ago. I went into the bank and told the person who was at that time talking to my grandfather, who had an account that was very valuable to the bank. They promptly handed me a brand new $10 bill :D.
I have not yet been shorted; my situation was the opposite. I asked for $100 once and got $110. The usual denominations it would have given for that amount were 4 x $20 and 2 x $10, but I got three $10’s and one of the $10 bills was badly crumpled. The printed transaction receipt the machine printed out said $100. This was during normal hours, so I went in and told a teller, and they shut the machine off right away and took out the money to balance it. Of course they might have been more concerned about it giving out too much money than not enough, but at any medium-to-slammer branch I’d bet they’d just pull it rght away if it was during business hours.
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I recall a time I withdrew $100 from an ATM, but didn’t take it out of the tray in time - and after a couple of seconds, the machine pulled it back! I had to call my bank and in a few days, the $100 was back in my account.
As with others…I entered a withdrawl for $100 but only $80 came out. This was on an ATM owned/operated by my bank. Better still, at the time they had a handset adjacent to the ATM that connected directly to customer service. They said they would immediately credited me the $20. I have no idea if they checked it later against a cash-count.
It’s been several years and the bank has been gobbled up several times and the handsets disappeared several gobbles back.
I had a bank ATM rip me off for $20 bucks once. I told the bank and they pretty much told me I was a scammer, and would have to send an official complaint to corporate. I forgot about it after sending the complaint.
I also once got $60 bucks out of the ATM, and went up to buy smokes. I threw one of the new twenties on the counter while she grabbed the packs. As it was lying on the counter I noticed it was a not particularly good counterfeit. I didn’t say anything and the clerk never noticed. I felt guilty about it, but at the time I was kind of paranoid that I had been ripped of for 60 bucks, and would be accused of counterfeiting myself If I mentioned it. One of the other ones was bad too, so I just burned it.
Actually, the daily balance for the machine will probably be correct.
When ATM’s are having problems like this, what usually happens is that one of the $20’s got stuck inside and didn’t come out for you. It will probably come out for the next person who uses the machine. But since people are less likely to report getting extra cash than they are to complain when they get shorted, the lucky next person probably won’t tell the bank. So the machine balances fine, but he got $20 that was supposed to be yours.
Report it to the bank. Generally, they will just credit the amount to your account, even if the machine balances and there is nothing to prove your story. It won’t hurt the bank. It happens rarely, and they save so much money on ATM’s (vs. teller salaries) that they can easily afford to credit you.
If you’re feeling lucky, after the machine shorts you, you can try another transaction, and see if you get your missing bill as an extra this time. Of course, if the machine is really messed up, you might get shorted again. Then you have to explain to the bank why you tried a second withdrawal, after the machine shorted you the first time. They might tend not to believe you on this.
Though I had to read this over about 3 times to understand it, it’s gotta be one of the most interesting phrases ever. I might create a unit of time and call it a “gobble” now.
Anyway, I’ve also had an incident with an ATM. Asked for $100, got $60. The machine was inside the bank, so I just walked over to the teller and she fixed it up right away.
I recently went to an ATM, requested $160, and got $60. I was pissed until I noticed that the receipt said $60, not $160.
Then, a couple of days later, I checked my balance on line, and my BANK said it was $160 withdrawal.
They cleared it up without any difficulty. I wonder if the owner of the machine (it was in a bar) was scamming people with it. The manager mentioned that her bartender had ‘just filled it’ before opening.