Avoid Perpetual Investments Like A Plaque (2004-09-16)
If you think your money which is sitting in a financial institution is safe and secure, think again. I'm referring to Perpetual Investments in Australia in particular. No banks botch their clients' money more spectacularly than the bunch of numskulls who call themselves bank operators in Perpetual.
Last Saturday afternoon while KL was making a routine check of our
finances online, he saw that our account with Perpetual had a balance
of zero. Someone made a withdrawal a few days earlier and
completely CLEARED OUT our account. Before we had time to recover
from the initial shock, our mail arrived. In it was a letter and
statement from that investment bank informing us of the said
transaction, an action "nominated by us".
Since it was a Saturday, we couldn't call the bank right away to
find out what happened and had to wait till Monday to do so. We
are not rich by any stretch of imagination, but we did have a tidy sum
in that account which took us some years to save up. Although
losing it is not the end of the world, the anger and feeling of
violation would eat a hole in my heart for many years to come. I
would have been much more fretful the entire weekend if not for the
consoling words from KL to alleviate some of the headache from
worrying. He even threw in a couple of jokes to ease the tension.
After enduring the longest forty some hours in my life, KL made the call
early Monday morning. He handled the situation very well, I'm not
sure I could maintain such poise and restrain myself from yelling if I
was the one doing the talking. KL was reasonably polite to the
staff, kept his voice down yet firm in his tone.
The unbelievable story we found out was that an account holder at Perpetual who shared the same surname with us wanted to withdraw all his money. In keeping with the grossly incompetent operating fashion only Perpetual Investments knows how, they somehow got that person's name mixed up with our account. The bank failed to see he had a different first name, a different account number and a different signature and handed all our money to this total stranger. Just like that, easy as pie.
Luckily for us this person who got our savings didn't run away to
Africa with a cashier's check or it might take us a lot longer to see
our money again, if ever. We recovered our money from Perpetual
eventually but we lost our trust in them forever. If it is that
easy for them to give our hard-earned money away, it is just as easy
for your bank
to do the same.
Check your accounts frequently and vigilantly, STARTING NOW.
p.s. I'd like to give thanks to our lawyer friend, WY who offered input on the matter. Thanks a bunch, just don't send us the bill!
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