Bank failed to satisfactorily investigate claim of missing ATM money

Categories:

Service problems, Transaction errors,

Summary:

In August 2025, Zack tried to withdraw $1,000 from his account using his debit card at a private ATM. He said the money was debited from his account, but the ATM did not dispense the cash. He complained to his bank, which contacted the private ATM provider. The ATM provider investigated but found nothing amiss and rejected the claim for $1,000. The ATM provider gave Zack’s bank a copy of a journal log as proof, as a result the bank also rejected Zack’s claim.

Published:

January 2026

Our investigation

The bank gave us its copy of the journal log, but we found it contained information recorded at the ATM terminal an hour after Zack had used it. The journal log appeared to be an automatic report and strongly suggested to us that neither the bank nor the ATM provider had fully investigated the matter. We had previously dealt with cases where cash had fallen into a cavity inside the machine, and other instances where funds had been found during maintenance. The journal log did not confirm the ATM balanced at the end of the day, or that the machine was checked for missing money. We considered the bank had not satisfactorily disproved Zack’s claim and told the bank so.