Bank Mis-processes Solicitor's Payment for Sale

naedanger

cpx2 said:

@Fighter1986, @naedanger, @Armorica many thanks for your responses.

Just for clarity we are engaged in making a formal complaint but with little progress.

@Fighter1986 I can relate to your 'anger', it is really odd. You mention at the legally applicable rate of 8% per annum - be good to know more about this.

@naedanger thanks for the link, we will mention this next time we correspond to the bank. But it does say "A business has 15 days to consider complaints about: payment services – such as bank transfers or direct debits" - in other words, to consider, not to fix.

@Armorica - the solicitor has confirmed that the documentation they sent us came from the bank - and it certainly looks authentic. We have no reason to think, at the moment, that there is a problem at the solicitors end. The only open issue here is that we have asked the solicitor to raise the issue with their bank as M&S has failed to act correctly on the paying bank's instructions, so they are the immediate party to the transaction. As you say it seems odd that an automated payment should go astray.

A recent excerpt from M&S Complaints Department: "As discussed I’ve been attempting to receive an update on your missing payment. Your missing payment is currently being investigated by EPS Services.... They are a highly specialist team, so only they can deal with the claim itself. I'm afraid no department, including Complaints, can override their processes or change anything they can or cannot do for a customer. I cannot give you a specific timescale of how long your case will take, I am chasing for updates daily." While I appreciate the M&S employee is probably only trying to do his job as best they can, I have pointed out that even the EPS Department, whoever they are, is expected to act within the law.
Many thanks again.

They have 15 days to send their final response. If you are not happy with it, or they don't meet the 15 day deadline, then you can go to FOS.

But yes, unfortunately there is no guarantee they will resolve the matter in that time. And if it goes to FOS they won't be quick either. 

PS I greatly sympathise. It must be terrible when such a large sum is involved.

eskbanker

Just to be clear, the 15 (business) day deadline relates specifically to the complaint handling process and shouldn't be seen as a target timescale for resolving the actual underlying transactional issue by reuniting OP with their money.  There are all sorts of SLAs that aren't overridden by complaint timescales, so institutions are already in breach if they don't credit CHAPS payments on the same working day, so there shouldn't be any expectation that M&S have three weeks to sort it out!

kazwookie

A couple of weeks ago, the money had not arrived.

Why wait so long?

I'd be banging on your solicitors' door hard to get them to sort their mess out.

Voyager2002

kazwookie said:

A couple of weeks ago, the money had not arrived.

Why wait so long?

I'd be banging on your solicitors' door hard to get them to sort their mess out.

The solicitor is not at fault.

xylophone

I notice that this comment was made on your other thread

M&S isn't a clearing bank in it's own right. All it's back office functionality is performed by HSBC. 

HSBC must hold thousands of foreign accounts.......

naedanger

eskbanker said:

Just to be clear, the 15 (business) day deadline relates specifically to the complaint handling process and shouldn't be seen as a target timescale for resolving the actual underlying transactional issue by reuniting OP with their money.  There are all sorts of SLAs that aren't overridden by complaint timescales, so institutions are already in breach if they don't credit CHAPS payments on the same working day, so there shouldn't be any expectation that M&S have three weeks to sort it out!

So because the bank is already in breach are you saying M&S should have more or less than 3 weeks to actually sort it out?

eskbanker

naedanger said:

eskbanker said:

Just to be clear, the 15 (business) day deadline relates specifically to the complaint handling process and shouldn't be seen as a target timescale for resolving the actual underlying transactional issue by reuniting OP with their money.  There are all sorts of SLAs that aren't overridden by complaint timescales, so institutions are already in breach if they don't credit CHAPS payments on the same working day, so there shouldn't be any expectation that M&S have three weeks to sort it out!

So because the bank is already in breach are you saying M&S should have more or less than 3 weeks to actually sort it out?

I'm saying that the the three week complaint timescale essentially has no significance in terms of them actually getting the money to OP, i.e. crediting OP's account before or after that doesn't really make a difference in terms of (non-)compliance with their transactional obligations - they should have sorted this long ago and will still have awkward questions to answer even if they finally manage to do so within three weeks of a complaint being raised.

castle96

feel for you ! Just made a CHAPS payment for £400k to solicitor. Hope this, doesn't go 'astray' !!

naedanger

eskbanker said:

naedanger said:

eskbanker said:

Just to be clear, the 15 (business) day deadline relates specifically to the complaint handling process and shouldn't be seen as a target timescale for resolving the actual underlying transactional issue by reuniting OP with their money.  There are all sorts of SLAs that aren't overridden by complaint timescales, so institutions are already in breach if they don't credit CHAPS payments on the same working day, so there shouldn't be any expectation that M&S have three weeks to sort it out!

So because the bank is already in breach are you saying M&S should have more or less than 3 weeks to actually sort it out?

I'm saying that the the three week complaint timescale essentially has no significance in terms of them actually getting the money to OP, i.e. crediting OP's account before or after that doesn't really make a difference in terms of (non-)compliance with their transactional obligations - they should have sorted this long ago and will still have awkward questions to answer even if they finally manage to do so within three weeks of a complaint being raised.

Right. I agree with that.

Retiredwelshman

From the OP's first post
'I sold my house at the end of last year. I gave my solicitor my M&S Bank details'

Can I ask HOW the details were given?
Please say it was not by e-mail?

Also have the solicitors actually shown you their copy of the CHAPS payment - not confirming that they sent the money to the right account? - but if the account details were in some way amended fraudulently they would be the right details but not your account if you know what I mean?