Complaint Review: Peoples Bank of East Tennessee

On 2/27/2010, my adult son Daniel  and I went to People's Bank Tellico Plains branch ATM where I used my Suntrust Bank card to request a withdrawal of $40.00. I gave my son $20.00 to pump gas in my vehicle at the Tellico Plains Valley Mart gas station and commented that I hoped we could eat lunch on the remaining $20.00.

My first mistake was not checking my ATM receipt at the time my cash was dispensed.

After getting the gas at Valley Mart, we left on a trip to Cleveland, Tennessee. Upon return to my home that evening, I checked my Suntrust account and found to my horror that the ATM had debited my Suntrust card $141.72 instead of $41.75. I immediately telephoned Suntrust Bank in Maryville and also sent them an email message that the ATM was in error. I was told by Suntrust that my account had to be debited before they could file a dispute against the other bank.

On 3/1/2010 Suntrust debited my account $141.75.

I filed a dispute with Suntrust and was given a $100.00 credit back to my account on 3/2/2010 and I thought that the case was taken care of.

My second mistake was believing that Suntrust Bank could handle the problem with People's Bank, who probably doesn't even own the ATM in their parking lot. The automated ATM teller in fact has a very disturbing and distinct British accent........

Needless to say I was more than simply annoyed, when on 3/17/2010 my Suntrust account was again debited $100.00, and in my mailbox was a letter dated 10 March 2010  from Suntrust that they that the "ATM owner" had denied my request for credit. "Because Visa Rules and Regulations specifically stipulate the qualifications considered appropriate for bankcard companies to intercede on behalf of their cardholders we have no further recourse."

When is it appropriate for a bank's ATM to erroneously debit a person's account? What is the recourse for that person to recoup their loss due to an electronic malfunction from the one-armed bandit (ATM) in the People's Bank parking lot?

What's interesting is that several years ago, there was a cardboard box left on top of this same bank's sign located out front of their office and that the local sheriff's SWAT team was sent out to investigate the suspicious box. Thinking the worst case scenario and lacking a bomb squad, the sheriff's men opened fire with their firearms on the box. It was of course destroyed along with the printed AT envelopes located inside the box. Unfortunately, they probably should have opened fire on the 'suspicious' ATM machine located in the back of the bank that seems to be randomly pilfering extra funds from unsuspecting customers like myself, who use their very British sounding automated ATM service.

Oh, and by the way I tried to file a BBB complaint with the Knoxville BBB office and their online form said it was supposed to be filed with the Chattanooga BBB organization, who said that no, it should be filed with the Knoxville BBB organization, who keeps referring me to the Chattanooga office.