Bank customers lament as ATMs fail in Port Harcourt

SCORES of customers, who were stranded in some new generation banks on Thursday, have lamented their inability to get cash from most of the banks’ Automated Teller Machines.

Though some customers, who succeeded in getting money, expressed surprise that they found it difficult to get money from the ATM a day to Christmas, a few others were lucky to be paid after trying for several hours.

A customer, Philip Onyekachi, said he had been banking with one of the new generation banks for the past six years and had never been stranded until yesterday.

Onyekachi told our correspondent that he had been trying to get money from the ATM to no avail, adding that none of the three ATMs at the bank was paying.

Explaining that he was depending on using his ATM card to cash money for a last minute purchase of food items for the Christmas celebration, Onyekachi expressed disappointment that all the ATMs at the bank failed him.

“I have been standing here for the past three hours to get money, but the ATMs are not paying. The banks did not open today and that is why I have nobody to attend to me.

“I waited for today, believing that I will use my ATM to get cash. But each time I slot in my ATM card, nothing happens. Some say it is network problem while others simply said they (bank) did not put money in the machine to pay people.

“Maybe I will come tomorrow and see if I will be lucky to get money. But I must say that I am so sad over this development, Onyekachi, who was at a new generation bank located on NTA Road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, lamented.

He disclosed that he had earlier being at another branch of the same bank and added that he experienced a similar problem.

Another customer, who gave her name as Cynthia, said she had waited for two hours before the ATM could pay her, adding that she would have slept in the bank if the machine had refused to respond to her demand for money.

Cynthia, who had gone to withdraw money from an old generation bank on Ikwerre Road in Port Harcourt, expressed anger that none of the officials of the bank was around to attend to her.

“Christmas is tomorrow (today). I waited for two hours before the ATM could pay me. If the worst had happened and the ATM did not pay me after such a long wait, I would have slept here because I would not have been able to give my children any excuse.

“I need to buy things for them for the celebration and if I go home empty-handed, my children will not be happy,” Cynthia, who told our correspondent that she was immediately heading for the market, added.

Our correspondent observed the crowd waiting to be paid through ATMs situated inside some of the bank premises in Port Harcourt.

A private security guard at the gate of an old generation bank pointed out that only four out of the six ATMs were functional, even as one of the customers in the queue contradicted the guard’s claim, saying, “Don’t mind him, only two ATMs are working and with so much wasting of our time.”

Meanwhile, traders in Port Harcourt said they had not been experiencing the type of increase in the purchase of goods noticed every Yuletide.

Punch