Fed Ex Pressing Charges. What to do?

I hope this is the right place to put this.
I recently got a notice from Fed Ex saying I haven't paid a bill from March. I contacted the company to say that I had in fact paid by bank giro. I was able to give them the date and place in which I paid, but I got no reply and they sent me another warning. I contacted them again and got a reply asking for the receipt for the transaction. Lucky me, I couldn't find the receipt. It had been over a month since the transaction and I think I may have thrown it out. I reiterated the details (date, place, rough time) of my payment and asked them to check their records again.
Once again I got no reply, just a nice little letter from Fed-Ex's solicitors about the matter. I'm at a loss what to do. should I take it up with the bank? I thought Fed Ex would check with the bank I specified, but it seems they're more worried about getting their money than they are about proving their customer's innocence.
It all seems very unprofessional to me. I said I paid the bill and I was telling the truth. Whatever mishaps may have occurred are either on their or the bank's end. Should I simply tell them to take it up with the bank?

Sam Mac

Solicitors?! How much was owed??

If your calling their stupid customer care line, good luck getting a decent guy to talk to on it.

Call their head office.

Get a bank statement off your bank?

The Lovely Muffin

Can you go to the bank and see if you can get a letter or something. They might be able to give you a copy of the receipt which you could then photo copy and forward onto FedEx.

@ Sam Mac: It's for 24 measly Euros, would you believe! And I paid by giro so a bank statement won't do (paid for the giro in cash)
@ Muffin: Yes I was considering that. I know the date and rough time, so they should be able to find my transaction.

I'm so annoyed that they went to their solicitors like this, though! They didn't even try to iron things out properly with me. Some customer service!

5500

I wouldn't be loosing any sleep there, I doubt they are initiating legal action against you it's most likely the common scare letter they send out to get people to pay up, either ways you've paid and have nothing to worry about.

Similar situation with them myself recently, got nowhere on the phone but bombarded Invhelp@fedex.com with the same email clearly stating when the bill was paid ect and it was eventually sorted.

Indecently they also told me they don't issue reciepts for bills paid, but happily seem to waste paper chasing you for money you already paid

5500 I'm glad someone else has experienced this! It's annoying me more than it's worrying me.
One thing that IS playing on my mind, though. When she was putting the giro through, the cashier seemed to be having trouble with it. She eventually ended up typing all the details into the computer manually. I can't help wondering if she made a mistake and my money got sent God-knows-where :eek:

JimsAlterEgo

goto to the bank with the date time and amount and get another receipt

Sam Mac

24 Euro :O

Jesus wouldn't you think they'd have something better to do.

viclemronny

If you contact your bank they will be able to search for it and find you a receipt of the transaction. It may cost a few euro as an administration charge.

To be honest, it might just be quicker if you have a reasonable idea of the time of the transaction to order that months statement form your bank, just double check with them that enough detail will be on it to prove the transfer was to FedEx.

If you genuinely paid it, no matter what happens you will be ok as banks all have to keep thorough records. It'll be a bit of hassle from a having to send various letters point of view but it'll be grand in the end.

Pkiernan

DO NOTHING.

They are b.s.ing you.

I would love to be taken to Court for €24. It'd be fcuking hilarious!

Motorist

Pkiernan wrote: »

I would love to be taken to Court for €24. It'd be fcuking hilarious!

It is ridiculous but I wouldn't like to be taken to court for any amount lest costs also be awarded against me.

fasttalkerchat

They wanted £18 from me because they paid VAT on something that shouldn't have had VAT paid. I can't claim it back because I'm not registered as a business so I got in touch with them. Customer services were hopeless but head office gave me an email address for a specific member of staff who I sent the invoice number to and it was sorted.

Graciefacey

This is why banks now do not accept cash for bank drafts, it gives you a paper trail in the event of something like this happening. Feel sorry for you op. Contact your bank or post office where you got it, you'll incur an admin fee but it'll be worth it to fight these idiots

Dudess

They're under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to "prove a customer's innocence" - they didn't get the money they're owed, simples. The onus is on you OP to provide proof of payment. It's unlikely their fault it didn't go through. Bank giros are dodgy - I paid Axa via that way one time and they got on to me saying they hadn't received it, but they had, it just takes so long for that form of payment to come through. They have to wait until it appears on their bank statement. I don't know why they make those stupid giro things a payment option anymore tbh.

In your case the bank teller might have keyed in an ambiguous reference that doesn't make sense on their statement.
However I do agree FedEx's approach is very aggressive and impersonal. You still need to prove you paid though, so contact the bank branch advising them of the time and date, and they can go through the transactions of that time and provide a copy of the giro etc.

Zulu

Do nothing OP. It's all bluff & bluster. They bang you out a letter hoping you'll pay up, but it'll cost them far more to "take you to court".

Look, you've paid them.
You've tried to set them straight. Twice.
IF, and that's an if so improbable I'll bet you the difference, they were to take you to court - it'd cost them a fortune, the judge would see you were being honest & tried to set them straight, twice. The judge would side with you.

