Lost electronic international payment

[LeSquigh]

Hi all

I wonder if anyone in the banking world (or with experience of similar) can give me any advice please?

I returned a defective product to a large and very well known company who are based primarily in the USA but have multiple offices worldwide. A big company, one you’ve all heard of. They have been extremely helpful, exceeding my expectations in some respects but there seems to be a massive issue with the refund. I have been promised, multiple times by different customer service agents that my refund has been processed and has been sent to my bank account. This apparently took place on the 4th October. I was initially told it would be 4-9 working days before it reached my account - great - except it didn’t. So a further call to check it had been sent to the correct account followed whereby the confirmed the date it was sent and the IBAN number it was sent to, all correct. I was then told that I was misinformed and that it would actually take 14 days to reach me. 16 working days have now passed and still no sign of the money this end. My bank cannot chase it without a payment reference number and the refunding company have so far been unable to supply this to me. I have have plenty of verbal confirmation on the phone but nothing in writing. The refund we requested proof in the form of a bank statement that I haven’t received it, which I have sent.

It’s a bit of a he said she said scenario but I’m not dealing with cowboys.

CAN a bank transfer from the USA take this long to come through? Or, is it possible for an electronic payment to be lost? Or are they just lying to me?

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can provide

Usually electronic international payments take max three days.

However, that won't be the factor defining the duration. That'll be the cycle on which the business decides to process refunds. Since they say "up to 14 days" they probably do them twice a month, three times would be weird tbh.

It's vaguely possible that you hit the worst possible date and maximum delay - and they aren't counting the three days for international in that 14 days. So I'd give it until Tuesday before kicking off properly.

What can happen, depending on who you bank with, it that it can get stuck in your bank's holding account. To sort that out (if it is the problem) you will need the reference number from the sender. Then talk to your bank again - but yes totally possible for it to get stuck. This has happened to me, and apparently is common for smaller banks. I was surprised that I had to call and ask for my bank to search for it - this was about 2 years ago with First Direct.

Thank you for your replies.

I bank with Barclays and have spoken to the team that deal with international payments but they cannot look for it with an MT103? number. I have attempted to get a reference number from the red under but they have not yet supplied it. I’m going to ring them again today when they open and try and get that.

It’s good to know the reasons that it’s possibly delayed/stuck, so thank you.

*refunder, not “red under” 🙄