Heart Failure!!!!!!

At 9:00pm this evening, Lori and I went through the drive up ATM of our bank in Greenville, NC (our bank is a NC-based bank) and attempted to draw out $20.00 for the tolls on our trip home tomorrow. At the end of the transaction, the ATM returned my card, but never gave me my money or my receipt. I waited a few minutes as a car was in line behind me, but the ATM simply went back into sleep mode. I didn't feel good about this being out of town, and not really having any recourse to prove that the machine didn't give me my money. I read the toll-free number for ATM problems and Lori wrote it down. As we pulled away, I decided to park in the banks parking lot and call the toll-free number immediately. I received a recorded message saying that the service was not currently available and to try again later. Most likely because it was the holiday. So I called the toll-free number for my bank and checked my balance. It appeared as though nothing had beeen debited from the account but I decided to check online when we got back to the hotel.

Imagine my surprise when I logged onto my account and saw a pending debit for today's date for $200.00!!!!! I immediately started panicking, because again I had no way to prove that I never received my money. I quickly dialed the toll-free number for my bank again and tried desperately to reach a live human would hopefully would help me resolve my dilemna and recover my $20, now $200. The automated service kept refusing to allow me to speak to a live representative until I final proceeded far enough through the system. At his point, I was told that due to a high call volume, I would have an extended wait. I didn't care, I was not about to lose $200. As I am waiting, I had to desperately visit the little boy's room, so I gave the phone to Lori and asked her to stay on hold for me for a few minutes.

While I was in the restroom, the customer service representative answered the phone. Lori explained the situation to the customeer service rep and learned that the ATM we attempted to use was out of money and that the transaction failed. The $200.00 debit showing from my account was a transfer I had done two days ago. Due to the weekend and holiday, the transfer would not be processed until overnight this evening, thus bearing today's date.

Crisis averted. My heart started beating again and I breathed a sigh of relief.