Dear Editor,
It is with desperation and tears in my eyes that I pen this missive.
I visited Scotia Bank’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on Robb Street located in The New Court Yard Mall to make a withdrawal. The sum was inputted and was processed up to the point of my card being ejected from the machine. I stood waiting for my cash but was disappointed to see the message ‘This machine is temporarily out of service’.
Needing the cash, I visited the ATM at the bank’s Carmichael Street location. Just in case readers might be wondering why Carmichael Street and not the branch on Robb Street let me explain; I was also rushing to pick my son up from school and was already late so I asked the driver to stop at that branch since it was all in the way.
At the Carmichael Street bank I checked my balance and realised that the inputted sum was missing even though I did not get the cash. I hurriedly returned to the ATM on Robb Street and by then I was panicking and felt maybe the sum was released after I left and someone picked up the money.
No cash was waiting for me on my return and I could not make another withdrawal since I had exceeded my limit for the day. I rushed to the bank’s Robb Street branch, which was closed by then, but with tears in my eyes I asked the security guard to see someone and thankfully I was allowed into the bank.
I explained what happened twice – once to a woman and then to a man – and was told by the man that the sum would be credited back to my account. I am not sure if at the time he was under the impression that I had attempted to make the withdrawal at their location and not the ATM in the Court Yard Mall.
I was eventually called up by a teller who told me I had to file a ‘claim’ [not sure if that was the term she used because by then I was in a state of confusion] and before she could have completed speaking to me another female employee came to tell me that because the machine is ‘handled’ by their Carmichael Street branch I would have to fill out the paper work which would be sent to that branch. She also informed that it could take up to a week for the investigation to be completed and then the sum would be credited back to my account but that they will attempt to ‘expedite’ the process so that it could be done in days instead of a week which is the norm.
Editor, I lost my cool and basically told the young woman that I am desperate and I needed my money. I indicated if it was a rich person with a $100M and not the $100,000 withdrawal the bank would have bent over backward to assist me. I was in tears and I was angry because Scotia Bank’s machine malfunctioned and I could not get access to my hard-earned money. I am not going to repeat some of the utterances I made, I was angry, very angry and I was crying.
I demanded to see a manager. One came and repeated the same mumbo-jumbo to me (I even at one point told the teller she was talking Spanish as I refused to attempt to understand what she was saying to me).
I informed the manger nothing is written in stone and according to the situation, changes can be made. She attempted to pacify me with ‘if I had made the withdrawal at their branch right away I would have gotten the money back’. But they have to follow procedures because it is an outside ATM which is monitored by a department in Scotia Bank and it would take some time to verify what I was saying. She had even placed a call to her colleagues at Carmichael Street but they could do nothing to help.
Editor, I left that bank dejected but still very angry. If Scotia Bank wanted to assist me as a result of their malfunctioning machine they could have. They have no care for the desperate economic hardship that people are enduring presently. They don’t know if my children will go hungry for the rest of the week, they don’t know if a debtor may repossess something I have purchased or if my landlord would throw me out. They don’t care, ‘they have a procedure to follow’ and to hell with me.
I am disappointed, I am hurt, I am frustrated and I am desperate. Hope the powers that be at Scotia Bank are happy that they have caused great pain and agony to a poor woman.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
