Lloyds TSB made a payment we had cancelled and won't reverse it...Help Please?

donna1987

Bit of a long story and I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, so if it's wrong can someone please direct me to the correct board?

Basically my other half has a basic cash account with Lloyds. We have just moved house and we had some outstanding money with our old landlord. My other half set up a bank payment to his account to come out today on payday. We then payed him the money the day we moved out instead, then went on OH's internet banking to cancel the future payment, this being over 3 weeks ago. We've done this a few times before when transfering money between our own accounts and it's always cancelled the payment.

Today I checked his account to see if his wages had been payed in and noticed the £500 we cancelled had been paid. He called the bank immediately to ask what was going on, they said we didn't cancel the payment, which I know for a fact we did, as I did it with both my other half and my mother stood next to me. The bank say they have the log for us accessing the transfers & payments section on the account but not the cancellation. They then threw us back and forth between the internet banking department and our branch. We also went into a branch to speak to someone there, but the guy wasn't exactly helpful(reminded me of the guy on the natwest advert!).

I know for definate that we cancelled it cause I double checked afterwards to see if it had been removed from the pending payments page and it wasn't there. I've also been on to cancel obselete direct debits/payments ect in the past few weeks and not once has the it shown as a pending payment, which if it hadn't have been cancelled it would have done.

The bank have said they can't reverse the payment and to ask the old landlord to transfer the money back, I know full well he's the kind of person who would say tough luck and take the money straight out of his account (he probably already has and is not answering our calls :rolleyes: ).
Lloyds say all they can do is investigate if they have made an error, but this will take 3 weeks and quite frankly this money is alot to us, we need to pay our rent, and food costs for the month. Some bills I'm able to postpone, but where the rent is concerned, we have just moved here so our new landlord is going to be pretty p****d off if we default on rent in our first month!
Can anybody please give us some advice on who we need to speak to or what we can do? As far as I'm concerned Lloyds TSB have made the mistake in paying a cancelled payment, but what are the chances to them admitting to that? Their internet banking system never gives reference numbers for anything you do, and incidently when my other half lodged a formal complaint earlier...they don't issue complaint references either!!! They also lost the log of his first call he made this afternoon!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm really at the end of my tether where banks are concerned, we've just got ourselves on the right track where finances are concerned and the last thing we needed was another kick in the teeth. Think I may retort back to good old days of cash under the mattress!!!

chappers

Just followed you over here is the reply I posted on DFW

Try your ex landlord you never know that might be the end of it. Otherwise try the banks complaint and internet banking team if they say they can see you logging on to the site when you say you did then ask for a full log of your internet banking activities between the day you set up the payment and the present day.Explain all the things you have pointed out here.
When you make a complaint ask for a reference there must be one when it gets logged onto the system, always keep copies of letters you send and a brief log of your calls, record them if you can and always confirm in writing anything you have discussed , get the full name of the person on the phone and ask them where they are based, if they refuse (and they usually are allowed to)then ask to speak to their manager/supervisor and get them to deal with your complaint.
I too have also had a few internet banking glitches in the past and now always print out the confirmation notices when making transactions(bit of a pain as it defeats the object a bit)typically have not had need for them since doing it but am prepared for when I do .

YorkshireBoy

Good advice from chappers. I think it's imperative that you make the official complaint now, so that you're at most 8 weeks away from resolution/getting the FOS involved.

chappers wrote:

always print out the confirmation notices when making transactions(bit of a pain as it defeats the object a bit)

I use 'prt scn' to print the screen and then paste into a Word document and save that instead.

For all people knock A&L on this board, at least they have a user accessible event log...which would have come in pretty handy for the OP.

donna1987

Thanks for your reply chappers. We've tried calling him and he isn't answering... he probably guessed its us trying on a different number and with-held too!
We asked for the log of the internet banking, they said they saw where we set up the payment, where we viewed our transfers & payments page and then a transaction a few hours later where i set up the standing order payment to our new landlord. They said maybe we entered the wrong password, but if that was the case, that would show in the log. I know that isnt the case though as all 3 of us remember cancelling it and the payment was removed from the pending transactions page. The page lloyds have as a 'confirmation notice' simply says... Your cancellation request has been completed. If you need to speak to an advisor about your account ... blah blah blah... then the phone number for their phone bank, so it wouldn't be much use anyway!
We asked for names, only one guy would give it. They said they use the time of call as a log reference, but they couldn't find the log for my partners first phonecall today... so its obvious that system is flawed! They just kept passing him back and forward between departments and wouldn't give us a definate answer of who we needed to talk to... anyone have any ideas which department should deal with this? What are our rights concerning having proper reference numbers for our phonecalls? We don't have the equiptment to record...and definately can't afford to buy any now!

donna1987

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Good advice from chappers. I think it's imperative that you make the official complaint now, so that you're at most 8 weeks away from resolution/getting the FOS involved.I use 'prt scn' to print the screen and then paste into a Word document and save that instead.

For all people knock A&L on this board, at least they have a user accessible event log...which would have come in pretty handy for the OP.

Thanks yorkshire boy, we've made an official complaint. Just hope they don't 'lose' the details of that too, as they wouldn't give us a reference number for it!
We asked them for the contact for the FOS.. is there a time limit of how long we have to wait before getting them involved. This is really money we couldn't afford to have disappear so really hope we don't have to wait for 8 weeks! Like I said, doing a print screen wouldn't make any difference as their confirmation page has no details of the cancelled transaction on it. The nearest thing is the page where you have to confirm with your password, but then they would claim the password wasn't completed or some other rubbish!
It just infuriates me that they can do something like this, then just try to pass the book. They made a mistake which has put our family in a horrible situation and they really don't seem to give a toss. I'm sure if they had deposited money in an account by mistake they would have it sorted within a few hours. :rolleyes:

YorkshireBoy

donna1987 wrote: »

...they wouldn't give us a reference number for it!

I wouldn't get too hung up on that. I've made 3 or 4 official complaints with Halifax and I seem to remember the complaint reference is simply the account number.

donna1987

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I wouldn't get too hung up on that. I've made 3 or 4 official complaints with Halifax and I seem to remember the complaint reference is simply the account number.

But what can I do if they lose the complaint? They've already lost the cancellation and the log of OHs first call today? OH asked the guy he spoke to on his 4th call today when he made the official complaint what he should do if they don't get back to him and he doesnt have a reference number, he said that he would just have to file the complaint again. It's rediculous. I've always had really good service from lloyds, but this has totally destroyed any trust I have with them of my money being safe.

always_so_tired

they did a similar thing with a payment i cancelled a few months ago. i never got the money back as i couldn't prove i cancelled...even with copies of the confirmation pages...they said it couldnt be proved the confirmation was for that transaction. :rolleyes: the fella i paid wouldnt send the money back and told the bank it was money for services owed (which he obviously neglected to tell id already paid for :mad: ), so they told me it was nothing to do with them anymore. to me....they shouldnt have made the payment in the first place...i cancelled it....its not for them to decide who i should/should not pay.

unfortunately there isnt much you can do, they will do everything they can to insist they arent at fault. apparently its impossible for an internet banking log to be lost...as it is with their phonelogs etc.... :rolleyes: i too had to repeat everything to numerous departments and found lots of calls where 'missing'.

good luck, i hope you have better joy than i did... but i wouldnt hold my breath