ATM ate my DD’s cash - 2nd UPDATE

[livinitup]

2nd Update & It’s Resolved !

This morning (1/8), I received a call from the local bank, the same person I spoke to on Friday. It was a good call. She actually found the money (the same bills!) in the ATM machine. When she investigated (& actually investigated), she got access to the ATM machine and did a search. It took some time and a deep dive but someone suggested that she look in a special compartment. She learned about this special compartment because of our issue. Apparently, when an ATM has this error, it pulls and drops the cash into this compartment which is separate from the rest of the cash. It takes a manual search to find it.

With that resolved, we talked about how poorly the Service Center handled the whole thing. I told her that my H was most upset because the representative and supervisor washed their hands of it all and closed the case. She said it was highly unusual that they would not refer the issue to the local branch - she gets those referrals often. So, she is going to file a complaint on our behalf.

Overall, very relieved and pleased that the money is in H’s account.

============================

My H is livid. Please don’t quote, I may delete this later.

Back on Saturday, Nov 11th, my H and DD made a cash deposit at our local bank’s ATM. It was over $400 of DD’s cash - money she earned walking dogs and working at a pizza shop. She’s a teenager.

My H used his bank card and followed all of the prompts on the screen, the slot opened, took the money, closed the slot, then froze. Then a message appeared on the screen saying “This transaction cannot be completed at this time” and spit out $1.00 and no receipt.

Confused, H made 2 more transactions to test the machine - he deposited a check which credited his account (and since cleared) and withdrew $200, also normal. We have the receipts of that transaction and they both appear on our account statement.

He called the bank and initiated an investigation with an investigation number. The bank issued a “provisional deposit” of $400+ to his account and said they would do an investigation. Today, (January 4th) we received a letter from the bank that they concluded their investigation, “no errors were found”, and stated they reversed the deposit (as of today’s date). We see the reversal on our account.

This evening, H called the bank’s service center call # that re-affirmed that they “found no errors” and the matter was closed. The person (and supervisor) on the phone basically shrugged. H requested all materials from the investigation and emailed the bank with his complaint. The person on the phone said his account has been noted.

He is going in person to the bank tomorrow.

How does this happen?? The ATM certainly had an extra $400+ unaccounted in cash deposits the next day. Somebody at the bank, counting the money in the ATM, had to notice hundreds of extra dollars the next day.

Right?


——————————-
Update: Today (Jan 5), I called the actual bank with the ATM that H used - to get the branch manager’s name and to inform them that H was coming in person. I was informed that the bank manager has been and will be out on paternity leave “for a while”. There is no acting bank manger. It didn’t take me long to explain our issue when the bank person asked “is this about the ATM?” - yes, yes it is. Turns out (as we suspected) there has been no “investigation”. The lost deposit got escalated to the bank THIS MORNING. It’s the first she’s heard and she kindly asked me to giver her until Monday/Tuesday to track down what happened. I have her name and she sounds invested to get answers. H is still fuming. He’s not going to let this go.

[meanie]

I've had this happen and the tellers said it would be resolved at the end of the day, it felt really weird just taking them at their word but it did true up.

Someone here probably can give an actual answer, I don't work at a bank that services individual accounts, but yes I would assume the cash counted would not match the transactions for the day.

I would file a police report at this point.

[noodleoo]

OMG that’s awful! I would be so upset. I’m sorry that happened to your DD.

I feel like there should be video showing your H put the cash in the machine. Can you ask the manager for that?

ETA; this also sounds like something your local news station might be able to help with. Ours has a segment where they solve consumer problems. Maybe you can reach out to them if the bank refuses to work with you.

[quesyrah]

Don’t ATM’s have cameras? I would think they can pull the footage and verify. I might consider going to the police and seeing if you can get access to the footage that way.

[mcppalmbeach]

Whoa. I’m so sorry and that seems nuts that this wasn’t caught in review. I have no idea how to process that beyond what your h is doing and going into the physical bank. I doubt they will shrug it off when faced with a rightfully angry customer. I think they’ll help, but I would also call customer service back and ask for a place to mail a physical letter and email for escalation because at the very least there should be a review of the review.

[Jalapeñomel]

This happened to me, but they did the investigation and found that they money was deposited just not accounted for in my bank.

[sadlebred]

Go to the branch. Bring the documentation, especially the receipt. Ask the teller to talk to the Branch Manager; they are the only one that has the authority in a branch to do anything.

