Tuesday, January 8, 2013

ATM Service Feedback in Pakistan


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.