ATM dispense error: Agony of a customer

A bank customer has lost patience in waiting endlessly for his account debited in error, during an ATM transaction, which is yet to be reverted after more than a month. Neither has his bank communicated to him in respect of the transaction or what level of processing it has reached, despite having put up complaints with his bank.

A GTBank customer with the account number 0012444282, had attempted a withdrawal with his ATM Card on 29 December, 2015 at a UBA Bank branch in Ahiara Ahiazu, Mbaise, in Imo State, but was erroneously debited N20, 000.00 without cash delivered, and till date the money is yet to be reverted.

While the customer had followed all the necessary complaints procedures, including completing the customer ‘Dispense Error’ form at a GTBank branch in Umuahia on 31 December 2015. The victim has re-complained at Gtbank Eleganza Branch in Apapa, on several occasions but still, with no reprieve in sight.

Like this customer, there are many other victims of this new technology that have been left (out there) to their fate.

There are so many people who use the banks but still need the necessary education on what a dispense error means. Through this ignorance, many of them have lost lots of money in the process.

How many of them in this category will have the wherewithal to consistently pursue their case in the event of a dispense error not reverted immediately?

As banks explained, revert of this money should take between five and eight days for interbank, so what has happened to the customer’s money after over 40 days, is something indeed to worry about.

GTBank describes a dispense error as an error that occurs, when your account is debited for a transaction and the value is not received.

EITHER: Your transaction fails at the point of making payments via POS/Web but your account is debited for the same value or cash is not dispensed from the ATM, but the exact amount has been debited from your account.

The bank advised that the error could be reported by visiting a GTBank branch to report the error, or by logging Dispense Error complaints on GTBank Internet Banking at (www.gtbank.com).

On resolution time, the bank said transaction with a GTBank is reverted immediately or before 24-hours, while local transitions with other Bank’s ATMs/POS/Merchant takes between 5- 8 hours, whereas foreign transaction on international terminals could last as much as 45 days. So, when did a transaction between a GTB/UBA transaction within Nigeria become an international transaction that will take 44 days to resolve?

As we are fast approaching the cashless era, many bank account holders embrace card usage now, more than ever. And as such, the issues of ATM errors come into the stage.

Modestus Anaesoronye