advice please on stopped cheque paid by A&L

alaf_lidg_77

hi, :mad:

can anyone give me any advice please on the situation i'm in with the (unprintable people) who pretend to provide a banking service under the name of A&L...

basically,
1) a cheque I made out to a company got lost in clearing.
2) A&L rang me to inform me and offered to stop the cheque, I accepted that. No mention was made of any residual risk of it cashing.
3) I made a direct transfer to the company as obviously I still owed them
4) the cheque had been found, and was paid from my account the next day
5) the company deny receiving anything but the transfer
6) A&L have spent 3 months jerking me around,
a) "we are tracing the money" = "the money was paid out of your account" (errr, cheers for that, I knew that 6 weeks ago..)
b) oh this is a mistake, you'll be refunded asap
c) oh actually, we did it right, it takes 3-4 days for a stop to become a stop. so anything in the meantime is paid anyway. we suggest you contact the payee (errr, cheers for that, I did and they said they only got 1 payment. now what ?).
d) the payee did receive that, honest. although we wont send you anything that might prove it, although we'll send you copies of the cheque and your statement (errr, cheers, I can see my statement online and I recall the payees name just fine).

I've spoken to my other (savings) bank who were pretty hard over this was A&Ls fault for not implementing the stop, and regardless, shouldnt have paid something vastly (x20) the guarantee value on my card if a stop had been requested.

I'm literally at my wits end with them, not least A&Ls call centre is a sick joke, full of people who are rude (as a starter, thats before I get rude in reaction), lie, mislead, dont actually do what they say they will and tell you "its pointless you ringing us, we arent going to do anything, no we dont have any more senior people in this company, we're an entire company of monkeys honest, yes I'm sorry its a lot of money but its pointless etc.".

The lack of this money is causing me huge stress, loss of sleep, arguments with an ex who I need to give the money to in order to complete buying out her stake in what was our house, so really anything I should or could do to recover it before I snap would be very gratefully received.

If ever this is a lesson not to go for the best rates, and that its clearly cheaper for companies to fk customers about and lose them if problems arise, then this is it.

rb10

Have you made a formal complaint yet? This may be the first step towards resolving this.

Mikeyorks

alaf_lidg_77 wrote: »

1) a cheque I made out to a company got lost in clearing.
2) A&L rang me to inform me and offered to stop the cheque

1. Can get complex, as you're realising - depending at which point it was 'lost'.

2. Then strongly suggests it was at a point where normally a substitute document should have been put into the system. If A&L (your Bank) knew the detail .... then the cheque data had been both electronically captured / imaged and a substitute was appropriate rather than 'phoning you. If the cheque has re-surfaced .... it's possible that it's been deducted from your account but not credited to the payee account. But the more likely scenario is that the credit has been made as an accounting correction direct to the payee account .... and they haven't spotted it and processed it onward to your personal account. Either way (the transfer you made is undisputed) it's A&L that now has to audit trail backwards and determine (from the debit the cheque made on your current account) whether settlement was made to the payee Bank in the normal manner or whether a 'one off' correction was made.

From that audit it should clarify when / where, or whether, credit was made to the payee account. And then - if it was made - they should be able to trace it. If not made - A&L should return your funds - + apologies etc.

ShelfStacker_3

I'm still trying to work out that thing about stopped cheques taking 3-4 days to be implemented. What precisely is the point of a system for stopping cheques which couldn't possibly stop a cheque that had already been paid in?

Mikeyorks

ShelfStacker wrote: »

What precisely is the point of a system for stopping cheques which couldn't possibly stop a cheque that had already been paid in?

Aaah ..... according to this thread ..... Abbey have the solution for that. Random Stop and search?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1455613

ShelfStacker_3

Ah yes, I saw that. One wonders if Santander are aware what they've taken on.

alaf_lidg_77

thanks for the comments, I have made a formal complaint, thats where I've got the 3-4 days nugget from although they did give me a small gratia payment for the fking about by their staff, i'm still short the main amount. i think after a bit of arguing with the next muppet up the chain it will have to be ombudsmand / solicitor.

the payee have agreed to send me their statement for that period to prove it didnt go in, and I've responded to A&Ls complaint reply with another letter, including extracts from their Ts & Cs which only refer to 24 hours for a stop to be effective.

in this case, as they offered to stop it having lost the cheqyue (it was too much to go through and unfortunatekly I was out of the country and they couldnt contact me to verbally approve it the first time round - oh for having come back a day earlier !!!), didnt advise me of a window of risk that it could still go out, and swear blind the payee got it - i feel they are responsible and should refund me, then pursue the payee themselves with all their resources, tools and information that I dont have access to.

the other problem also now discovered is the payee went into volutary liquidation the month after and so I'm not even sure the money could be recovered from them...

on that point, if you receive by accident someone elses money, and they contact you asking for it back and you deny receiving it and thus retain it - is an offence commited ?, i.e. can I bring in the police as per A&Ls branch advice ??? i cant imagine they folded (and emerged instantaneously as companywithaslightlydifferentname) just foir my sum but clearly it would have been in their interest not to pay it out and whilst I've had to take what they say at face value, I dont trust them at all.

the A&L in branch help was quite good, but their telephone call centre has pretty much cost them my custom and anyone else I can convince, including a couple of colleagues and family who were thinking of switching from this sites advice.