Residents are left out of pocket as payments are taken twice
TENANTS of a housing association in East Hampshire were left fuming when a payment system’s computer software suffered a glitch and took rent payments twice by mistake.
People living in homes provided by Radian can use a telephone service to make rent payments, with the payment system being provided by PayPoint. In the week beginning February 11, some customers who used the service found that later that week, two payments were showing as being taken from their bank accounts.
One Petersfield woman, who did not want to be named, told the Post of her shock of paying £600 towards her rent, only to find a further £600 missing from her account on February 15.
She said: “When I found out what was happening I called Radian straight away and I was then given a number to contact PayPoint.
“When I spoke to them they said the money was being put back into my bank account that day.
“However, nothing happened on the Friday and on the Monday I kept getting passed between departments by PayPoint but just didn’t get anywhere with them. Eventually the money was back in my account on the Wednesday – five days after they said it would be.”
The woman is now looking to reclaim bank and telephone charges from PayPoint for going overdrawn and the calls she made to the company. She added: “I think the treatment I have had has been disgusting – firstly you see your wages disappear from your account and then I have been pushed from pillar to post trying to get some answers on this.”
PayPoint, who provide the payment service for Radian, admitted there had been a problem with their systems but the time it took payments to be returned to customers was down to how long it took their banks to clear them.
A PayPoint spokeswoman said: “PayPoint.net experienced a processing error on both February 10 and 11 that resulted in the duplication of some online transactions.
“We worked closely with a number of banks to rectify the issue and ensured the immediate reversal of all funds incorrectly debited to the affected cardholders.
“To help alleviate those cardholders severely impacted by the duplication error, we issued a number of emergency cash relief vouchers via the terminal network during the reversal period.”
Ian Haworth, head of Radian’s Solent division, said: “They (PayPoint) assured us that any residents affected would not be liable for any bank fees because the additional debits to the account were unauthorised transactions. Radian made arrangements for temporary short term payments to assist any tenants who were put in extreme financial difficulty by the situation.”
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Weather for Petersfield
Tuesday 21 May 2013
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