Dear Editor,

A few months ago I commented on a public forum about why I preferred National Commercial Bank (NCB) automatic teller machines (ATMs) over Scotiabank’s for depositing money.

In my experience Scotiabank’s ATMs typically refuse most, if not all, of your bills, and you have to keep redoing the deposit several times for it to eventually accept all the money. NCB’s machines, on the other hand, typically, as far as I know, accept most of the bills right away and if not, it will take them on the next try or two. Then one faithful day in early June 2025 an NCB ATM machine ate my deposit.

As usual, on this particular day, I went to the NCB machine at the bank in Spanish Town to make my deposit using one of the ATMs there. After the machine took my money it rejected a few bills, but it showed that it had accepted $64,000. It asked, as I counted the few rejected notes, if I wanted to finish the deposit or try to add more money. I clicked the option to allow me to add the rest of the money, and the screen went black. The machine turned off completely, without warning or fanfare, leaving me staring in shock. I was advised by the security guard to go inside and make a report.

I stood by the dead machine for a bit hoping it would restart and somehow continue my transaction. While I checked the money in hand I realised that while the machine showed it had taken $64,000 before crashing it must have taken $65,000 because I was short by $1,000. The machine eventually restarted and spat out a blank receipt.

I spoke to a customer service agent, she gave me a number, and I proceeded to waste two hours inside the bank waiting to see someone. While waiting it was announced several times that if you were waiting for certain issues you should expect delays because some internal computer system or the other wasn’t functioning properly.

I patiently waited and eventually someone came out and started walking around speaking to the customers who were waiting. When it was my turn she told me that there wasn’t a customer service representative available to deal with my case at this time, so I could continue to wait or go outside and use a special phone near the ATMs to make a report. I used the phone to lodge my issue and left. That was over four months ago.

That initial 10-day investigation that I was promised never began until after that time had past. I know because the last e-mail I received on June 18, 2025 regarding the issue said the bank finally assigned a “representative who will resolve your case in a timely manner”. I have spoken with multiple NCB representatives over the phone who all promised to mark my case as urgent and put a rush on resolving it, but nothing has been done so far.

Now I was not aware these “modern” ATMs could malfunction and just shut down in the middle of a transaction. I assume most of my fellow Jamaicans are also not aware, so I’m making it known. Can you imagine having your money taken by faulty equipment and having to wait months to get it back?

I believe the banks have no way of checking or verifying the monies taken by these machines during these failures, because that must be the reason I am here waiting four long months to get back my hard-earned money! I do not know when my case will be resolved, so be forewarned, at least.

Dwhyte Hunter

Aggrieved and annoyed

rookie1178@yahoo.com