'The ATM machine pumped out an advice slip in the normal fashion, showing that HK$4,000 was being withdrawn and that the transaction had been accepted. My card popped out in the normal way - but no cash. Then the screen announced 'Out of service' or 'Out of order' (I can't remember the exact wording).

'I rang the customer service hotline on the Standard Chartered ATM and got through to someone who was neither helpful nor of service. All he could say was that I should look out for any deduction on my next HSBC bank statement, then take it from there. He put me on hold a couple of times and I eventually abandoned that line of inquiry by hanging up.'

The next day, Mr James went to an HSBC branch in Yung Shue Wan to find out what had happened.

'Sure enough, Standard Chartered had taken HK$4,000 plus HK$25 for handling the phantom transaction,' Mr James said.

'I asked an HSBC customer service person for help and he told me I should approach Standard Chartered. I explained that HSBC had allowed the withdrawal from my HSBC account so maybe they could help me. To his credit, he took up my cause immediately and rang Standard Chartered to sort it out.

'He then helped me to complete a form and explained that Standard Chartered had told him that I should expect any refund [they had not yet agreed to make one] after about 45 days.

'The reason? Because two different banks were involved. The upshot is that I am lending Standard Chartered Bank HK$4,000 for about 61/2 weeks, presumably interest free - for their ATM blunder.'

Standard Chartered Bank has apologised to Mr James and arranged with HSBC to refund him in full, along with the HK$25 handling fee after a Take Action inquiry.

'We should like to express our sincere apology for any inconvenience and unpleasant experience,' a Standard Chartered statement said.

'There was an unexpected hardware problem from the ATM when Mr James tried to withdraw HK$4,000 with his HSBC card through the Visa network ... We have made a prompt investigation and response to Mr James. We have asked HSBC to consider reversing the amount of HK$4,000 and the HK$25 Visa Plus handling fee.

'We are pleased to learn from HSBC that the refund has been executed [on October 6].'

Reader Ms Cheung said Hong Kong Broadband has been charging her for excessive storage on her e-mail account amounting to HK$1,300 since January, even though she had stopped using its 56K internet dial-up service at the end of 2002.

'In July 2006, I discovered that HKBN, without a reason, had started deducting money from my Visa card account since January 2006 and continued to charge me monthly,' she wrote.

'It took me great effort to stop them billing me further, taking hours to get on their phone lines, being passed around between departments.'

She took her complaint to the Consumer Council and wrote a letter and sent a fax to HKBN requesting a copy of their own contract. HKBN later said it never received her communication.

'There was no response from HKBN, so I wrote to them. They said they never received it. Later, with the Consumer Council's help, I sent the letter to them again. This time, they said they could not give me any copy of the so-called contract because the document was too old. They have been charging my Visa card without a valid document. Now they refuse to fully refund me.'

HKBN said Ms Cheung never filed a formal request for service termination. Charges were automatically imposed from January when her e-mail account exceeded its free storage limit. However, it offered to reduce the total charge of HK$1,300.

'Looking into our records, the customer did fill in a registration form to apply for service [in March 2000]. No cancellation request nor service suspension request was received by HKBN,' a company spokeswoman said.

'HKBN has arranged to waive the excess storage charge of HK$180 for June, bringing the total to HK$1,120.

'The customer was dissatisfied and requested to waive all storage charges ... As part of the company's goodwill, HKBN suggested further waiving 50 per cent of the outstanding storage charge [to HK$560]. The customer did not accept again.'

HKBN said it made two more offers, with the last one down to HK$320. It said it would continue to communicate with Ms Cheung to settle the dispute to her satisfaction.