Automated-tellers are on strike?

I've no idea what happened, but it was supposed to be a good day for me, until I wanted to have a haircut and do some little shopping in Tesco.

This morning I wanted to have a haircut, but after opening my wallet, I found that I have only RM20 left. Not that it wasn't enough, it was just that I may need more cash to buy something. So, I went to Bumiputra Commerce Bank in Ipoh Garden to withdraw some money. The ATMs appeared to be online and were supposed to be online, but when I put in my card, it bounced out and the following message appeared on the display screen: "Device Failure. Thank you."

I tried inserting my card into the machine again, but the same thing happened. So, I moved on to another machine next to it and inserted the card, but before that I wiped the gold chip and the magnetic strip to clean off any stains. This time, I could check my balance but after requesting for a transaction to withdraw some money, a slip came out from the machine and my card was pushed out of the machine again; the accursed message appeared as thus: "Device Failure. Thank you."

What could be more annoying than that? Well, that's not the end of my story yet. I drove off to the nearby Public Bank with hopes that the ATMs there would work. I couldn't be more wrong.

Upon my arrival, I noticed that there were nobody. "Good, no need to queue," I thought. But when I went to one of the machines, and before I could insert my card into the machine, the following message appeared: "Temporarily Unavailable". Never mind, I thought, as I moved on to the next machine. The similar message appeared in every one of the automated-teller machines!

Feeling irritated, frustrated and angry, I decided to just go to Tesco and see what I can get. In the car, I opened the mini-cash box and found that my mother had left a RM5 and RM10 notes in it. Thankful that my mother put some money in there, I decided that I'll have to use that money in the event that I have insufficient cash.

Upon my arrival in Tesco, I wanted to by an RJ45 cable (what you would normally call as a LAN cable). It costs RM8.90 for 10 feet. I took it and saw, from the corner of my eye, an ATM by Maybank. At that moment, I was rather pessimistic that it would work. Anyway, it would never harm to check it out, so I went to the ATM and found that it was online. I took out my card from my wallet, inserted it into the machine and waited for it to prompt me for my PIN. After inserting my PIN, I requested for a cash withdrawal, and it worked! I got my cash, and quickly purchased that RJ45 cable.

I do wonder why was it that suddenly so many ATMs didn't work today. Was there a big breakdown in the ATM network? It is perhaps one of the questions that I shall never get it answered.