Cash gone missing - advice

[SuperVM]

On the 11th of July, I made the mistake of attempting to pay cash into my bank account using a paying in slip via the Post Office. This is a service that is advertised on my bank's website and they state a timeframe of two working days for the money to appear in my account. Here we are on the 19th of July and I still have not received the money. I will try to provide a chain of events below:

• 11th of July around 10:30 AM, I paid money in at the post office using a paying in slip, received receipt showing my sortcode and account number, both of which are correct.

• 13th of July, money not present in my account

• 14th of July, money still not present in my account

• 15th of July, I phone the Post Office to be told they would have sent the money to my bank, so I should contact my bank to resolve the issue. I phone my bank to be told they've no idea why the Post Office would suggest that and I'll have to speak to the Post Office, but in the meantime they'll arrange for my branch to look into it (no idea why they thought that would work) and to phone me back (which never happened). I then go to the Post Office branch to be told by a delightful lady, "you have a receipt, why are you worried?". I was not aware that Post Office paying in slips are accepted as currency, sadly all of the shops I have encountered are also unaware of this. Perhaps it is because the paying in slip has been devalued by various Post Office employees scribbling random useless numbers on it, I'm not sure. Eventually, someone in a slightly more senior position sees my point about the relative value of Post Office paying in slips and phones some central Post Office number, while on the phone his manager then intervenes and achieves precisely nothing. I was then given a number to call (the same one I'd already tried) and agreed to give them another couple of days. This was mostly because I needed a pee.

• 18th of July, money still not present in my account. I phoned the Post Office to be told that they cannot start an investigation without my bank instigating it from their side, which sounded unlikely, but I agreed to try it anyway. I phoned my bank to be told they couldn't investigate it as so far as they are concerned there is nothing to investigate. I pointed out that they advertise the service on their website and so must to some extent be liable for it not having worked properly, pleasant individual hung up the phone. I phoned the Post Office again and explained the problem yet again, at this point suffering from serious jaw cramp and eye spasms. This time I either got somewhere or the Post Office have raised their hand in the fobbing off game, as the individual on the phone took my details and apparently raised it with the banking team. I even received a case number, I've made note of 59009 69 PEN 15, excellent.

• 19th of July, money still not present in my account. I phoned the Post Office to be told the case is being investigated. I asked for an update and received a Sarah Palin type answer of, "I can see the wheels are turning." While this was an extremely accurate reply, which informed me entirely of the state of the case, I was feeling greedy and fancied a bit more detail. Eventually, we ended up with, "It is not my case, so I cannot check its progress." I was then assured that my case would be resolved within 10 working days or "maybe a bit longer as it is a banking case." I asked how I might go about contacting the banking team or receiving some form of update and was assured they would phone with an update, with the very accurate timeframe of, "at some point". I believe I have found the individuals who should be placed in charge of the manned Mars flight planning.

The current state is at some point after ten working days have passed I can expect a call with more information. When this happens, as it definitely will, I expect significant detail to the progress of my case, e.g. "things are in motion." I expect this is a rolling ten working days (or a bit longer) from my last call.

You can see everything is well in hand, but should something unexpected happen and the Post Office fail to get in touch with some form of resolution, does anyone have any recommendations of what I might do? All options involving frozen sausages and/or cans of Red Bull have already been considered.

Edited by SuperVM on Tuesday 19th July 10:06

[davepoth]

SuperVM said:

You can see everything is well in hand, but should something unexpected happen and the Post Office fail to get in touch with some form of resolution, does anyone have any recommendations of what I might do? All options involving frozen sausages and/or cans of Red Bull have already been considered.

Consider adding some paragraph breaks? I have a headache.



Do you have twitter? Twit at them, it seems to work quite well.

[nyt]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

[R8Steve]

nyt said:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

They aren't going to be able to help for at least another 8 weeks so that is obviously a last resort.

As you have the receipt with the sort code/account number on it you are probably best continuing with your complaint with the post office, as painful as that may be.

Your own bank is just relaying what they know, that the money isn't there. They will have no way to trace this as it is coming from an external source.

At a guess, the transfer process hasn't been followed correctly by the post office and your money is currently sitting in your banks suspense account. What needs to happen is for the post office to do a trace on the payment to find out where it has gone. If it turns out it has reached your bank then they need to communicate to them to get it put into your account.

[SuperVM]

davepoth said:

Do you have twitter? Twit at them, it seems to work quite well.

I don't at the moment, but I could get an account. How does the following every ten minutes sound?

"Where's my money?"

[SuperVM]

R8Steve said:

nyt said:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

They aren't going to be able to help for at least another 8 weeks so that is obviously a last resort.

As you have the receipt with the sort code/account number on it you are probably best continuing with your complaint with the post office, as painful as that may be.

Your own bank is just relaying what they know, that the money isn't there. They will have no way to trace this as it is coming from an external source.

