Mistake at work - help please!

[nevereverplease]

I had a client who owes £500 for work carried out, instead I sent the money to the wrong place for £1100.

I made this mistake an hour ago so will speak to the merchant first thing but assuming I can't reverse it, will take days to refund back to the client.

I will explain all to the client tomorrow, process the refund ASAP and offer a gesture of goodwill of £50.

Is this reasonable? I guess I'm just looking for someone to say it'll be fine in the end although I think it won't 😬

Btw I'm self employed so job isn't on the line but I just feel terrible

Ok perhaps I've been harsh, we've all made mistakes. I'd tell your boss, tell them and do your best to rectify. Holding it in will only make you sicker.

Sorry for being an arsehole, I'm generally extremely stressed about thinking I'm not good enough for my job and perhaps I was projecting.

How did you accidently key £1100 rather than £500?

Guys, this thread is taking a really strange turn.

I appreciate this is an Internet forum where people express opinions - but I only came on here for help.

And I did not say AIbU am I shit at my job? That wasn't what I asked so please keep your unkind comments to yourself

Ah got it
Then OP you definitely need to implement a 4 eye check for future payments of this kind
It happens all the time and for massive money so don't worry, it will get sorted.
Hardly blasé coming on here for advice xx

@Monkeytapper I honestly have no idea.

Take a deep breath. It was a genuine mistake. Dont beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes And it can be sorted out tomorrow.
It is 600 which is not a small amount but it is not a mistake involving huge sums of money.
Ignore all those having a go at you. You are human . It will all be okay . The worst that can happen is you lose 600 and your client is annoyed at you.
Get some rest it will all seem better in the morning .

Speak to the merchant and get the £1100 transferred back into the client's account asap.

Explain to the client what happened and what action you've taken to rectify the error.

Say that you will obviously cover any overdraft charges and don't expect the client to pay you until the money has been returned to their bank account.

The client won't be out of pocket and hopefully neither will you, unless there's a small overdraft fee.

Don't beat yourself up. We all make mistakes and we are all TIRED at this point in time.

How awful. You must be feeling dreadful. When you’re overworked and overtired it’s easy for mistakes to happen.

You’ve done all you can for today. Call the merchant tomorrow and see what can be done.

If they can reverse the transaction or get the money back once the refund has gone through ask you client to transfer you £450 (the £500 owed less £50 goodwill gesture).

If they can’t you need to pay £650 (£600 extra transferred + £50 goodwill gesture) and forget about your £500 fee.

Don’t transfer £600 as an interim measure. There’s no guarantee you’ll get it back if the refund does come through.

How and why are you making transfers out of an individual’s bank account? Banks say you should never share passwords so if this person has done that it may be a breach of their banking terms. It would be for my account. That may effect how helpful the merchant/bank will be.

Yes go and have some wine! Aibu is shit of genuinely want help. Post in cahat or somethjng insteadd.

I would try ring the client again this evening, otherwise you won’t sleep tonight.

It’s good that you came on and contacted the client, because you weren’t going to.

People are confused how you can make a double mistake in one go. Take the wrong amount ok, pay the wrong merchant erm ok, but both together is what seems hard to understand.

*if you genuinely want help

She said she was logged in to the wrong account. She's presumably paid it into another client's account that she also has access to.

Please for the last time!! I appreciate the help but I keep getting asked the same question, we are a 'middleman' if you like so it is acceptable and above board to pay on clients behalf. Like a solicitor would for land registry payments for example, or many other services.

It's actually AGAInST rules for us to make the payment and then ask for it back from the client. The client gave me their details in real time I didn't just access their account without permission!!!

@bitheby no it did not go to a client it went to a company

@whatwedontknow

It’s good that you came on and contacted the client, because you weren’t going to.

People are confused how you can make a double mistake in one go. Take the wrong amount ok, pay the wrong merchant erm ok, but both together is what seems hard to understand.

Believe it or not it happens all the time in banking Millions transferred incorrectly to the wrong institution regularly - you wouldn't believe it Money is always returned unless receiver goes bust The other company will want rid of it because it will screw up their reconciliations

@whatwedontknow fair enough but why does that matter I didn't ask aibu 'how stupid was I to make two mistakes! So I don't know why people are picking that part. It isn't the issue

The £50 goodwill gesture is fine, more than enough.
I hope you sort it tomorrow, sorry you’ll have a sleepless night.

What's your job? Why couldn't your client make the payment themselves instead of getting you to do it?

@nevereverplease

I'm not sure why people are querying how payment has been taken from my client. When you pay for goods you call and make payments over the phone, this is what happened here! I just took it for the incorrect amount

Ah, so your job is to process payments for businesses? And you act for more than one and picked the wrong account to make the transfer to?

That makes more sense and hopefully if you act for the other business they’ll be helpful and transfer it back if the payment isn’t reversed by the merchant. If so have you contacted your other client?

Email’s fine, in fact at this time of night it’s better. For what it’s worth if this happened to me and I had an email about it, I wouldn’t be bothered at all. If I didn’t get an email I’d probably be a bit annoyed, but not a major deal at all. I wouldn’t expect £50 either. I would send the email (short and factual) and deal tomo as planned then put it out your mind as best you can. I have made mistakes in my career I don’t know anything who hasn’t - the main thing is how you handle them.

There’s a thread on Classics about biggest mistakes made at work and people have literally lost their company hundreds of thousands of pounds. I think there may have even been one where someone actually killed someone (medical profession)

£600 is not a big deal

I'm so confused. So... the client was supposed to pay OP £500. But instead of taking £500 from the client and transferring into the OP's account, OP instead transferred £1100 of the client's money to a random third party. So now the random third party needs to refund £1100 to the OP, and the OP will need to pay this back to the client and then the client will again need to pay OP £500 ??? I think if I were your client, I would want to understand how that all happened - if the client is as confused as we all are, that won't be good. It maybe makes more sense if you know what the industry is, maybe.

@JonasKahnwald I really would prefer not to say

The fact I'm workout on behalf of the client is perfectly legal, in my industry that is how it is supposed to be - the recipient does not accept request direct from client and we are not allowed to pay on behalf of client either please - hopefully last time of explaining that!!

@nevereverplease

Guys, this thread is taking a really strange turn.

I appreciate this is an Internet forum where people express opinions - but I only came on here for help.

And I did not say AIbU am I shit at my job? That wasn't what I asked so please keep your unkind comments to yourself

Lots of posters on here love to give a kicking from behind the safety of a keyboard, and make posters feel shitter than they do already. Ignore them - you’ve half way sorted the error now.