Should the producers be held liable?

Question

Should the producers of software-based services, such as ATMs, be held liable for economic injuries suffered when their systems fail?

Should the producers of software-based services, such as ATMs, be held liable for economic injuries suffered when their systems fail? By economic injuries, I mean like loss of sales due to customers not being able to take cash from ATM, and i think it has a multiplier effect due to that, affecting one another due to that problem. And its not the ATM alone, any software based system, like the machine used to swipe the credit or debit card. Sometimes its possible that payments arent accepted due to a machine fault, or due to the machine not being able to connect to a remote system. So in such cases, could the producers of such systems and softwares can be held liable? (by the way thanks for the answers already given; they are helpful.)

Answer 1

No. The software services provided by the banking institutions are rarely infiltrated. If a person loses their ATM card, it should be reported immediately. Also, it is beyone their control when someone goes to an ATM machine and inserts something that can capture ID numbers. It's not their fault and insurance companies do not offer a coverage for ATM machines. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) only covers losses by the banks when an actual robbery takes place.

Software can only be made so safe, and that's a fact. A customer has the option to periodically changed their pin number and that is always a good idea. As far as online transactions, those pin numbers should be changed once a week. It's doubtful that a hacker can get into the system unless he has the correct software to decode the encription.

So the options are there for each customer to make the changes necessary to protect their assets. When the system just 'goes down' or is 'down for maintenance' they cannot be held liable either. They must have down time for all maintenance procedures.

I do not know, however, what type of economic injuries you are speaking of. Money when you were in desperate need of cash?, or someone hacking in their system and stealing your information. Since that is encrypted, the theif must really have up-to-date software.

Answer 2

It certainly can cause a number of inconveniences! Since most banks charge access fees, usually called a "convenience fee", to use ATM's, the turn-about would be fairplay. The producers should credit the amount of the fees to the checking or savings account as an "inconvenience fee".

Answer 3

You should not base everything on an ATM, S*** happens and when it does you should have money or a debt card, or credit card, or something that enables you to get out of a jam. what kind of economic injuries would suffer. If one needed money that bad then why did one not think before relying on a computer.

Answer 4

If you mean FAIL like a machine not working or out of order, the answer is NO.
If you mean they gave your money to someone else, then YES.

Answer 5

No. You should not rely on ATMs. You should have other means of acquiring money...i.e. checking account, savings account, credit cards, cash stash, etc.