Bank have lost cheque

MamaMoo_2

My dad paid in a cheque for a few thousand pounds into his Santander business account. He hasn't used it for a while, and when he noticed that the money had not credited the account after a week, he called up to find out what had happened.
The bank claimed that his account was dormant (despite him having just received a new debit card and his latest statement) an assured him the cheque would be posted back to him.
After a fortnight he still had not received it. He called up again to be told that the bank had lost the cheque. Also, it transpired that the account he had paid the cheque into was not dormant.
Santander are being no help, and my dad desperately needs this money.
What can he do?

opinions4u

Ask whoever provided the cheque to cancel it and reissue it.

Then exhaust Santander's complaints system, using the FOS if needed, to obtain some sort of redress.

MamaMoo_2

opinions4u wrote: »

Ask whoever provided the cheque to cancel it and reissue it.

Then exhaust Santander's complaints system, using the FOS if needed, to obtain some sort of redress.

Unfortunately, if he were to do it this way, he would have to wait another 3 months for the cheque.

pmduk

Does he have a receipt for the transaction?

jonesMUFCforever

MamaMoo wrote: »

Unfortunately, if he were to do it this way, he would have to wait another 3 months for the cheque.

So???

This will be considerably quicker than dealing with the bank - if he is that desperate for the money?
Why use an account he had not used for some time?

MamaMoo_2

pmduk wrote: »

Does he have a receipt for the transaction?

Yes. Plus he kept a copy of the cheque number etc.

MamaMoo_2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

So???

This will be considerably quicker than dealing with the bank - if he is that desperate for the money?
Why use an account he had not used for some time?

Unhelpful.
Firstly, he cannot contact the person for another 2 months due to them being abroad and uncontactable. So he wants to see if he has any rights as far as the bank are concerned.
Secondly, because it's his main business account. He had a few months off work, and wasn't getting paid due to being self employed. As far as he was aware the account was still active as he was still receiving statements and even a new card, and had had no correspondence from Santander to say that there was any issue with putting money into his account

chambta

MamaMoo wrote: »

Unhelpful.
Firstly, he cannot contact the person for another 2 months due to them being abroad and uncontactable. So he wants to see if he has any rights as far as the bank are concerned.
Secondly, because it's his main business account. He had a few months off work, and wasn't getting paid due to being self employed. As far as he was aware the account was still active as he was still receiving statements and even a new card, and had had no correspondence from Santander to say that there was any issue with putting money into his account

If the cheque's lost it's lost. The bank can apologise and may offer token compensation but they can't and won't get the cheque cleared now.

I suggest he gets onto the person to speed this three months on.

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry if you think I was unhelpful. The bank 's terms and conditions will mean unless you can prove Santander was negligent with the cheque then he will have to wait for the money.

MamaMoo_2

chambta wrote: »

If the cheque's lost it's lost. The bank can apologise and may offer token compensation but they can't and won't get the cheque cleared now.

I suggest he gets onto the person to speed this three months on.

As already stated, he has no means of contacting this person for wither two months. Nor should he have to, Santander are the ones who have lost this cheque in their internal mail system

MamaMoo_2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Sorry if you think I was unhelpful. The bank 's terms and conditions will mean unless you can prove Santander was negligent with the cheque then he will have to wait for the money.

Well, as he has proof that he has paid in the cheque, and said cheque has neither cleared into his accout nor bounced, surely that proves something.
Not sure whether they record calls, but he was told once the cheque would be returned as his account was dormant, and then told that his account was not dormant, but the cheque has gone missing in their internal mail system. Surely they should have better security in place to stop such valuable items going missing, and should have some sort of liability insurance of this is the case.
It's similar to sending a valuable package with RM, if you were intelligent, you'd send it recorded signed for and insure it for the correct amount.