Mistaken wire transfer/payment error

Has anyone else ever had this happen where you’re trying to deposit cash at an ATM, the machine just freezes up, swallows your money, and then—poof—it’s like the deposit never even happened?? 🤷 I called the bank's customer service line immediately, and they gave me a specific case number to call back on Monday to get my refund processed.
I mean, is it really that straightforward? How long am I actually going to be waiting on this money to hit my account??

It happens. The ATM just glitched out. Just check back in once they say it's "fixed"—your deposit should clear then.

This happened to me at Zabiti. They swallowed my cash, blocked everything, and sent some canned message saying the transaction couldn't be processed. Just as the bank was closing up, the staff manually filed a formal dispute stating I’d deposited x amount in bills (can't remember the denominations now). I signed the paperwork, and by noon the next day, the money was sitting in my account.

That’s awesome! Honestly, I actually lucked out because my bank was totally offline until today—that happened to me over the weekend. I just got off the phone with their support line, and they told me they’re processing my claim right now, so fingers crossed the money hits my account by this evening!

rapidskipper12, I had the exact same thing happen to me at Zabiti!

I'm dealing with pretty much the same headache.

So, I was an AT&T customer, and after getting hit with some collections, I started paying it off $133 in 12 monthly installments directly to AT&T's account, or so they told me at the time. Fast forward about a year after my last payment, and now the collection agency is telling me: "Oops, you sent that to the wrong account; you should've been paying us instead. You gotta go ask AT&T for a refund." So, I filed a formal request with AT&T on September 23rd, attached all my receipts and everything. Since then? Crickets. First, they promised to have it sorted within 15 days of receiving it (back on Sept 23rd), but then they changed their tune and said the dispute was being processed starting October 5th, meaning the new 15-day window ends October 20th. Well, October 20th is basically here, and I haven't heard a peep from them... Is there any way the IRS could just force a refund since that's where the money went?
What's my move here...

nimbleheron said:I'm dealing with pretty much the same headache.

So, I was an AT&T customer, and after getting hit with some collections, I started paying it off $133 in 12 monthly installments directly to AT&T's account, or so they told me at the time. Fast forward about a year after my last payment, and now the collection agency is telling me: "Oops, you sent that to the wrong account; you should've been paying us instead. You gotta go ask AT&T for a refund." So, I filed a formal request with AT&T on September 23rd, attached all my receipts and everything. Since then? Crickets. First, they promised to have it sorted within 15 days of receiving it (back on Sept 23rd), but then they changed their tune and said the dispute was being processed starting October 5th, meaning the new 15-day window ends October 20th. Well, October 20th is basically here, and I haven't heard a peep from them... Is there any way the IRS could just force a refund since that's where the money went?
What's my move here...

Once a garnishment kicks off, isn't the only smart move to just get that money into your account immediately (so it goes straight to the creditor)?
If you actually paid AT&T directly, they should have seen the debt dropping—or disappearing entirely—and been required to clear the garnishment with the bank (or the IRS).
That whole "you should have paid the agency's account" thing? Pretty sure that's total nonsense. Such an account doesn't even exist!
Just settle this directly with AT&T.

Let me clear this up a bit. When I first got hit with the garnishment notice, I worked things out with my lawyer for a payment plan. I had no clue the debt collection agency had already bought my debt from AT&T. Since they paid off AT&T, I don't actually owe them anymore—I owe the agency. But since I kept sending payments to AT&T, the agency didn't see a dime. So, they went ahead and garnished my Social Security checks... Their excuse? They say I was paying the wrong account and that I need to get my money back from AT&T. I filed that request on September 23rd, but they didn't even start processing it until October 5th. Their 15-day deadline to fix this expires tomorrow (October 20th)... What am I supposed to do if they don't settle this within the legal timeframe?

nimbleheron said:Let me clear this up a bit. When I first got hit with the garnishment notice, I worked things out with my lawyer for a payment plan. I had no clue the debt collection agency had already bought my debt from AT&T. Since they paid off AT&T, I don't actually owe them anymore—I owe the agency. But since I kept sending payments to AT&T, the agency didn't see a dime. So, they went ahead and garnished my Social Security checks... Their excuse? They say I was paying the wrong account and that I need to get my money back from AT&T. I filed that request on September 23rd, but they didn't even start processing it until October 5th. Their 15-day deadline to fix this expires tomorrow (October 20th)... What am I supposed to do if they don't settle this within the legal timeframe?

Never heard of a "debt collection agency." Thought you meant the IRS when you said "agency"...

I’ve heard about those collection agencies before—just look them up on Google. My husband’s company uses them too. They were practically the only effective way to collect outstanding debts, especially back before the new enforcement laws kicked in. Here is how it works: they buy your debt outright. The agency pays the company a lump sum very quickly, just minus a certain percentage. For example, a firm might take 90% of a debt they probably wouldn't see coming for ages, and then the agency goes after the debtor for the full amount plus interest and fees.

@1142007 ... Go down to Verizon and don't leave until they get this sorted. It's October 26th—meaning they've been "processing" your complaint and refund request for over a month now. This is the kind of thing that should be resolved in a day or two.

placidmaker6 said:Never heard of a "debt collection agency." Thought you meant the IRS when you said "agency"...