At a guess, the transfer process hasn't been followed correctly by the post office and your money is currently sitting in your banks suspense account. What needs to happen is for the post office to do a trace on the payment to find out where it has gone. If it turns out it has reached your bank then they need to communicate to them to get it put into your account.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I suspected, though I hold out almost no hope that anyone from the Post Office could coordinate something so advanced.

[Zoon]

Does the case number really contain the characters PEN 15?

[anonymous-user]

'pen 15'

report to police

[SuperVM]

Zoon said:

Does the case number really contain the characters PEN 15?

The Spruce goose said:

'pen 15'

report to police

No, nor does it contain 59009 or 69. It contains a bunch of other numbers and letters in a far less humorous sequence.

[sidicks]

SuperVM said:

On the 11th of July, I made the mistake of attempting to pay cash into my bank account using a paying in slip via the Post Office. This is a service that is advertised on my bank's website and they state a timeframe of two working days for the money to appear in my account. Here we are on the 19th of July and I still have not received the money. I will try to provide a chain of events below:

• 11th of July around 10:30 AM, I paid money in at the post office using a paying in slip, received receipt showing my sortcode and account number, both of which are correct.

• 13th of July, money not present in my account

• 14th of July, money still not present in my account

• 15th of July, I phone the Post Office to be told they would have sent the money to my bank, so I should contact my bank to resolve the issue. I phone my bank to be told they've no idea why the Post Office would suggest that and I'll have to speak to the Post Office, but in the meantime they'll arrange for my branch to look into it (no idea why they thought that would work) and to phone me back (which never happened). I then go to the Post Office branch to be told by a delightful lady, "you have a receipt, why are you worried?". I was not aware that Post Office paying in slips are accepted as currency, sadly all of the shops I have encountered are also unaware of this. Perhaps it is because the paying in slip has been devalued by various Post Office employees scribbling random useless numbers on it, I'm not sure. Eventually, someone in a slightly more senior position sees my point about the relative value of Post Office paying in slips and phones some central Post Office number, while on the phone his manager then intervenes and achieves precisely nothing. I was then given a number to call (the same one I'd already tried) and agreed to give them another couple of days. This was mostly because I needed a pee.

• 18th of July, money still not present in my account. I phoned the Post Office to be told that they cannot start an investigation without my bank instigating it from their side, which sounded unlikely, but I agreed to try it anyway. I phoned my bank to be told they couldn't investigate it as so far as they are concerned there is nothing to investigate. I pointed out that they advertise the service on their website and so must to some extent be liable for it not having worked properly, pleasant individual hung up the phone. I phoned the Post Office again and explained the problem yet again, at this point suffering from serious jaw cramp and eye spasms. This time I either got somewhere or the Post Office have raised their hand in the fobbing off game, as the individual on the phone took my details and apparently raised it with the banking team. I even received a case number, I've made note of 59009 69 PEN 15, excellent.

• 19th of July, money still not present in my account. I phoned the Post Office to be told the case is being investigated. I asked for an update and received a Sarah Palin type answer of, "I can see the wheels are turning." While this was an extremely accurate reply, which informed me entirely of the state of the case, I was feeling greedy and fancied a bit more detail. Eventually, we ended up with, "It is not my case, so I cannot check its progress." I was then assured that my case would be resolved within 10 working days or "maybe a bit longer as it is a banking case." I asked how I might go about contacting the banking team or receiving some form of update and was assured they would phone with an update, with the very accurate timeframe of, "at some point". I believe I have found the individuals who should be placed in charge of the manned Mars flight planning.

The current state is at some point after ten working days have passed I can expect a call with more information. When this happens, as it definitely will, I expect significant detail to the progress of my case, e.g. "things are in motion." I expect this is a rolling ten working days (or a bit longer) from my last call.

You can see everything is well in hand, but should something unexpected happen and the Post Office fail to get in touch with some form of resolution, does anyone have any recommendations of what I might do? All options involving frozen sausages and/or cans of Red Bull have already been considered.

Edited by SuperVM on Tuesday 19th July 10:06

9/10 One of the best rants I've seen on PH for a while - you've managed to use high quality sarcasm rather than basic swearing to convey your frustration / anger.

PS - hope you get a resolution soon.

[The Leaper]

Presumably you are using the Post Office's formal complaints procedure for making your complaint?

R.

[SuperVM]

sidicks said:

9/10 One of the best rants I've seen on PH for a while - you've managed to use high quality sarcasm rather than basic swearing to convey your frustration / anger.

PS - hope you get a resolution soon.

Thanks, it made me feel a bit better at least.

The Leaper said:

Presumably you are using the Post Office's formal complaints procedure for making your complaint?

R.

Not yet, no. I know you're right and I should, but I suspect I'll be given a reference number and be told it will be ten days (or a bit longer) before I can expect a resolution.

[droopsnoot]

davepoth said:

Do you have twitter? Twit at them, it seems to work quite well.

Or, sadly, Facebook - I've had much quicker responses (at basic "things that annoy me" rather than something as serious as missing money) from Barclays Facebook page than I ever have from their customer support, because everyone else can see it as well.