Ignore it - you've done your bit.

Dudess

Not advisable to ignore it - saying you paid won't cut it. You made a payment but they didn't receive it. Or it could be an error on their part, but the likelihood when a payment is made is that the error tends to lie on the other side. Personally I'd be doing my utmost to prove them wrong. I once paid rent by cash into the account of a girl who was briefly sub-letting her room to me. She phoned me to say she didn't receive it. I called into the bank and gave them the time/date, and the transaction was found no prob. She had given me details of a different bank account to the one she normally uses.

Zulu

...it's €24 euros.

How much does it cost to submit a case to the court? How much is a barrister per hour?

jeckle

Zulu wrote: »

...it's €24 euros.

How much does it cost to submit a case to the court? How much is a barrister per hour?

It would be just a standard template/threatening letter batch printed & sent to all outstanding accounts. The chances are that the amount, being so small will be written off at some stage, but if the OP wants to deal with the company again the outstanding amount might rear it's ugly head, so it's probably best for them to try to sort the matter out if at all possible.

Dudess

Yeah it's their money and they haven't got it - I hate this attitude of "Oh ignore, you paid, it's not much."
From their perspective it's not paid, end of. But it was paid into somewhere, so OP, try and find out where! Personally I'd be dying to know!

Zulu

Well OP, you've two choices:

1) You've paid, you've told them, so ignore it. ...or
2) Waste your energy running around after their mistake like a sap.

P. Breathnach

Dudess wrote: »

... Personally I'd be doing my utmost to prove them wrong....

Why put yourself to the trouble? The onus is on the claimant to prove the claim, and not on the person against whom the claim is made to disprove it.

I would not take on the burden of disproving the claim. I'd simply tell them that the bill has been paid, that any legal action would be defended, and that I would be seeking the costs of any defence.

viclemronny

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Why put yourself to the trouble? The onus is on the claimant to prove the claim, and not on the person against whom the claim is made to disprove it.

I would not take on the burden of disproving the claim. I'd simply tell them that the bill has been paid, that any legal action would be defended, and that I would be seeking the costs of any defence.

It's not a huge amount of trouble. Call the bank and order a statement for the dates the transaction took place on. Send them a copy of this statement and then see what they say. If it went to the correct account, then alls well that ends well. If not, well then either you have to rectify your mistake or talk to the bank about recovering the funds and then pay it to their account. It's not unreasonable of them to ask you to have a quick email/call to your bank even if it was their mistake by sending you the wrong details or something. Five minutes of your time could end the hassle.

Dudess

Zulu wrote: »

Well OP, you've two choices:

1) You've paid, you've told them, so ignore it. ...or
2) Waste your energy running around after their mistake like a sap.

How are you so sure it's their mistake? It could be the bank's mistake, which I'd put money on. When a teller processes a lodgement, they have to put a reference in the narrative which appears on the recipient's statement - they could have keyed in the wrong one. It wouldn't involve wasting much energy at all, and it would clear the OP's name.

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Why put yourself to the trouble? The onus is on the claimant to prove the claim, and not on the person against whom the claim is made to disprove it.

The onus is on the person, whose payment has not been received, to prove they paid it. The claimant has proof of their claim - they didn't receive the payment.

I would not take on the burden of disproving the claim. I'd simply tell them that the bill has been paid, that any legal action would be defended, and that I would be seeking the costs of any defence.

Without proof of payment, not a leg to stand on. Saying "I paid it" over and over, no matter how indignantly, and no matter how much legal threats, isn't worth tuppence if the money wasn't received, especially when there's no receipt. Right now, FedEx are simply looking for money that's rightfully theirs and they haven't received it. How are they supposed to know a payment was made intended for them but which didn't reach them?
The manner in which they are seeking payment leaves a lot to be desired, but that doesn't invalidate their demand.

It will be quite easy to find this payment OP since it was made in a bank. Now if it was in e.g. a Payzone outlet (garage, grocer's etc) for a bill and it wasn't received, that would be much more difficult to recover. Don't be led to believe that you'll have to go on a wild goose chase to find it. Banks deal with that kind of stuff all the time and it's very straightforward. If you have any other documentation relating to the bill, have it with you, in case there is a reference on it that would also have been encoded onto the giro.

I'm going to go to the bank on Monday to get a new receipt/proof of payment. What will they need to search for the transaction, though? IE. How can I make it as easy for them as possible to find it?

viclemronny

Essentially as much relevant information as you can possibly give them.

They'll probably be looking through a list containing all the transactions on the account, so date and amount would be the main ones as i'd say it's unlikely you put many transactions through for that amount on that day. Knowing whatever you put in the narrative, if you did put anything there, might be handy too.

Best of luck.

Zab

Dudess wrote: »

The onus is on the person, whose payment has not been received, to prove they paid it. The claimant has proof of their claim - they didn't receive the payment.

I think that OP should just get on to their bank and sort this out, but do you have anything to indicate that the law backs up the statement I've quoted above?