ATM gives free money!

• Buy one – Get one free! A common form of sales promotion!
• Ask 20  Take 40 – ATM special scheme! New marketing?

“An ATM in London has paid twice the money asked for” (Times of India, June 23, 2012) – due to human error- “an employee accidentally loaded GBP10 tray with GBP 20 notes.  Soon the word  spread (thanks to SMS, FB……); long queues were formed outside the ATM, some queued up repeatedly and withdrew even more. One person clinically “checked his online statement, only to find the amount asked for had  been debited, not what was paid out”.   Some customers claimed they were “lucky”.  The programming  should generally be to debit amount of cash dispensed by the machine.  Dangerously strange!

The acronym for ATM , as we all know, is Automated Teller Machine. Any Time Money, doesn’t matter. All Time Money, accepted.  In Canada, it is known as ABM – Automated Banking Machine.  But has Any Time Money at any time  become Any Time Double Money?!

Last month I read a news item that “Residents cash in ATM pays out double – and the bank says they can keep the windfall” (The Daily Mail, May 19, 2012).  Some customers walked away richer by thousands of pounds. A very reputed multinational Bank (the benevolent institution!) said “they would not be asking any customers to return the money as the mistake was theirs”. A spokesman of the bank 'dutifully' added that it was not the customer’s fault. Atrociously distressing to digest how spokesman could dish out such a blatant assertion!

Human error is understandable (not acceptable, though).  Machines sometimes misdispense other than the amount of the withdrawal request.

Two things are nagging:

• The responsibility of the bank (for a moment even ignoring the human error factor and/or computer glitch)

Is this the way the bank authorities safeguard the organization’s interests?  Instead of rectifying the mistake and initiate instant efforts to recover the excess funds from those customers (?), it is harmfully damaging that the bank “would not ask any customers to return the money”.  Highly despicable!   Whose money is it, anyway?  Where do the bank draw the authority to make such extravagant resolutions and throw such “free cash”?  Are they, by compelling such decisions, trying to glorify the excess cash receivers as any sort of Lucky/Lottery Winners?

The excess payment spewed by the rogue ATM should engage a functional guilt and  be a nightmare to the bank.  Even if it is a system outage, how can the management  respond in such negligent and reckless mode?  Clearly sending a wrong signal!

The bank should have sought the local police help and warned the ‘excess’ customers that those who failed to return the money would face criminal charges.  They should have created an alarm that even though ATM had threw up excess cash, they are not legally and morally entitled to that money and are committing criminal offence if they keep it, adding that ATM locations are under surveillance.  No initiative  has been made to contact the customer at all!  In view of no due diligence was exercised by the concerned officials of the bank, whoever has been a party to the decision not to call back the excess money should be shown the exit door and the loss incurred thereof must be recovered in full from his/her wages/end of service benefits without any prejudice.

• Customer ethics

Just because a bank makes a mistake, doesn’t mean you get to benefit. If the ATM  “accidentally” gives you more money than it should, report it and return the excess cash.   Make no mistake! The moment you bid to grab the excess cash , you instantly cease to be a customer.  That is not all! You have wilfully defrauded the bank, looting on their inefficiency.

Beware! What would you have done if it is the other way? If you punched $1000, but got $500?  You would have used the choicest language in bad-mouthing the bank and its officials. The reverse error would have baffled and infuriated you, true?

We have interfaced with many bank frauds and robberies.  Even wherever bank lapses/errors were highlighted, no where it has been advocated that the “beneficiary” can enjoy the spoils. Disgrace, there is a queue for “doubling their money” in front of the ATM!  We think only of one Lehman Brothers or one Ramalinga Raju for corporate scams and malpractices.  What about any number of small thieves we witness in cases like these, such small drops which make up a stinking mighty ocean! We may forget the individuals (like we have for instance deleted Harshad Mehta from our memory), but we are steadily merging with the depth of the virus.

Well, coming to the ATM plight, the bank is well within its ambit to impact the so-called  customers of criminal charge of fraudulently acquiring pecuniary advantage by conscious and wilful deception, which amounts to a clear case of theft.

All said and done, I am ashamed on both counts - as an ex-banker and a customer!