Dear Banking
Mohtasib,
I am writing this
email in connection to what I tried approaching you via website
for launching complain specific to ATM services especially for UBL
Bank and in general overall other banks in the city of Chakwal(actually
observed commonly nationwide). Though I launched several times the same complain
to the concerned both sitting in branch and central customer care centers but
did not have keep track as till now I was unaware of the 45 days compliant
complex procedure of yours . However please do note down the following general
complaint-cum-suggestions-cum recommendations for improving the
overall ATM services jointly provided by almost all scheduled banks in
Pakistan.
Before I start jotting
my points consider below what exactly I experienced most recently.
On
last Sunday cold Night (where yesterday Chakwal city
temperature was recorded -3) I started walking for a cash withdrawal and
first encountered (I have to use UBL and ABL ATM Cards) preferred UBL
main branch ATM and as expected it was out of service following
I visited the second branch of UBL and it was also found excused notice
to service and hence I used ABL machine and for 02 transaction I had
to pay 30 rupees extra than annual ATM fee which also is well known to you.
Next
upcoming foggy Monday Morning I started walking again with Standard
Chartered Bank ATM Card(no SCB Branch in
Chakwal) and encountered exactly at 0928 AM first Bank Al-Falah ATM and machine was
out of order and then I moved Metropolitan
Habib Bank and guard told me that ATM is not available
for use next 30 minutes as cash is being loaded and then I
moved to UBL main branch
and its status did not change since last encountered of previous night and
then I tried Bank Of Punjab ATM
and there machine was active but unable to provide cash and finally found
myself lucky again at same ABL ATM.
So suffering a lot
already about to lose my temperament having professional back ground in
Computer Networks and telecommunications please consider the below for the
betterment of providing consumer quality of services
1)
ATM service should be
included in the priority KPIs (Key
Performance Indicators) for all consumer service banking regulatory
mechanism.
2)
There should be
minimum threshold service up time for individual ATM based on daily,
weekly and monthly basis and failing to compliance of that there
should be some sort of regulatory penalty enforcement.
3)
As mentioned in my
experience above that it was Monday morning after the weekend and Banking Manager concerning ATM operations found
least bother to make the ATM functional as poor
and illiterate people started queuing outside the machine
before the actual bank timings though ATM is supposed to be available
for 24 X 7 X 365 rotation.
4)
Branch should be
dutiful to look for maintenance/troubleshoot the problems off the
banking 0900-1700 HRS especially on weekend.
5)
Ensure to have ATM would
not go out of cash so frequently.
6)
5000
Rupees notes should be encouraged to be loaded in ATM against out of cash problems especially on
the beginning of the months when everyone is trying to withdraw
their salaries and pensions other than
monthly beneficiary of government sponsored financial
aids schemes .
7)
Technically it has
been observed that :
a)
Not a proper
ATM service oriented Software is installed in ATM. Specific Embedded Application Software should be
run in ATMs rather than windows based platforms which is the least among the
practice of providing such services in industry where reliability, up
times and service availability are the most to be desired
and least to be compromised at any cost.
b)
Link
down is a common problem encountered which can be overcome by having proper at
least 512Kb (Committed Information Rate)
Link with redundancy.
c)
Supposing
true rumors are that UBL alone earned a profit of 12 Billion in last fiscal year and yet
their ATMs are not empowered with Generator Power supply and hence
determining impact of this does not require to be smart enough in context
of extensive load shedding we are all well aware of. (UBL is quoted
as an example) .
8)
If ATM service is
supposed to be unavailable for some planned maintenance window or is supposed
to prolong for more than 02 hours due to any reason then customers should
be informed via SMS on his/her registered Mobile number.
9)
Charges of 15 Rupees
for using other than native bank ATM should be immediately cancelled.
10) Annual Fee of ATM should be monitored and
linked with the up time of the ATM service and preferably should be
at marginal fee.