Never ever ever deposit cash into an ATM. Too much can go wrong. Go old school and take it into a teller at the branch.

[ssmjlm]

I would go to the bank in person and if you can't resolve it there, let them know you are heading to the police station after to file a report.

I don't get how someone wouldn't notice the ATM being off by $400.

[estrellita]

*poof* I would absolutely escalate. They should do another investigation. File a complaint with the CFPB if you need to. That should get their attention and hopefully someone else looks a little harder.

[sent]

I’m also in the middle of this. Last year the ATM shut down on me after I deposited the checks but before processing my transactions so I didn’t have any “proof” that I was there. It happened twice, once in May and again in October. I was depositing checks for my office. I was given a provisional credit both times. The first time, I received a letter stating the investigation had been resolved and the provisional credit would be made permanent. I figured this was normal since I had put the checks in the machine, of course the bank owed me the money.

However, for the second incident, the bank sent a letter saying that they couldn’t find anything and the provisional credit would be taken away. About $3800 was removed from my account a few days ago. I called the number on the letter and it was aggravating. The lady just kept saying “I’m sorry” and said the only recourse I had was to fax an appeal. And that I should contact the insurance companies who wrote me the checks and ask them to reissue them. I explained that the machine took my checks so how could they have gone anywhere? And don’t they have a camera that would show I was there physically putting the checks? She said sometimes the investigation will attach a little video if it’s relevant but she didn’t see a video on my file.

In the meantime, I came across a thread on Reddit where people were saying that ATM errors are hit or miss if you will be made whole. That it’s a tragic ending if you honestly deposit cash and they claim you didn’t. There are enough people who make claims but are actually lying that ATM ate their cash so this is basically how they handle disputes. And that often you can’t get them to review the video without getting law enforcement involved. The ATMs are all handled by third parties and the banks don’t really care that you had an issue - if you go into a branch, they actively push people to use them! I had no idea ATMs were so awful. I’ve deposited cash many times and now I feel lucky that I didn’t lose the deposits.

As for resolving my current dispute, I’ve asked the business banker to please look into this for me. And now based on these experiences, I realized that two years ago I lost a $1k check that the ATM likely took but I didn’t realize because it was likely stuck to another check. I was so confused because I swear I had the check and then suddenly I was done with the deposit and it was off by $1K. But then I couldn’t find the missing check in the lobby or my car or anywhere. I never got a letter saying “hey we found a check in the machine that was never credited to you so here is your money.” The insurance company who issued this check said the check had been cashed and read off my account number. The only way the insurance company would have had that info is if the check had gone through the machine. The insurance company never sent me their proof that they had paid out the money for the check even though I requested it. I didn't know to dispute the ATM transaction at that time, and I got too busy to pursue this. Now I know it was probably the ATM. 

TL;DR - ATM disputes don’t always go in your favor.

[mrsukyankee]

Hopefully there wasn't also a scamming device in the machine - this is happening a lot in London bank machines where someone puts their own device in a slot and it either takes the cash or the card.

[donutsmakemegonuts]

I had this happen to me once when I was depositing checks for both DH and I that we got for Christmas. I put his in first (of course) to be deposited and the ATM gave me an error message and basically stopped working. No confirmation of a deposit, no way to check a balance, nothing. I called the bank number when I got home (it was after hours or else I would have gone in immediately) and they said that they saw the deposit and would fix it. I bank with a credit union if that makes any difference. I have always been able to speak with a real person if I have ever had issues and I think they are local and not outsourced elsewhere. I was extremely anxious about it because how do you prove you deposited something?? But luckily it worked out.

[deadwing]

What I'm taking away from this thread is I should take my own video any time I use an ATM.

[pixy0stix]

Jan 5, 2024 8:36:31 GMT -5 deadwing said:

What I'm taking away from this thread is I should take my own video any time I use an ATM.

I would think the takeaway would be to not use ATMs. I stopped using the local ones when they ate my second card. Luckily I didn't lose any money.

[sadlebred]

Jan 5, 2024 8:00:51 GMT -5 estrellita said:

PDQ

I would find out where the bank is chartered. File a complaint with that authority.

[dexteroni]

Jan 5, 2024 8:21:27 GMT -5 sent said:

There are enough people who make claims but are actually lying that ATM ate their cash

I’m guessing banks don’t put a ton of effort into substantiating claims for this reason. The ones who are lying will give up, and the ones who aren’t will push harder. Definitely push harder, OP. That sucks and they need to fix it for you.

