# Bank lost cheques deposited using express lodgement



## gombeen99 (13 May 2011)

Hi all,
I recently lodged 2 cheques to the express lodgement box inside a Bank of Ireland bank branch. I am a BOI account holder but this was not my local branch.  I completed the lodgement slip and kept the small tear-off slip for my records.  As I used the express lodgment box, this was unstamped. The cheques, worth quite an amount of money which I badly need, still had not been credited to my account 5 days later so I rang and they said they'd look into it.  A couple of days later, they rang back and stated that the cheques had gone missing.  

They asked me to contact the individuals who issued the cheques in the first place, but I don't want to do this as, at worst it would be extremely difficult, and at best cause serious embarrassment. Despite repeated calls to the branch in which I lodged the cheque & speaking to both the branch manager of that branch and my own branch, no progress has been made beyond them stating that I will have to get the cheques reissued and three weeks later, I still haven't received the money.

I am threatening to close my account and will happily do so, but if I do close it, I'm afraid that it'll make it even more difficult for me.  It's the first time anything like this has happened to me, but it shouldn't have happened and their attitude has absolutely disgusted me.

I'd appreciate if anyone has any opinions?  Do they have any obligations to reimburse me, or is it "lodger beware" when using the express lodgement facility?

Thanks


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## wbbs (13 May 2011)

Were they for easily identifiable amounts? Would they have been lodged to someone else's account, to be fair these express lodgment boxes are usually opened by two people and checked and double checked again so it is unlikely they are actually lost.   If they were for even amounts it may be hard to check if they were lodged to the wrong account so it would be a good idea to check with the issuer to see if they have been presented back to their bank, this would at least identify if they are actually lost.


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## gombeen99 (13 May 2011)

wbbs - the branch checked and no amounts equivalent to the value of the cheques were lodged to any accounts that day so unfortunately it does appear that they have somehow gone missing.


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## wbbs (13 May 2011)

A mystery so!   I dont think there will be any alternative to contacting the people who issued them, they will need to put a stop on them in case they do show up.


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## Time (13 May 2011)

Let it be a lesson never to use these devices. I would rather queue than be forced to use these boxes.


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## Sue Ellen (14 May 2011)

I always keep a copy of cheques that I lodge and never use the quick lodge since one of the tellers told a friend that they wouldn't recommend them


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## Brendan Burgess (14 May 2011)

This story should not put people off using quick lodge facilities. I have lodged thousands of cheques over the years and I had only one problem: 

I was lodged two cheques in one lodgement.  The bank denied ever getting them, which was just nonsense. I had the evidence in that we had recorded them in our accounts and we had the lodgement stub. But still they denied it. I contacted the payers and they stopped the cheques and reissued them. 

The following winter, when I put on my winter coat, I found the cheques in my pocket. 

gombeen 

It is possible that the bank has lost your cheques. It is far more likely that there is user error on your part. 



> three weeks later, I still haven't received the money.


You must contact the issuers of the cheques immediately and have them stopped.  You are not helping to solve your problem by delaying. 

If the cheques have been cashed, they will get the cheques back from the bank and will see what accounts they have been lodged to in error.

If the cheques have not been cashed, then they just reissue them.



> I don't want to ask the payers to reissue them, at worst it would be extremely difficult, and at best cause serious embarrassment.



It should not cause any embarrassment at all, other than your delay. It may be difficult.


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## MarkRobert (14 May 2011)

Friend of mine had a similar issue where he was responsible for lodging cash into one of those drop box things. Got called into work and told 14k was unaccounted for, and he was the last person with it.

Eventually (and it took a while) the box was actually dismantled (presumably other people had missing deposits) and it was found stuck somewhere in the box. 

In this case, there shouldn't be any embarrassment in asking for reissue of cheques. Stuff happens, and that's why you can cancel cheques. If it was really socially awkward, like you now have irreconcilable differences with the issuer, then you'll still have to bite the bullet and ask for a reissue. 

Bank can't really do much for you in this case by way of apology either (assuming their fault).


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## Crugers (14 May 2011)

gombeen99 said:


> Hi all,
> I recently lodged 2 cheques to the express lodgement box inside a Bank of Ireland bank branch. I am a BOI account holder but this was not my local branch. I completed the lodgement slip and kept the small tear-off slip for my records. As I used the express lodgment box, this was unstamped. The cheques, worth quite an amount of money which I badly need, still had not been credited to my account 5 days later so I rang and they said they'd look into it. A couple of days later, they rang back and stated that the cheques had gone missing.
> 
> They asked me to contact the individuals who issued the cheques in the first place, but I don't want to do this as, at worst it would be extremely difficult, and at best cause serious embarrassment. Despite repeated calls to the branch in which I lodged the cheque & speaking to both the branch manager of that branch and my own branch, no progress has been made beyond them stating that I will have to get the cheques reissued and three weeks later, I still haven't received the money.
> ...


 
Had a very similar issue with BOI some years back. Got a phone call that one of two cheques in a speedy lodge had been received but had since gone missing within that branch (not the branch where the account was!). BOI told me that they were adjusting the lodgement amount! I was told to contact our client and get another cheque. The branch had all the details of the cheque (I suspect it had been scanned/copied within the branch before it went AWOL...)
I didn't have any problem with getting another cheque from the client but I did have a problem with BOI washing their hands of it, letting me take the blame for the missing item and leaving me to do their work by sorting the issue.
After much huffing and puffing with the branch and our branch - BOI had to contact our client, explain the situation and requested they send us another cheque! 
Payback by BOI was that every transaction since was seriously monitored and every interaction between BOI and me was strictly according to 'de rules'!!!


