Many people in Jeddah have expressed frustration at the frequent malfunctioning of the ATMs in various parts of the city.

They told Arab News that this makes it difficult for them to pay their bills or go about their day-to-day shopping.

Abd Ar Rahman Al-Bishri, a resident of Muhammadiyyah neighborhood said that

“Although we have many ATMs in our neighborhood, they are almost all out of service. So on many occasions I have to go to other areas to withdraw money. This causes unnecessary delays, and it is simply a waste of time.”

“The other day my son had a stomachache, but before taking him to the hospital I went to an ATM to withdraw some money. Not only did I not get any money but my card was stuck in the machine because it was out of order. So you can imagine how embarrassed I was when I had to ask a neighbor for a loan to take my son to the hospital,” he said.

Khakid, who lives in Safa neighborhood, agrees. “Rarely do I find a working ATM. I remember that one Friday my wife went into labor and we needed to take her to the hospital. I tried many ATMs to get some money, but to no avail, since all of them were out of order. At the hospital, I tried to use one of the points there but the network was down. So I had to call my brother who brought the money and we paid cash,” he said.

An official source at SAMA told Arab News that it’s not Jeddah alone that suffers from the problem of malfunctioning ATMs. “Actually it’s a common problem in many cities in the Kingdom. This is the responsibility of the banks that operate these machines,” he said.

Hassan Al-Barakati, manager of customer service at a Jeddah bank, said that the main reason for the malfunctioning of these machines is the heavy use by the customers. “In addition, our maintenance staff tells us that some users and children tamper with the machines. There are other factors, too. Sometimes it gets very hot in Jeddah, and the extreme weather conditions affect the condition and performance of these machines,” he said.