"Is there any problem?" I knocked on the door of the ATM room and asked the 2 ladies who were inside. For the past 5 minutes I had been watching them go round and round around the machine.

"Where do you insert this card?" one of them asked me.

I wasn't sure for a moment if I had heard the question right but then I took the card from them, put it in the slot and went back to wait outside.

In another 2 minutes the ladies opened the door and declared that the machine had eaten up their card. 'Yeah, it will spit the card back out when your transaction is over' I assured them while debating whether to wait there or not.

They went inside and almost immediately opened the door - again. 'The system is stuck'.

I went inside. Sure enough, the screen had gone blank. Praying that the machine will spit the card out, I pressed Cancel repeatedly. When the card came out I asked the lady nearest to it to grab it as if her life depended on it.

By then the system had recovered because I could see the normal welcoming message on the screen so I inserted their card again and beat a hasty retreat outside.

I must have waited for 2 minutes before the ladies were back. The screen was acting funny again. This time I didn't take any chances. Hitting Cancel button I got their card safely out and directed them to another ATM nearby.

Needless to say, I didn't dare withdraw any money that day. So much so for technology making life simpler!