Westminster Savings Credit Union Took My Money
On Friday afternoon before I headed out to visit Robyn at her place downtown I went to my local branch ATM to withdraw $100 for the weekend. I pull up (yes it’s a drive-thru) and the machine is currently undergoing maintenance. When I roll down the window of my car I voice on the other side of the ATM said that they would be a moment (probably restocking the machine with cash by the sound of it). After a couple minutes the voice behind the machine said, ‘Alright, you can use it now’.
I put my card into the machine, type in my PIN and choose to withdraw $100. It told me to take the card out (which happens before it dispenses money after a successful transaction) and right after I remove my card and retrieve my withdrawal receipt the ATM screen blinks to ‘ATM Is Currently Unavailable’.
WTF? ATM Is Currently Unavailable? Where is my money??!? My withdrawal receipt shows that I withdrew $100 from my account and shows my available balance. Where is my money? This isn’t the first time that a Westminster Savings Credit Union ATM has done this to me. It happened to me before at another branch location. It showed me that I had successfully withdrawn an amount of cash from my account but never gave me my money.
Since I am currently out $100 cash I drove over to my branch and talked to one of their Customer Service Representatives. The CSR told me that this was really weird and she has never experienced this before. I told her that this has been the second time that this has happened to me. She talked to her bank supervisor or manager and was told that they would have to wait until next week when the ATM could be reconciled to see if there was an imbalance with its cash. WTF? I would have to wait a week and I _might not_ get my money? What am I trying to do, rip the bank out of $100? I didn’t get my money from their machine and now their machine is telling me that I did take the money? The CSR said the usual, I am sorry this has happened but there is nothing I can do.
The last time this happened to me I tried to withdraw the same amount from 2 other ATMs to see if it was an issue with a particular machine. That didn’t work and each machine said I did not have the funds available. The next morning I called the branch that originally ate my money and they told me that because I tried to withdraw the same amount at 2 other locations that something must have been wrong. They quickly checked the ATM and notice that the machines balance was out and I got my money that day.
Why my home branch would not do this for me is absurd and forced me to withdraw another $100 out of my account in the mean time. To tell me that I would have to wait at least another week and I might not get my money if they don’t find anything wrong with the machine is really poor service. I’ve been a customer of Westminster Savings Credit Union for at least 15 years, and to think the machine stole my money, debited my account and I might not get it back really makes me upset with them.
I am currently upset at the Westminster Savings Credit Union and I HOPE they find that they are in error and they give me back my $100. If they do not then the only thing I can think to do is to find another banking institution that will suite my banking needs.
Wow. That’s just… well, that’s just retarded. Sounds more like lazy staff to me.
yes, The staff seems to be lazy to me too.
PresidentsChoice Financial.
No fees. Good service. I’ve been using them for 10 years now, and am very happy with their service. You should check them out.
They do primarily internet banking, and as they are part of the CIBC network you can use CIBC ATMs at no extra charge.
Check them out…
Mo
Hey Mo, I’ve never thought about using a grocery store chain for my finances, but I will look more into it. I emailed my bank and I got a response saying that I do have to wait until they can look at the ATM’s balance. I guess I must have gotten the previous ATM to eat my money a day before they check its balance. Oh well!
Hey, Tyler, I’m the Ecommerce Manager at Westminster Savings. I apologize for the inconvenience and uncertainty that this has caused you. I’ll follow up to see if there’s something about our processes that should or can be changed to prevent something like this from occurring. I’m not in a position to make promises about ATM procedures but I’ll make sure that your concerns are well heard.
Hi Ed, thanks for stopping by. It does amaze me how my blog can reach people (if it involves a positive or negative experience), though I am not sure what the bank can to to ensure something like this doesn’t happen. I mean, I’m out $100 until the bank reconciles the ATM and that the CSR said I _might_ get my money back? I am sure she just worded it incorrectly. Right?
I also find it odd, what are the chances that this happens to me twice? So far the odds of it for me are good for it happening again. People I’ve told the story to have never heard of someone who has not received their money from an ATM. Guess I’m special!
Hey, Tyler, of course I don’t know the specifics of what happened, but we’re not in the business of stealing money so rest assured we’ll correct any mistake that’s been made. It’s been awhile that I’ve worked directly with ATMs; I do know that balancing procedures are (necessarily) rigorous and rigid but that doesn’t help you get your money when you need it…
Let me follow up on this for you. I’m out of town right now but I’ve made a few calls to see if we can clear this up. I’m told that we do process that machine once a week; alas, you were caught at the beginning of the cycle.
I’ve also spoken to our ATM department and they’ve informed me that we track ATM availability and reliability; if the machine is regularly experiencing problems (as this one may) we’ll get on it, rest assured.
I’ll contact you directly when I return next week, if you haven’t heard from your branch or our call centre before then.
BTW – we’d like to think that all of our members/customers are special, though this is clearly the wrong way to show it!
Tyler, I’ve made some inquiries and I trust that this has been fixed for you now. If not, please contact me directly at ebrett – AT – wscu – DOT – com. I apologize again for the frustration that this has caused you. Please let me know if I can do anything else to help you.
Their staff is really quite lazy.
I live a mile from them and was about to go open an account. And ain’t I glad I stumbled upon your post. Thanks mate.
V