Friday, June 3rd, 2016, 4:49 pm
Wilko (UK) Uses Faulty ATMs that Crash, Will ‘Steal’ Money and Then Wilko Will Lie and Divert, Not Even Naming the ATM Supplier
Filed under: 
ILKO’s ATMs have a reputation for being a piece of rubbish. Quite often when I come to the shop members of staff kindly ask people not to use these, so what’s the point having them there in the first place? These machines are so amateur that one can, in principle, pretty easily pull the power cord or the Ethernet cable out, essentially pulling the plug on the machines. That’s how insecure these pieces of trash are. But worse — there are apparently lots of software bugs in there (these are often not operational, probably because something made them crash earlier in the day) and earlier this week I became a victim of one and lost money (they actually took money without giving any cash before crashing), whereupon I was transfered between no less than three members of staff (totally clueless!) before actually speaking to someone who seemed helpful. In retrospect, this manager was as useless as it can get as she made false promises (I insisted that she should pursue this and phone me if there are any issues) and now that it’s Friday the issue is still not corrected and I never received a call. I was unable to make any additional financial transactions that day due to Wilko’s error and I spent extraordinary amounts of time and effort thereafter. I also spoke to them online and it was equally useless. They’re running me around expecting me to jump through hoops before there’s any hope at all of getting my money back (the money they took and still owe me).
More than three days later I have completely run out of patience. Days of anger are just not worth it and Wilko still refuses to say which company is responsible for these buggy ATMs that are unfit for purpose. The dialogue below (with names removed) may help provide some additional context and shows how slow and useless this whole experience has been. The conversation below spans several days and at times there was radio silence from them, hence the multiple consecutive messages from me.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
Arndale Manchester shop, they say would correct the error and call today; not corrected, no calls
Wilko:
Hi, can you explain what has happened? I will email the Manager for a reply to your problem. would you like us to contact via email or phone once we have a response? Thanks Claire
Dr. Roy Schestowitz: I already spoke to the manager and left my number with her (“Roy”). She should phone me to explain.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
The error is STILL not corrected. Please tell them to phone me to explain why I need to go through all this trouble, why they fail to correct this issue, etc. otherwise I’ll do public shaming again and we’ll just stop shopping at Wilko for good.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
I am still require to know, aside from the huge hassle this caused and failure of staff to do their duties (the manager made false promises), which company provides these ATMs so that I can campaign to revoke its certification to operate
Wilko:
We’re sorry to read of the inconvenience this has caused you. We are currently investigating this with the store and will come back to you as soon as we have an update. Thank you
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
48 hours later and three hours after promises (as before) I am still waiting for issue to be rectified or phonecall to be made
Wilko:
I’m sorry for your the delay, however as previously advised we are currently investigating this incident and will come back to you as soon as we have an update. Thank you
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
Almost 72 hours later the error made by the Wilko ATM remains uncorrected and staff (managed) failed to call me as promised.
Wilko:
Good morning – please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your message.
We are currently investigating this matter with the Arndale Store.
Are you able to confirm if you have contacted your bank about the problem you encountered?
[Redacted]
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
I have not, they said they’re no need as they would correct the error
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
I wish to know the name of the supplier of the ATMs at Wilko so that I can campaign to revoke their licence. Buggy, unfit for purpose.
Wilko:
We are currently unable to confirm those details however, I can arrange for a dispute form to be sent out to you.
If you could kindly confirm your address & I will arrange for this to be sent.
Thank you
[Redacted]
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
what’s in it for me going through this lengthy process? Unless you are willing to compensate me for the trouble I had to go through that day and until now….
Wilko:
As previously advised, it would be your bank who needs to look into this further. If you would like me to send you out a dispute form then please let me know of your address and I will of course arrange this.
Thank you
[Redacted]
Dr. Roy Schestowitz:
The mistake was made not by your bank but a faulty machine of yours, I shall protest against your very poor handling of this situation
This is not over. They still owe me money, they probably need to get rid of their supplier and if they refuse to tell me the supplier’s name (apparently has lots of victims out there), I will try harder to find out myself and campaign to ensure their machines cease operation. These are not production-ready and they embarrass an otherwise fine store whose staff is obviously rather incompetent as after all this time and effort they’re still not solving the problem. Maybe the supplier of the ATMs is being unhelpful to them.
We won’t be shopping at Wilko anymore.