I will say that after an ATM error when I was younger (that fortunately worked out ok), I don’t deposit into ATMs for this reason. You have no proof and little recourse if something goes wrong. On the rare occasion when I have cash to deposit, I go to the drive thru teller with my fellow olds. And for checks, I use the mobile deposit feature in the app.

[freshsqueezed]

Jan 5, 2024 8:47:17 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jan 5, 2024 8:36:31 GMT -5 deadwing said:

What I'm taking away from this thread is I should take my own video any time I use an ATM.

I would think the takeaway would be to not use ATMs. I stopped using the local ones when they ate my second card. Luckily I didn't lose any money.

I worked at a bank in grad school. After that I said never do your banking business through the ATM.

[NewGirlNic]

I used to work at a bank. (10+ years ago) Back then, if someone deposited cash (or checks), it was in an envelope and at the end of the day we'd open the ATM, gather all the ATM deposits and process them at the teller line. So, things have changed quite a bit since my banking days.

Once a week (I think?) we would have to fill and audit the ATM to make sure it balanced. If anyone had a dispute, we'd log it and when the audit was completed for the week, if it was over $, we'd credit the persons account or call them if they were using a foreign ATM card and didn't bank with us. It happened pretty infrequently. 

I would definitely keep perusing it. I would have to imagine that ATM didn't balance at some point. 

[MDmomof2]

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

[sent]

Jan 5, 2024 10:16:34 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

Bank of America got rid of the drive thrus and have reduced the hours the bank is open and shut down branches. Most branches no longer offer night deposits and the few that do send it out to a third party. This makes it challenging to deposit the cash but I’m going to have to put up with it because people still pay with cash.

[sent]

Jan 5, 2024 10:14:38 GMT -5 NewGirlNic said:

I used to work at a bank. (10+ years ago) Back then, if someone deposited cash (or checks), it was in an envelope and at the end of the day we'd open the ATM, gather all the ATM deposits and process them at the teller line. So, things have changed quite a bit since my banking days.

Once a week (I think?) we would have to fill and audit the ATM to make sure it balanced. If anyone had a dispute, we'd log it and when the audit was completed for the week, if it was over $, we'd credit the persons account or call them if they were using a foreign ATM card and didn't bank with us. It happened pretty infrequently. 

I would definitely keep perusing it. I would have to imagine that ATM didn't balance at some point. 

From what I gathered, all of this handled by a third party now.

[elefun]

Never trust the robots

I'm sorry, OP. I hope it gets resolved timely.

[quesyrah]

Jan 5, 2024 10:50:36 GMT -5 sent said:

Jan 5, 2024 10:16:34 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

Bank of America got rid of the drive thrus and have reduced the hours the bank is open and shut down branches. Most branches no longer offer night deposits and the few that do send it out to a third party. This makes it challenging to deposit the cash but I’m going to have to put up with it because people still pay with cash.

We bank with capital one and they don’t have any banks with tellers.

My kids used to get cash for odd jobs they do for MIL but I got tired of having to go all the way out to the capital one cafe so I asked her to switch to checks. I mobile deposit those.

Thank goodness we never had an issue, I never would have thought of something like this.

[estrellita]

Jan 5, 2024 10:51:58 GMT -5 sent said:

Jan 5, 2024 10:14:38 GMT -5 NewGirlNic said:

I used to work at a bank. (10+ years ago) Back then, if someone deposited cash (or checks), it was in an envelope and at the end of the day we'd open the ATM, gather all the ATM deposits and process them at the teller line. So, things have changed quite a bit since my banking days.

Once a week (I think?) we would have to fill and audit the ATM to make sure it balanced. If anyone had a dispute, we'd log it and when the audit was completed for the week, if it was over $, we'd credit the persons account or call them if they were using a foreign ATM card and didn't bank with us. It happened pretty infrequently. 

I would definitely keep perusing it. I would have to imagine that ATM didn't balance at some point. 

From what I gathered, all of this handled by a third party now.

deleted PDQ stuff



My suggestion too OP is when you escalate, make sure everything is right about the claim. Date, time, card used, amount, ATM terminal ID (if you can get it) and address.

[ssmjlm]

Jan 5, 2024 10:50:36 GMT -5 sent said:

Jan 5, 2024 10:16:34 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

Bank of America got rid of the drive thrus and have reduced the hours the bank is open and shut down branches. Most branches no longer offer night deposits and the few that do send it out to a third party. This makes it challenging to deposit the cash but I’m going to have to put up with it because people still pay with cash.

