My husband deposited $128.00 cash in the ATM machine. I counted it three times, and he counted it twice before depositing. The $128.00 showed up as a deposit on our online statement.
The next day, thank heaven, before I went to pay one of our bills I checked our online balance. There was a $50.00 descripancy charge on our account. My husband went down to talk with PNC. The teller was going to just tell him to write it off until he said that he three kids, was very tight on money, and needed it to pay a bill.
She then jumped into action, and said she was going to file a grivence for him which she did so there and then. A couple of days later, we heard nothing back. He goes in and talks to the same teller who is handling the account.
She admits that she is new, and is learning how to take care of this situation as she does it. That she was never trained to handle these types of situations. What she found out and told my husband is that they do not count the deposits there, but take them to the main headquarters.
Then at the main headquarters the money is taken out of all the enevlopes. The amount on each enevlope is counted, and then the money is counted as a whole instead of taking it out of each enevlope and checking it against that particluar enevlope. If the two totals don't match up, then they go back and look for the descrepency.
Needless to say that they decided my husband wrote the wrong amount on the enevlope, because it was cash. The grievence result just said that they are not taking the descrepency off of our account.
The teller told my husband that he could call the phone number they gave with the grevience result that they mailed us. and obtain the information on how they came to their conclusions and what they used to dertermine their results.
At this point, my husband basically told me there would basically be no way to fight it, since it was cash and not a check or money order. The receipt which he did show the teller, basically only told them what numbers he punched in as the deposit amount.
He fought with other banks on other issues, and gotten charges reversed so on and so forth. He just gave up on this one. Since this account is in my husband's name only, I can't ask for the reports or try to take any further action.
In his words, lesson learned I'll never deposit cash in an ATM machine again. Eventhough $50 isn't much, for me it caused alot of headaches and financial stress. I do thank God and Jesus Christ that it was not for the entire amount, or one of our utilities would have gotten shut off. The shut off notice for the bill the $50 would have paid, didn't come until the next month. By God's grace and glory we are staying aflot.
I don't hold any grudges against PNC, but wanted to warn others not to deposit cash in the ATM especially at PNC. I don't know how other banks handle their ATM deposits, but I think PNC needs to change their system to check the cash/check/money order against the amount written on the enevlope as it comes out of the enevlope. It would be much more secure especially for cash transactions.
If the teller gave my husband false information, then there is a serious issue with their communications, which can cause major problems at any one of their banks.
Suzanne
Cheswick, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.