‘You said the check was mine': Company backtracks after sending woman a check for $1,200, woman refuses to send money back at their request

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Aug 19, 2023 7:00 AM EDT

The saying, 'The customer is always right' has long lost its appeal, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't ever hold any truth to it.

Employees can miscalculate, leading to big fines, expensive problems, and can generally cost companies big amounts of cash. The wheel of fortune isn't always on our side, but being human, we know it can't be. What goes up must come down, and vice versa. In any case, a company miscalculated big time, leading to the grand mistake of accidentally sending a check for $1,200 to OP, who as a good samaritan, informed them of their blunder. They had the chance to fix the issue, but instead, opted to be rude and condescending.

You'd think when someone is trying to return over one thousand dollars, they'd be taken seriously, but unfortunately for the company, the woman working that day in customer service was actually annoyed at OP for calling. An important morsel of information here is that this call was recorded, meaning that technically, OP had a pretty good 'out' if the company would ever contact her and ask for the money back.

Well, that detail came to be quite important after all. Below you can find out exactly why. Next, the top Reddit stories where people were promptly 'fired on the spot'. I can definitely relate to a few…

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    Office equipment
    via canva
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/mandolin2712 12 hours ago You're sure it's mine? Fine, I'll keep it. M OC 2 This happened in 2014. I had just lost my job and was in the process of looking for a new one, but didn't have much money saved to pay bills in the meantime. So I asked my father if I could borrow $1200 just to get me through to the next month and I would pay him back as soon as I started working again.
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 03
    Font - He sent the money, I paid my bills, and got a new job shortly after. As soon as I had the money to pay him back, I used my bank's online bill pay option to send him a check. I sent him a text and told him it was on the way and just assumed that was the end of it. Well, a week went by and he hadn't gotten it. I thought maybe it took a few days for the bank to actually process the bill pay option because I hadn't used it before. So I asked him to just wait a few more days and see if it came
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 04
    Font - Several days later, it still hadn't gotten there, so I called the bank and asked them and they told me I could stop payment on it for free, so I did. Then I just wrote a personal check and mailed it. I just assumed something went wrong with the online bill pay. About 2 months later, I got a check in the mail from a medical facility in the state my father lives in for $1200. I called and asked them about it and they told me, on a recorded line, that it was an
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 05
    Font - overpayment on an account my father had with them and it was a legitimate check and was mine to keep. At that point, I didn't associate it with the bill pay thing I had tried to do a couple months before. I did call my father to ask about his accounts with this place because there was no reason they should have my address to be sending me an overpayment if he had actually made one. He had no idea what was going on because he hadn't used that facility in a few years.
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 06
    Font - I looked up the place on Google and finally it dawned on me what had happened. My father's address was on saddlewood drive at that point in time. But when I typed it into bill pay, my phone autocorrected it to 'sandalwood' and it just happened to be the same numerical address. And because my father's name was listed as the payee, they erroneously attempted to apply it to his account. So that's where my
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 07
    Font - check had gone. I tried to call them again and explain what happened and the lady on the phone was extremely rude to me. She told me "I've already talked to you about this. I don't know why you're calling again. We sent you what we owed you. This account is settled and we will not be talking about it again." Again, this is a recorded line. I asked if she was sure they owed me this money. She practically shouted "YES!!" And I just smiled and hung up the phone.
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 08
    Font - I deposited the check into my bank that day. They didn't try to call me back until about 6 weeks later. I had been wondering how long it would take. The person who called me was a different lady and she called to tell me that a mistake had been made and that I owed them $1200. I told her she was misinformed and she should go back and listen to the recorded calls that I had
    via u/mandolin2712
  • 09
    Font - made to their office and gave her the dates. I had been reassured multiple times that the money was mine and that I was in the clear to cash that check. And then I hung up. I haven't heard a single thing about it since then.
    via u/mandolin2712
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    Font - TazzmFyrflaym. 10 hr. ago hehehe. i'm amused at their silence over the last nine years, but put off by their gall in calling you back in the first place, since you wouldn't have owed them either way - if they tried to apply the money to your father's account and it registered as overpaid, then clearly he was paid up to date when he stopped going to
    via u/TazzmFyrflaym
  • 11
    Font - them. so with that new payment they did owe someone (your father, technically i suppose given it was his account). i find myself curious if this sort of 'customer service' was part of why your dad did stop going there.... Vote Reply Share
    via u/TazzmFyrflaym
  • 12
    Font - mandolin2712 OP 10 hr. ago I really thought I would have to deal with more from them, but I'm glad they just dropped it with me. I'm sure someone at that company got in a lot of trouble though not a robot Vote Reply Share The 9 hr. ago Probably not. If it is a big enough company, they probably will just ignore it, and if it is a
    via u/mandolin2712, u/The
  • 13
    Font - smaller company, then they probably changed some protocols. But this kind of mistake is bound to happen, and the lady on the phone is definitely not the one making decisions. Vote Reply Share
    via u/The
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    Font - donlogan83 10 hr. ago "Medical facility"? Vince, is that you? Vote Reply Share mandolin2712 OP 10 hr. ago Afraid not. I'm a woman. Vote : Reply Share
    via u/donlogan83, u/mandolin2712
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    Font - SidratFlush +24 hr. ago Autocorrect is painful when it comes to finance apps. Which country still use checks for money transfers as in the UK we enter the sort code and account number with the name of the account holder, which is easier than typing a word that gets autocorrected. Normally goes through straight away, may take an hour or so on first use.
    via u/SidratFlush
  • 16
    Font - You should urge your bank to do the same. I saw chip and pin in Australia back in 2000 which I had not even heard of in the UK. Was ages before it got to the UK. Good luck, no one should be waiting 5 days for their money or for a bill to clear via a cheque process. Its archaic and only serves to enrich the banks which is already obscene. Vote Reply Share
    via u/SidratFlush
  • 17
    Font - InteractionNo9110. 11 hr. ago two wrongs make 1,200 rights Vote Reply Share DynkoFromTheNorth +3.5 hr. ago So it seems! Vote Reply Share
    via u/InteractionNo9110, u/DynkoFromTheNorth
  • 18
    Font - Effective-Several · 12 hr. ago Yeah, would love to see their faces when they listen to the recording. They might have to have a conversation with the lady that you had talked to . Vote Reply Share
    via u/Effective-Several
  • 19
    Font - Haunting-Ad9521 - 10 hr. ago Can they go after the previous lady even if she's already no longer connected with them (e.g.: resigned or retired)? Vote Reply Share Vote shiftingtech In sane countries, employees are not liable for errors. They can be fired of course, but the costs of the error are the company's problem +1 - 10 hr. ago Reply Share
    via u/Haunting-Ad9521, u/shiftingtech
  • 20
    Font - Haunting-Ad9521. 9 hr. ago I love how you qualified that to countries that are "sane". Lol. It's a funny and sad reality for those employees in "insane" countries. Vote Reply Share Some-Region-5668 +2 · 6 hr. ago So you're telling me that sane countries actually exist? Unicorns must also be
    via u/Haunting-Ad9521, u/Some-Region-5668
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    Font - real then, lol... Vote Icy Scientist5965- 4 hr. ago Reply Share The unicorn is Scotlands national animal! Vote (D) Reply Share
    via u/Some-Region-5668, u/Icy_Scientist5965

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customer service bank cash-check overpayment malicious compliance bill-pay-option phone call account malicious-compliance-reddit process medical-facility company check
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