Beware of Smiths or Kroger

Tony Shelton

BS Detector, Esquire
Our electric bill is in our company name. So, we pay for it with a company check. Shelly usually pays it at the Smith's grocery store and has for years.

May 5 we paid the bill. Usually they run it through a machine and give the receipt and check back to Shelly. This time the guy said he was having a problem with the machine and that he was going to try another machine. He gave her the receipt, but not the check.

That night the money came out of our account as an ACH.

Five days pass.

Each morning Shelly gets a report of all checks that will be presenting to the bank the next evening. She noticed the electric bill check trying to go through again.

We called the bank. The told us to call the electric company. The electric company told us they had already been paid and we had a zero balance and that we should call Smiths.

We called Smiths and asked them to look for the duplicate payment. They would not. After arguing on the phone I told them I was going to put a stop payment on the check and they can investigate it all they want after that and asked them to note it on the account.

The bank told us the only way the could return it would be as "refer to maker - check presented 2 times". That way it would be on Smiths to contact us if they don't find their money.

I called Smiths (Kroger corporation headquarters) and told them what I was going to do and they seemed fine with that.

Three days later they tried to run the check through again. Shelly caught it and we had it sent back and called Kroger again. Then they gave us a laundry list of things we need to send them including a COPY OF OUR BANK STATEMENT. They would not call our bank and told us it was OUR RESPONSIBILITY since WE WROTE THE BAD CHECK. (Shelly was patiently dealing with this while I was working)

She sent everything they asked for and then called to verify receipt. Somehow the conversation went to bad checks and Shelly was informed that because of this our company was put on a bad check list.

Now it's time for ME to take over. Once my sister was on a bad check list for another error and it took us literally a year to get her off of it.

So this morning I've been on the phone trying to take care of it. They are morons. My bank has called them twice. One of the calls was from the vice president of the bank. They are telling us that everything looks good, and their
"investigation" should be complete within a couple of weeks and then we might be able to write checks again.

I gave them till 4pm today to have a faxed letter at our office stating their error and an email stating the same.

If it is not there I will probably be on the news again. Last time someone pulled this type of BS was when Chris walked out of a Bank of America with a fake $100 bill when cashing a check and was arrested 10 minutes later trying to use it. The bank claimed that Chris could have easily switched bills with a fake one when he left, but admitted that they, in fact, do not and will not CHECK for fake bills and it is up to the customer to check for fake bills before they leave the bank. I settled that one with a bullhorn outside the Bank of America and lots of police. The president of the bank called me and I sent Chris in to get his $100.

I guess it's time to bring out the old bullhorn again. Glad I've got the day off.
 
He sent me a letter, but not on letterhead. Asked me to give him one more day. The supervisor swears it will be completely taken care of in the next 24 hrs.

I'll give him till tomorrow afternoon.

It's too hot for the bullhorn, I hope he gets it taken care of so I don't have to do it.
 
Our electric bill is in our company name. So, we pay for it with a company check. Shelly usually pays it at the Smith's grocery store and has for years.

May 5 we paid the bill. Usually they run it through a machine and give the receipt and check back to Shelly. This time the guy said he was having a problem with the machine and that he was going to try another machine. He gave her the receipt, but not the check.

That night the money came out of our account as an ACH.

Five days pass.

Each morning Shelly gets a report of all checks that will be presenting to the bank the next evening. She noticed the electric bill check trying to go through again.

We called the bank. The told us to call the electric company. The electric company told us they had already been paid and we had a zero balance and that we should call Smiths.

We called Smiths and asked them to look for the duplicate payment. They would not. After arguing on the phone I told them I was going to put a stop payment on the check and they can investigate it all they want after that and asked them to note it on the account.

The bank told us the only way the could return it would be as "refer to maker - check presented 2 times". That way it would be on Smiths to contact us if they don't find their money.

I called Smiths (Kroger corporation headquarters) and told them what I was going to do and they seemed fine with that.

Three days later they tried to run the check through again. Shelly caught it and we had it sent back and called Kroger again. Then they gave us a laundry list of things we need to send them including a COPY OF OUR BANK STATEMENT. They would not call our bank and told us it was OUR RESPONSIBILITY since WE WROTE THE BAD CHECK. (Shelly was patiently dealing with this while I was working)

She sent everything they asked for and then called to verify receipt. Somehow the conversation went to bad checks and Shelly was informed that because of this our company was put on a bad check list.

Now it's time for ME to take over. Once my sister was on a bad check list for another error and it took us literally a year to get her off of it.

So this morning I've been on the phone trying to take care of it. They are morons. My bank has called them twice. One of the calls was from the vice president of the bank. They are telling us that everything looks good, and their
"investigation" should be complete within a couple of weeks and then we might be able to write checks again.

I gave them till 4pm today to have a faxed letter at our office stating their error and an email stating the same.

If it is not there I will probably be on the news again. Last time someone pulled this type of BS was when Chris walked out of a Bank of America with a fake $100 bill when cashing a check and was arrested 10 minutes later trying to use it. The bank claimed that Chris could have easily switched bills with a fake one when he left, but admitted that they, in fact, do not and will not CHECK for fake bills and it is up to the customer to check for fake bills before they leave the bank. I settled that one with a bullhorn outside the Bank of America and lots of police. The president of the bank called me and I sent Chris in to get his $100.

I guess it's time to bring out the old bullhorn again. Glad I've got the day off.

wow .....Tony..you have great stories
 
I was told by an experienced bank teller that it's quite possible to get a bad bill at a bank. A lazy teller will get one and realize it then pass it out to a customer so they don't catch a wrath of crap from their boss. I've been through those crazy check deals with banks. It's worse now that they are all giant banks with no one in house that can make a call.
 
Why don't you just bay your electric bill online? It's so much easier!
 
That's a good question. So I asked Shelly why and she said she's always paid that one there since we got audited so she has a paper receipt for the business expense. It doesn't make sense to me either.

I don't have anything to do with that stuff unless there's a problem. As a matter of fact I went in the grocery store last week on the way home to get something and it had been so long since I had been in there nobody recognized me anymore because of the weight loss and the whole store was re-arranged. Probably more than 5 months since I was there.
 
I was told by an experienced bank teller that it's quite possible to get a bad bill at a bank. A lazy teller will get one and realize it then pass it out to a customer so they don't catch a wrath of crap from their boss. I've been through those crazy check deals with banks. It's worse now that they are all giant banks with no one in house that can make a call.

Rick, according to the bank president it happens all the time. Somehow there has been a court case somewhere that exempts them from any prosecution for passing on fake bills so they don't even bother to check them. He said it was too costly and time consuming. Yet, Chris was detained for hours for accidentally doing the same thing they did, just passing on a bad bill he got from them.
 
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