Bank gave me fake money

reformedEffortmaker

Hi, I am hoping to have a mini rant and gain some advice on what should be happening as a result of an incident with my bank on Saturday.

On Saturday I went into Coop to withdraw some cash (£5000), to use to open a new saving account with Barclays who were offering a better rate.

After getting a lecture from the cashier @ coop about ordering large sums of cash in advance, I was given the money in 5 x £1000 bundles of £20 notes. As the cashier weighed the bundles on the machine, one of the bundles 'beeped' and so she counted out the cash manually, handed it to me and I subsequently took it across the road to Barclays to pay in.
As the cashier at Barclays put the money in their new fancy machines, it kept spitting out one of the £20 notes, he got out a pen, tested the note and said it was a fake:eek: , his manager then tried it under the UV light and confirmed it. They said they were supposed to seize it, but had 'run out of the forms to complete' and so gave me the £20 note back and told me to go back to Coop to challenge them.

When I went back to coop they were closed (1pm on saturdays!!). I called up HQ to make a complaint and was told to go into the branch on Monday. I went into the branch today and it was clear they didnt believe me. I was told that the cashier who served me had 30 years experience and all monies are double checked before issuing. I asked if he would be willing to review the CCTV as it was definitely *not* double counted and he refused. They stated Barclays should have taken the money off me wouldnt let me speak to a manager. There was a clear undertone from the way I was being spoken to that they thought I was on some sort of hustle!! :mad::mad:
They took the note off me and said they would be sending it to the Bank of England to be checked. They said they would reimbursed me immediately but I have checked my account and it is not there. The cashier then confronted me and as much as called me a liar! :eek:

I pointed out that if I wanted to scam them, £20 out of £5000 wasnt a great return; I had made no attempt to disguise myself and that I was happy for the CCTV in the high street to be checked and confident it would show me leaving the branch, crossing the road and entering barclays without re-opening my bag. I am furious right now and my confidence in branches has been dented. Why oh why didnt I do it online??...if there is one place you expect NOT to get fake notes it is over the counter in a bank. It is now getting to the point where parking/petrol and phone charges mean even if they do refund it, it would have cost me just as much to challenge it.

So my question (mainly to people who work in banks or have experienced this before), is what should have happened?

maninthestreet

You should have used a cheque instead.

reformedEffortmaker

maninthestreet wrote: »

You should have used a cheque instead.

thanks for the input....but would i not lose interest between the date the money was paid in and they date it was cleared??....some might argue I should have done it online also....however, we are where we are and cash is still a legitimate form of payment....do you actually have any advice?

stclair

I would raise a complaint with the co op as its only £20.00 im sure it could easily be resolved.

If it got to the point of taking your complaint to the FOS im sure it would be cheaper for the bank to just exchange the £20.00.

Gromitt

reformedEffortmaker wrote: »

thanks for the input....but would i not lose interest between the date the money was paid in and they date it was cleared??

Depends on the bank, most banks start giving you interest before the cheque has cleared.

But, I wouldn't have used a cheque for the purposes of moving the money to another account. I would have opened the new account with Barclays and then walked over to the co-op and told them face to face that I was moving my money, heres the accounts details, please transfer it. They'd do it there and then. I'd never ask for 5K in cash. Too many things to go wrong.

To be honest though, I'd say Barclays savings rates are still particularly poor. Something like 2% last time I looked? You can get over 3% quite easily.

opinions4u

One of your problems here is Barclays.

They committed a criminal offence by putting the money back in to circulation and created uncertainty in your story with the Co-op. If you'd had the appropriate confirmation from Barclays a few minutes after you'd left Co-op it would have looked a bit more convincing.

Pursue the complaint though. They will refund you sooner or later.

pinkdalek

Opinions is right, Barclays should have taken the note from you however they should have been able to give you something to state it was forged. (this could be taken back to the source as proof)

The service you have received from the Co-Op is a disgrace, in my experience you should have had the £20 re-imbursed no questions asked, a genuine fraudster is not going to try it on for just £20 when you were given £5000.

I would have thought the cashier who had over 30 years experience would have realised something was incorrect when the machine beeped when the bundle was weighed, it would be obvious to an experienced cashier that either the bundle was over/short or there was something wrong with one or more of the notes. Just because someone has done a job for 30 yrs does not make them infallible of making errors.

If this was myself I would be more upset of the manner in how I have been treated, especially if I was a long standing customer with the bank in question.

As for spotting forged notes, my personal hint is to keep the notes all the same way when counting as a forgery generally stands out a little as it looks slightly different. It is like the old game of spot the difference, plus a forged note feels different to a normal note.

chrisy7

This happened to a customer once, I am a cashier in a bank and a customer was paying-in some cash over the till, I counted the cash and found a forgery, I checked it under UV as did a colleague. I explained to the customer that I could not accept it, the customer explained that he had just got the money from Natwest accross the road.

In this situation all that a cashier can do is write out a receitpt for the forgery, hand one copy to the customer, keep one for bank records and send the other one with the note to the bank of England.

The customer went straight back to Natwest with the receipt and they apologised and gave him £20 back.

It doesn't matter whether a cashier has 30 years experience some forgeries are really hard to pick up on. They can't prove that they didn't give you a forgery.

Barclays should have given you some sort of receipt even if it was just a letter. They should never have giving back the forgery!

realaledrinker

I would write to the following lady with full details - keep it factual. As a poster above stated, they will not argue over £20 especially if you are a 'relationship banking customer' which it sound like you are. More importantly for them you will be doing the bank a favour in highlighting a general retraining need.

Deb Smith
Head of Customer Service
The Co-operative Bank
Balloon Street
Manchester
M60 4EP

WhiteHorse

A recent item in the press highlighted the fact that although banks are supposed to check for counterfeit coins, they now rarely do so. Notes are subjected to greater scrutiny, but nonetheless, standards have slipped.

That the co-op machine repeatedly rejected the note, yet is was still issued, says a great deal.

realaledrinker

WhiteHorse wrote: »

That the co-op machine repeatedly rejected the note, yet is was still issued, says a great deal.

.... that you don't read posts properly before commenting?