Deposit glitch hits ATM users National City promises to find misplaced money

Saturday, September 23, 2000

By Patricia Sabatini, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Lots of folks are skittish about making deposits at ATMs, afraid their money will get lost in cyberspace.

Not Cathy Easter. The Brighton Heights woman makes deposits at automated teller machines all the time. So when she deposited a $200 check at a National City Bank ATM in Penn Hills early Wednesday, she thought nothing of it.

Now, however, Easter is hopping mad.

Because of a computer systems glitch, her deposit and an undetermined number of other deposits made at National City's ATMs between 10 a.m. and noon that day weren't recorded. They were lost -- but not forever, National City says -- in that dreaded cyberspace.

By yesterday morning, the bank had identified the problem and expected all the "lost" deposits to be posted by last night, National City spokeswoman Terri Wilson said.

Wilson said the problem was an internal one, hitting the bank's machines throughout Pennsylvania and in a small area of Ohio. She wasn't sure how many customers were affected.

"It wasn't a large number," she said.

Easter said she noticed something was wrong when she went online Thursday to check the deposit.

"There are thousands and thousands of ATM transactions every day, and things will go wrong from time to time," Wilson explained. "But we stand by the quality of our system and will correct any errors."

Customers who have questions or believe there's still a problem with their account should visit a branch or call the bank's customer service line at 1-800-352-0186.

"We're definitely sorry the problem occurred and for the inconvenience," Wilson said.

But all Easter wants is her money, she said late yesterday while still waiting for the deposit to show up.

"This is just so bizarre," she groaned. "I've always used ATMs. But I'll never put money in a MAC machine again."

http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20000923natcity3.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 23, 2000