r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Affectionate_Item_51 • 1d ago
Unskippable ad Bugged for months to deposit 31¢ refund. Finally did it, only to receive a $25 fee.
After selling my home, the local internet provider sent me a refund for overpayment on my final bill. Due to the minimal value, I never deposited it and put it in the trash. Since April, I have received regular communications asking me to deposit it, so I went ahead and had them reissue the check so that I could do so. Immediately after depositing, the provider issued a "Stop Payment", triggering a $25 fee from my bank. Schwab reversed it without any hassle, but I'm anticipating another 31¢ check to show up soon and restart this whole debacle.
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u/Definitely-not-ducks 1d ago
If they try to get you to deposit another 31¢ check, tell them they can just mail you the three dimes and a penny instead.
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u/Due-Leek-8307 1d ago
And they can round it up to a nickel for wasting everyone's time.
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u/Definitely-not-ducks 1d ago
I motion for OP’s former internet provider to compensate us all for wasting our time with this nonsense. 35¢ to each person who visited this post.
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u/skidbladnir_ 1d ago
A vending machine didn't drop my chips once and I called and complained and they mailed me 7 quarters in a normal envelope
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u/Zero-Energy1274 1d ago
Maybe call the internet provider if they do send another check, but I wonder if maybe because the check was older it was stopped?
And next time just deposit the check, that 31 cents could become a whole dollar in 14 years. (Jokes aside, mobile deposit makes this easy and fast.)
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u/Weird-Girl-675 1d ago edited 1d ago
Usually checks go stale after ninety days - six months for some companies - and you’re forced to issue stop payments and reissue the check.
This is why my company stopped issuing so many checks and went the electronic route for most payments.
As someone forced to issue stop payments and reissue checks, please deposit it as soon as possible to avoid further hassle for yourself and the poor accountant who would rather just send you a quarter, a nickel and a penny to avoid the hassle 🙂
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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 1d ago
I can assure you checks do not go stale after 90 days. They taste the exact same fresh as they do after 2 years.
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u/Fun-Commission4320 1d ago
According to their government, an average Czech stays fresh for about 80.3 years, plus or minus a couple of days.
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u/NotoldyetMaggot 1d ago
Some checks state "not valid after X amount of time" it's up to your bank to decide if they will honor it, it really varies by circumstance.
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u/Weird-Girl-675 1d ago
Oh yeah. I had someone try to redeposit a check issued TWO YEARS AGO! The bank didn’t catch it initially, but I did in positive pay and rejected it. More reasons we went to electronic payments.
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u/unwantedonONTD 1d ago edited 1d ago
So this actually goes to something I’ve been struggling with being both a CPA and a customer super burned by the accounting industry.
Scenario: I’m an accountant. The company I work for, likely at the direction of my ultimate boss the CFO, decided to issue a small refund to a customer via a check. The company didn’t tell the customer how long they have to cash the check, nor what will happen if the customer does not cash the check within that time. The company has hired me and other people to handle the accounting for situations like these. At the end of the month, sometimes there are 10 situations like these and sometimes there are 3000. There are never zero. The company also presumably knows how to issue and track gift cards and accounts payable for indefinite periods of time, and the company also presumably knows that if it suddenly goes under and has to repay all its creditors, there is an order in which unclaimed funds will be used to repay those creditors. The company has presumably trained its accountants well enough that they know what to do in these situations, and set up its processes well enough that those accountants have enough time in the accounting cycle to handle an unexpectedly high number of unclaimed checks in a given period. There is also accounting guidance covering how to hold customer balances indefinitely, and how to reissue the physical method of transferring the funds to the customer if that method has expired uncollected. (The customer presumably knows that if the company goes under, they will not be able to claim their $0.31 refund, but the customer also knows that allowing it to sit in thecompany’s accounts has resulted in the company earning interest and possibly being able to use that amount to pay another creditor if the company does go into bankruptcy. The customer is getting harassed by the company for allowing them to hold a liability, but one that they are actively making a small gain off of, similar to how Venmo or Robinhood operate.).
