ATM, banks and helpless customers

Automated Teller Machines, otherwise known as ATM, were designed to reduce stress on customers of banks seeking to withdraw money. ATMs provide services to card holders wherever they may find themselves. Some of us who know the cheque era can remember the frustrations customers experience collecting money especially at the end of the month when […]

Automated Teller Machines, otherwise known as ATM, were designed to reduce stress on customers of banks seeking to withdraw money. ATMs provide services to card holders wherever they may find themselves. Some of us who know the cheque era can remember the frustrations customers experience collecting money especially at the end of the month when salaries are paid. Customers have to be given a tally because the queue is so long and chaotic.
Some readers may remember one popular advert, I can’t remember for which bank where customers went to banks with their sleeping mat and that popular phrase “give me my tally number’’ is still fresh in my mind. To make things worse, you can only cash money from the bank whose cheques you have. For instance, you can’t use First bank’s cheque to collect cash at UBA. If you are given a Unity Bank cheque you can only cash it at a Unity bank. Transfers take longer time, one has to use bank drafts etc.
Today, many young people do not even know that people use cheques to cash money. Some months ago, my ATM expired and I needed money, so I gave my son, a level three undergraduate student, a cheque to cash and he was puzzled. What is this? I explained to him what a cheque is and he was surprised that one can use that paper and collect money. All he knew was the ATM card. It was an experience for him to cash money using a cheque.
During the pre-ATM era, people went to the bank once, twice or thrice in a month and managed their spending in such a way as to avoid going to the bank again until the coming month. That in some way helped customers to spend less and with some degree of discipline. It helped customers to ensure that they have cash at hand for every future transaction they may do because when the time comes the banks might be closed or the long queues may delay or stop the transactions. In those days, it was money on demand-like. The coming of the ATM changed all that.
When ATMs were introduced, many people hesitated to use them because they were scared of the technology and reliability of the cards. So it was started as a kind of a voluntary service. If you want, you apply and get one. As usual young people who saw it as vogue started adapting to ATM regime before old people who were more used to the cheque system. But the Federal Government at the time was pushing for what it called a cashless economy, even when many people, including yours sincerely,  felt it was too early to go fully cashless. Today, most bank customers have ATM cards, sometimes at request sometimes automatic. Even housewives have their ATM cards and usually send someone to cash on their behalf, giving the cashier their pass word, without any form of insurance.
ATM gives us more freedom to cash money at will. It gives us the opportunity to do transactions using our computers or even mobile handsets. It gives us the freedom to withdraw money from any available ATM anywhere in the world. ATM cards created many opportunities we never thought possible. But they also come with their unique problems. Every new technology brings its challenges on people’s way of life. Just like mobile phones changed our lifestyles, leaving us wondering how life will be without them (forgetting that we lived without them safely and well), so have ATM cards.
Here we are holding beautiful, well-designed cards that we can always use anywhere anytime to withdraw cash and do transactions with the available monies in our account. So, with our ATM cards today, we have changed the way we spend money. We no longer have to cash money in advance and keep because we can always cash money from the ATM. We spend more money now and spend more at shops that operate Point of Sale (POS) where one can use his card to pay for transactions. One doesn’t feel as much pinch when he uses ATM card as when he uses cash, so one can spend more using card.
The major challenges customers encounter while using ATM cards include, annoying phrases like dispense error, temporarily unable to dispense cash, the issuer is not operative, out of service and the ATM queues, which are different from the banking hall queues.  Let’s start with the quality of services provided. All the signboards of ATMs usually have 24/7 on them, meaning, services are available for 24 hours daily, 7 days a week. This shows that one can withdraw money any time he chooses. But, is that so? Can we really get the money anytime anywhere? There are ATMs located in bank premises and some outside bank premises. It is understandable if you go to a non-bank premises ATM and fail to get money, but it is inconceivable that you fail to get money in a bank-premises ATM.
This is one aspect that bankers show most irresponsibility toward customers. Bankers should know the frequency and quantum of withdrawals at different periods of the month and ensure that monies are made available at peak points – usually month end. What are their research units doing to such an extent that banks don’t understand customers’ demand pattern? One can visit 10-20 ATMs and get annoyingly told temporarily unable to dispense cash. This must stop; the Central Bank of Nigeria that is preaching and imposing this new innovation must come to the aid of customers. In some banks, the night watchmen at their own will or on instruction lock the gates of the ATM machines at 10:00 pm, while the signboard is still telling customers that the ATM provides services 24/7.
There is also the problem of dispense error. I changed my bank because I could not get my monies back. I was debited to the tune of N100,000.00 when the machine did not dispense the amount. My bank could credit me with only N60,000 and for over four years up till this moment my N40,000 is still ‘missing in action.’ In the new bank I transferred, it took me 43 days to reverse a dispense error of N20,000. In fact, many people lose monies unnecessarily due to dispense error. I have no doubt that, if CBN is to commission a study on dispense error, it will discover that Nigerians are losing billions of Naira to the problem. Where are the monies going into? Why is no banker being punished for such errors?
Finally, I want to conclude with a call on the supervising agencies to come to the aide of customers. Customers pay for the services provided by banks, therefore, banks should be made more responsible in meeting customers’ needs. Severe punishments must be meted out to erring banks.
Professor Adamu is of the Department of Geography, Bayero University, Kano and could be reached at [email protected].