自動提款机 / ATM Automatic Teller Machine

After a teleconference at noon, I bicycled downtown to deposit a cheque to pay off my line of credit (LOC). Wearing my exercise outfit and covering in sweat (it was sunny and over 25 deg), I decided to do the transaction thru the ATM instead of bothering someone inside the office. What a mistake !! The machine took the cheque but refused to transfer the money. So, I had to go inside after all. The teller then told me nobody in the office had the key to the ATM to retrieve the cheque. Upon seeing my photo ID, she was willing to transfer the daily maximum, but not enough to pay off the LOC. I can now understand why John Connor wanted to live off the grid.

That reminds me of an incident in Rome several years ago. I was using my bank card trying to get 300 Euros from the ATM outside an Italian Bank. I punched in the code, the machine made some noise, then went dead. No cash and no card. I wasn't pleased and tried to go inside the bank to speak to the manager. Now if you have been to Rome, you will notice most banks are highly secured against intruders, including their customers. There is always an armed guard, who would size up the people first before letting them go in one-at-a-time through a double-door security space. You step inside this one-person cylindrical cubicle, the street door closes behind you and essentially you are imprisoned inside while being scanned. If the machine thinks you are not a robber, then the inner door opens and you can step into the bank.

Except in my case, the armed guard would not even let me go into the cubicle. After much sign language, I realized he didn't like the backpack I was carrying. I had to put it away in a locker supplied by the bank before I could step into the security space for scanning. Once inside, I tried my best to tell the manager the ATM took my card and the cash. After much grumbling, she begrudgingly opened up the ATM and gave me back the card, but not the 300 Euros that had been deducted from my account. Well, of course, why should she trust a human when her ATM was perfect and never told a lie? To cut the story short, I had to ask my Canadian banker to intervene before the Italian bank would cough up the 300 Euros.

(Are you listening, HAL 9000?)