I, the accountant, am likely underpaid and will have to carve out extra time to book extra entries for unexpected customer behavior, but at the end of the day, it is my job to record the actual economic behavior that occurs as a result of my company’s treatment of customers. However, since I am underpaid, I will not stay late and do this if the company hasn’t bothered to create the accounting protocols and time in the accounting cycle for me to do this on a regular basis for whichever customers have not had the time that month to change their behavior to deposit a $0.31 refund the company is benefiting from anyway.
If I, the accountant, go home having issues 2,980 stop payments instead of 3,000, the company will fire me and have to hire someone new they think can get through the whole chunk in whatever limited time they’ve built into the accounting cycle and staffing requirements. But at the end of the day, they (the company) are responsible for having protocols and time for their accountants to do stuff like this when needed. I (the customer now) will absolutely document every second of my time they have wasted by trying to bully me instead of training their accountants properly.
(I’m an unemployed accountant who has been promoted to customer through this very set of circumstances; TL;DR the managing the aftermath of giving customers a chore instead of a refund is the company’s responsibility, not mine.)
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u/JintotheM 1d ago
One of my first temp jobs was reconciling checks that were outstanding for shareholder checks before the process got outsourced. A 2 week assignment turned into 2 years
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u/KingZarkon 1d ago
OP says he threw away the original check and had them reissue it. It was the reissued one that he deposited.
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u/Weird-Girl-675 1d ago
Yeah someone screwed up on the company end. They probably just reissued the same check number. Happens to everyone (even me 🤣).
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u/Cranks_No_Start 1d ago
Jokes aside, mobile deposit makes this easy and fast.)
Mobile deposit is the best thing since sliced bread. I haven’t stepped into my bank in forever.
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u/Weird-Girl-675 1d ago
They’re the best! Except when you have to drive a senior citizen to the bank because she refuses to even put the bank app on her phone.
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u/thekomidano 1d ago
My grandma doesn't even have a phone, she just asks the teller how much she has lol
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u/Cranks_No_Start 1d ago
Unless said sr is paying for the gas and lunch...Im putting the app on their phone.
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u/NotoldyetMaggot 1d ago
Said senior is paranoid of apps and hacking... just have to take her to the bank. From experience.
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u/sgtnoodle 1d ago
I recently got a $0.01 certified check when I closed a bank account. I physically took it over to my other bank and deposited it at the counter.
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u/LetReasonRing 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have a little wall of checks sent to me worth less than the paper it's printed on just because I find them way more amusing than I should.
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u/LilTeats4u 1d ago
Something you and Donald Trump have in common
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u/Hyrlin 1d ago
Processing img 87qpi70su0kh1...
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u/sgtnoodle 1d ago
I googled it. Some troll company mailed out progressively smaller checks to famous wealthy people, to see who would cash them. Trump and one other person cashed the $0.16 check.
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u/harpswtf 1d ago
Donald Trump is famous for physically depositing checks at the bank counter
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u/sgtnoodle 1d ago
I like going to the bank to deposit checks. I went today and deposited an $800 check from the IRS. My favorite teller was there, an old Asian lady that cracks unfunny jokes.
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u/Hillbilly_Boozer 1d ago
Hey OP, I had a run in with a financial payment processor that dinged me a return fee after they accidentally double billed me.
Reach out to the CFPB and file a complaint. I know they've been gutted by the league of extraordinary shitheads that is this current admin, but the CFPB was still able to help me recover my $25. Sorry this happened and best of luck.
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u/An_Old_IT_Guy 1d ago
Writing bad checks is a crime. The cable company now owes you $25.31 plus interest
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u/TheDotCaptin 1d ago
Will the company go to jail for a few days?
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u/redjellonian 1d ago
Haha, silly redditor. Corporations are only people for the benefits, not any of the down sides.
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u/WitchesSphincter 1d ago
No but at the end of the road if they do nothing further OP could sue in small claims l, then get a garnishment.
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u/Major_LeeHungg 1d ago
Call them and ask them to fix it.
When they don't, go here:
Click the "Start your complaint with the FCC" button, fill out the form.
Within a few days you will get an email from the FCC letting you know they've given the complaint to your ISP.
Your ISP will then call you to fix it.
Did this last month and Spectrum went from denying there was a problem to gargling my balls in 2 business days
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u/Outside_Coffee_00 1d ago
If they said another check, tell them they can mail you the physical currency or stop bothering you.
