Follow up to the great money loss of this week
August 4th, 2006
Just thought I’d post a quick follow up to my last post and let you all — or as I like to say y’all — know how things are going with the bank. As you may recall, when checking my balance online I noticed that $1,114.30 was missing withdrawn from my bank account on August 1st. This was a grand kick in the nuts for me as that money was earmarked for my vacation/move.
I asked a bank rep to put a trace on the transaction for me at a cost of $5. She did mention that if the problem was due to an error by the bank they would not charge me the $5, which doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. What’s $5 compared to $1,000+? I’d happily pay 0.004% of the total amount lost in order to get it back. Besides, it just means that’s one less drink at the bar or one less trip to Wendy’s.
Anywho, back to the issue at hand. I was told it would be up to 3 business days before they would be able to find out what happened to my money and they would call me Friday or Monday if they have more information. I lucked out and the bank called me this afternoon.
Jane, the bank employee from a local branch, let me know that the withdrawal was due to a cheque I deposited from a guy I sold my desk and filing cabinet to. This cheque, written out in US dollars, was drafted by a Canadian bank which is what created the problem. Apparently, when I deposited the cheque my bank was suppose to contact the cheque writing bank and request the funds in Canadian dollars — for the amount made out in US dollars. My bank failed to do that, they just put the money in my account.
So how does this help me? Well, I was told by Jane that the removed the funds from my account and got the cheque back from head office — or wherever it went — and now they needed to send the cheque and request for funds to the cheque writing bank. This other bank would then send the proper amount of funds back to my bank and my bank would deposit said funds into my account.
Damn, that is some confusing crap going on and y’all just need to be glad that I explained it that way instead of the way it was explained to me. Why is that people feel the need to explain a particular situation to you as if you worked in the same industry or organization as they do? I must admit I’m guilty of this myself but let me explain.
Let’s say you work as, I don’t know, a web developer. When a client asks you a question about something on their website why must you explain it in technical terms and speak to them as if they were another developer? The client doesn’t understand what you’re saying 9 times out of 10. The best bet is to dumb it down a few notches and if they catch on to that start bringing it up a few levels at a time. Bank employees do it, doctors and nurses do it, all types of workers do it but none of them realize until it’s too late and you’re looking at them like they’re on drugs.
Good thing I realized this now. Dang, maybe I should follow my own advice once in a while, I’m sure my clients would be thankful when that happens. That’s all for now, you kids have a great weekend and be sure to have plenty of sex and alcohol ;^)
Disclaimer: /mike promotes the safe use of alcohol when operating heavy machinery, motor vehicles and condoms. Be nice to your date an be sure to throw the condoms in the trash, they clog up toilets you know.
August 5th, 2006 at 9:24 am
You’d think you’d be alerted for something like this.
August 7th, 2006 at 8:44 am
Yikes! What a mess….
I’m sorry…
August 7th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Yeah, it would make sense for a bank to let their customer know what’s going on but that would also require at least a basic level of proactive service from said bank — and I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Ana, yeah, big mess. Pain in the ass but nothing I can do but wait I guess. I may have to complain about the lack of service and see how many months worth of service fees I can get removed because of this snafoo.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:58 am
As someone who works for said bank I can agree - YIKES! The motto of this bank is “Clients First” and this definately isn’t. I do have to clarify though that the reason they remove the money right away without necessarily contacting you first is because if you had gone out and spent the money you would be in an even bigger mess (they would have had to take the money that was no longer there and put you - possibly - into an overdraft situation where you would then not only not have the money but also be paying 22% interest on it until it was corrected, not to mention that any payments going through that account would have been bounced). And they may have had you on a list to call about this but you called them first (probably not the case though).
But allow me to digress a little bit - if buddy would have done the cheque properly in the first place none of this would have happened… although you can write a Canadian cheque out for US$ it will take the whole procees a lot longer - if you want to pay someone in US$ either write a cheque from a US$ account or go to the bank and get a US money order. Poof problem solved.
And one more pet peeve of mine - if people were taught about banking in school so many the problems we have would not be an issue. Say in CALM class instead of just teaching people how to balance a cheque book (which by the way how many cheques does anybody even write anymore? Except of course those of your friends from south of the border - and don’t even get me started on the American banking system) they should teach people about how banking actually works. Because although there are different procedures for different banks a good chunk of what is done is actually federally mandated - under Anti-money Laundering (put in place after some of the 9/11 people where financed through Canada), the privacy laws (no secret government wire taps here), and simply The Bank Act. And that’s my 2 cents for now anyway.
August 11th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Gee sis, tell us all how you really feel. You are right in some aspects though, the cheque should have been a money order or something similar to avoid this mess entirely but that’s besides the point. What’s done is done. Part of his reasoning, I believe, is that the buyer is Canadian and traveling a lot.
As far as removing the money there should be some type of automated system in place to alert customers the funds have been withdrawn. I check my account much more often than the majority of people I know. Because they don’t check as often I know that they would most likely end up in the situation you described and paying 22% on an overdraft.
Obviously there is a system in place to remove the money why can’t there be a complimentary system set up to automate a phone call or send an email? That should definitely be put on a priority list if a banks motto is “Clients first”.
You do raise a very good point about teaching children more about the banking system itself instead of basic math and cheque (check for you Yanks) writing skills. Just because you can write and cash a cheque doesn’t mean you understand how a bank works. Why do they charge for this? What was that extra fee for? All of that should be accurately explained by the banks and taught to children before they graduation high school (preferrably years before).
August 11th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I like the idea of the automated system to alert customers and I’m sure all banks would buy into it if it could be done - but the truth of the matter is probably 1% of my clients have given me an email address and I don’t know how the automated phone would work. And people do not phone banks back unless they need/want something.
As far as banks explaining things properly to the clients - force them to. If you don’t know why or how something is the way it is do not leave or get off the phone with them until they explain it how you want them to (so you understand). People and bankers often forget that the banks need the clients not the other way around.