Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Suggestions are not welcome

We are in the age of ATM, Easy Cash, what not..I always hoped and expected that it would always be that easy to get cash when you want it.
A visit to the beauty parlor to get pedicure and manicure done relaxed all the nerves and their endings. I then realised, i need to get train reservations done for my parents as they were to travel by a night train the following week. I hit the ATM to remove some cash. I could have used the debit card and get charged a little more extra per ticket, but then i chose to go to the ATM to draw some money. No Not prudency but a little more walk and exercise to the body. I normally bank with Bank A and there was not one ATM of the same nearby. So decided to go to Bank B. This was supposed to be a new bank and in a very crowded hangout area of the city. The banker from Bank A told me that i can withdraw from Bank B and will be charged a little extra but will be refunded after forty five days. Oh not a problem. I went to insert the card inside, the card was not recognised. I then requested the security guy to find what the issue was. There was a long line at the ATM and so i thought, i should do it quick. The security fellow then asked the next person in line to give his debit card. I was surprised. Using the other person's debit card he tried to push my card in the ATM so much that the card would not pop out. The Teller machine then says that "Card will be retained by the machine and transaction will not be completed". To my shock and surprise, i did not react. Perhaps the relaxing procedures at the beauty parlor did their job. I then called up Bank A to block my card. The security told me that the card will not be given back at all. I said fine keep it. ATM becomes an Automatic Eater Machine. Very next day, i tried calling the Bank B where i lost my card to an ATM and told them about the same.

Bank B: Madam I have never seen such incidents and nobody has reported of the same.
Me: Will i be able to get my card back?
Bank B: No Madam. We cannot give it back since when this happens with our customers who use their debit cards in other banks, they do not return the cards back to us. So why should we return your card?? So We destroy the card ourselves.
Me: (What an explanation, so that is proved that this happens atleast)Well Sir, i think the ATM needs to be maintained well or you should change that old machine who is eating the cards away. Since it was at 7pm in the evening and incase a person is in need of cash at the moment, when all the banks are closed, what should he be doing?
Bank B:No Madam Our ATM works just fine and we have never had complaints. If you want i can give you a helpdesk number.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Spreading the chain of love

This time a tag from Suma to extend affection and love to all the wonderful people in blogdom. All you blogger friends, who make every day interesting with new ideas, thoughts, emotions, experiences, stories, poems and what not, I extend this chain of love only to spread more and more.

Once tagged, you have to copy paste the link in this post, add your name and make them grow!

BennyLiew,RamblingMoo,Mum & Kids in Wonderland, JudeLittle, Our mini blogsphere, Rooms in my heart, http://janiceng.blogspot.com,ChinNee, Jo-N, Lady Java's Lounge, Strange but True,Mariuca's Perfume Gallery, Meet Uncle J-Uncle J,Farah, aNgRiAniWoRLd, How's Life bout, The Three Heroes, Ceedy, Veena, Suma, Sumana

I now tag Akshatha, Chitra, Kowsalya, Noon, Poppin,