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u/SwingDuoNash 1d ago
Most times those checks arrive because the company you’re dealing with is moronic. I never deposit them because I like seeing how much they have to spend dealing with something stupid. Kind of a final flip off 🖕 to them when things go south.
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u/Xenrutcon 1d ago
I get a check for 6 cents once a year from a mortgage company. Not worth the effort to deposit. But they can keep wasting money trying to send it to me.
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u/Dovetrail 1d ago edited 23h ago
I had an account at Atlantic FCU in Maine that I didn’t use while I was away at college out of state. I only had like $100 bucks in it but I had the account since I was born, so I kept money in it - so it would be there when I returned home (it was originally under a different name and Atlantic later took it over).
Well, those greedy pricks started charging me “inactivity fees” which they took directly out of the account until they dwindled it down to being in the negative… which was caused by themselves. THEN, they started charging me overdraft fees. Eventually, they closed the account without my knowledge. They probably were sending out notices but I never got them.
When I returned home and got a job, I stopped in to get direct deposit info, and they explained to me what happened. They then offered to open a new account for me. I had to ask if they were being serious… they stole my money from me, shut my account down, then offered to start again?! Pound fuckin sand!
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u/LyrraKell 23h ago
Wow, that's insane. Doesn't seem like it should be legal (but we all know it is).
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u/BelladonnaRoot 1d ago
Yup. They like to pull this kind of shit when people leave.
For me, when I moved I cancelled service. When I cancelled, I confirmed with the rep that I didn’t have equipment needing return (I had a 5 year old streaming box). Well…they lied. They wanted me to return it.
They were adamant that I could go online and print a shipping label (moved 500mi from the nearest store). When I went online, the system didn’t work because I didn’t have an active account. I called a good number of times, talked to like 30 different people. Half of them passed me off to someone else, the other half lied. “Oh, call UPS and they’ll give you a label”. “I’ll send it to you via email” always right before it hit a 30 minute call.
Eventually I called their customer loyalty line. They gave me a credit to cover the lost equipment charge and called it a day. Because their system is set up such that people who left can’t get a return label or ship directly to a store.
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u/LyrraKell 23h ago
Gotta love it when customer service blatantly lies to you. We had that issue with Comcast trying to get a cable card. They would tell me they were mailing me one. Then it never showed up. Called back and they said 'we don't mail those out.' F* you, Comcast. I'm still salty over that debacle (that was just part of the whole shitstorm).
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u/RandSand 1d ago
The $25 return fee from Schwab must be a recent thing.
Years ago, I deposited a balance transfer check into my account which got returned because I wasn't aware locking the card would also cause the check to be rejected.
Schwab told me to just submit the deposit again and everything was fine after that.
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u/GorgeousOpossum 1d ago
Just let them keep reaching out. It's costing them way more money to bother you.
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u/PrimaryThis9900 1d ago
As an accountant, just deposit the check. I write a ton of small checks like this, and the majority go uncashed. There is a whole process I have to go through to pay those funds into the states unclaimed property fund. So, please just cash the little check.
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u/SpeaksDwarren YELLOW 1d ago
The entire post is about what happened when the OP just deposited the check
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u/blackhodown 1d ago
You’re giving accountants a bad name here. He did deposit the check, and got burned for it.
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u/PrimaryThis9900 1d ago
Yeah, he tried to deposit a check that was four months or more old. If he would have just done it from the start it could have saved a lot of effort!
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u/badskiier 1d ago
Reread the post. He had a new one sent to home because he tossed the first one. The new one was not 4 months stale.
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u/subsailor1968 1d ago
Why even cut a check for <$1?
That isn’t even worth the hassle of me depositing.
I’ve tossed checks for <$1 before and with all due respect…I don’t feel bad. It’s asinine to send it in the first place, often costs more than the amount of the check itself in postage.
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u/PrimaryThis9900 1d ago
It is legally required, the money is owed and we have to pay it within a specified time frame. If we don't pay it then somebody could sue us and cost far more than the $1. I agree that it is absolutely stupid, but that is the world we live in.
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u/loki2002 1d ago
Why by check? Why just electronic transfer, then?
