Hi POSB, I’m writing in because one of your ATM machines “ate” S$1,300 of my father’s hard earned money. The backstory is that I was following my father who was depositing his money at an ATM at around noon on the May 18 at Marine Parade (DEP 47204756). He deposited 200 S$50 notes —which amounted to S$10,000 (he gets paid only in cash) — into the machine and it only registered S$8,700. He had met occasions before where the ATM “undercounted” by a few hundred and he had gotten the money transferred back eventually, so at first he wasn’t too concerned and felt that a big company like DBS/POSB could be trusted.
I helped him call your hotline shortly after the discrepancy to ask if the missing S$1,300 could be credited back to the account. We had the digital receipt so we thought that things would be settled. After three working days, I was told there would be no way the money could be retrieved because the receipt also shows S$8,700. My father and I found this absurd, because if the machine had an error in the first place in the way it counted the money, it would have definitely still show S$8,700 on the receipt. I called three times but received the same answer each time, that if there was no proof then the money couldn’t be restored. The standard reply was “we have investigated and there were no discrepancies. We cannot proceed with the investigation if you have no evidence”. What kind of evidence could I possibly be able to provide. My point is I feel patronised, they could at least provide me with the audit trial/data entry records for that day, to show me evidence that there were no discrepancies when there was clearly S$1300 unaccounted for that day. How convenient and easy it was to just brush it away by saying they have already investigated…
It is the circuit breaker period and like many others my father has been working hard as an essential worker and sole breadwinner. It has not been easy for our family and I feel like this sum, though perhaps not a big deal to many, is a big deal to us. My father counted the money three times before making the deposit (it’s a large sum, so of course he was careful to count) and just like that, once the money goes into the machine, there is no way to prove that the cash was in his hands in the first place. Even the receipt showed the wrong sum. What could we have done? Taken a video of my father counting the money right before he placed it in the machine? How can I feel secure the next time I make a deposit? I’m sure this is a rare occurrence, but when it does happen, how can POSB better help its customers? I have many questions that I hope POSB can answer, but above all I sincerely hope you can transfer the money back to us. It’s not right that a customer’s money is misplaced during this time when we need it the most.
I am sure this is not the first time that similar incidents have happened, so I went online and searched.
Attached are some examples that I have found online:
POSB, please be responsible to your customers. We had trust in your services and got this kind of treatment in the end. This is utterly disappointing.
