Red face at the Bank!

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

The statement date was in ridiculously small print and at least four people (including me and two bank staff) missed it entirely. It was only when the last bank clerk looked at my account on screen that he thought to check the statement date!

5 people like this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

@yukimori Just what I thought, too!

2 people like this

@yukimori (10145)

• United States

22 Aug 15

@owlwings I don't understand why they make those things hard to read. You'd think that something like that would be a little more prominent on the page!

2 people like this

@yukimori (10145)

• United States

22 Aug 15

I'm sure there are plenty of others, but the only one I can think of right now is the time I went into the camera store in Overland Park, KS. I'd bought a Nikon SLR at a thrift store, but it didn't have a lens. I was just getting seriously into photography at that point so I'd done some research and decided that I wanted to get a 50mm prime lens for it. I went into the store to look at it and make sure that it would work with the camera. Got it on the camera, then promptly asked the salesperson why it wouldn't zoom. Prime lenses have one focal length. They don't zoom.

In my defense, I realized exactly how stupid the question was as soon as it left my mouth, and we both had a good laugh about it. That lens is still one of my favorites to use with the film SLR.

3 people like this

@purplealabaster (22091)

• United States

22 Aug 15

LOL - at least you realized that it was a stupid question, because I am still sitting here and saying "huh"?

I like taking pictures and playing with different settings on my camera, but I am with my camera like the little old lady that likes playing on her computer but doesn't know how to "start up" the Internet.

3 people like this

@yukimori (10145)

• United States

22 Aug 15

@purplealabaster

I've spent several years at this point studying both film and digital photography, so don't feel bad! Some of the concepts are doozies to wrap your head around when you first get started.

3 people like this

@purplealabaster (22091)

• United States

22 Aug 15

@yukimori I know some people that are very into photography, and they will deal with digital, especially since it is quicker. However, their true love is film, because they say there is nothing better than being able to do the process themselves from start to finish not to mention that they think film gives a quality to the photos that digital never can. I do not completely understand what they are saying, but I do appreciate and admire their passion.

2 people like this

scarlet_woman

@scarlet_woman (23463)

• United States

22 Aug 15

not really pertaining to the bank..but in my case,they once took out the mortgage twice-for real.then they were like "we'll refund it..in a month"..you can bet i was mad.

2 people like this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

That happened to me, too but they refunded it immediately because I insisted ... AND the interest they had charged me because it made me go overdrawn, but they were rather sniffy about doing it and made it seem like a 'favour'!

2 people like this

scarlet_woman

@scarlet_woman (23463)

• United States

24 Aug 15

oh yea they are.they even tried the "oh,we could credit you for next month"..yea,you could,but you're not.i have other bills lol

@purplealabaster (22091)

• United States

22 Aug 15

It wasn't my mistake, but I do have a bank horror story of my own. My mortgage comes out of the bank automatically on the first of the month from a savings account attached to the bank loan. When I got my income tax refund, I went in to the bank and deposited money into the savings account attached to the loan, so that I wouldn't have to worry about making sure the money was there for a couple of months. The next month I got a statement saying that my mortgage payment was late, which was impossible, because I knew I had deposited the money. I immediately called the bank, and they told me there was no money in the savings account, so automatic payment could not be withdrawn. I started to panic, because I knew that I had deposited the money not to mention that I definitely didn't have enough money that month to cover the mortgage payment if they couldn't figure out where my money had gone. I explained to the bank what had happened and they started checking - apparently the teller put the entire amount of the deposit towards the mortgage loan rather than putting it in the savings account to pay for the automatic withdrawal. The bank was very nice about it, especially since it was their mistake, and they corrected the mistake and removed the late payment fee and deleted the late notice from my account, so it wouldn't affect my credit.

3 people like this

show previous comments

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

Banks can make dreadful mistakes yet never seem to be able to make a proper apology when they correct them - they always seem to try to make you feel like they are doing you a favour. I once had a bank deduct my mortgage payment twice in the same month, which caused me to incur overdraft charges and no end of angst. Of course, when I complained, they refunded the money but I had to insist that they also refund the bank charges that happened because of the error and they made it seem like they were making all sorts of exceptions and doing me a favour for what was THEIR error! Needless to say, I closed that account shortly afterwards and moved to another bank!

2 people like this

@purplealabaster (22091)

• United States

22 Aug 15

@yukimori Yes, I am very thankful it was so easily fixed, even though it did almost give me heart failure. The mortgage is with the bank, so all they had to do was go into their computer system and make a few changes and all was well with the world again. If they were two separate entities, though, I think you are right that it would have been a nightmare to correct.

2 people like this

@yukimori (10145)

• United States

22 Aug 15

I'm so glad that you were able to get that sorted out. That must have been awful! At least you weren't dealing with the bank and a separate mortgage company from the sounds of it. A separate company might not have been so forgiving.

3 people like this

much2say

@much2say (55672)

• Los Angeles, California

22 Aug 15

Hee hee - um, OOPS! There, there @owlwings , I guess that can even happen to the wisest of owls! And what did Mrs. Owlwings say, after all she is the one that pointed that out in the first place?!

2 people like this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

Mrs O. was VERY apologetic, of course (as was only right)!

1 person likes this

yugocean

@yugocean (9963)

• India

22 Aug 15

Well Once I was gone with my father to invest some money in bank, few months later when we checked and found it was less amount added than what was showing in receipt, so we asked bank staff to find out what went wrong. I wasn't red faced, but bank staff started checking and found no fault, but our receipt was showing more money received by bank, after few minutes I myself found that it was old receipt, and new receipt was on next page of pass book.

So I rechecked it, money added was correct.

2 people like this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

I sympathise! You know exactly how I felt, then!

Dominique

@dodo19 (47334)

• Beaconsfield, Quebec

22 Aug 15

At least, this gentleman helped you figure out what the issue was. Wow! That must been frustrating and a little embarrassing. Sorry this happened.

2 people like this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

Yes, he was very helpful! He even noticed that my house insurance was costing much more than he thought I should be paying and suggested that I call in with the paperwork and we could "discuss" it! What a nice man!

1 person likes this

rebel_woman06

@SIMPLYD (90722)

• Philippines

22 Aug 15

That sometimes happens to me too . But we are humans and susceptible to mistakes .

2 people like this

Arthur Chappell

@arthurchappell (44998)

• Preston, England

1 Oct 15

never done that one I did query a recent bill from my internet provider which looked excessive and found they were giving the figures in dollars rather than UK sterling - they just never added the $ or £ that would have told me what was happening. Allowing for currency adjustments the bill was correct.

1 person likes this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

1 Oct 15

That sounds somewhat incredible. Are you really buying your Internet offshore?

1 person likes this

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

2 Oct 15

@arthurchappell Ah, I see! Well, that is understandable. Not your Internet provider, then (strictly speaking)

1 person likes this

Arthur Chappell

@arthurchappell (44998)

• Preston, England

2 Oct 15

@owlwings the company who sell me my domain name and web space are American - never realized until this bill came through.

1 person likes this

Judy Story

@jstory07 (139870)

• Roseburg, Oregon

22 Aug 15

That would be very embrassing. I hope you said sorry and left.

1 person likes this

embrassed

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

22 Aug 15

Well, of course I apologised. I didn't phone the phone company again, though. I don't feel I owe them any favours, much.

wiLLmaH

@wiLLmaH (8802)

• Singapore, Singapore

6 Oct 15

Haha! It never happened to me until now. So how do you react after the bank informed you that you got the wrong billing statement?

1 person likes this