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Cash deposit & address change on wrong account holder

My friend deposited money (around two grand) and changed their address in a branch on Tue. Today they got a letter at the new home address to say the address has been changed, however it was not in my frined's name and they also noticed the cash had not been deposited. So the bank teller had operated in the wrong account (the customer who was served just before my friend). They have now been credited the money, but from my (rather short) banking experience I know this calls for a fat complaint. Advice? They've been advised they can always put in a bank complaint or a complaint with the FCA.

Comments

  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,328 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    So some sort of human error that's been swiftly resolved on the same day it's been spotted? Doesn't sound like much scope for any complaint to me, let along a fat one, or is your friend just after some compensation, despite not having suffered any loss?
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Newshound!
    edited 18 January 2020 pm31 6:20PM
    So the bank teller had operated in the wrong account (the customer who was served just before my friend).
    How did you come to the conclusion that this is what occurred, that the 'teller' made this error? In the UK we pay in using bank giro credits or debit cards and such errors are quite unlikely. Possibly in the US the tellers do it differently?
    It is also unlikely that the cashier would have done the address change at the same time as dealing with the account credit and would in all probability have referred your friend to a different person to do this. Why did your friend not do the address change themselves online?
    and they also noticed the cash had not been deposited.
    How? Such information would not have been contained in a letter confirming change of address. Did your friend not obtain a receipt when paying in this £2000 in cash? Did your friend not check their online banking between Tuesday and the day of receipt of this letter?
    I know this calls for a fat complaint. Advice? They've been advised they can always put in a bank complaint or a complaint with the FCA.
    How do you know that this calls for a 'fat' complaint? Advised by who? Presumably the bank are aware of what has occurred in order to have sorted it out and confessed to the error on the part of the 'teller'. Did they not offer any apology, compensation etc at the time?

    Are you sure that your friend has explained things to your correctly?
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 18,399 Forumite
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    In the UK we pay in using bank giro credits or debit cards and such errors are quite unlikely.

    But it does happen.
    I have seen credits paid to a previous customer in branch. As counter staff forgot to enter new customer details.
    Easily rectified by the branch once aware, they just reverse the credit and put it in the right account.

    Given there is also wrong customer details this will have to be reported internally. Will result in a serious slap on the wrist for staff member who did it....
    Lucky only one person is involved. So might not need to go to ICO.

    Not a fat complaint and not really going to see much compo offered.

    Any complaint would have to be through the bank before FCA would get involved.
    Life in the slow lane
  • aleen
    aleen Posts: 44 Forumite
    10 Posts Second Anniversary
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    So the bank teller had operated in the wrong account (the customer who was served just before my friend).
    How did you come to the conclusion that this is what occurred, that the 'teller' made this error? In the UK we pay in using bank giro credits or debit cards and such errors are quite unlikely. Possibly in the US the tellers do it differently?
    It is also unlikely that the cashier would have done the address change at the same time as dealing with the account credit and would in all probability have referred your friend to a different person to do this. Why did your friend not do the address change themselves online?


    Firstly, they changed their address in branch as they were there already. Secondly, this bank only allows a change of address in branch, by telephone banking if registred, or by post. My friend put their card in and the PIN for the cash deposit. Then the same person did the change of address. (This is in the UK,I could not recall what the proper name for a bank person is).

    The staff in branch told my friend that the money had been deposited in the account of the customer served before them, same for the address change. I do not know details such as - did the computer mess up or did the person make a mistake.






    and they also noticed the cash had not been deposited.
    How? Such information would not have been contained in a letter confirming change of address. Did your friend not obtain a receipt when paying in this £2000 in cash? Did your friend not check their online banking between Tuesday and the day of receipt of this letter?


    By checking their online banking? They obtained a receipt in the form of a pre-printed form with blanks for account numbers etc, then filled in by hand with the acc no, sort code, amount, then signed and stamped. So not a computer generated receipt. Pressumably my friend did not check their account, no, until the unsual letter.


    I know this calls for a fat complaint. Advice? They've been advised they can always put in a bank complaint or a complaint with the FCA.
    How do you know that this calls for a 'fat' complaint? Advised by who? Presumably the bank are aware of what has occurred in order to have sorted it out and confessed to the error on the part of the 'teller'. Did they not offer any apology, compensation etc at the time?

    Are you sure that your friend has explained things to your correctly?


    I shortly worked for bank myself some years back, and having your address wrongly changed is a big !!!!-up, so pressumably worse for the person who had their address changed than for my friend, as my friend could've requested all kinds of things to their home address ( new card, new security number for telephone banking, new pins etc). I believe they were offered an apology but no compensation
  • aleen
    aleen Posts: 44 Forumite
    10 Posts Second Anniversary
    born_again wrote: »
    But it does happen.
    I have seen credits paid to a previous customer in branch. As counter staff forgot to enter new customer details.
    Easily rectified by the branch once aware, they just reverse the credit and put it in the right account.

    Given there is also wrong customer details this will have to be reported internally. Will result in a serious slap on the wrist for staff member who did it....
    Lucky only one person is involved. So might not need to go to ICO.

    Not a fat complaint and not really going to see much compo offered.

    Any complaint would have to be through the bank before FCA would get involved.


    I always thought that if you insert your card & PIN then details will just pop up for the staff member? We don't know if only one person, as you get two letters for an address change, one to your old address too, the previous customer might have complained too after getting a letter to say their address has been changed.

    Not sure why the bank suggested to my friend that they bypass bank and go to FCA as what I found on FCA is that it's bank first.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,328 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    aleen wrote: »
    They've been advised they can always put in a bank complaint or a complaint with the FCA.
    born_again wrote: »
    Any complaint would have to be through the bank before FCA would get involved.
    aleen wrote: »
    Not sure why the bank suggested to my friend that they bypass bank and go to FCA as what I found on FCA is that it's bank first.
    Not sure why anyone is talking about the FCA, as they won't get involved in any consumer complaints about a financial institution - it's the Financial Ombudsman Service that's the point of escalation if a bank fails to resolve a complaint adequately, which will be spelt out in the bank's published complaints policy, as well as https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain (and https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/how-complain for that matter)....
  • JuicyJesus
    JuicyJesus Posts: 3,830 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Doing both of the things that happened here is an entirely plausible error for someone working in a bank to make and I don't understand why OP's situation is being picked apart. It happens. Human error.

    A complaint will probably net £25, mind you.
    urs sinserly,
    ~~joosy jeezus~~
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