Lawrence Ogundipe, a First City Monument Bank (FCMB) customer, has narrated to FIJ how a N20,000 withdrawal attempt he made on a Fidelity bank Automated Teller Machine (ATM) was never successful but his bank claims it was.
Ogundipe, on October 19, 2020, used the said ATM in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, but he got an ‘invalid transaction’ message before his debit card was ejected by the machine.
Despite the failure of the machine to fulfill his request, FCMB notified him of a debit of the same sum on his account, and a N35 extra charge for using another bank’s machine.
“It was a Sunday; there were no security guards and the bank was not open, so I could not make a physical complaint,” he told FIJ.
After waiting for a reversal that never came, he mailed FCMB’s customer service a day later.
In the bank’s mailed response made available to FIJ, it asked Ogundipe to allow it investigate for three days, after which the money would “be reversed to your account if we confirm the transaction is unsuccessful”.
READ ALSO: How Fidelity Bank Tricked Employees to Attend a Training, Only to Fire Them
However, three days after, FCMB failed to reverse the funds. On October 29, the bank claimed via an email that his transaction was successful.
Dissatisfied about the resolution, Ogundipe requested the ATM’s CCTV footage to prove the money was indeed dispensed.
FCMB acknowledged his request, and promised to provide the said footage between 5 and 30 working days, but two years after, it still claims Fidelity Bank has not sent the footage.
FIJ sent emails to FCMB and Ogundipe’s account officer, but both mails were yet to be responded to as of press time.
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