my bank and my water company

Submitted by RetGuvvie98 on Sun, 04/26/2009 at 1:25pm.

This past week, I satisfied my need for new experiences.

    we returned home from two weeks away, picked up the mail, and I logged into my bank account to pay the bills via internet (bank pays the postage or transfers the money electronically, saving me on postage.)

   I paid two bills - one to water company for $5.65 and one to the electric company for $61.21.    Looked at the total of pending bills - looked at the 'account balance' to ensure sufficient funds are there; and logged out after verifying, I have enough money to do this.

    You can imagine my surprise a couple days later, when I logged in again, to pay another bill - and found that the bank had paid the water company $5,065.00 and that there was a pending payment of $61,021.00 to the electric company.    I stopped the electric company bill but now had to call the bank, the water company and protest the 'overdraft charges' levied on my account. along with overdraft charges for other checks.   [ they replaced the decimal with a zero and moved the decimal to the end of the digits......  a nice 'multiplication factor'.]

  .....   since the water company uses the same bank, one might 'suppose' it would be a simple matter to transfer back the balance overpaid.... . . . .    no it appears NOT.   they want to send me a check in the mail, living on my money for a few more days.  meantime, I cannot go to the bank and use a cash flow card, and every check (already scheduled for payments) incurs MORE overdraft charges.

     Going to the bank Monday to try to get this straight.  so far, only $132.00 for overdraft charges - they are going to have to refund those and deal with the water company.

    good thing I am in town right now, and not traveling away - as going to the bank to resolve this is fairly easy, only a mile from my home.

    I can only wonder what would have happened if the electric company bill had been scheduled for the same date as the water company bill........

» posted in RetGuvvie98's Blog
 

Comments:

by redbird1 - 7 months ago
fairfax United States
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 42

wow!

by RetGuvvie98 - 7 months ago
Manassas, VA United States
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 3764

but, OccasionallyGood -  wouldn't that be similar to stealing from all the other users who would have to make up the mistake in the form of higher bills ?

    I would laugh, and notify them to take it back, I'm not into stealing from anyone or any company - I need to be able to sleep with myself at night.

by OccasionallyGood - 7 months ago
Johnson's Ghut British Virgin Islands
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 76

too bad they didn'

t accidentally send you a refund check of a couple million. That'd be worth moving to a country with no extradition treaty.

by batgirl - 7 months ago
NC United States
Member Since: Jun 2007
Member Points: 4356

I'm shocked!

a $5.65 water bill?

but I agree with you and Shakespeare.

by RetGuvvie98 - 7 months ago
Manassas, VA United States
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 3764

no, komolidden, it was the computer system 'hiccup'.  now today, they credited me for the rest of the total of $132 overdraft (so it won't cost me anything for their mistakes), and I received the check in the mail from the water company, so i deposited that.  it will be in my account tonight at midnight.

    all's well that ends well.

by Komoliddin07 - 7 months ago
Toshkent Uzbekistan
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 20927

I didn't mean to say that you did it, I ment that it wasn't computer, they wanted to make some money for sometime, that's why it will take more days for you to get it back....

by mytself - 7 months ago
youngstown,ohio United States
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 1701

We're in a recession. They need to make money too. It's good training though, next time they may only move the decimal point one place. Interest earned on a hundred screw ups hmmmmmm......

by RetGuvvie98 - 7 months ago
Manassas, VA United States
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 3764

well, the bank already refunded the first two overdraft charges, but the water company is dragging their feet on sending back my money.

no, it was not an error by me, it was the bank.  the computer changed the decimal to a zero and moved the decimal to the end, adding two zeros - 5.65 became 5065.00   it was the bank's error.

by Komoliddin07 - 7 months ago
Toshkent Uzbekistan
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 20927

haha, wow! was the calculation wrong or someother put some zeros?!

by Phobetor - 7 months ago
Eindhoven Netherlands
Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 1201

That doesn't sound funny at all. Like you said, you can only be lucky that you weren't charged for the $61,000 yet, which would have been even worse.

Good luck with getting all the money back. With this world of capitalism, I bet that won't be easy.

 

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