A Calgary\u2011area restaurant owner is sounding the alarm after thousands of dollars in staff tip money vanished from a digital wallet system he once relied on.<\/p>\n
Armin Bansal says the funds were withdrawn without explanation, and despite repeated attempts to get answers, he\u2019s been left with an empty account and growing frustration.<\/p>\n
Bansal says the issue began on Jan. 28, when he discovered that roughly $7,500 had been withdrawn from his account.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that about $7,500 were withdrawn from our Everyday Wallet account,\u201d he said. \u201cMy account balance went zero, and we were never returned any of the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he contacted both companies behind the platform, XTM Inc. and Everyday People Financial, but has yet to receive a clear explanation or reimbursement. He has since stopped using the service altogether.<\/p>\n
The Alberta Hospitality Association says Bansal is not alone. Executive director Mona Pinder says restaurants across the province have reported similar concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bank of Canada is investigating this,\u201d Pinder said. \u201cThere\u2019s also a Canadian anti\u2011fraud number they can phone, so they can understand the scope of this across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calgary Police confirm they are investigating two formal complaints linked to the companies. <\/p>\n
In response to inquiries, Everyday People Financial said responsibility lies with XTM. XTM, meanwhile, told CityNews it has not controlled the accounts since November of last year.<\/p>\n
With no resolution in sight, Bansal says he is preparing legal action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely very frustrating,\u201d he said. \u201cI sent a demand for a resolution, I\u2019m giving them 14 days to resolve it outside the small business claim court.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has already paid his staff out of pocket to ensure they weren\u2019t left short, but he warns other business owners to think twice before relying on digital tip\u2011payout platforms.<\/p>\n
Bansal says he\u2019s urging others to avoid the app entirely and return to traditional methods of distributing tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Calgary\u2011area restaurant owner is sounding the alarm after thousands of dollars in staff tip money vanished from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-499666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}