1043 Frustration #2

Friday, December 29, 2006

"A certain very young friend" is employed by a church in NJ. The church uses a third-party check-writing bill-paying accounting service (I don't know what else to call them) to handle the pay checks. The checks are written on a BOA account "owned" by the church, and the young lady's paycheck is mailed to her.

She had originally opened her account with a credit union near Philadelphia, when she lived there. When she moved to central NJ several years ago, she began using the same account, at a local branch of that large credit union.

On December 11 she deposited two paychecks, one for the last week of November, and one for the first week of December, said checks having been written by the check-writing firm on the church's account with BOA.

On December 26, she received her usual monthly statement from her bank, and discovered to her horror that the two paychecks checks had been refused, and several checks and debit card transactions had gone into "overdrawn" (her bank didn't bounce them - they covered them, for a fee.) By this time, the fees and penalties had mounted to several hundred dollars.

Many meetings and phone calls later, involving the church treasurer, the check-writing service, BOA, and her credit union, she found out that the routing code for BOA had changed, and the checks cut for her had the old incorrect routing code on the bottom, and that's why they didn't go through.

Now she's getting the run-around. Her bank branch even told her that they couldn't talk with her, she'd have to go to the branch where she opened the account, several hours away. No one wants to take responsibility, they are all pointing fingers at each other, and all are pointing fingers at her. She's very small and young-looking, and it's not difficult to make her think she's at fault, and I guess they figure if they make it hard enough she'll just go away. I've been trying to buck her up and give her responses.

When BOA changed the routing codes, they would have notified the church, and the church should have notified the check-writing service. She should not have been issued a check with an incorrect routing code. It was not a good check. They knowingly issued a bum check. This is illegal - people go to jail for that.

She did nothing wrong.

The church is ultimately responsible to her and owes her for the penalties. If the church had notified the service of the routing change, and the service ignored the notice, then the church can go after the service, but she shouldn't have to deal with anyone past the church treasurer.

Guilt: "You should go online and check your account frequently, so you'd have found out sooner."
Response: "I keep a running balance, that's all I have to do. You issued a bum check."

Guilt: "You should keep a cushion in your account in case of problems. For example, I have a $1,000 cushion."
Response: "I'm happy that you have money you can let sit there while inflation deflates it. I don't have 'extra' money to cover your checks. You issued a bum check."

Guilt: "Other people got the same checks and they had no problem."
Response: "You are very lucky that they didn't. Maybe their banks don't use computers. You issued many bum checks, but got caught only once."

I told her in every discussion, you should end every sentence with "You issued a bum check", even if you don't say it out loud. If you have to say it out loud, and it's ignored, then amend it to "You knowingly issued a bad check, and that's illegal. People go to jail for that."

She is concerned that she has to have this discussion with !her boss! !her church! I said it's all in the way you approach it. Start with "WE have a problem", pointing out that you were paid with a bad check on the church's account, so the ultimate legal responsibility for the penalties you paid lies with the church, you have nothing to do with that, you wish it were different, but that's just how it is. So you expect the church to pay the penalties.

If the church did notify the check service, then the church can in turn recover the penalties from the service ("I'll join you in small claims court against them"). If the church received the notice and did NOT notify the check service, then the legal responsibility lies fully with the church, not to mention the moral obligation to make you whole again. You are sorry, but that's the way it works, and you can't afford to not exercise your options.

Be apologetic, but firm. Keep thinking "You wrote a bum check, and you expect ME to pay the penalties?"

I await the next development, the next phone call. I am annoyed enough at the way all parties concerned are trying to brush her off that I'm willing to hire a lawyer.
.