Find the highest level manager you can, tell them the policy as it was explained to you originally, where you were covered, then threaten to take your money and go somewhere else if they don't stand by the word of their customer service reps. Then do so if they don't.
I'm 99% sure that Aioua and I are right; I should legally be covered by this. Between the fact that NCUA regs and their listed CU regs state it's based on the statement date, and the ACH desk worker couldn't cite/fax me any reg stating otherwise, I'm inclined to think they're just lazy and/or incompetent.
Unfortunately, huffing and puffing isn't doing me any good. I talked to Verizon, and after a lot of transfers/being on hold I found a woman that was able to help me. We went through each item on the ACH log, most of which were nondescript status codes and a few fields labeled "ID." One of the numbers matched and she pulled up a transaction, whose date and amount matched the one I gave her. She said it was obvious someone typed in the wrong number, and that they could credit me back. I've faxed her the requested info (ACH log, and a letter from my bank stating my account number/address on file, so Verizon can prove it's not me). The woman told me how to reach her tomorrow to make sure this gets handled.
It's not over until I get my money back, but I'm surprised how useless my CU was and how helpful Verizon was. My CU prides themselves on service, whereas Verizon's service is notorious for sucking. My CU serves the local community of government workers, whereas Verizon has business/residential and wireless/ISP distinctions nationwide. Still, Verizon was able to redirect me and track down the charge in under an hour.
When this is all over, I'm closing the account and explaining exactly why. I'm also considering filing a complaint with NCUA, which is something they apparently encourage to foster compliance, although I may be tired of this by then.
I'm pleasantly surprised that Verizon actually looked up the transaction and seems to be helping you out. That's pretty baller. Hopefully you actually get your money back soon and can put this behind you.
I'm 99% sure that Aioua and I are right; I should legally be covered by this. Between the fact that NCUA regs and their listed CU regs state it's based on the statement date, and the ACH desk worker couldn't cite/fax me any reg stating otherwise, I'm inclined to think they're just lazy and/or incompetent.
Unfortunately, huffing and puffing isn't doing me any good. I talked to Verizon, and after a lot of transfers/being on hold I found a woman that was able to help me. We went through each item on the ACH log, most of which were nondescript status codes and a few fields labeled "ID." One of the numbers matched and she pulled up a transaction, whose date and amount matched the one I gave her. She said it was obvious someone typed in the wrong number, and that they could credit me back. I've faxed her the requested info (ACH log, and a letter from my bank stating my account number/address on file, so Verizon can prove it's not me). The woman told me how to reach her tomorrow to make sure this gets handled.
It's not over until I get my money back, but I'm surprised how useless my CU was and how helpful Verizon was. My CU prides themselves on service, whereas Verizon's service is notorious for sucking. My CU serves the local community of government workers, whereas Verizon has business/residential and wireless/ISP distinctions nationwide. Still, Verizon was able to redirect me and track down the charge in under an hour.
When this is all over, I'm closing the account and explaining exactly why. I'm also considering filing a complaint with NCUA, which is something they apparently encourage to foster compliance, although I may be tired of this by then.
I've been a retail banker for a few years now and while it's not really your CU screwing you over (well maybe given the 60 day statement date versus the 60 day posting date) but they are also not really helping you as much as they could. When I would have situations like this come to my desk I would figure out whats going on, and in this case, call Verizon from the bank with the customer at the desk across from me. Companies are usually more apt to help if the bank and the customer both call. This could have been solved the first day you walked into the branch.
I honestly wouldn't be too upset at the CU because honestly, no one knows all of the regulations but I wouldn't think they are good either, just some lazy bum bankers spewing up their perception of the regs and wishing you went to someone elses desk.
That was my attitude towards the woman who helped me. She's generally not responsible for knowing every word in every reg, but she knew how to look it up, and turned up rules that corroborated the ones I'd found.
It was when she started talking to the ACH worker that we started getting the cold shoulder, and she was very apologetic. I can understand that if the local ACH association rules say 60 days from transaction posting, they may not give me the money because they may not be entitled to write it off as fraud or something, and they don't want to pay out of pocket.
As you said though, it was more a battle to see who was going to have to sit on the phone chasing down a lead. Nobody from the CU seemed to want to lend me a hand at all in that department, telling me I was pretty much on my own. Despite being right about the 60 days, and entitled to fraud investigation, it was just poor service altogether...especially in comparison to my other banks, like USAA.
A week has passed since I sent the required paperwork to Verizon, and still no money. I called the same pay center, and couldn't find the original person who helped me. Why? Because they have no extensions to give out, and can't give me an ID or anything other than "Mr(s) ________". So even though I was helped by Mrs. Kiser, and she assured me she was the only Mrs. Kiser at the payment center, I have no way of finding her.
