Incoming BACS transfer problem

cockneysean

Well the only reason I didn't go mad is because they haven't paid me yet. As soon as they do, I will have a few choice words to say to them.

Anyway, to update, a manager has now taken ownership of the issue and they are again going to *try* and issue the payment again tomorrow, by BACS, so it should be with me for Thursday.

I was surprised at how dumb they were when I tried to explain Faster Payments to them. They didn't have a clue even what it was.

Anyway, I will post what happens here on Wednesday night when the bank updates balances for Thursday's payments. Even after all their dumb-fudgery I think that it should go through this time, I hope so for their sake, otherwise it will cost them, and ultimately the tax payer, for their incompetence. (London Borough of Lewisham btw...)

It's just unbelievable that people that work in a council payments department can make such school boy errors in the first place. You would think that attention to details such as account numbers would be top notch and NEVER missed TWICE.

Maybe that is why the country is in the mess that it is in now?

hermante

cockneysean wrote: »

Even after all their dumb-fudgery I think that it should go through this time, I hope so for their sake, otherwise it will cost them, and ultimately the tax payer, for their incompetence. (London Borough of Lewisham btw...)

It's just unbelievable that people that work in a council payments department can make such school boy errors in the first place. You would think that attention to details such as account numbers would be top notch and NEVER missed TWICE.

Oh it definitely costs the taxpayer, while you are calling them (and paying your phone bill) to complain and educating them on the basics of banking, they are are getting salaries and pensions to make mistakes. This wouldn't happen if they were personally liable for any mistakes they made, but when none of it is their money anyway, what do you expect?

cockneysean

hermante wrote: »

Oh it definitely costs the taxpayer, while you are calling them (and paying your phone bill) to complain and educating them on the basics of banking, they are are getting salaries and pensions to make mistakes. This wouldn't happen if they were personally liable for any mistakes they made, but when none of it is their money anyway, what do you expect?

Yes, indeed. But just imagine if this was a multi million pound payment and they were getting the details wrong. As I mentioned previously, I just can't fathom how it is possible that such mistakes can be made. To clarify, the person in question is part of the "central payments team", which is a team that is dedicated to paying invoices, so this is something that they do as their only job, day in, day out; making payments to people's accounts etc. One would think that they would have a very good eye for fine detail and would never hazard a guess when trying to distinguish a zero from a six! If I were in that position I would contact the account holder to ascertain what the number was, I would never just guess at it!

Apparently it's all down to the guys handwriting, that's what I have been told. When I am filling out forms that require such details I always, always use block capitals and write digits as clearly as possible so as to avoid ambiguity.

I used to manage a betting shop and this was a very big part of my job. It was a favourite trick of the less honest punters to make what are called "ambiguous bets". For example, there is a bet called a combination forecast or a combination tricast, which can be written as CFC or CTC respectively, and what they would do would be to write the bet in such a way that the F could also be construed as a T so if the tricast came in they would argue that the F was a T so that they could get the bigger payout. Conversely, if it was the forecast that came in, which would be a losing bet if said bet was for a tricast, they would argue that the T was an F! Basically this would lessen their chances of losing. Amazing some of the tricks that people would try to pull. It was one of the more interesting aspects of the job as you would be trained to spot all of these tricks, and in the process of being trained they would basically be teaching you all of the ways that you could cheat. It was amazing the rate of staff turnover due to certain staff trying to cheat the system. Many a story to tell, but that would be getting off topic!

Anyways, by this time tomorrow we will know if the payment has been successful, and I will of course be posting the result here! Then I will probably be making a thread about where best to keep the money.