Abbey National won't cancel a cheque

ooo000ooo

The OH bought an item via ebay, she paid by cheque as the seller didn't take paypal. The seller has now done a runner without sending the goods. It wasn't an expensive item (£18) so purely out of principle my missus contacted the Abbey national's fraud team and asked them to cancel the cheque and have the money returned to her account. Apparently their definition of fraud is different to everyone elses so they are refusing to do it even if she reports it to the police (already reported to ebay) and obtains a crime reference number. Any other suggestions as to how to twist their arms?

Voyager2002

What kind of cheque was this? If it was a draft (what we used to call a Building Society cheque) then it cannot be stopped. However, if it was a personal cheque drawn on some kind of current account then stopping it should be simple, although the fee for doing so is likely to eat up most of the eighteen pounds in question.

Note that I use the term "stop", that is they refuse to make payment against it. I am not sure what cancellation would mean.

saver_sam

According their t+cs on the abbeys website for current accounts it states under 4.2 (a) if its already been cashed then they will not stop it. (c) using the guarantee card

I'm not sure if there is another way, others might suggest something, apart from suing her of course, which probably costs more than the item is worth

ooo000ooo

It was a personal cheque, crossed a/c payee only and not supported (is that the correct term) by her cheque guarantee card. She used to work in the Halifax and apparently a cheque can be cancelled up to 3 months after it's been cashed although an acquaintence had one cancelled over a year after it had been cashed (she was paid about £30k for for consultancy work by an american company who cancelled the cheque (drawn on an american bank account) for no reason and the money was removed from her account with no prior warning.

saver_sam

ooo000ooo wrote:

She used to work in the Halifax and apparently a cheque can be cancelled up to 3 months after it's been cashed although an acquaintence had one cancelled over a year after it had been cashed (she was paid about £30k for for consultancy work by an american company who cancelled the cheque (drawn on an american bank account) for no reason and the money was removed from her account with no prior warning.

Perhaps different banks do different things, they are a law unto their own! however i am surprised to hear that after a year they can take it back. I've heard of cases of BACS payments being reversed after a time but not chqs. My OH has had to serve papers on people requesting money back after they cashed two cheques instead of one (i.e reported one missing, somehow it got cashed and they banked the replacement too and that went thru also!)

figgy1978

When I worked in a bank we only cancelled cheques that hadn't been cashed. This was going back 10 years now and that cost £7.

Coupon-mad

Did you contact the fraud team direct, not an Abbey branch?

Just wondered what her local branch says, as I used to work in a Bank too and you just need to ask your Branch to stop the cheque (for a fee).

However (from my memory at HSBC) you couldn't stop a cheque if it had already debited from your bank a/c (i.e. after it had been cleared).

ooo000ooo

she initially contacted the general customer services spoke to one of their foreign agents who didn't understand what she wanted and then cut her off, she spoke to a lovely scots girl who gave her the number for the fraud team. First person she spoke to was quite obnoxious and insisted it couldn't be done. she spoke to a team leader who insisted it couldn't be done because it wasn't fraud although my missus quoted the oxford english dictionary's definition of fraud. Ebay are being useless and won't release any details for the seller so i can go round and put a brick through their windows.

hollydays

Have you spoken to the Police?When you say she has done a runner,do you have any contact details that are valid?Could you search on b4usearch.com?

Astaroth

It is theft rather than bank fraud - they have taken payment without giving/ sending the goods. They will say you handed the cheque over willingly so it is up to you to deal with the consequences.

The police may be able to assist but the likely hood is that for such a small amount they arent going to be overly bothered.

I cant remember if there is a min amount for ebays own dispute resolution process or not but this may be your best route if there isnt (cant access ebay from work)

scooter100_2

ooo000ooo wrote:

she initially contacted the general customer services spoke to one of their foreign agents who didn't understand what she wanted and then cut her off, she spoke to a lovely scots girl who gave her the number for the fraud team. First person she spoke to was quite obnoxious and insisted it couldn't be done. she spoke to a team leader who insisted it couldn't be done because it wasn't fraud although my missus quoted the oxford english dictionary's definition of fraud. Ebay are being useless and won't release any details for the seller so i can go round and put a brick through their windows.

if you want to find their contact details use this ebay request form.

http://cgi1.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?UserInformationRequest&hc=1&hm=um.s5ddl743%3D.

ebay then send an email to BOTH parties with the contact info for each.