Am I Entitled To Some Form Of Compensation?

[drlove 37204]

Here's the story:

 

New mortgage, pre authorized payment via void cheque. A few days before the first payment was to come out, I received a call from the bank saying that they couldn't find the cheque or the account number, not sure which. In any case, there was a problem and they asked me to bring in another cheque to the branch. I wasn't about to inconvenience myself due to some other person's screw up so I told them it was their responsibility to track down the location of the cheque themselves and take care of it. They said they would. As a precaution, I called my mortgage broker to advise them of the situation and asked her to call me. She didn't, so I thought everything was resolved.

 

Today, I got a call from the head office in Ontario and was told that the payment still hadn't been processed. She was able to rectify things on her end (or so I was told). However, this created undue stress for me, which is definitely something I don't need this close to Christmas. Therefore, since it was the banks's mistake, I feel I'm entitled to something. Any thoughts?

[jg24 3708]

Well good luck you may think you deserve something but trust me you will get nothing you will be lucky to get Im Sorry

[drlove 37204]

Well, an apology doesn't do me much good. I will say that I have been successful at getting compensation in the past from banks and companies when they have made an error. Part of it may be due to my persistence, since I don't give up until I get what I want.

[Guest c******n****h]

Not to rain on your parade, but wouldn't it have been simpler to either fax or email a new void cheque? As someone who owns a business and often receives void cheques with applications, it does on occasion happen that the cheque goes missing when sent to the company that processes the payment. If a client of mine took the attitude that it was not their problem and to find the cheque, then obviously there could be repurcussions. As long as you did not suffer a financial penalty as a result, in my opinion, you are not entitled to be compensated.

[hunknhot 1067]

Depends on how much energy you want to expend on this. The harder you push and longer your irriate them more likely they will come to some form of compensation. Like any negotiation, you need to ask for something. If you really want to push, try asking for the first month's of interest to be credited back.

 

I wouldn't hold your breath though. Interest to banks is like the gold in Fort Knox. A highly protected item. You may have other products in the bank that may be a more suitable negotiating item.

 

I suspect you may just have to settle for an apology but you never know, doesn't hurt to ask... and write alot of letters..

[drlove 37204]

Not to rain on your parade, but wouldn't it have been simpler to either fax or email a new void cheque? As someone who owns a business and often receives void cheques with applications, it does on occasion happen that the cheque goes missing when sent to the company that processes the payment. If a client of mine took the attitude that it was not their problem and to find the cheque, then obviously there could be repurcussions. As long as you did not suffer a financial penalty as a result, in my opinion, you are not entitled to be compensated.

 

I see your point. However, it was the bank's responsibility to ensure that everything went smoothly. Since cheques cost money, and my time is valuable I wasn't going out of my way for them since I feel the onus was on the bank to rectify things. Admittedly, I don't think there will be any negative repercussions on my end, but it's the principle of the matter. If I hadn't been home this morning, I would have missed the banks's call and probably wouldn't have been aware that a problem even existed. By then I would have "missed" two mortgage payments

 

In my mind, the bank made three errors:

 

1) Failure to set up the mortgage account properly

 

2) Failing to rectify things as they said they would back in November

 

3) Failure of the mortgage broker to return my call to adress my concerns / ensuring that everything was back on track.

 

As such, I feel my request is a reasonable one. After all, I'm not asking for the moon - just something to compensate me for the inconvenience.

 

Additional Comments:

I just spoke with the branch manager, and she agreed to send me out a gift card... I'm happy now. :-D

[qwertyaccount 15793]

Slip ups happen, and not all of them need to be compensated for.

You may have won the battle but lost the war if you pushed too hard and pissed them off.

Bank employees are people too and they can get back at you without you ever knowing about it, like when you slip up and want an interest charge waived, they?ll remember this (or read the note in your file) and refuse, or when this mortgage comes up for renewal, you may not get the lowest rate they could offer.

If you are out of pocket that?s one thing, if you?re just looking for something for nothing that is another.

[jdstar 1065]

Get on with your life.

[Newton 714]

Banks are run by human beings. Errors happen and I'd accept a sincere apology and rectification when it does.

[Reddog01 30280]

Same sort of think happened to me. Canada Post sent a payment for an RSEP that had to be received by the 22nd to be processed and sent back to Toronto before the end of the year, to the wrong address. It ended up in Victoria, BC rather than the Victoria Street as labeled.

