breakdown anyone?

This is the email I just sent my dad so he can call the bank and try to clear up this WHOPPING PILE OF SHIT for me while I sit helpless 3000 miles away:

Ok, I want you to have this for when you make the call to TCF, in case they have any questions you cannot answer. So I am going to make an attempt to tell the full story...

Yesterday between 12:40 and 1:20 I went to 4 banks and two other ATMs that were in the dept. store and in the bus station... I am out of money and wanted to withdraw 300 euro. They included ATMs from:
- Caja Madrid
- Telebanco, at Banco Gallego
- Caja Madrid in Corte Ingles---the dept. store
- Caixa Oberta, "La Caixa"
- Caja Espana
- CAM-Caja Mediterraneo---in the station
In that order. Every one of them either said Transaction Denied, Consult your Bank, or Sorry we cannot help you at this time. Discouraged and running out of time, Dave lent me the money to buy the bus ticket and I returned home. My host family the system may have been screwed up by the storm and recommended I try it again the next day. However, by mere chance I checked on my statement last night through Online Banking, where I had a pending transaction of 395$, which translates as 300 euro, as an ATM withdrawal!

---one thing that really boggles me is that they have no clue which ATM it went to, because if you look at the statement down through February they identify the bank and location in EVERY OTHER ATM WITHDRAWAL LISTING. For this reason I really believe the money is lost in transit and didn't actually go to any atm/bank I was at. Dave can testify that every screen turned me down and I retired for the day.

Well, couldn't do anything about it until today. This morning I got to school about a half hour early to ask the director to accompany me because I don't have the mental stability at the moment, nor am I confident enough in my vocabulary to discuss finances with a bank. She took me to each of them, down the line, but figured out it wasn't going to work.

The first bank couldn't tell me their ATM number, and told me most banks wouldn't know theirs either, so there is no way to look into where that number corresponds. The bank teller explained what he thought may have happened... that ATMs run on internet and after a certain time if they have not received a response from the home bank with the authorization they close the connection and deny the transaction. He thinks the timing was off and TCF authorized the 300 euros after I had already been denied them. This would explain the charge, and why no other banks would give me the funds either, because I have a daily maximum withdrawal of 300 euro.

The second bank I went to we talked to a very nice and very very knowledgeable gentleman and he insisted that that was not possible. He said his bank had already counted the ATM and didn't miss anything. This is when he pulled up tcfbank.com and I logged onto my online banking account one more time, to double check. The charge was gone. The money hadn't reappeared yet but he said it was probably still being processed and should be returned to me in no time. I thought it had taken care of itself. He had me try the ATM again and this time it worked. That is the final charge you see on the papers I faxed to you, from today. My card is not broken, the system was yesterday. TCF needs to figure this out, because it is not the banks here. I looked into it.

I hope that explains it all really well and you are informed enough to call them. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with, otherwise call me as soon as you can, and thank you so much for taking care of this for me. I really appreciate it beyond words, and am trying to handle it the best I can from my end as well.

Much love,
Kristy