Ooops, I Put Your Money In The Wrong Account

I frequently travel for work, and from time to time have a hefty travel claim. Given I the nearest bank (that I deal with) is a 6 hour drive away, I mail my cheques in along with a deposit slip. Should be a simple task...people in remote areas do it all the time. I banked this way while I lived back east on the coast for 12 years. Then "Doris" (not her real name) came across my path...or should I say the path of my money...

I had mailed the last hefty cheque to the bank in late August. As of this morning it still had not shown up in my account. Hmmm...nearly 4 weeks ago since it was mailed...how did it travel? by raft across the lake? On a beaver tail? Carrier pigeon? In search of answers, I began making calls today. First call was to the bank - where the hell is my cheque? Of course, no one can actually make a call to a bank and ACTUALLY talk to someone when the phone is picked up...so I had to leave a voicemail. sigh...

Shortly after leaving the message, I get a call. Missy on the other end says "Sorry miss, have not seen it, it must be lost in the mail, you will have to get a stop payment on it." Hmmm...I'm going to call my employer and find out if the cheque had been cashed before I do that. 6 people later, I had been passed around like a bowl of peanuts at the bar...when I finally got to speak to someone who could ACTUALLY help me. Of course, all the previous folks were insistent that while they could not help me, the person they were passing me off to could, and in fact, was awaiting my call since they just checked to see if they are at their desk...yeah, right...I'm less than convinced. Finally the 6th person can help. Oh yeah, she could help.

Turns out that my bank had not only received my cheque, they had also CASHED it on August 30th. Their cancel stamps and coding were all over the back of it. So she faxed me a copy of it and sure enough, there in grey and white was my cashed cheque. I call my bank back...voicemail...sigh. Smug message left on voicemail...no response. It's after 3:00pm and I want this resolved NOW. so I call back and missy on the other end tells me that she had already returned my call today. Um, yeah, new information honey. I proceed to tell her about my proof...a shocked voice on the other end asks if I would please fax the page to her. No problemo senorita...my PLEASURE.

Then I get a call from "Doris". She apologizes profusely and tells me that it was her fault, that she had overlooked my transit number (it is not from that branch) and mistakenly put their transit number on the back of the cheque and deposited into someone else's account. ooops.

Lucky for her I was on the other end of a phone and not in the bank...she didn't have to see me ROLL my eyes back in my head. sigh...so I politely accepted her apology and asked her when my money would be returned to me. Her reply was that she would process it immediately after ending our call. I agreed, and informed her that I would be checking my account in 5 minutes and it had best be there. She assured me it would, and ended the call, still apologizing...yeah, whatever.

So I checked my account 5 minutes later and the money was there. It's about fucking time.

This particular bank has been so incompetent to deal with over the years, though I reckon incompetence hides in every bank, somewhere. I can easily understand why some people prefer to hide their money in the mattress...