Help with Citi needed - refusing to acknowledge wage payments

Bren_D

I'll keep this short and to the point as some of my posts could best be described as long winded.

Citibank are denying all knowledge of wage payments from my agency that should have gone into my account. We are paid weekly at midnight on Thursday night going into Friday morning yet for the first two weeks I haven't received any money. My details with Reed are correct (sort code, account number etc) and have been double checked and payroll have transferred the money. All of my collegues have been paid.

Upon calling Citi on Monday, I gave them from Friday to Monday to find the money, the customer service rep I spoke to all but refused to help and told me to call again a couple of days later before attempting to explain how transfers work. She didn't take kindly to being told that she was wrong. It shouldn't take five working days for a transfer that the agency assured me was instant to clear.

The story was pretty much the same for the second call on Wednesday. They denied all knowledge of the money, again explained the timescale I'd be looking at for the money to clear and told me to call again on Friday. The lass I spoke to took a few basic details in order to 'investigate' where my money was but refused my request for one of her colleagues to call me as soon as they knew what was going on.

Just now one week's missing wages became two and the five day deadline they set for the first payment to clear passed.

From the reactions of the staff of both companies I believe Reed have paid me and Citi have screwed something up. The manager of my branch is as anxious as me to get this sorted, yet the members of staff from Citi have taken every opportunity to fob me off with lies and crappy excuses.

How do I handle tomorrows call? I'm at the stage where I need to be a little more forceful with Citi. I'm not going to be fobbed off and told to call back in 2-3 days and I want a resolution to all of this before Christmas. I don't intend to spend the festive season worrying about what is a massive amount of money for me at the moment, £600 or so. Aside from the last resort of threatening to take my custom elsewhere, is there anything else I can threaten Citi with or anything I can say to prevent them from feeding me the same old excuses?

If they refuse to play ball what are my options?

Thanks in advance for any help.

BWZN93

It depends on how the payments were made. Normally this is by BACS transfer and can take up to 5 working days from being sent to be credited to the account at the recieving bank. However, if your colleagues have been paid, then I am inclined to believe that yours should be there too.

You have two options to trace the money, and I suggest doing both. On your phonecall to Citi, tell them to check with their BACS recieved/rejects team for payments, you will need to know the details of where they came from, the date they were sent and the exact amount. They should have some way of searching for the payment and will be able to tell if it has been rejected or is in an error suspense account (e.g if a payment comes in to a closed/incorrect account, it may well be held for manual assignment to another account).

Your employers can also put a 'forward trace' on the funds with their bank, which is where they literally trace the funds forward. It may be that Citi's recieving team have rejected the funds and they are on their way back to the employers account for one of many reasons, for e.g incorrect details again, or 'over maximum' if for instance payments were made into an ISA but the credit would take the account over the maximum deposit allowed.

I personally would do both so that you have both angles covered.

If any/either end refuses to look for it, then ask to speak to a manager as this should be a part of customer service and they should be doing it to help you out. If Citi refuse to help, then I would be looking at opening another account with a bank/building society that actually provides customer service.

Good luck!

Jo x