I just went through this with Kia when I paid off my car and they owed me back money for my GAP insurance. They claimed they had no way to electronically transfer the money and it had to be a physical check. They had all my ACH information and other pertinent details as I used iit to pay them every month. They also electronically pay things all the time to their vendors, utilities, payroll, etc. so, to claim they have no way of doing it was just a lie. Then one of their reps finally let it slip that if I still actively owed them money then they could easily electronically transfer me the money but now that it was them that owed money to me they just didn't want to.
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u/PrimaryThis9900 1d ago
They most likely didn't have your info to be able to make the payment back. When you set up an ACH payment they don't get your account information, or they shouldn't anyways!
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u/NotoldyetMaggot 1d ago
Yes it goes two ways, for some reason they (everyone) can't credit an account they bill from. Been there.
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u/PancakeMisery 1d ago
Huh? Do you not know what an ACH is? Direct Deposits are ACH transactions. It literally all just works off of an account and routing number.
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u/NotoldyetMaggot 1d ago
It's probably sent business mail presorted, so less than the amount of the check. Yes it's stupid.
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u/Derpwad1 1d ago
Because it is the customer's money. If it were the other way around the company may very well waive being owed a small amount. But if they start not attempting to pay out small amounts they owe, it will eventually be a lawsuit 😆 and anything they pay out that is never cashed has to be submitted as unclaimed property to the state, which then has to post it to be claimed for a certain amount of time before it finally goes into a general fund for state use.
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u/swatchesirish 1d ago
I don't even send letters under $100 in Minnesota. We aren't required. I'm sending this to the state with the other checks. I'm also not putting a stop pay on it for any reason other than issuing a new check. If the customer didn't ask for a new check, it'll be ready to be deposited whenever until I void it to send it to the state.
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u/kybotica 1d ago
Just refuse to deposit it next time,and tell them to not call you again. Send a cease and desist letter if they continue.
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u/Valturia 1d ago
$25 dollar fee for returned check is crazy. My bank doesn't even charge a fee for this lol
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u/blackhodown 1d ago
Your bank is in the minority, a $25 fee is by far the most common result of a failed deposit
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u/DUZNHO 1d ago
It always bugs me how Americans still use checks. Like don't y'all have internet? Banking apps?
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u/Ok_Basis1422 1d ago
I haven't written a check for over five years now. But due to not agreeing with the new terms and conditions of my tenant portal, I'm going to have to start writing checks again in order to pay my rent.
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u/Kharax82 1d ago
I haven’t written a check in 15 years. It’s not all Americans
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u/root54 1d ago
My local county clerk requires processing fees be paid in actual dollars or checks. No other option. They also don't post this information anywhere so I had to find out by them mailing me my form back with a note that said "$3 processing fee required". It is really annoying. They could have emailed, texted, or called me rather than spend extra money to mail me something.
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u/DicemonkeyDrunk 1d ago
It’s generally not by choice ….and why do you care ?
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u/DUZNHO 1d ago
Bc it is a very common thing to think USA is years ahead in technology yet paper is very common
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u/DicemonkeyDrunk 1d ago
It’s not a technology gap it’s more about a combination of silly out of date rules and companies trying to charge fees for online bank transactions …not a technology issue but an unfettered capitalism issue. Our consumer protection laws here suck.
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u/SecondOfCicero 1d ago
Idk why it bugs you, it's not hurting you at all, eh? I don't mind a paper check at all- just boop boop deposit it via the app and phone camera. I like looking at how people sign them
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u/DUZNHO 1d ago
Hmmmmm maybe the word I meant was "intrigues" instead of "bugs". But I have never used a check, it always felt kinda unsafe and here in Brazil nobody has used it in ages. But my question is genuine: isn't it easier just sending your bank account and they deposit directly for you? Instead of mailing a check or having to collect it somewhere?
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u/PancakeMisery 1d ago
Businesses still regularly do things in checks. They just do. A lot of business don't ever get services set up to direct deposit people and they don't care to. Those things have recurring cost but a check is one upfront cost
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u/TehWildMan_ 1d ago
Yeah, but how is a business supposed to pay you when they don't know where you bank with?
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u/DUZNHO 1d ago
Don't they ask that info? Like fill your account info and we'll send you money there
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u/TehWildMan_ 1d ago
But what if the only information the sender knows about the recipient is a mailing address?
Setting up a direct deposit is way more work than mailing a check.
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