KARACHI, June 29: A first-time ATM card user, Fayyaz Ali runs from teller to teller to retrieve his money 'possessed' by a machine. He has his account in the National Bank's Haroon House branch and used an ATM of the Muslim Commercial Bank.

"When I got the card on June 21, I was excited. I went to the NBP's ATM at the PIDC. It was out of order. I rushed back to the MCB's Shaheen Complex booth. It captured my card.

The next day I used the card following the correct procedure and asked for an amount of Rs6,000. I was disappointed that nothing came out of the machine. Neither money, nor a slip, nor any message on the screen," Fayyaz told Dawn on Tuesday.

The next day when he discovered that his money had been debited from his account, he was naturally dumbfounded. Since then he has been scrambling to have his money credited to his account. Bank officials keep reassuring him that his "money will go nowhere".

Fayyaz is not alone to suffer at the hands of an automated (automatic) teller machine. Neither is the problem a new phenomenon. But recently there seems to have been an unusual increase in the number of such complaints. And no bank is immune to it. Even the multi-national banks have this problem.

On June 4, the day a Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal called strike was under way, Quraishi used his card at the ATMs of the Bahadurabad branches of Al-Habib Bank, Muslim Commercial Bank and then Metropolitan Bank, none of which responded positively.

He then proceeded to try the ATMs of banks situated along University Road, such as Allied Bank, the MCB, ABN Amro, PICIC Commercial Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, all of which claimed "hardware error".

"Needing money, I drove from one machine to another, but got no money," Quraishi said. The next day, he was amazed to find out that deductions had been made from his NBP account though he could draw no cash the previous day.

With a little effort and cooperation of bank officials, however, he had the money credited to his account within a week. Similarly, Sabir was lucky to get his debited amount back into his account within four days. He had used his NBP card in the bank's head office ATM. The message flashing on the screen read: 'Link is down'. When he came to know of the deducted money, he wrote to his bank and the problem was addressed.

Qurban has had an NBP card for more than two years. He did not imagine that such a problem could occur and, therefore, never particularly checked his bank statements. "But on June 21, I used the NBP head office ATM to draw Rs10,000, and the balance shown was far short of my expectation.

I got the 'mini statement' to check if I had drawn an amount that I did not remember, and it showed that I had drawn Rs9,015 (Rs15 being the bank's 'disservice' charges) at the MCB's Shaheen Complex branch.

I was shocked. I had tried the MCB's two ATMs the previous day. But the messages flashed on the screens showed that the machines were not operational," said Qurban. His week-long efforts bore fruit and the money was transferred back to his account.

Abdul Latif has been suffering for more than 20 days at the hands of a multi-national bank. His problem is a little different. Using his Alfalah Bank credit card on June 10, he tried to draw Rs3,000 from a Citibank outlet on I.I. Chundrigar Road.

"When I was putting the card into my wallet, the machine drew back the currency notes. I informed Citibank staff the next day and they said they had returned the amount to Alfalah Bank.

I have written to them more than once to tell them about my problem. And every time I ring up Alfalah staff, they say the 'matter is under process'. They have not yet credited the amount of Rs3,000 plus Rs300 service charges to my account," said Latif acknowledging his own fault that he did not take the money promptly.

The account-holder would be relieved to get back his hard- earned money even after a week. But there are cases where the bank disputes claims. Such claims may take weeks to settle. If a customer is out of town and totally dependent on the card, he will face tremendous hardship.

"Use the ATM of your own bank," is the advice of Babar, an NBP staffer. "It is easier to get your money back if withheld by such an ATM. In most such cases, the money is put back into the account without causing any inconvenience to the customer."

When contacted, Tasneem Ahmed, an official in the MCB's IT division said he had received no complaints about the Shaheen Complex ATMs for the past two months. "We did have some problem at our PECHS ATM, which has been solved, but not here," he insisted.

But an official at the Shaheen Complex branch said the problem was not alien to the system. "Ever since the installation of ATMs, such problems have been a daily routine. You may ask any bank and they will admit it.

Although we do have UPS, the frequent power breakdowns disturb the functioning of our system. Even if the telephone line is not clear, the system may work erratically because it is dependent on both electricity and telephone."

The abundant availability of pink and yellow claim forms at the branch also show that such claims are routine. So, it is clear that ATM users should be prepared to face such an eventuality. And be on the watch for pilferage by the machine.