B.C. woman says major bank brushed her off after $929.99 debit error

A Burnaby woman said she was brushed off by a major Canadian bank after she sought a reimbursement for a debit payment error.

“I felt like they were just confusing me a lot and trying to brush me off,” Allison Kelba told Global News.

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Kelba says that, back in January, she tried to pay a $929.99 veterinary bill with her debit card.

The debit card declined not once, but twice.

“I punched in the same amount, $929 and that was declined and at that point, my bank account was drained,” says Kelba.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I punched in the same amount, $929 and that was declined and at that point, my bank account was drained," says Kelba.

It turned out that there was a system-wide error.

Kelba reached out to TD Bank immediately.

Within three days, the first declined debit transaction was reversed and the money deposited back into her account, but not the second failed debit transaction, she said.

So she was still out $929.99.

READ MORE: How to check if you have unclaimed money in a Canadian bank

She called TD customer service again for help and opened up a claim.

Kelba says she was told it would take 30 days for a response.

“I called a month later to find out what was going on and they told me it was still pending. I called now two months later and was told my claim had been closed,” Kelba said.

Kelba said she was given no explanation.

So she turned to Consumer Matters for help.

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After reaching out, Consumer Matters received an email from a TD spokesperson within days, apologizing to Kelba for the delay and frustration.

She was reimbursed immediately.

In an email statement TD states:

“….in this instance a mistake was made, which resulted in only one debit payment being reimbursed, instead of the two debit transactions that were made. The reason for this is that when a customer requires two refunds, two separate claims need to be submitted. Unfortunately, there was no reference in either of the two claims that the customer needed two refunds, and they were believed to be duplicates.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "….in this instance a mistake was made, which resulted in only one debit payment being reimbursed, instead of the two debit transactions that were made. The reason for this is that when a customer requires two refunds, two separate claims need to be submitted. Unfortunately, there was no reference in either of the two claims that the customer needed two refunds, and they were believed to be duplicates."

Still, Kelba says she may change banks.

“Consumer Matters did in two days what TD couldn’t do in almost three months,” she said.