A Canadian couple say Scotiabank has been holding their $10,000 cheque for the past 37 days say the bank is now closing their account.<\/p>\n
Rhiannon and Roman Rodriguez live in the remote township of Stewart in northern British Columbia, and say they are living a financial nightmare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The couple say that on Aug. 12, Roman, the owner of a contracting company, deposited a cheque into his personal account by taking a photo of it and depositing it through his mobile app. They say the cheque was then put on a 10-day hold, which is standard practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the 10 days his account was actually frozen, and we didn\u2019t actually even realize it, because we were like, \u2018Oh, the cheque is on hold,\u2019 [but] they froze his entire account, and we couldn\u2019t access any of the funds,\u201d Rhiannon told Now Toronto on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they say that after ten days, they still could not access any of the funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got flagged pretty much immediately, within a couple of days. It got flagged as fraudulent, because I guess the cheque should have had my name on it instead of my company name,\u201d Roman told Now Toronto on Friday.<\/p>\n
Roman says that he has had the account for multiple years, making several deposits in his company\u2019s name in the last year without issue. This is the first time a cheque has been flagged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He then contacted customer service, and a representative told him that since the cheque was flagged as fraudulent, the money would have to be returned to the company that issued it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me it was going to take about 14 days to transfer the funds back to the original owner. Once that didn\u2019t happen, I started calling customer service. They told me they can\u2019t deal with any of the fraudulence, customer service doesn\u2019t deal with that,\u201d he explained, saying that he was told he would have to visit a branch in person.<\/p>\n
They say they contacted TD Bank, where the issuer of the cheque had an account, and were told by a representative at TD that they had requested the funds back from Scotiabank, while Scotiabank told them it had not received a request.<\/p>\n
Roman then visited the Scotiabank branch closest to their home, all the way out in Terrace, B.C.\u00a0 a trip that takes three and a half hours each way. He brought identification, his GST number, and anything else he thought would help confirm he was entitled to the funds. Roman says the branch manager there explained that there was nothing she could do, and he had to go to his home branch. But there was a snag; his home bank is much further away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them tell me that my home branch is in Ontario, Peterborough, which is a six-hour flight from here\u2026 other people tell me that my home branch is in Chilliwack, which is an 18-hour drive away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, he has made multiple attempts to find out which branch is his home bank, calling both locations without any success. Roman says this week he returned to the Terrace branch, asking for a case number. He says the manager once again informed him that the branch could not help him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when I told them that I might get lawyers involved, or might close my account completely before they can, they finally started the case work yesterday,\u201d Roman said Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the thing that gets to me is at 37 days now, I have talked to probably over 30 agents, 20 supervisors, left multiple messages on multiple branch managers\u2019 phones, and there\u2019s no communication [in return].\u201d<\/p>\n
BANK ACCOUNT TO BE TERMINATED<\/p>\n
Roman explained that he became extremely frustrated with the situation, particularly being passed from agent to agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I said something wrong [to] one of the agents, and now they\u2019re closing my account because of it,\u201d Roman shared, adding that after speaking with multiple Scotiabank employees, no one was able to explain why his account was being closed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was only earlier this week that he was informed about the termination, with officials telling him a notice had been sent through the mail earlier this month. The Rodriguezes say they never received the notice and first found out via email. They also received another email saying that bank officials were now looking into the issue of the money being withheld.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They are] pretty much telling me that they\u2019re gonna handle it now and start work on it. But at the same time, this all has to get done before October, because at the start of October is when they\u2019re going to close my account. So, they\u2019re literally doing this right at the bitter end,\u201d Roman explained.<\/p>\n
The husband and wife say they are now in the dark about where the money is and what happens to it if their account is closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is that they\u2019re not communicating,\u201d Roman said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t make an issue or stink about it at all if they just communicated with me, just let me know what\u2019s going on so I know what to do next, what the process is, or how I move forward with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever in my life have I felt defeated until now; this has literally defeated me.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Scotiabank told Now Toronto that the bank cannot comment on this situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotiabank cannot comment on individual client matters,\u201d Scotiabank said in an email.<\/p>\n