Ikea

follyfoot

was anyone in IKEA, Croydon on 25 May when there computer system failed and they were not able to deal with any card payments? I left there at 11pm having paid by cheque. However, I returned some items the next day but was refused a refund until my cheque had cleared because they said i might cancel the cheque once i had received the refund. i found this view very strange since if i was able to do this why didnt i just purchase the goods and then cancel the cheque? I still have items at home which i purchased on the same cheque. i presented my cheque guarantee card and they took the details so the bank is obliged to pay IKEA even if the cheque was stolen - i know this because i had £2000 stolen from me and the bank honoured the cheques because they were all presented with a guarantee card. I think IKEA was just being dishonest and making assumptions about me.

pavlovs_dog

i work for argos, and if a customer had come back for a refund a day later or so we would have given them the cheque back if they were returning the full value of the cheque.

obviously its more complicated if only part value is returned.

if the cheque had left the building, but it was under 7 days after the purchase, we would have to ask you to come back in a few days after the cheque had cleared, after which time any refund would be given in cash.

cant speak for ikea as ive never worked for them, and have never paid for items there by cheque. but thats how things work at argos, if that makes things any clearer for you

follyfoot

if the cheque is guaranteed by a cheque guarantee card, why wouldnt you give a refund?

jockettuk

can still cancel a guaranteed cheque.. might cost you a few quid but can still be cancelled

follyfoot

you cant! the bank wont cancel it - they are obliged to honour it as long as the cheque does not exceed the value of the cheque guarantee card. otherwise we could all buy goods for up to £100 for example and then pay £10to cancel the cheque. the whole point of the cheque guarantee is that the payee is getting a guaranteed cheque even if it is stolen - your opinion unfortunately echos that of IKEA.

Coupon-mad

Agreed - you can't cancel a cheque issued correctly, when guaranteed with your cheque card (except where the chq was not issued in accordance with the Cheque card conditions - such as not being properly signed/dated - in which case the Bank can return it).

I'm also amazed at the OP's mention of a stolen £2,000 being honoured by the bank just because the cheques in question were covered by a cheque guarantee card. Surely the signatures on the cheques were forged/not matching and therefore (if the Bank knew about the theft of the chequebook) they should have returned them for the 'not issued in accordance with cheque card conditions' reason)? But I suppose that's another story.

I guess Ikea has this policy just in case an error on the cheque (e.g. missing signature/completely wrong date) causes it to be returned anyway. I bet retailers have loads of cheques returned for these reasons, even those covered by guarantee cards, so they are just covering themselves against fraudsters who might be using stolen cheques (how closely do some cashiers look at signatures...?).

hjb123

When I worked in retail if someone came in within a week of paying by cheque we returned the cheque if we still had it in store.

We had had instances of people paying for something quite expensive with a cheque then returning for a refund a day or so later - when they thought the cheque would no longer be in store - when we returned the cheque they were stumped - they expected cash as they were on the swizzle - and we know they were as they were trying it at different branches!

follyfoot

Coupon-mad wrote:

Agreed - you can't cancel a cheque issued correctly, when guaranteed with your cheque card (except where the chq was not issued in accordance with the Cheque card conditions - such as not being properly signed/dated - in which case the Bank can return it).

I'm also amazed at the OP's mention of a stolen £2,000 being honoured by the bank just because the cheques in question were covered by a cheque guarantee card. Surely the signatures on the cheques were forged/not matching and therefore (if the Bank knew about the theft of the chequebook) they should have returned them for the 'not issued in accordance with cheque card conditions' reason)? But I suppose that's another story.

I guess Ikea has this policy just in case an error on the cheque (e.g. missing signature/completely wrong date) causes it to be returned anyway. I bet retailers have loads of cheques returned for these reasons, even those covered by guarantee cards, so they are just covering themselves against fraudsters who might be using stolen cheques (how closely do some cashiers look at signatures...?).

my cheque book and cheque guarantee were sent by the bank by post but never arrived. whoever stole them simply signed my name in their writing and went on a daily shopping spree of just under £100 in different stores around the country. the bank said they had to pay the cheques since the stores did not know they were stolen and they had been guaranteed with my card.

Coupon-mad

follyfoot wrote:

my cheque book and cheque guarantee were sent by the bank by post but never arrived. whoever stole them simply signed my name in their writing and went on a daily shopping spree of just under £100 in different stores around the country. the bank said they had to pay the cheques since the stores did not know they were stolen and they had been guaranteed with my card.

Wow! Did the Bank reimburse you once they realised they had been stolen? It's up to the Bank to suffer such a loss, not you, as they posted the items out and you could not have known they were stolen in transit. The bank didn't send both chequebook and card together did they?!

follyfoot

Coupon-mad wrote:

Wow! Did the Bank reimburse you once they realised they had been stolen? It's up to the Bank to suffer such a loss, not you, as they posted the items out and you could not have known they were stolen in transit. The bank didn't send both chequebook and card together did they?!

yes, the bank did reimburse me. they treated it like it was £2 not £2000 - it simply didnt mean anything to them and was not worth pursuing which doesnt surprise me when they make exorbitant amounts in bank charges.

Stonk

follyfoot wrote:

they treated it like it was £2 not £2000 - it simply didnt mean anything to them and was not worth pursuing which doesnt surprise me when they make exorbitant amounts in bank charges.

Similar here. Someone spent £21K using MBNA credit card cheques (blasted things) stolen from my post - 3 cheques each for about £7K, probably for cars bought from gullible people. MBNA treated it like it was £2; refund, and no sign of pursuing the thief as far as I could tell. I often wonder who was left out of pocket - MBNA, or the car sellers.