deekay38

I purchased $2k in MO's from a grocery store (4x500) and deposited them into my Wells Fargo account with some personal checks. One of the four MO's was returned to me. I received a photocopy of the MO with "Refer to Maker" on the top of the photocopy. The object I received said it is a legal copy of the check and can be used like any regular check, but the amount on the MO is no longer legible and neither is the typed balance.

I called Western Union and their automated system told me that the MO had been cashed, about 2 days after I made the deposit. Wells Fargo said it was technically cashed but then returned. I haven't gotten through to a human at Western Union, I plan on calling tonight when I get home from work. Wells Fargo told me to take it back to the grocery store where I purchased it and they would rectify, but I'm expecting them to call Western Union and when they hear it has been cashed they won't do anything for me.

This was the first time I have deposited MO's to Wells Fargo, but the other three went through without issue. Has anyone had a similar problem and resolved it?

Luvs2Sav12

Are you sure the other 3 were cashed ok? something a little similar happened to me where one MO was returned to me and Western Union said it was cahsed.

My issue was the bank scanned that one MO twice and skipped one of the other MOs. I would check the serial numbers of the other MOs to make sure they were all cashed.

deekay38

Thats it!! My MO numbers were check numbers 36-39, but the deposit record shows two deposits of #38 and no #37. How did you resolve the issue?

Luvs2Sav12

My bank had to check the drawer of the teller for that day to find the undeposited MO. They said they keep the drawers at the branch for 30 days.

They were able to find the undeposited MO in her drawer and then just deposited that one.

Happy

Wow, was this a simple teller error or something else? Any action to that teller?

Long time ago a teller at a Wachovia branch (later bought by Wells Fargo), when the cut off time was still at 2pm for same day business, took off with her lots of clients deposits. When I did not see my deposit cleared as being Available, after 2 days I called the central customer service number and the rep kept telling me it was because the cut off time, totally oblivious to the fact that 72 hours had already passed. So I called the branch and the manager apologized profusely on this then told me what had happened. She said it had affected many clients and they would make whole on any fee clients incurred because of that,..

gggg707

Wow, that a weird thing to have happen. Thanks for bringing up.

Luvs2Sav12

My issue was a simple teller error. I had quite a few MOs on that day.

The bank did give me back my over draft fee since that $499 MO that was returned and the one that was not deposited did make my account go negative which gave me the fee.

I am not sure if anything happened to the teller. I forget which teller it was. I tihnk it was just human error and I hope nothing happened to the teller.

spgbus

Happened once to me when I made a payment to my WF CC in branch. The returned MO was a copy of deposit image but not the normal returned copy from WU. Asked bank account manager and she had filed an escalation to WFCC Credit Card Executive Office.

The first response said "Yes we have completed the research and seems like Kroger might have made errors when they issued you the check. I have attached the copy of the check for you to take it to Kroger. It was returned because its flagged “refer to maker”. "

I requested further review and the 2nd response resolved the problem as "It seems like there were some other encoding errors. They are working on it... Once this is resolved, your payment will be backdated to the original date. "

And as she said, the money eventually appeared in my account two weeks later with original payment date.

deekay38

I just spoke with the manager at the bank where I made the deposit. They are giving me a provisional credit while their research department looks into it, she said it should take about 5 business days. She also said any charges that come from the error will be reimbursed - including any stop payment charges. Therefore, I guess if worse comes to worst I get Western Union to refund the MO and push to get Wells Fargo to cover the $15 fee?

Thanks for your guys' insight on this.

ericdabbs

Wow that is a huge blunder on the bank teller's part. They need to be more careful about not mixing up MOs.

Happy

Many moons ago on a deposit made at BofA branch on a Friday, the full amount was reversed on Monday. Called customer service first to file a report. Then trotted down to the branch to find out what was going on. It turned out they just changed to a new scan system and apparently it failed to properly scan the very fainted WM MOs - all the MOs still at the branch as they normally would send Friday's checks together with Monday's to processing center in MIA.

At first the teller manager said since customer service already had a case opened, I could just wait for the resolution. I said that was ridiculous - I aint going to wait for 2 weeks to get my multi thousands deposit clear while you were holding my checks right there. He started calling around. About 4th call he was directed to, a special research unit in CA and the investigation finally got started. By end of the day I saw the items were reversed back to a credit to my account. Shortly after 4pm the teller manager called to inform things back to what they should have been.

Since then I always check online the following days after depositing items. It is not uncommon that the credit was not processed the same day but next day. However, the fund was made available in the balance despite it was still a pending item. So I just let it be. The annoying thing though, is whenever this happens, the image of the check is forever lost, so as the details of the deposit slip. So you do need to keep your deposit slips in good order just in case you need to go back to refer them,

MasterCharge

This is part on the reasons i like to avoid other people handling my MO's, the ATM is your friend...

andres17

Can you explain this. Why is the ATM safer for making the deposit?

I always deposit in person, old school. I guess using an ATM saves you those stupid "Why are you the buyer and the receiver" stupid questions. Do you get a receipt with the ATM method?

I always staple the receipt and the MO stub together. I also keep electronic copies of my MO receipts. I never had any problems, but I wonder, is the MO stub and the receipt enough to cover ALL possible problems that might arise?

hamokmonky

Ive always done atm just because its faster, but I imagine its safer because you dont have the same possible issues with handling mistake as you would with a person. Also, all the atms I use you can get a check image printed on the receipt. On top of taking pictures of the MO before deposit, I also do this. I havent had a problem yet, knock on wood, but it seems to me there will always be room for some sort of mistake when you turn money around a lot and other people are dealing with your money. Most situations should be easily fixed if you keep your receipts and documentation.

DeltaNeutral28

ATM is faster and you don't have to get out of your car and it eliminates error. Although secretly I think some of you all want to boast about your MS to the world. Can't imagine why with a MO with the same "to" and "from." That's just asking for a pointless conversation and my time is better spent doing something else.