Refund Issued to a Card That Was Closed. Who Should I Chase for My Money?

So the situation was

  • Ordered a few bottle of whiskey from boozebud on 24th December paid with debit card from BankWest transaction account.

  • Mishap with shipping so ordered was heavily delayed. ended up asking BoozeBud for a refund which was issued on the 14th of January to bankwest card.

  • (dumb me) forgot that I had close the bankwest account on 11th of january because I had move to another bank.

  • contacted boozebud and was told that the refund went through, and bankwest should be sending me a cheque for the refund amount even if the card was closed.

  • fast forward two months, still waiting on the cheque so Contacted BankWest who said there is no excess on my account and they have never received any refund.

  • contacted boozebud and was given the refund receipt which showed "refund status: Settled"

  • after a few more time contacting both boozebud and bankwest and recieveing the same answer Im just kinda lost right now. so who should I be chasing for my refund money? or should I be taking a loss?

Poll Options expired

  • 76
    BankWest
  • 2
    BoozeBud
  • 4
    Take the loss

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Bankwest
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Comments

  • +6

    Banking Ombudsman?

    • +2

      Why would he have OP's money?

      • +1

        Someone has it, why not them?

      • Ombudsman can be a lady

        • +5

          We can all be a lady these days

  • +1

    go into the bank / ring the bank, it will be sitting their waiting for them to xfer to you or write a cheque.

    nothing to do with boozebud, they return the money to where it came from.

    • Called the bank 3 times, got the same respond “I can’t see any excess on your account.” “These no activity on your account since the day you closed it.”

      Do you think it’s better if I walk into a branch with the refund reciept I got from boozebud?

      • +5

        The teller / call centre staff generally won't be able to see attempts to post a transaction to a closed account (your refund). You need to ask them to escalate your enquiry to their cards department, or direct entry department.
        *worked behind the scenes at a Bank for a few years :)

  • +6

    Moneys gone to the bank, bank doesn’t know it’s yours, sitting in some sundry account. They won’t link it to you, complain to bank until they track it down.

    • Calling the bank seems to be of no help. Do you think it’s better to walk into a branch with the refund reciept I got from boozebud?

      • +3

        its the banks duty to fix, trust me it is sitting in their account to pass on to you, ring them back and dont take no for an answer, and keep going higher to a manager till itx fixed, or threaten to goto banks ombudsman.

        they have your money

        • +2

          Don't bother going back to the bank because that's a waste of time given their history, go straight to Ombudsman or Consumer Affairs.

    • +1

      also have boozebud check with their bank(the back office department that looks after missing transaction & reconciling transactions).
      as bankwest might of returned the funds the next day, after not finding your a/c open.
      happens all the time with home loans(when a/c is closed or incorrect a/c's details given)

  • +1

    Request an actual bank remittance advice from boozebud and prove it to the bank in question.

  • prolly sitting in the banks suspense account cause it never matched against an account number, sucks but might never see it again

  • Department of Fair Trading or equivalent is also worth a try if you can't make any progress

  • same thing happened to me, i ended up with a cheque from the bank. they didnt know it was there, but it did get returned to me

  • I had the same issue with health insurance.

    They returned the money to the original credit card which I closed

    Called the health fund and they sent me a proof of transaction which I took to the bank.

    The bank confirmed that they had it and asked which account i wanted the money transferred to.

    Money was in the new account about 1 week later

  • Visiting a branch might or might not help. Instead, I would suggest:

    • Find BankWest's complaints department through their website and submit a complaint
    • If that doesn't work, then go to AFCA (which replaces the Financial Ombudsman Services)

    I had an issue with NAB a couple of years ago. I tried various forms of contact including visiting a branch. Never got anywhere, and their promised callbacks never happened. I was going to go to the FOS, but before that found that NAB have a section/department dealing with complaints. I submitted a complaint and eventually they were able to sort things out.

  • +2

    Why would Bankwest not see account was close just sent money back to boozebud account ?

    • coz its more profitable to see the account is closed and keep the money for themselves. :)

  • Everyone here is pretty hard on the banks, but I suspect that boozebud has your money (quite unknowingly), and it is in THEIR sundry account that it is sitting, not Bankwest's. The advice to go into the bank personally and talk to someone is exactly right, but don't go in assuming that Bankwest has your money and blow your chances of getting their support. Go in and ask for help with boozebus; tell them that you never did get the money, but boozebud's records only show that the refund was "settled". Ask them to check back through their transactions to verify that, when the amount arrived into a closed account, they sent it back to the depositor. There must be a number or a date or something which you can then take to boozebud and clue them in; they may then be able to find your money quite easily. Of course, if Bankwest won't or can't help, then that banking ombudsman is your next step, because careful record-keeping is expected of all the banks (but, as we have seen lately, not always delivered). Good luck!

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