OMG how bad is this?!

IvanOpinion

It is a simple and not uncommon mistake made by totally automated non-manual equipment. It has happened before and will happen again ... the main thing is how the person receiving such instances and the banks respond to it.

I sort of classify this as mountains and molehills forced upon us by a paranoia inducing media and government. The vast vast majority of people are honest, will have a little nosey, do what is right ... some may even exploit it for their 5 minutes of fame .. in the main though it will be forgotten about/resolved within a few days.

Oh and before anybody tries the usual and highly predictable 'what if it had been your details' killer argument .. it has been in the past ... it was about as worrying as getting a bit of dirt on my gardening jeans.

Ivan

Mark7799

Originally Posted by jazzyjustlaw
I do not suppose the person who puts letters in envelopes would just say that either.

Originally posted by Jennifer_Jane
I think I would probably start looking at the basic system of putting statements in envelopes (or even of having envelopes perhaps). If, as you say, there is a person doing this, well I'd certainly start with mechanisation!

In almost all cases, the process is automated. Mistakes occur in machinery processes as well. When I worked in a Bank, it happened to a customer who took her complaint to the ICO - the ICO did nothing as they said this happens about 80-100 times per year (this was about six years ago) and considering the number of statements that get sent out it was considered tolerable.

Ivan - you're spot on in your comments (again;) )

Jennifer_Jane

IvanOpinion wrote: »

It is a simple and not uncommon mistake made by totally automated non-manual equipment. It has happened before and will happen again ... the main thing is how the person receiving such instances and the banks respond to it.

I sort of classify this as mountains and molehills forced upon us by a paranoia inducing media and government. The vast vast majority of people are honest, will have a little nosey, do what is right ... some may even exploit it for their 5 minutes of fame .. in the main though it will be forgotten about/resolved within a few days.

Oh and before anybody tries the usual and highly predictable 'what if it had been your details' killer argument .. it has been in the past ... it was about as worrying as getting a bit of dirt on my gardening jeans.

Ivan

I agree that it is a simple mistake - but the point is not about paranoia or the media or anything - where has that come from, but the point that some people on this forum were quite dismissive of the OP.

Clearly, they and you, haven't grasped the point that people who have your credit card number can obviously use the details to remove money from your credit card account (as I said I have about £10000 on my RSA credit card - I get pretty good interest on it), and nowhere is this more untraceable (ie I know I buy online, give my card to restaurants, etc), than when your credit card number has been sent to a complete stranger.

I also agree that there is nothing you can do about this, and I am prepared to agree, although I don't know for a fact, that these incidents may be unusual.

Nevertheless, to compare this with getting a bit of dirt on your gardening jeans is puerile. But, OK you're a very relaxed kind of person, so good for you and I sincerely wish I had your confidence.

Jen

Dylanwing

the ICO did nothing as they said this happens about 80-100 times per year

Hmm, we all know how reliable Bank stats are, don't we? Same as details in bins are always 'isolated incidents'.

Mark7799

The figure was given to me by the customer (not the Bank) who said she had been given the information by the ICO - the Office of the Information Commissioner - this is not a Bank!!!!!

Jennifer_Jane

Mark7799 wrote: »

The figure was given to me by the customer (not the Bank) who said she had been given the information by the ICO - the Office of the Information Commissioner - this is not a Bank!!!!!

This statistic - 80-100 times a year - is fairly reassuring, but how reliable is it? Where do they get their information from? I'm pretty sure that no-one lets the OIC (I didn't know they existed) know each time they've received or not received a statement. I know I have received another person's statement this year.

Jen

NovaBlack_2

jazzyjustlaw wrote: »

All I would say to the OP is that it wasnt theirs that went missing it was someone elses.

erm... i gotta say im kinda REALLY not getting your point...

lets say hypothetically all four people whose statements were involved were members of this forum.... what your saying is that there isnt a problem because one of the three can be happy it wasnt their statement that got sent to the wrong address....

erm.... what do you say to the other three......?



hmm tell you what how about you send me your bank statements and let me take money from your account. i mean youll have lost money ill be ok because my balance will be booming! apparently that makes it all ok.

scheming_gypsy

NovaBlack wrote: »

erm... i gotta say im kinda REALLY not getting your point...

lets say hypothetically all four people whose statements were involved were members of this forum.... what your saying is that there isnt a problem because one of the three can be happy it wasnt their statement that got sent to the wrong address....

erm.... what do you say to the other three......?

very little because the other 3 won't get a letter saying 'sorry you haven't received your statement it was sent to somebody else', so they won't have a clue. They'll phone the bank and say they haven't received their statement assuming it got lost in the post and all 3 people won't know the other 2 haven't received theirs.

Dylanwing

Which brings us back nicely to the accuracy of the stats!

MABLE

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

very little because the other 3 won't get a letter saying 'sorry you haven't received your statement it was sent to somebody else', so they won't have a clue. They'll phone the bank and say they haven't received their statement assuming it got lost in the post and all 3 people won't know the other 2 haven't received theirs.

No doubt the other two who never received their statements will be giving grieve to Royal Mail. However mistakes do happen in every walk of life and all we can do is learn from the errors and try to make sure they do not happen again. Thats probably why they don't hang people anymore because the error rate was too high. Now that is really something to be horrified about!