In March of this year, I purchased a piece of equipment for the business from a company with the expectation that it would work as promised. With agreement from the seller, I paid with a post-dated check (two weeks) so that we could have a trial period to assure the equipment worked as promised. Within two days, we realized that it was not sturdy enough for our commerical use and failed to operate without overheating in our application. Repeated calls to the seller were met with "not in the office", " on vacation", etc. Therefore, we contacted Banco Popular, on whose check we paid for the equipment, and put a stop payment order on the check while we continued to try and contact the seller. As the date of the check approached, we verified three times that the stop payment was in place. One time, on the date itself, I went personally to the bank and was assured that the stop payment was in the system and that it could not be cashed. I asked for a written verification of the stop on the check and they would not give me one as they said it was not necessary.
When I checked my account later that week, I found that the check had in fact been cashed. I contacted Popular, they verified that the stop was on the check but that the person who entered it in the system failed to put it into their internal system that the compensation department accesses. They said it was 100% their fault and they would resolve it. They contacted the seller, who refused to refund the money, and in turn Popular said that they will not return my money that I would simply have to accept the loss. I have contacted everyone that I know in Popular but have yet to find anyone who I can talk to about resolving this problem. If this was a few hundred dollar loss, I would simply right it off to experience, but this is more than three thousand dollars loss for me and since even they admit it was their fault, I am compelled to find a solution.
If anyone has a contact for me it would be greatly appreciated.
When I checked my account later that week, I found that the check had in fact been cashed. I contacted Popular, they verified that the stop was on the check but that the person who entered it in the system failed to put it into their internal system that the compensation department accesses. They said it was 100% their fault and they would resolve it. They contacted the seller, who refused to refund the money, and in turn Popular said that they will not return my money that I would simply have to accept the loss. I have contacted everyone that I know in Popular but have yet to find anyone who I can talk to about resolving this problem. If this was a few hundred dollar loss, I would simply right it off to experience, but this is more than three thousand dollars loss for me and since even they admit it was their fault, I am compelled to find a solution.
If anyone has a contact for me it would be greatly appreciated.
