"You understand, Michelle, that our ATMs don't dispense five dollar notes."
"I understand what you're saying, but it gave ME two five dollar notes so I think you'll have to say that sometimes, your ATMs do give out five dollar notes."
"Ah, no Michelle. They do not."
"I understand why you're saying that because this is weird. But it did. To me."
"When you took the money from the machine, did you somehow reach under the machine?"
"The machine gave me the money. I didn't reach anywhere. The machine presented the money to me."
"I've remoted into the machine Michelle. I can see that you've used it, that you've withdrawn $300, and your account has been debited that amount. I can see that the machine gave you that money, and it has not recorded an error. The machine gave you three hundred dollars."
"No. The machine gave me $210. I asked for $300. That amount has also left my bank account. But what I have in my hand, from the machine, is four fifty dollar notes and two five dollar notes."
"Michelle, our machines don't dispense five dollar notes."
"Well today, this one did."
It doesn't pay to get up early and try and get things done on a Thursday. Well at least it didn't pay for me this morning. I'm still $90 out of pocket. Despite the shop owner confirming to the ATM Help Desk that he had reviewed the security video and it showed I did nothing wrong, or sneaky, or weird, or tamper'y. That I was standing there, with him, holding $90 dollars less than the $300 I'd asked for, they just would not admit that maybe, somehow, their ATM had dispensed two five dollar notes in the place of the two fifties for my withdrawal. It's not a huge stretch of MY imagination to see how someone, somewhere along the line may have swapped out the fives for the fifties - either maliciously or accidently.
Of course, the ATM people couldn't so much as hint that it was even a remote possiblity that their machine dispensed five dollar notes. Instead, they told me I had to phone my bank - it seemed like this was my problem despite the fact it was their machine - and the bank would deal with them if they felt they needed to take it further. I was out of the picture, and still out of pocket.
Westpac said I couldn't deal with this over the phone, and advised me to visit a branch. As this is the first time this has happened to me they would pay me back the money I'd lost, and they would handle the investigation from there to redeem the money from the ATM operator. But, if this happens to me again, I would not necessarily be paid out and a different process would need to happen.
So if this happens to me again, I'm on my own. As if it's my fault. These banking types take care, but no real responsibility, do they?
