Bank Transfer for False reasons

Manxman_in_exile

No doubt I'm being thick, but why would the builder ask for the money to be transferred direct to the door manufacturer instead of being paid direct to him?  I mean, if you are doing something "dodgy", you might as well do it properly and have the money in your own hands rather than a third party's - who you already owe money to!  How does this benefit the builder?  It seems a pointless scam/fraud.

And the OP wittingly transferred the money without including the order number as a reference?

KeithP

For completeness, report this saga to ActionFraud.

shaun_from_Africa

Manxman_in_exile said:

No doubt I'm being thick, but why would the builder ask for the money to be transferred direct to the door manufacturer instead of being paid direct to him?  I mean, if you are doing something "dodgy", you might as well do it properly and have the money in your own hands rather than a third party's 

If the builder is seriously in debt and has had legal action taken against them, there may be a charging order against their bank account so any money paid in Can't be accessed by them.
If they didn't have any money and owed the door manufacturer, they might not have been able to get any more goods on credit until they paid what they owed so decided to get the OP to pay off their debt.

stragglebod

Seems pretty clear to me that the OP was acting as the builder's agent when making a payment against their account with the door manufacturer, rather than making a purchase in their own right.

dogshome

Maybe different banks work in different ways, but my daughter has been buying our groceries during Lockdown and I've made several Bank Transfers - Halifax to Santandar

Halifax have a blank reference section on their OUT form, which I fill in withGrocy 5 - (The 5 denotes the delivery and the next one will be 6)

This reference appears on my bank statements, and on hers.  -  Question is did the OP fill in a reference, and if so was it Doors?

shaun_from_Africa

stragglebod said:

Seems pretty clear to me that the OP was acting as the builder's agent when making a payment against their account with the door manufacturer, rather than making a purchase in their own right.

Bug they were lead to believe that the payment was for the two specific doors that the builder had ordered for them, something that wasn't the case.

Hasbeen

I would think the OP has a good chance of getting refund back, with written complaint to MFG as transferred with builders name and door Ref No.

Perhaps not so, if transfered with builders name and Account Ref No?

Perhaps op can double check ref given to them by builder. ls actually ref of door in brochure etc?

AskAsk

bit of a tricky one as the contract is between the builder and the door company.  you just happened to be paying for the door, but you haven't actually got the contract with the door company as the builder bought it.
the builder told the door company that someone would be calling to settle his account, and you called them to do this.  when you called them, did you explain that the builder had bought 2 doors for you and that you were calling to pay for them?

DoaM

I'm not aware that the OP has stated that they called the building supplies company ... they merely state that they did a bank transfer and used the builder's name and (what the OP believed to be) the door part numbers. A bank transfer does not require any direct interaction with the recipient - indeed it can easily by done via your banking app on your phone (and probably was done this way).

Hasbeen

rossbott said:

Firstly sorry if this is in the wrong section, its a bit of an odd situation.
we have hired a builder  (we have used him once before). to install 2 external doors, he told us do a bank transfer of £750 to the Door manufacturer directly as he had ordered the doors and they just needed paying for, which we did (they are an established company so believed it was safer rather than paying the builder to pay them) we gave the builders name and doors models as the reference for the transfer. and all seemed fine.
 The builder has since stopped answering calls/texts and when my wife called the Door manufacturer to check on the order, they told her that the builder had claimed that our payment was to pay off some of his existing debts and not actually to pay for the 2 new doors.
The Door manufacturer are saying they wont refund the money as they've done nothing wrong and were owed the money. is there anything we can do apart from attempting to making a court claim against the builder? is there anyway to retrieve the money? is the manufacturer correct in saying they don't have to return the payment? am i right in thinking Bank transfers can't be reclaimed?

Any advice would be great!

Thanks
Ross

OPs wife called as above.