How to get your money back when ATMs fail (in China)

SCRIPT: In a busy bank in Xiamen, China. You need to deposit money, the bank is overcrowded and you don’t want to queue with the rest of the customers AND you can’t speak Mandarin, so you decided to deposit money via the ‘lonely English-speaking’ ATM inside the Bank.

TROUBLE: After depositing, for example, RMB (Chinese currency) 2000.00 in increments, the ATM malfunctioned, ‘spits out’ your receipt (sometimes it won’t!), And did NOT add or record your transaction.

• Where did your hard-earned money go?
• What should you do, how to get help, and can we really do something about it?

SOLUTION:

It is normal to become paranoid at this point, thinking that it was all a ‘trick’. Well, actually, it’s not a gimmick from one of the bank tellers managing the computer systems. Here are the steps to stay sane and free yourself from paranoia, in this scenario:

1.) Be sure to get the receipt for the actual transaction from the ATM. If you made incremental deposits, there would be a receipt for each incremental transaction; If you made two separate deposits, you will get two receipts, etc. Now you’re wondering, what if I forgot or lost those transaction receipts OR what if the machine doesn’t even make a receipt? There’s not much we can do with that hard copy of the receipt at this point EXCEPT to stay and find “human” help and …

2.) Try not to leave the bank or walk away from the ATM, in any way at this time – This step is very important! I’ll tell you why later.

3.) Find the nearest bank security guard; most of them are parked near the ATMs.

4.) Call the security guards (wave your hand while saying hello), let them come to you and the ATM and let them know what happened; If you cannot speak Chinese at all, feel free to speak in English or your own language, but use manual language in conversations.

If the security guard does not understand what you are talking about, they will probably look for the supervisor for you. Well, if the supervisor is not available and they can’t seem to get it …

5.) Get away from the ATM and then look for a parked manager or banker; Most of them are sitting or standing by the bank lobby, wearing suits and an ID, and most of them can speak a “ broken ” English that comes with a higher IQ than the security guard with the you just tried 🙂 =

6.) Take the bank manager or representative to the ATM where the incident occurred and tell your story from there.

Again, he wonders “Why should I carry them around that useless ATM?” That’s the trick! You need to get proof that the failure actually happened. This is your “digital receipt” if you do not have the hard copy of the transaction receipts. Most ATMs are closely monitored via hang / hide security video cameras and this is one of those last resources where you can prove with the bank that you were the actual person who deposited the money into That faulty ATM, when the glitch happened. People may find your action strange, so keep that in mind.

Keep the ‘movie shot technique’ to yourself for now, you’ll be using this ‘tool’ at the right time.

What do we do next?

7.) Having taken the bank reps on a useless round trip to the ATM for some ‘movie shots’, it’s time to push on asking the rep to check if their cameras or video systems were able to capture the ATM incident. Give them your closest estimate of time when the incident (failure) occurred.

8.) After bank representatives check your video systems and find you and them in their ‘internal movies’, they will probably turn off the faulty ATM and check the bank records in your system.

9.) Once the checks are done, you will be asked to bring the original records that you used to open your accounts. Your passport is one of the most important documents for things to run smoothly with banks in China. Make sure to take the old passport with you if you have a new one now and used the old passport to open your bank accounts earlier.

10.) If you cannot immediately return to the bank or present the original records requested by the bank representatives, insist on obtaining paper or electronic copies of the written statements that the incident occurred at this specific bank before you leave the bank and return. . Y don’t forget to get an ID card from the bank representative who is helping you with this problem.

Everything should work fine and you will get your money added to your deposits, but I know you have one last question:

What if the bank’s video system was unable to ‘capture’ the incident? How else can I get proof that I made the transaction at the ATM? The best way to solve this problem is to let the bank representatives check your IT administrator for database systems. The transaction should have been a ‘commit’ transaction recorded by the bank’s database software systems.

I hope this article benefits us all and gives us more confidence with our travels and our life in China. Keep calm this summer!