And they have a huge ATM in the lobby. I mean, I guess if you used that one, then at least someone else was there to see the ATM fail.

I had a bunch of E's rolled change and went into the BOA at work. The guy seemed surprised to see a human (not to mention the rolled change, lol).

[expectantsteelerfan]

Jan 5, 2024 10:16:34 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

I bank with Navy Federal Credit Union, but moved out of the area where there are ANY local branches.  Luckily I can do most things through mobile banking, but recently I had a bunch of cash I wanted to deposit into an account.  I knew NFCU was 'partners' with some local banks, so I looked that up and went to one and asked to do a deposit, and the teller told me she couldn't do it for me, but I could do it at the ATM.  I'm old, and the last time I had made a deposit at an ATM, there were envelopes you had to fill out with your account # and other info. before putting the cash or checks into the machine, and I was looking around for those for a while before I just stuck my card in, thinking maybe it would spit out an envelope for me after I said I wanted to do a deposit.  But after I picked deposit cash, I was shocked when it told me to just place the cash in the slot all willy nilly.  
Luckily for me the deposit went through with no issue, but thanks to this thread I'm going to be wary to deposit cash again ever.  I'm going to need to tell my family members to please stop gifting my kids cash...my dad gave them both 50's for Christmas.  They both have accounts with mobile banking now and debit cards that they use primarily to make purchases, or I buy things online for them and they 'pay' me with their cash, and then I'm stuck with these 50's or 100's from them that I don't want to use.  

[shauni27]

livinitup, I request a bump of this thread when there is an update, be it next week or next year, please.

[sent]

estrellita - Bank of America made it clear it's a third party that handles the balancing (or not balancing because where are my checks!!!?) of the drive up ATMs. I will be sure to ask if there are any machines that actual branches still handle.

[sent]

Jan 5, 2024 11:22:11 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

Jan 5, 2024 10:16:34 GMT -5 MDmomof2 said:

I feel like banks are pushing everyone towards ATMs. Our local PNC bank has no tellers - not in the drive through or inside. They removed the area where the tellers used to be and now you only go in to talk about your account - no deposits or withdraws. Everything has to be done through the ATM.

I bank with Navy Federal Credit Union, but moved out of the area where there are ANY local branches.  Luckily I can do most things through mobile banking, but recently I had a bunch of cash I wanted to deposit into an account.  I knew NFCU was 'partners' with some local banks, so I looked that up and went to one and asked to do a deposit, and the teller told me she couldn't do it for me, but I could do it at the ATM.  I'm old, and the last time I had made a deposit at an ATM, there were envelopes you had to fill out with your account # and other info. before putting the cash or checks into the machine, and I was looking around for those for a while before I just stuck my card in, thinking maybe it would spit out an envelope for me after I said I wanted to do a deposit.  But after I picked deposit cash, I was shocked when it told me to just place the cash in the slot all willy nilly.  
Luckily for me the deposit went through with no issue, but thanks to this thread I'm going to be wary to deposit cash again ever.  I'm going to need to tell my family members to please stop gifting my kids cash...my dad gave them both 50's for Christmas.  They both have accounts with mobile banking now and debit cards that they use primarily to make purchases, or I buy things online for them and they 'pay' me with their cash, and then I'm stuck with these 50's or 100's from them that I don't want to use.  

So I also made a recent cash deposit and it had multiple one-hundred dollar bills. The machine refused to take one of the bills and I think because it was a little faded and creased. I was annoyed that I'd have to figure out when I could make it inside the branch. The next day I went to a mobile DMV appointment and had to pay $11. I asked if they took cash particularly 100s and they did! I handed over my faded $100 and now it's gone from my life. Also handed over a one-hundred dollar bill at the hair salon today, no issues there. As ridiculous as it sounds, it does takes a little effort with the bigger bills but they can be spent.  

[estrellita]

Jan 5, 2024 12:35:26 GMT -5 sent said:

estrellita - Bank of America made it clear it's a third party that handles the balancing (or not balancing because where are my checks!!!?) of the drive up ATMs. I will be sure to ask if there are any machines that actual branches still handle.

That's very possible. If they have any inside the branch, even in the vestibule, those are more likely to be internally serviced, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was all 3rd party. The 3rd party serviced terminals can take forever to balance/report the balance (only cash) or find lost checks. They also typically service the machines less frequently.