Post Office dilemma?

polska1979

Hi

Yesterday I went to the local post office to pay in £260 in cash into my Smile account. However the cashier has mistakenly entered £1060. I didn't realise whilst in the Post Office as the card reader doesn't require you to enter a pin number to deposit cash. She gave me a receipt which confirms the £1060, and it has cleared in my Smile account now.

So what do I do? Wait for them to get in touch? Leave it for a couple of months and spend it? If they come asking for it back then how am I going to prove that I had £260 in the first place to pay in?

oldagetraveller

Do the right thing, you know it makes sense. Go back to the P.O. and advise of the error.
It'll only come back and bite you in the bum eventually if you don't.
You do realise it's theft if you say nothing, keep the money and spend it.
This country really has hit rock bottom morally hasn't it?

rocking_horse

Hi
The post office will do their accounts on Weds and will notice at best an error has occured or presume a member of staff has stolen the money. The postmaster will be expected to pay the money back out of his own pocket. Best to go back and be honest. What goes around comes around eventually.

cifpower

I would stick the excess money in a savings account so at least you make some interest before they recall the money - which they most certainly will.

meyore

Chances are they have already worked out where the money has gone and will have been in contact with smile to get the money back. I work in a PO and in our branch the absence of £800 would have been noticed on the day, and every transaction for that day is then verified to see if it is correct. Even if you didn't go back, we would contact smile and request the money back. I'd leave it in the account, as you will probably find the £800 will be gone again very soon.

Gism0

meyore wrote: »

Chances are they have already worked out where the money has gone and will have been in contact with smile to get the money back. I work in a PO and in our branch the absence of £800 would have been noticed on the day, and every transaction for that day is then verified to see if it is correct. Even if you didn't go back, we would contact smile and request the money back. I'd leave it in the account, as you will probably find the £800 will be gone again very soon.

I'm not so sure. These problems can be a huge pain to find.. That one smile deposit isn't going to stick out in your transaction log for the day if you don't remember it being wrong. This is why we are extra careful taking cash deposits.. hell online banking even asks us to verify it and it should be again in settlement.

Do the honest thing and go back, if they don't find that error then your local post office is down 800 quid and that can be a serious blow to a small business.

DaisyFlower

oldagetraveller wrote: »

Do the right thing, you know it makes sense. Go back to the P.O. and advise of the error.
It'll only come back and bite you in the bum eventually if you don't.
You do realise it's theft if you say nothing, keep the money and spend it.
This country really has hit rock bottom morally hasn't it?

Some truth in the above, lately there have been a batch of similar posts basically looking for confirmation that they should keep the money.

Never mind the poor cashier who could be in trouble for this or even expected to pay the difference if they cant find the error.

Reverse the situation, if they had underpaid the amount by £800 would you have left it then??

If you have children, what sort of message would you be sending out to them - that its ok to steal? It is theft, you know the money isnt yours.

wrangler360

I would think it would be found - but if you had paid £1060 into the account but only £260 was credited - would you be happy just to accept the loss?

It is not just the Post Office - think of the cahier, how much trouble could she get in?

I would got back to the PO so they could rectify it - plus I wouldnt want the bad Karma of keeping the money!

iwanttoberich

It's just plain dishonest to be even wondering if you should keep the money and spend it, especially when you were there and knew when the mistake was made.

BlondBoy

I don't know much about these things from the other side of the counter, but surely that's going to be impossible for the PO to trace? I mean, how are they going to track back and realise that a keying error (1+0 simultaneously instead of 2, I guess) is the culprit? First they'll look for an £800 transaction, I guess. And then, I suppose look at every cash deposit on that particular till. But even then, how do they narrow it down? Recheck every transaction regardless. Sheesh, that's tough.

No doubt whatsoever the OP should return it. And I feel for the post office, especially if it's a small local office which can ill afford to lose £8, let alone £800.

dzug

The chances are it will be spotted fairly easily - they will look at all the large transactions first which won't be very many - I would guess transactions of any sort of over a couple of hundred are rare - certainly over £1000. Then someone will remember NOT putting a transaction through at that amount - they may not remember the exact right amount but they will have at least a vague memory.