Website payout went to another person's bank account

dwakerkey2020

Hi MSE forum, 

I would be really grateful for your help with this.

I set up a website for my wedding using the provider Wix, which was supposed to take place in April of this year (then cancelled due to COVID). We organised some events around the wedding, some of which we asked guests to make a contribution towards. This capability is all available through Wix. I set up the events and the ability to register and pay for "tickets" to them via Wix. When all this is set up, the process is guests pay money to Wix (via card), Wix holds the money, takes a fee for providing the service, and then transfers the rest of the money paid by the guest, to the event organiser's bank account (in this case, my bank account).. 

When you set things up this way, Wix commits to doing an identity check of the organiser's bank account, to ensure that the organiser is indeed the beneficiary associated with that bank account (ie that the bank account really is the organiser's one).
 
What happened here, is that instead of Wix paying the funds out to my bank account, they paid the funds into another bank account, with whom I have no connection. After some investigation, I was able to find out whose bank account the funds were paid into (it's actually a business bank account - one of the company bank accounts of a challenger bank in the UK, but I don't think it's right to name it here). I do hold a personal account with that challenger bank (important to emphasise that this is the bank's bank account, to which the funds were transferred, not my account with that challenger bank).

My fiancee and I have spent a long time talking to Wix, Adyen (who transferred the funds from Wix's bank account to the Challenger bank's account), and the Challenger bank itself. The Challenger bank have no record of the funds coming in and say they have probably been returned. Wix say it's not their responsibility. Adyen have tried to help but have now said that they can't do anything and that we have to resolve this via Wix.   

In total we are missing over £400, which I would really like to get back - we are already out of pocket (like so many others) because of wedding cancellations and associated things.

Is there any advice you would give? Are there any official authorities I can complain to and do you have any advice on how I should do this? How long would you expect a complaint process like this to take?
Thank you very much indeed,
Dan

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

dwakerkey2020 said:

Hi MSE forum, 

I would be really grateful for your help with this.

I set up a website for my wedding using the provider Wix, which was supposed to take place in April of this year (then cancelled due to COVID). We organised some events around the wedding, some of which we asked guests to make a contribution towards. This capability is all available through Wix. I set up the events and the ability to register and pay for "tickets" to them via Wix. When all this is set up, the process is guests pay money to Wix (via card), Wix holds the money, takes a fee for providing the service, and then transfers the rest of the money paid by the guest, to the event organiser's bank account (in this case, my bank account).. 

When you set things up this way, Wix commits to doing an identity check of the organiser's bank account, to ensure that the organiser is indeed the beneficiary associated with that bank account (ie that the bank account really is the organiser's one).
 
What happened here, is that instead of Wix paying the funds out to my bank account, they paid the funds into another bank account, with whom I have no connection. After some investigation, I was able to find out whose bank account the funds were paid into (it's actually a business bank account - one of the company bank accounts of a challenger bank in the UK, but I don't think it's right to name it here). I do hold a personal account with that challenger bank (important to emphasise that this is the bank's bank account, to which the funds were transferred, not my account with that challenger bank).

My fiancee and I have spent a long time talking to Wix, Adyen (who transferred the funds from Wix's bank account to the Challenger bank's account), and the Challenger bank itself. The Challenger bank have no record of the funds coming in and say they have probably been returned. Wix say it's not their responsibility. Adyen have tried to help but have now said that they can't do anything and that we have to resolve this via Wix.   

In total we are missing over £400, which I would really like to get back - we are already out of pocket (like so many others) because of wedding cancellations and associated things.

Is there any advice you would give? Are there any official authorities I can complain to and do you have any advice on how I should do this? How long would you expect a complaint process like this to take?
Thank you very much indeed,
Dan

As I see, Wix is a free website hosting facility. Unless you had SSL and additional security, anyone with simple knowledge could easily change your website details to allow them to receive funds sent to your website.

RumRat

Perhaps someone could move this to a more appropriate thread......like this one...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/budgeting-bank-accounts.
You may get more help there as it's not technically a technical problem....

Jumblebumble

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth said:

dwakerkey2020 said:

Hi MSE forum, 

I would be really grateful for your help with this.

I set up a website for my wedding using the provider Wix, which was supposed to take place in April of this year (then cancelled due to COVID). We organised some events around the wedding, some of which we asked guests to make a contribution towards. This capability is all available through Wix. I set up the events and the ability to register and pay for "tickets" to them via Wix. When all this is set up, the process is guests pay money to Wix (via card), Wix holds the money, takes a fee for providing the service, and then transfers the rest of the money paid by the guest, to the event organiser's bank account (in this case, my bank account).. 

When you set things up this way, Wix commits to doing an identity check of the organiser's bank account, to ensure that the organiser is indeed the beneficiary associated with that bank account (ie that the bank account really is the organiser's one).
 
What happened here, is that instead of Wix paying the funds out to my bank account, they paid the funds into another bank account, with whom I have no connection. After some investigation, I was able to find out whose bank account the funds were paid into (it's actually a business bank account - one of the company bank accounts of a challenger bank in the UK, but I don't think it's right to name it here). I do hold a personal account with that challenger bank (important to emphasise that this is the bank's bank account, to which the funds were transferred, not my account with that challenger bank).

My fiancee and I have spent a long time talking to Wix, Adyen (who transferred the funds from Wix's bank account to the Challenger bank's account), and the Challenger bank itself. The Challenger bank have no record of the funds coming in and say they have probably been returned. Wix say it's not their responsibility. Adyen have tried to help but have now said that they can't do anything and that we have to resolve this via Wix.   

In total we are missing over £400, which I would really like to get back - we are already out of pocket (like so many others) because of wedding cancellations and associated things.

Is there any advice you would give? Are there any official authorities I can complain to and do you have any advice on how I should do this? How long would you expect a complaint process like this to take?
Thank you very much indeed,
Dan

As I see, Wix is a free website hosting facility. Unless you had SSL and additional security, anyone with simple knowledge could easily change your website details to allow them to receive funds sent to your website.

This may be true but i suspect is  irrelevant as the OP does not say why Wix paid the money to the wrong sort code
I am assuming that as the OP is using a  payment processor I cannot see why the OPs website should have any bearing of updating bank details on that processors portal  portal
The op should
Get a statement from the challenger bank that no money came into the account
Make a formal complaint to whoever is the payment processor
Complain to relevant ombudsman