In this hi-tech world we live in it’s always surprising when technology fails us. When it does we expect that whoever is offering the service will be able to right the problem with the flick of a switch, or at worst a re-boot of a computer, or two.

A friend, who is also a Kiwibank customer, went to the vegetable market early this morning, as a lot of Wellingtonians do on a Sunday. On his way to the market he stopped to get cash from a money machine. He tried a Kiwibank one – no joy. He tried another machine from a different bank – still no joy. He went to yet another machine from a different bank again – still no joy.

At that point I would have been worrying that I had insufficient funds, but that wasn’t the message he was getting on the printout or screen, and he knew that there was enough money in there to complete the transaction.

In frustration he phoned Kiwibank. The staff member took my friends complaint all the while telling him that they weren’t aware of any other complaints, so how could anything possibly be wrong? They said they’d ring him back in ten minutes – which I guess is pretty good service.

Ten minutes passed and sure enough his cell phone rings.

“Kiwibank here. Yeah, there is a problem. We ran down to a money machine and tried it ourselves, and sure enough, it didn’t work”.

Can you believe that? They needed to do a manual check? Surely they electronically monitor the ability to withdraw cash from a digital money machine?

Even CocaCola have their dispensing machines hooked up to computers so replenishing staff know when the machine is getting low.

Good on Kiwibank for phoning back, but they need to up their surveillance

On a closing note my friend rang the Dominion Post thinking it might be a nice little story for the Monday morning paper. There was no-one there, and no after hours number to call. Clearly news only happens between nine to five six days a week.