It’s just one of those days when you’d experience pure bad luck. Last Friday, We (Val, my brother Paladin and little Vaughn) went to Ayala Center Cebu just to spend some family time since it was Val’s day off and I usually go to work at night. After having a great time eating at our favorite rendezvous, MyJoy, who are the only ones selling inexpensive delicious burgers and trying out our new Ixus digital camera, Val decided to drop by one of the ATM s to do a quick withdrawal from his BDO account. Unfortunately, the machine never dispensed the cash and to my distaste it didn’t release a receipt either. We immediately went to the only BDO branch in Ayala Center Cebu only to find our that there were several of us who underwent the same unfortunate experience. When we asked how we can go about getting our cash, we were told to call their 1-800 customer service number since according to their tellers, it’s their SOP and they don’t have the power to correct the error. What really annoyed me was the lack of empathy the tellers displayed with their customers’ predicament. I even asked one of the tellers to perhaps place a sign board on the specific ATM that didn’t dispense cash since anyone who tries to withdraw from that machine would obviously undergo the same fate. The answer I got was “That’s not our machine, it belongs to another branch.” So I go “Oh, but don’t you guys represent the same company…the same name which is BDO?” The teller looked dumbfounded but didn’t bother to answer me. What went on inside my head was just because it’s not your branch’s ATM, you don’t even have the decency or humanity to place a signboard that says the machine is not working properly? In the end, we had to contact their stupid 1-800 number and listen to their rep inform us that it would take 5 business days before the money can be credited back to our account. We were also told that an investigation would be done that’s why it would take this long. This really infuriated me since there were probably 7 of us who were reporting the same problem so why the stupid heck would they need an investigation for? This is just one of the usual mistakes big companies do to their customers whenever something goes wrong with their system. It was definitely a bad experience for us. Vaughn was crying a lot inside their little office branch so we were forced to go home instead of complaining a little more. I couldn’t stop cussing at how nonchalant their tellers were and how much we needed the money. Val was his usual calm self. By the time we went home I promised myself I’d blog about my bad experience with BDO. I hope our readers will find this information useful. I learned that we should be careful where we withdraw money especially if you have an ATM account with BDO. Their so-called policy is just so inconvenient for customers.