Revenge of the machines

There are few things as frustrating as ATMs that don’t work.

BANKING chores used to be tedious and time-consuming once upon a time. Then came ATMs to save humans much time and trouble.

As the decades passed, these machines grew in number and power. First, they merely dispen sed cash but their abilities expanded. And they operated well beyond office hours and on holidays, too. Imagine life today without ATMs.

Oh, wait, here’s a truth we don’t want to hear – ATMs break down as well. Just when you need them the most.

How many times have you gone to an ATM at night to deposit a cheque or extract some cash, and found the equivalent of Microsoft’s “blue screen of death” on the display: “Out of service temporarily”?

This happens to me regularly with a particular bank near my house. Almost every other month over the past year, when I have swung by at night to drop in a cheque, the machine was out of service. Now, I get really mad at such times because it means making the trip again the next morning. Sometimes, even then, the machine was still down.

The third time this happened, I called up the bank.

“What’s the point in providing a service if it’s not working when I need it?” I asked.

“Sorry, sir, technical problem, we’re doing something about it,” I was told.

Earlier this month, when I went there on a weekday morning, the machine was down again, which necessitated using the manual deposit system – you know, handing the cheque over to the teller at the counter.

I let off steam again.

“Oh, it’s a Telekom problem, our lines have been down for three days,” the lady told me.

Oh, that was convenient. But can a bank afford to have its online system down for three days? The staff didn’t seem too perturbed.

This wasn’t the only bank that was a letdown for me this way. Another bank I patronise provides “electronic” boxes into which you can drop your cheque, and the box dispenses an acknowledgement slip. However, if it’s an extended weekend, these boxes clog up and shut down.

Once, a call to the bank’s 24-hour line elicited a helpful suggestion.

“Perhaps you could try another branch, sir,” the guy told me.

“I tried three already, same thing. Where else do you want me to go?” I asked, miffed.

“Sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait until the next working day then.”

“Look, you’re a bank, don’t you think you should have people on standby over such long weekends to take care of these things?” I snarled.

“We’ll pass on the suggestion, thank you, sir,” was the polite answer.

One bank lets you drive and drop off your cheques in a large box with no electronics. It has a number of such boxes, so there is no breakdown of the system. But I haven’t been to that bank in years, so I can’t say exactly how this has worked out.

I know I will get mail suggesting that I do my transactions on line, but look, if I want to drop a cheque into an ATM, I expect to be able to do it at any time. Banks should think of ways to keep their ATMs – whether for cash or cheques – working continuously, especially over long weekends. Surely some kind of monitoring system can be implemented?

My missus, though, has a different take on my travails.

“It’s just your lousy luck,” she said.

Ah, well, trust a woman to offer an alternative perspective.

Friday March 19, 2010

The Star
NOT TODAY
By SUJESH PAVITHRAN