Company took £5,000 instead of £25.50 (Direct debit)

rich112

Hi all, 
Looking for some advice. 
My kids swimming classes cost £25.50 per month and last night I checked my online banking to see £5,000 came out on the 1st instead of what should have been £25.50. 
It's a huge amount of money and my mortgage and other direct debits came out this morning which meant I didn't have the funds to pay for them. Had to borrow a couple of thousand from a family member last night to make sure they went through. 

I've been emailing the centre manager since last night and so far his responses are basically saying he has no idea how it happened and they are looking into it.
At the time of posting this, I still haven't got my £5,000 back and all they have said is 'finance team are making contact with the our bank asap and will give the instruction to ensure the £5000 is paid back. This payment can take a few hours to show but this will be in your account today.'

Surely a massive !!!!!! up like this should be an easy problem to solve and I should've had the money back in my account first thing this morning?
My bank can't do anything as it came out two days ago.

Am I being too worked up about this? I feel like they should be doing everything they possibly can (ie, a BACS payment at 9am).
They've really annoyed me with their responses but i'm guessing there is nothing I can do?

Thanks.

Ballard

I would have thought that your first port of call should be a claim under the direct debit guarantee with your bank. I'm not completely au fait with it but believe that they should refund you and claim the money back from the originator and you should not lose out financially.

GrumpyDil

Surely your bank can process a dd indemnity claim as the amount collected is not in accord with the mandate agreement.
I think that would make the money available overnight. Not ideal but at least you would get the money back rather than waiting for the gym.

eskbanker

Obviously a stressful experience but if you only alerted the company last night then it doesn't sound particularly realistic to expect it to have been resolved this early in the current working day.  Promising that it'll be sorted today sounds reasonable to me, although they should still accept responsibility for their error and offer at least an apology once they've arranged the refund....

rich112

Thanks for the replies. 
I guess i'll have to wait and see what happens with the refund today then. 

alanwsg

I wouldn't wait - contact your bank and tell them to reverse the DD.
The DD agreement gives you the right to do that.

mazzetti

Google 'direct debit guarantee'
"If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society"

RobM99

mazzetti said:

Google 'direct debit guarantee'
"If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society"

Way to go, so do it right now!

Ballard

This probably won’t make this issue any easier to deal with but at a previous bank I worked for we had one customer debited £8m direct debit in error once.

[Deleted User]

Your bank should have been your first port of call and get them to reverse / refund via a DD indemnity claim.
Not to be unkind but I don't think i'd want circa 5k of my money with an entertainment venue at the moment!

rich112

dahj said:

Your bank should have been your first port of call and get them to reverse / refund via a DD indemnity claim.
Not to be unkind but I don't think i'd want circa 5k of my money with an entertainment venue at the moment!

I called them first thing this morning and they told me there was nothing they could do as it was 2 days ago and it had already left. Another reason why I hate Natwest. 
The money is now in my account again. 
Thanks all