Co-Op Failed Transaction NOT on Statement

UnderPressure

Hello All

Slowly but surely discovering my wife's move from Barclays to Co-Op was the complete wrong move!

She uses the Co-Op account as a bill account so she only ever transfers enough money to cover any up coming direct debits etc etc, she cancelled a direct debit to Virgin mobile for £7 a month at the end of April by complete mistake, she had clicked on it in her direct debit list and then clicked OK on the next screen thinking it would take her back to the list and it actually cancelled the direct debit, she was presented with a screen confirming it had been cancelled to her horror.

Anyway she had to call Virgin explain what had happened and then get the to setup the direct debit again for her payment due end of May which was done. She noticed on online banking today that a payment had left the account for £15 for an unpaid charge, she rang them to be told it was for a failed direct debit to Virgin Mobile at the beginning of May, she then explained it had been cancelled in error and had not been set back up until a few days before the end of May, they said they had no record of this, they said they had sent a letter informing her of the failed direct debit and the charge, again no letter arrived here, we checked her statements and nowhere on any of the statements did it list a failed direct debit so she rang back to be told they do not list failed transaction on the statements, really? Is that even legal? It is a transaction even if it fails so how can it not be listed on the statement? I butted in in the end and ended up speaking to some horrible manager that was doing all she could to try and justify this £15 charge but could not give me an explanation as to why the failed direct debit was not on any statement, the dd was for £7 for goodness sake, it was never presented which has since also been confirmed by Virgin mobile so why are the Co-Op telling blatant lies? All to screw her out of £15? Surely they are not that hard up yet!

Any comments anyone? I am bemused to say the least!

brettcta

failed transactions never show on your statement - why would they? a statement is a list of completed transactions. should banks start listing every time you make a transaction that fails for whatever reason (i.e. lack of funds, wrong pin number etc.)?

UnderPressure

no no no I am not talking about card payments as I said inn my post this was supposed to be a failed direct debit, I know for sure they show on Barclays statements and was always under the impression they showed on all banks statements, why would they not? How can they prove it was a failed direct debit in the first place if they do not show it on your statement? They could charge us willy nilly like I reckon Co-Op have this time surely it must be recorded on your statement!

Remember I am talking about direct debits NOT card transactions!

EDIT

Just found out they also show on Bank Of Scotland so presume they will also show on their other banks as well.

dalesrider

UnderPressure wrote: »

Anyway she had to call Virgin explain what had happened and then get the to setup the direct debit again

Are you sure they have?

UnderPressure wrote: »

for £15 for an unpaid charge, she rang them to be told it was for a failed direct debit to Virgin Mobile at the beginning of May,

Possibly the DD was already in the system to be collected. Remember DD's can be set in motion upto 10 prior to money being taken.
So if Virgin requested payment on the DD. Then co-op will bounce it back.

UnderPressure wrote: »

she then explained it had been cancelled in error and had not been set back up until a few days before the end of May,

they said they had no record of this,

So that tends to say that Virgin have not requested the reinstatement of the DD then.

Remember that co-op will only know of any attempts to set up a DD if a company sends a request in.

My guess is that your Mrs still owes Virgin £7 from the April bill... As well as maybe the May one.

UnderPressure

Hello

Thanks for replying, it was 100% cancelled in error, she rang Virgin straight away but they could not set it back up in time for the April payment so that was paid by card and they setup the direct debit for the end of May payment which did get paid out of the account.

My main issue here is that nowhere on any statement does it say direct debit to virgin media for £7 failed, I have just looked at one of my old Barclays statements from last year when I had an unpaid direct debit to the AA, anyway it was listed on the statement as a transaction aa money going out then aa money back in as there was insufficient funds. It surely needs to be on your statement as a failed direct debit, they list the bank charge the month after they just do not list the failed direct debit.

innovate

I don't know much about bounced DDs as I never had any but I would agree that I would expect them to show on my transactions list.

If I were in your shoes, UnderPressure, I would raise a formal, written complaint. Actually, I would get my wife to do it because it's her account and only she can officially communicate about her account.

the Coop will then have 8 weeks to settle the matter to your satisfaction. If they don't, you (your wife) can take the issue to the FOS.

UnderPressure

innovate wrote: »

I don't know much about bounced DDs as I never had any but I would agree that I would expect them to show on my transactions list.

If I were in your shoes, UnderPressure, I would raise a formal, written complaint. Actually, I would get my wife to do it because it's her account and only she can officially communicate about her account.

the Coop will then have 8 weeks to settle the matter to your satisfaction. If they don't, you (your wife) can take the issue to the FOS.

Thanks for the reply, I think we might just take your advise here, I have been stewing about this now for a couple of hours and the thing that has annoyed me the most is the attitude of the customer service manager, I have never quite experienced anything like it, generally when I have a whine at the bank over something there is a level of customer service there, a certain amount of empathy if you like but with this manager, i found her very arrogant and matter of fact, as though she was trying to talk down to me, kind of "don't be so silly we are the bank how can it be wrong" sort of thing, that has really annoyed me and it is not even my account, my wife is a bit more trusting than me and I know this direct debit is pure fiction, I remember 100% the circumstances and all the hassle we had with Virgin to get them to set it back up.

I was taken aback a little, I have not experienced such bad customer service in a long time so was not expecting it, she really was doing everything she could to hold onto that £15 as though it was her money personally, oh well It won't take too much effort to send in a letter of complaint.

innovate

When you send the letter, make sure you list all the facts and keep all emotion out of it. Use brief sentences, and/or bullet points.

You might not even want to refer to the phone call today, because it sounds like there's a good chance you will get emotional over it (whether justifiably or not is neither here nor there). Just stay factual and calm.

Goldiegirl

As I understand it, your wife cancelled a direct debit,.

Virgin originated a direct debit, but when the request reached your wife's bank, there was no authority for the account to be debited, so the request was refused. I think Virgin are the ones being less than truthful when they say they didn't make the request for the funds.

At the bank I work for , not the co-op, if a direct debit is refused due to lack of funds, the account will be debited, and then re credited, to show the direct debit has bounced.

However, if, as in your case, there is no direct debit mandate in force, the request will be refused before the account is even debited. This is because there is no authority held for the account to be debited, so the transaction is returned to the originator without it even touching the account. Therefore there is no transaction to show on the account.



This seems to be what has happened here.

The bank I work for only charges for failed direct debits if it is due to lack of funds - we don't charge for direct debits returned if there is no mandate held.

Co-op's stance is obviously different, and they do charge in these circumstances.

But they haven't actually done anything wrong by not showing the transaction on the statement- they are actually correct not to have allowed the transaction at all because they had no authority to accept direct debits from Virgin.

To be honest, I'm suprised they even spoke to you at all, and if my husband butted in on one of my calls to my bank, I would be less than impressed with him, to say the least.

I think you really need to let your wife deal with her account.

Sorry if this post is not what you want to hear.