Incoming BACS transfer problem

NFH

From what I've read above, it seems that the name does make a difference for CHAPS, but it doesn't for BACS. What about FPS?

pmduk

FPS just uses sort code and account number, hence all the posts complaining that people have sent money to the wrong account.

cockneysean

Well it turns out that their incompetence knows no limits!

The first time they got the name wrong, and now this time it turns out that they have gotten the account number wrong! Bloody joke!

And to top it all when I'm trying to sort this out with them and get a payment off of them today, they just give me excuses about council procedures and what not! I even offered to pay the £50 CHAPS payment fee that they are apparently charged by Co-Op business banking and they say that because this is not a multi million pound payment that needs to be paid within a certain amount of time they won't do it.

Well I am waiting for them to get back to me now and if I get a negative outcome I will be going back to the solicitors and let them call them and deal with it.

pqrdef

cockneysean wrote: »

On the remittance advice that they sent me it did indeed have the wrong name on it. They have reissued the payment

So did they actually recall the first payment, for no adequate reason?

NFH

cockneysean wrote: »

The first time they got the name wrong, and now this time it turns out that they have gotten the account number wrong! Bloody joke!

Any payments that they erroneously make to other people are unrelated to the money that they owe you. Insist to them that they pay the money to you immediately (which would be their first attempt to do so). Don't let them use these unrelated payments that they've made to third parties as an excuse to slow down the payment to you any further.

pmduk

I'd start the Authority's official complaints procedure now. Hopefully when senior management realise how stupid their staff are, something will get done.

cockneysean

Well.......

After many phone calls back and forth and much sweat and stress, this is the current situation. I spoke with my solicitor who in turn had spoken to the guy in payments department. My solicitor told the guy in the payments department that he did not want him dealing with it any more and that this should now be dealt with by a manager. To say the least the manager was even worse, but I will get around to that.

I think I mentioned earlier that the guy told me that he had used the wrong account number, using a "6" instead of a "0". I mean, if he was unsure, he should have called me, that would have cleared matters up within seconds rather than just guessing! Well anyway, he decided to just guess and use a 6 off of his own back.

He is now telling me that he needs confirmation from the bank that the money has not been paid to me. Well, DUH!!!! He himself told me that he has used the wrong account number so that pretty much confirms it doesn't it? Apparently not, because logic does not apply to the council does it? Well then, I got Barclays to call him and tell him that the money had not been paid to me, which they did so, immediately. He then calls me back and tells me that he has to wait for written confirmation of this, which can take three to five days. Now this is bull, as because if you read back, the first payment failed because he put the wrong name on the payment and there was no need for any of this back then, so why now?

Anyway, here we are stuck at this situation. I told him to call the bank again and get on at them about this, which he did apparently try to do. I called him back and he said that when he called the bank he was passed through to the wrong department blah blah blah. Soooo then, why he is on the phone to me, he pauses, and then tells me that his manager told him just there and then that he is not to call any more banks!!! What a bloody joke!!!

I asked him what he was going to do about this and he just went quiet, he did not know what to say. I pointed out to him that he knows that the payment has not reached me as firstly he was the one that told me that he had used the wrong account number, and secondly the bank had told him that I had not received the payment into my account.

After all this nonsense I spoke to my solicitor again who told me that he was going to get on at them again this afternoon and that if they could/would not raise the payment today, that I want it sent to me by cheque. That's all well and good, but I opted for bank transfer in the first place so that it would save time, which it hasn't.

You would think that someone that works in the payments department of a large organisation such as a council would be more attentive to entering the correct details when making payments. This has infuriated me no end as I have made promises and arrangements on the strength of this money arriving, and having had the rigmarole of the first error, I was pretty sure that this would not happen on the second attempt. Oh how wrong I was!

And to top it all.... When I spoke with his manager I asked them to issue me with a CHAPS payment which would cost £50. I said that I was prepared to meet this cost, even though none of this is my fault, and the woman told me that they only do this for urgent multi million pound payments and due to council procedures, they would not do this for me! Councils are absolutely useless. I bet that if I owed them money, and the roles were reversed, they would be hounding me no end and if I were to tell them that it was against my procedures to issue them an instant payment I would have the bailiffs on my doorstep pretty damned quick!

So, long story short, they won't release another payment to me until they confirm that the payment is erroneous, which they don't need to, as they themselves revealed this very fact. What a crock!

To be continued....

Biggles

Have they worked out what they did wrong with the first attempt? If there was an error with the name, it wouldn't have affected the payment, so I guess they got the number wrong on that one too - otherwise he wouldn't have been 'unsure' about your account number when he sent it for the second time.

cockneysean

Biggles wrote: »

Have they worked out what they did wrong with the first attempt? If there was an error with the name, it wouldn't have affected the payment, so I guess they got the number wrong on that one too - otherwise he wouldn't have been 'unsure' about your account number when he sent it for the second time.

Well he didn't say that re the first time but seeing as a great deal of people say that the name on a BACS payment doesn't matter, and I tend to agree on this point as I have had payments sent to other peoples accounts using my name, I think that this is probably the case.

But what gets me is why the hell would you guess what the number is? Especially working as part of a payments team! Also, the sum involved as quite a significant figure, so you would think that it would be reasonable that any employee worth their salt would pick up the phone and make a quick call to check whether the digit in question was indeed a six or a zero. But after all, this is the council we are talking about here. Easy to see why the word "council" is often used as a synonym for "rubbish". For example, someone talking about a football team might say that "that team is proper council" or they might call water, "council pop".

I've been very reasonable with them. I have not shouted at them or exhibited any anger on the phone. After all, why would I? I'm trying to get them to give me the money that they owe me. I'll save my comments for after I have received the payment! I just can't believe that they refuse to make a CHAPS payment or organise one via Faster Payments when I have offered to pay the fee for the former and re the latter all they have to do is pick up the phone! All they had to say on that matter was that does not follow their "procedure", which I think is a very, very poor excuse and just said out of pure malice on their part. I mean, in all reason, this could be solved very quickly and very easily. They could pick up the phone to their bank and simply request that a payment be made to my account and that would be it done. Especially after they have made two failed attempts at making the payment, I'm not asking for any special treatment, you'd think that they would accomodate me on this one and get the matter over and done with. This coupled with the fact that my solicitor is threatening to start charging them interest on the outstanding sum.

But again, it's the council. The mind boggles. Nothing is ever straightforward with them, especially when it comes to them paying you. But wo betide anyone that owes them money. Makes me laugh when I think back to stories of councils taking people to court for outstanding sums as low as a few pence! The postage costs alone in these matters are more than the amount owed.

I can't wait to see what happens with this next!

Biggles

cockneysean wrote: »

I've been very reasonable with them. I have not shouted at them or exhibited any anger on the phone. After all, why would I?

Why on earth not? I certainly would if they !!!!ed up a payment to me as badly as that and still didn't have a clue as to how they would put it right.