 

I caused me some "stress" to get it sorted out or miss the end processing date. Yes I was pissed at Canada Post but shit happens.

[Boomer 33202]

The bank called and told you about a solution which you weren't willing to take. Instead you got confrontational and created a bigger problem than there really was. We are lucky in Canada to have the big five, so if you're not happy move on and go to one of the other banks.

 

As for compensation, get real. You sustained no real loss, and you want to be paid for not dropping by the bank to staight things out. Buying a house and getting a mortgage, this little incident seems pretty small.

[roamingguy 300292]

Years ago, bought a truck. (this is abridged version of story btw) Financing done through the bank. My chequing account with the credit union. Bank said all they need is a voided cheque for automatic withdrawls for payment. I gave them a voided cheque from my credit union account. Two months later, bank calls, says they haven't received a payment. Go in, they tell me the chequing account must be from their bank

not from my credit union account. So I now have to open a chequing account at the bank. But they were nice enough to "give" me overdraft to cover the two months missed payments, which wouldn't have been missed if they told me at the outset that my credit union cheque wasn't usable for the bank loan

Do you think I got compensation for their mistake

RG

[Capital Hunter 18263]

Screw ups happens frequently and is not limited to banks.

 

1 - Paid for unlisted phone number a few years ago. Got my full name, address and phone number listed in the While Pages instead. All I got was a sincere apology!!!.

 

2 - Paid for bank statements and did not receive any until I had to go in person TWICE (cost time and gas lol). I don't recall even an apology.

 

3 - Agreed and signed a mortgage rate of 5.25% a few years ago with a broker and a few days before the closing date while in my lawyer's office I suddenly noticed a rate of 5.49%!!!!!!. It may not seem much but on a 300K+ loan, fixed 5 years would have meant thousands of dollars of loss. I just did not sign the contact and chose another broker. Fortunately I had a few days left to do that otherwise I had to sign on.

 

4 - My tenants showered and did not use the ventilation and placed their furniture close to wet windows. Results were moulding inside the unit. Property manager sent me a hefty bill and tenant refused to admit fault......

 

5 - Similar examples in life ....

 

I let go in all cases. To follow up only meant additional stresses on the top of what I had already received lol. What I can't let go or forgive is a deliberate betrayal or lies and deception or stab in the back which no amount of money can compensate lol (and I have seen a few cases of this sort since I started hobbying just 3 years ago already). In your case it was a human mistake. My advice is to let it go, as i did and I think that your case is not as serious as any of my examples.

[JoyfulC 132299]

I have many consumer horror stories too, but every once in a while, a screw up happens in your favour.

 

I leased an 8086 from The Steals People in the mid 90s. Cost about $3500! I wanted a 40 MB hard drive in it, and this just blew their minds. It took them several tries to set it up properly, and the one guy there told me that if I had that system for the rest of my life, I'd never fill that drive.

 

Anyway, after going in to pick it up two other times and leaving empty handed, they called me in to get it on New Year's Eve. And still they had trouble. I stood around waiting, and eventually the store was closing. In the nick of time, they finished and got it all boxed up and handed it to us. We gave them our voided cheque; they gave us our copy of the contract.

 

Several months went by, and no money had been taken from our account. My husband phoned to inquire, and was treated like someone unsophisticated in the ways of contract financing. !! We were told to wait and make sure we had the money in our account to cover the payments. We did.

 

When no payments had been deducted for six months or so, my husband phoned again. And this time the person he got through to talked to him like he was 12 years old. He was advised that his responsibility was to make sure the money was in the bank, and he should trust the pros to do the rest.

 

So we did. But more than a year later, we were ready to move and wanted to shut down that account. No lease payment had ever been deducted, and my husband wasn't really eager to go through the unpleasantness of being talked down to again, so we closed the account.

 

We got $3500 worth of computer for free (not for lack of trying to pay for it), no one ever seemed to notice, and The Steals People eventually went bankrupt.

 

Usually when they screw up, we're the ones who end up paying and/or being inconvenienced. So when once it works on your favour, it is sooooo sweet!

[JoyfulC 132299]

Sorry, that should have read "mid 80s..."

[Andee 220524]

Hate to be rude, but seems to me you spent probably the same amount of energy writing and responding to this thread than it would have taken to send off a new voided cheque.

 

As people pointed out, mistakes happen. I think sometimes we need to evaluate which battles to fight. I believe trying to come to a solution rather than dwelling on the problem or assigning blame is probably best.

 

Just my thoughts.