I think the BlackRock agency is just going after unpaid bills from Verizon.

So... on November 1st, 2011, someone deposited $600 into my account. I didn't even realize it until December 10th of that year... I wasn't entirely sure what my exact balance was at the time (which felt a little weird, honestly), but I figured, okay... whatever. Then, on December 16th, I went ahead and withdrew the entire AVAILABLE balance. Now, out of nowhere, the bank is calling me saying the deposit was an error... and they want the money back. But there is no money left... it's gone. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any advice at all? What am I supposed to do here...????🙂🙂🙂🙂🤷🤷😕😕

I suppose I could give you a tip privately. It would be the right thing to do to return the money, but honestly, nobody can force your hand. Even the bank isn't allowed to hand over your personal info—like your full name or address—to the sender because they have to maintain privacy standards too. If that person decides to sue you for unjust enrichment (though I doubt they would since it’s such a small amount), then the bank would finally be able to release your details once they get a court order.

They asked me to come in and sign some kind of consent form... does that mean I shouldn't sign anything at all? Or what am I supposed to do?

wearygardener7 said:They asked me to come in and sign some kind of consent form... does that mean I shouldn't sign anything at all? Or what am I supposed to do?

Just think about it—if you were the one who accidentally sent money to the wrong person, you wouldn't even know whose cash you were holding,
I know I couldn't live with myself.
Just head down to the bank and work out an arrangement to pay it back in installments.

wearygardener7 said:They asked me to come in and sign some kind of consent form... does that mean I shouldn't sign anything at all? Or what am I supposed to do?

They can only ask you, they can't demand it. They have to do this because they can't process a payment from your account without your signature. It's really up to you to decide how you want to handle it. 🙂

Sure, go ahead—don't sign anything. You spent money you didn't actually have to begin with, but whatever. 🤦I’m curious, though—would you be just as calm if someone else arbitrarily wiped funds from your bank account?

You can keep going in circles—and I mean really going in circles, like a broken record—debating who’s at fault here, but the reality remains the same: you spent money that wasn't yours.

Lawrence Cruz said:Sure, go ahead—don't sign anything. You spent money you didn't actually have to begin with, but whatever. 🤦I’m curious, though—would you be just as calm if someone else arbitrarily wiped funds from your bank account?

You can keep going in circles—and I mean really going in circles, like a broken record—debating who’s at fault here, but the reality remains the same: you spent money that wasn't yours.

The real issue is that no one's account was actually debited because that isn't even possible (as far as I know)... the money was transferred... honestly, it's out of my hands, and if things are really the way you guys say they are, then whoever made the mistake should be the one to foot the bill...🤷☕🤷

@Lawrence Cruz

I didn't realize that "morality and ethics" were only mentioned on the PDF. I guess the money wasn't just snatched from the account without reason; maybe someone was just being careless during the transfer.

@wearygardener7
The person making the payment definitely messed up. If a bank error had occurred, they probably would have just reversed it without even asking you.

wearygardener7 said:The real issue is that no one's account was actually debited because that isn't even possible (as far as I know)... the money was transferred... honestly, it's out of my hands, and if things are really the way you guys say they are, then whoever made the mistake should be the one to foot the bill...🤷☕🤷

And suddenly, cash falls from the sky. ☕ Whether it was taken from an account or plucked right out of a wallet doesn't matter. Besides, go back and read what I actually asked:

Lawrence Cruz said:Sure, go ahead—don't sign anything. You spent money you didn't actually have to begin with, but whatever. 🤦I’m curious, though—would you be just as calm if someone else arbitrarily wiped funds from your bank account?

You can keep going in circles—and I mean really going in circles, like a broken record—debating who’s at fault here, but the reality remains the same: you spent money that wasn't yours.

Nicole Long28 said:@Lawrence Cruz

I didn't realize that "morality and ethics" were only mentioned on the PDF. I guess the money wasn't just snatched from the account without reason; maybe someone was just being careless during the transfer.

@wearygardener7
The person making the payment definitely messed up. If a bank error had occurred, they probably would have just reversed it without even asking you.

That isn't quite accurate, but honestly, it doesn't matter who messed up or how.

Nicole Long28 said:@Lawrence Cruz

I didn't realize that "morality and ethics" were only mentioned on the PDF. I guess the money wasn't just snatched from the account without reason; maybe someone was just being careless during the transfer.

@wearygardener7
The person making the payment definitely messed up. If a bank error had occurred, they probably would have just reversed it without even asking you.

And the point is ....

Hey everyone!

It’s been over two weeks since a massive transfer was sent from Chase to Bank of America—except the money hasn't hit the target account because the sender messed up the account number... so now the funds are sitting in some stranger's account. I need to know why getting this reversed is taking an eternity?! What could possibly be the holdup? How long does this usually take? The bank claims they’ve reached out to the recipient and asked me to wait a few more days—but they’ve been feeding me that same line since day one... If anyone has any actual advice, I'd really appreciate it!