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## z107 (14 May 2011)

Cheques must be one of the most inconvenient methods of payment. I'll be pleased when they're finally phased out.

We posted a number of cheques to our bank. They lost them. 
They denied ever receiving them even though a different cheque was lodged in the same batch.

It was our word against theirs. We ended up having to get them reissued. Some of them were not, so we lost out.

(Stuff like this makes me wish the banks were allowed to collapse back in 2008)


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## bluemac (14 May 2011)

i had the same problem with BOI, they had copies but i had to get new chqs from clients it was a large amount and took 4 months to sort out...

the local branch manager put the funds in my account for that period as it was there mistake.


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## gombeen99 (14 May 2011)

Thanks everyone for your replies.  My partner was with me as I put the 2 cheques in the envelope and subsequently in the express lodgement box so they definitely went in which rules out human error on my part!  If the bank had found an empty envelope in the box, they would surely have rang me to ask what happened (my phone no. was on the front of the envelope). My difficulty is that as a bank misplacing cheques is so rare, the individuals who gave me the cheques will more than likely assume that I was careless & lost them (even if they don't say as much out loud).


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## iscritto (14 May 2011)

Ask the bank to look at their cctv... can they see you drop the envelope in, if yes and as you have said above they found no empty envelope then: 1. They need to look harder 2. Issue you with a letter that you can give the individuals who gave you the cheques stating what happened. It is very important that you contact the issuers as soon as possible as if the cheques were cashed by someone else (very unlikely these days) then you will have a bigger issue on your hands.


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## BOXtheFOX (15 May 2011)

There was a young female staff member woking in a city centre branch of BOI many years back who when balancing the days batch work would take a cheque out of the system equal to the amount of the unbalanced amount needed to make everything balance and put this cheque in a drawer. If she needed a cheque to make the batch balance she would go searching through the drawer to find a cheque to make it balance. A drawer full of cheques was discovered by a colleague.


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## Time (15 May 2011)

I hope she was disciplined for that.


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## Crugers (15 May 2011)

BOXtheFOX said:


> There was a young female staff member woking in a city centre branch of BOI many years back who when balancing the days batch work would take a cheque out of the system equal to the amount of the unbalanced amount needed to make everything balance and put this cheque in a drawer. If she needed a cheque to make the batch balance she would go searching through the drawer to find a cheque to make it balance. A drawer full of cheques was discovered by a colleague.


 

If this a genuine case of bad practice then she obviously needed a lot more training in the basics of double entry bookkeeping


There wasn't a cheque for +/- €120 billion left over by any chance?


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## BOXtheFOX (16 May 2011)

I also remember a scam many years ago where a plastic bag or similar was put in the outside nightsafe. When a customer dropped his nightsafe bag in to the nightsafe it was later retrieved by the thieves by simply pulling the bag out of the safe. Is it possible that thieves are doing a similar trick on the indoor drop box. You drop in your cheque thinking it is going in to the box but is in fact going in to a plastic bag that will be retrieved later by the thieves?

Gombeen. Most banks have internal CCTV. Have you had a look at the day you dropped your lodgement in?


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## Mpsox (16 May 2011)

I never used fast lodgement boxes for the reasons outlined above, you have no receipt of your lodgement and you end up in a he said/she said type arguement

What could have happened is that when the box was opened and the lodgements processed, that they could have got mixed up somewhere, with other lodgements. It does happen where the cashier is keying a batch of lodgements that a credit misreads or gets forgotton about and the cashier simply alters up the first lodgement, thinking the customer has made a mistake

Contact the drawers, ask them if the cheques have been debited from them. If they have, get the details of the items and ask the bank to place a trace on where the funds were lodged. should be easy to trace from there. If not, you are going to have to get the cheques reissued, it's possible they could have gone in confidential waste in error. Also ask for a copy of the banks complaints policy and raise a formal complant


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## JP1234 (16 May 2011)

Just as an aside, at our branch of BOI they have new quick lodge machines which you put your card into then put the money/cheques directly into the machine, no envelope or lodgement slips. It asks you how much is being deposited and then counts the money and confirms the amount and issues a receipt.  For cheques it scans them and shows you a picture of the cheque on screen, it's also able to read the amount of the cheque so again you get instant confirmation.

Much much better machines which I don't hesitate to use now.


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## JoeB (16 May 2011)

Things seem to go backwards. 

There was a day when lodgements could be made, 24 / 7, outside working hours, through the ATM machines. That service was dis-continued, and it was very handy. (No verification made by the machine that anything was actually lodged)


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## gombeen99 (25 May 2011)

An update for all those who replied: after asking that I contact the issuers to get them to cancel & reissue the cheques, the bank contacted me earlier this week to say that the cheques had turned up!  I presume they got stuck in the back of the deposit box or something.  Human error happens, but very annoying to think that they didn't conduct a proper search for the cheques initially.


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## Brendan Burgess (25 May 2011)

Gombeen



> It is possible that the bank has lost your cheques. It is far more likely that there is user error on your part.



Apologies for doubting you. It's great that it's sorted. 

Brendan


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