PSA: Check Your Teller's Receipt Carefully
 

Sold a guitar over the weekend for cash, went to the bank's drive in window this morning to deposit it using my ATM card. The teller gave me my card and receipt, I glanced at the deposit amount, which was correct and I drove away, there being a waiting driver behind me.

I got home and wanted to move some money around the accounts, so I went on line and noticed my deposit wasn't there. I looked in the Pending file. Nothing. Looking again at my receipt I noticed that the last four digits of my account number were incorrect. Comparing it with a prior receipt I saw that that number was correct. Uh-oh.

I called the bank and explained it all to the bank manger, who put on the teller who began to accuse me of making some error, that she had dutifully deposited the cash into the account of . . . . someone not me. When I told her this her tone changed and they promised to call me back in a few minutes, which they did. Problem corrected. "A problem with our system." Uh-huh.

I suppose the moral of the story is never to assume that banks don't make mistakes. They can and do. Had I not been curious about the non-matching account numbers it might have been difficult if not impossible to correct the error down the line.

Be careful out there.

I don't usually handle cash any more, but last month I needed to get some for my son's holiday gift. I left the bank, looked at my receipt and then counted the cash, an unusually OCD moment for me. I counted the cash a second time and realized that a mistake had been made in my favor. I'd love to tell you, my dear AGF friends, that I took the moral high road, but alas I didn't...

My lovely wife and myself got married in New Jersey in 1980. My family and I traveled up to NJ from our home in Knoxville, Tennessee. While my lovely bride and I honeymooned, my parents took a trip up to New England and then traveled down the spine of the Appalachian mountain range back to Knoxville. When they arrived they were greeted with a mailbox full of notices that they had written a string of bad checks stretching from Knoxville to Cape Cod and back, including payment for the rehearsal dinner. When they looked into it they discovered that the check my father had deposited to his account had actually been deposited to the account of my older brother, who shared the same name as my father, with a "Jr." added onto the end, which made it appear on the computer screen above my father's, and the teller... well you get the idea.

Thankfully the branch manager was a friend of my father and he not only took care of the mistake and paid each check and all fees, he personally sent apology letters to each affected business and claimed responsibility on behalf of the bank. You can see how this could have ended very differently had my father and the bank manager not been friends.

Bob

Thanks for the PSA but I visit banks once every two years or so. And, if I do, I just use the ATM.

This is why in our home every receipt, deposit, withdraw, CC statement, and bank statement is gone over with a fine tooth comb. It's a pain and it is time consuming, but I've learned that it's up to me to dutifully look after me.

Similar story when I was much younger (like 19) - cashed a paycheck at the bank drive-in and just put the little envelope in my console. When I got home I took out the cash and it was immediately obvious this was not my cash. There was like $1000 too much. While I was sitting there listening to the angel and devil on either shoulder, the phone rang. It was the bank, saying they gave me the wrong envelope and could I bring the cash back please. I said "Oh I hadn't looked yet, let me see - oh yes, that's too much." Off I went to return the brief windfall. I like to think I would have returned it anyway. As an older, wiser man I know I would return it now.

It's not just cash....

When I was 22 (49 years ago) I bought my girlfriend a friendship ring for Christmas, and she got me one as well. We selected her ring together; a nice gold and diamond-chip design. We'd already agreed it would be gift-wrapped right there in the store and then she'd open it on Christmas day.

We both did a double-take Christmas morning when she opened the box and we saw a custom made traditional '20s style sapphire/diamond/emerald cocktail ring; stones set in platinum.

We had a bit of fun with it (pictures and all) for the two days the store was closed for Christmas. Needless to say, they were relieved to hear from us. I'd paid cash, so they just had my name and no other contact info for me. What they did have was a screaming customer holding up his receipt and our little ring right in their faces:mad:

My Dad taught me to always go into the bank so they'll get to know you, never use the drive through. So I go in every few weeks and the tellers and managers all call me by name (some woodworking customers still pay by check).

Anyway, about 10 years ago I deposited a check for $700 and walked out of the bank. When I got home and left the deposit slip for Sandy to file away I noticed an extra 0 - the cashier had deposited $7,000 in our account.

I called the bank and told them I would split it with them but they preferred to do it the right way. :D They did point out they would have caught it in the teller audit when they closed but it was still an interesting day at the bank.

David

My preference as well. However this bank in particular requires, in this COVID environment, that one make an appointment to enter the bank, which would have been my first choice for depositing cash.

As a side note, they seem to keep building more and more banks around us yet I know of fewer and fewer people that actually go to them anymore. I think it's been years since I've stepped into a bank or used a drive-through but obviously a lot of people still prefer them. They wouldn't be built otherwise.

Now you need an appointment to go in the bank now due to Covid. That is a minor inconvenience. I always go in. As for going over receipts I do that each month as well as balancing the check book. Yes I still have a checking account too. Don't find it hard at all. Just a habit like cleaning my guitar regularly. ;)

I love banking online as I can see everything that has occurred with our account at any time. It is prudent to check it from time to time.

You may have cost that teller her/his job. Hope it was worth it.

scott

While I willingly accept responsibility for my own actions and any consequences that may arise from them, at the age of 70 I refuse to accept either the consequences of mistakes that others make or your attempted guilt trip. If that teller routinely makes mistakes on the order of 25% discrepancies then maybe she shouldn't be handling other peoples' money...

Long story in a similar vein:

In 1981, having just moved to Las Vegas, I deposited my paycheck through the new-to-me automatic teller machine. Pocketing the slip the machine produced, I went about my business without thinking any further about the transaction. The slip, after all, showed the deposit being made, and my friends had been using that automatic teller machine for months without incident. I went ahead and wrote several checks against that deposit (rent, water bill, electric bill, etc.).

Two days later I found an eviction notice on my apartment door. My rent check, along with all the other checks I wrote against that deposit, had bounced. The personal banker told me their system had not acknowledged my deposit and the amount had never been posted to my account. I showed her my receipt from the machine and she pointed to the tiny words "Not a legal document" on the receipt. In other words, the bank did not consider their own receipt to be proof of anything. She also told me the automatic teller machine had been vandalized recently.

Fortunately, they gave me credit for the deposit anyway, but the experience cost me several bounced check fees, money order fees, and a whole day off work as I ran around making things right. I haven't deposited money through an automatic teller machine since.