That being said, I spoke to Mr. Chase. He was able to use the same ID from the ACH log and find the same payment, and was astonished that this happened. He said that he sees mis-types all the time, and charges still go through, but this one actually hit my savings account and he said that shouldn't even be possible. Nonetheless, there were notes from a Mrs. Kiser and he saw that she had never seen/reported seeing the relevant info that I faxed.
So tomorrow we scheduled a call back, and hopefully I'll talk to the same Mr. Chase at noon. By pure dumb luck I'm a Fios customer as of a month ago, which he says is fortuitous. As a current customer I have an account where they can keep a paper trail, which should make tracking the status easier. He also said that it will likely be easier to just credit my Fios account, since crediting back to a savings account might be tricky. We'll see tomorrow.
Also, apparently each Fios billing service rep only gets 30 minutes per week to "close" out the ongoing, niggling tickets. That's right, I just happened to luck into the fact that tomorrow is his 30 minute window to resolve an existing problem.
Posts
How many times have you dealt with a company who's front line customer/member service didn't know rules/policy?
I'm 99% sure that Aioua and I are right; I should legally be covered by this. Between the fact that NCUA regs and their listed CU regs state it's based on the statement date, and the ACH desk worker couldn't cite/fax me any reg stating otherwise, I'm inclined to think they're just lazy and/or incompetent.
Unfortunately, huffing and puffing isn't doing me any good. I talked to Verizon, and after a lot of transfers/being on hold I found a woman that was able to help me. We went through each item on the ACH log, most of which were nondescript status codes and a few fields labeled "ID." One of the numbers matched and she pulled up a transaction, whose date and amount matched the one I gave her. She said it was obvious someone typed in the wrong number, and that they could credit me back. I've faxed her the requested info (ACH log, and a letter from my bank stating my account number/address on file, so Verizon can prove it's not me). The woman told me how to reach her tomorrow to make sure this gets handled.
It's not over until I get my money back, but I'm surprised how useless my CU was and how helpful Verizon was. My CU prides themselves on service, whereas Verizon's service is notorious for sucking. My CU serves the local community of government workers, whereas Verizon has business/residential and wireless/ISP distinctions nationwide. Still, Verizon was able to redirect me and track down the charge in under an hour.
When this is all over, I'm closing the account and explaining exactly why. I'm also considering filing a complaint with NCUA, which is something they apparently encourage to foster compliance, although I may be tired of this by then.
I've been a retail banker for a few years now and while it's not really your CU screwing you over (well maybe given the 60 day statement date versus the 60 day posting date) but they are also not really helping you as much as they could. When I would have situations like this come to my desk I would figure out whats going on, and in this case, call Verizon from the bank with the customer at the desk across from me. Companies are usually more apt to help if the bank and the customer both call. This could have been solved the first day you walked into the branch.
I honestly wouldn't be too upset at the CU because honestly, no one knows all of the regulations but I wouldn't think they are good either, just some lazy bum bankers spewing up their perception of the regs and wishing you went to someone elses desk.
It was when she started talking to the ACH worker that we started getting the cold shoulder, and she was very apologetic. I can understand that if the local ACH association rules say 60 days from transaction posting, they may not give me the money because they may not be entitled to write it off as fraud or something, and they don't want to pay out of pocket.
As you said though, it was more a battle to see who was going to have to sit on the phone chasing down a lead. Nobody from the CU seemed to want to lend me a hand at all in that department, telling me I was pretty much on my own. Despite being right about the 60 days, and entitled to fraud investigation, it was just poor service altogether...especially in comparison to my other banks, like USAA.
A week has passed since I sent the required paperwork to Verizon, and still no money. I called the same pay center, and couldn't find the original person who helped me. Why? Because they have no extensions to give out, and can't give me an ID or anything other than "Mr(s) ________". So even though I was helped by Mrs. Kiser, and she assured me she was the only Mrs. Kiser at the payment center, I have no way of finding her.
That being said, I spoke to Mr. Chase. He was able to use the same ID from the ACH log and find the same payment, and was astonished that this happened. He said that he sees mis-types all the time, and charges still go through, but this one actually hit my savings account and he said that shouldn't even be possible. Nonetheless, there were notes from a Mrs. Kiser and he saw that she had never seen/reported seeing the relevant info that I faxed.
So tomorrow we scheduled a call back, and hopefully I'll talk to the same Mr. Chase at noon. By pure dumb luck I'm a Fios customer as of a month ago, which he says is fortuitous. As a current customer I have an account where they can keep a paper trail, which should make tracking the status easier. He also said that it will likely be easier to just credit my Fios account, since crediting back to a savings account might be tricky. We'll see tomorrow.
Also, apparently each Fios billing service rep only gets 30 minutes per week to "close" out the ongoing, niggling tickets. That's right, I just happened to luck into the fact that tomorrow is his 30 minute window to resolve an existing problem.
Woof.