The cheque cleared & bounced!

soolin

megazoid wrote:

Well i'll have to say that rather sucks i was just reading about cheques on https://www.apacs.org.uk which was interesting reading about clearing process's but not very helpfull, looks like its cash only for me lol.

Regards

Megazoid

Gosh, I was just reading the bit about cheque fraud and they refer to the possibility of cheques bouncing, on rare occasions and where fraud is involved, after 'weeks'.

Pity they can't offer any real advice about accepting cheques safely which is the one thing we all want to know.

Soo

newfoundglory

If I was going to sell something and accept a cheque I would;
* allow it 14 days to clear (ie. 10 working days) - it should have returned by this time,
* only accept cheques from a bank which is part of the clearning system (some banks/BS use other banks to clear their cheques - which increases the delay)
* only accept cheques where the "main" part of the cheque number is 100 or more (if they are the type of person to abuse their account or conduct fraud - or they don't use cheques much - they would never reach cheque 100!).

I don't think you are going to be able to do much about it, other than accept the loss and learn from it.

TDIfurby

Well - it took about 6 days to appear in my bank balance, which I assumed meant it was cleared... Never had it taken away again AFTER clearing into my account!

THanks for the advanced search tip.

heathen

when i bank a cheque it appears in my account the same day and usualy clears after 5 working days.i use a seperate bank account for ebay and withdraw straight away once cleared,as i do with paypal also(just to be on the safe side)

COPPERS459_2

I am sorry to say I think you would find it very difficult to get the police involved on a small matter, No theft has taken place, you may have a deception however this would be difficult to prove unless you sent it signed for or recorded, cos he will say he never got it. Even if the police did get involved he could say that he stopped the wrong cheque no offence would be recorded and it could be a genuine mistake, so I am sorry, the best bet is to try and contact him to the best of your ability, you can take it to a small claims court, but it depends what evidence you have to support your claim.
Hope this helps.
Steve

pug_in_a_bed

the police may not get involved but don't let that stop you suggesting to the individual that they may do. I would have a go. Police where i live are great, they have got involved with some very small incidents you'd probably never expect them to. I think its worth a try. You could at least file a report with them.

God i hate these swines who think they can get away with murder - don't stand for it.

this has happened to me twice, once deliberatley (ie stoppage) and once accidentally on purpose (sending cheque knowing it would bounce). I phoned and emailed, stating very seriously that i would consider court action. I also suggested that i had been to the police in relation to smaller ammounts than were dealt with in the transaction, so wouldn't hesitate to. This seemed to do the trick. I did contact the other parties banks on both occasions, passing details on of the transaction, which also seemed to help as i know for certain in one of the cases that they contacted the individual.

Stopping a cheque deliberately, what an absolute so and so.

do you have proof postage etc?

value of £51, less than the £2000 stipulated by the small claims court. of course you don't have to physically do this, just the threat may be enough.

edit: wonder when the first case of real ebay rage will occur, or has it already? ie some disguntled buyer/seller battering another ebayer etc?!

kazd

I read and article that stated it can actually take up to 21 days for a cheque to be fully cleared, ie it could still bounce even though on your statement it shows that it has cleared, as previous poster said its cleared for funds

sinizterguy

Damn, and I thought there was one secure way left to make sure you get your money.

My one bad previous experience with ebay was when I sold a phone. The buyer used buy it now and paid via PayPal. I sent out the phone the next day. The day after that, the money was pulled out of my paypal account as the funds were reported as fraudulent or some such.

And of course PayPal customer service were absolutely useless. They say they are "investigating" the incident. But ofcourse, its not like they are going to pay out even if I followed all theirs and ebay's requirements.

And if I did have a car to get to the other guy, then a case of ebay rage might very well have taken place.

MarkyMarkD

TDIfurby wrote:

Well - it took about 6 days to appear in my bank balance, which I assumed meant it was cleared... Never had it taken away again AFTER clearing into my account!

THanks for the advanced search tip.

I think you are following me around from https://www.briskoda.net.

I agree with other posts here - it's a pain that everyone THINKS a cheque is automatically cleared on the third working day, whereas it's only cleared FOR VALUE and not FOR FATE - i.e. the bank can still get told by the paying bank that it's bounced for ages after the third day.

A small claims court action would be very straightforward, and you'd almost definitely win without them defending it (because most people who do this sort of thing are stupid). I've done this myself (not with eBay fraud, but with other people who've defaulted on contractual agreements) and won - so pm me if you want to pursue this course of action.

MMD

ROBDOLPHIN66

So, it is cash and Postal Orders all the way!!
Or maybe they could be forgeries :-)