I really hate to write anything negative about Monzo, as the service is usually amazing but over the past couple of days I haven’t had the experience I’m normally used to.
On Friday, I received a refund from the DVLA and it’s in the form of what it says is a ‘payable order’ . I contacted customer support and asked about how to deposit this into my account, as I’m not sure of the process. The customer service advisor said they would ‘flag’ this with the payment team, and I would get an update through chat.
Yesterday, I went back on to see if there was any update, and I was told ‘they were still working on it, the payment team is limited on weekends and I’ll receive an update’ and then I was asked if I have another bank account outside of Monzo to deposit the funds into, as they’re a ‘few things they need to clarify on their end’. I didn’t find this particularly helpful, as what is the point of encouraging people to go #fullmonzo if that is the response you’re given?
It’s now 2 days since I asked my initial query, and nobody can give me a timescale as to when I can receive an update. I fully appreciate that the team time is limited on weekends as well.
I really hate to write negative things about any organisation, but I just feel incredibly frustrated and saddened as this is not the usual exemplary customer service I’ve experienced so far.
I expect the fact that this is the weekend & therefore, the availability of the payments team being limited, is the reason for the uncertainty. Hopefully they’ll be able to clear this up tomorrow.
A quick google shows a payable order is basically a cheque, so you should be able to post it in (FREEPOST MONZO).
When you’ll be sent a cheque
They might seem old school, but cheques are used a lot more than you might think. A few places still issue them, like Government organisations like the DVLA or HMRC
They’ll usually send you a cheque if they’re giving you a refund, rebate or some kind of compensation.
To be fair, a bank should know what a “payable order” is and it should be included in basic training for customer facing staff. I can see why @anon12300088 is feeling this as a negative experience.
But, I’m a little confused… I thought these “payable orders” were sent direct to the bank and not the customer?
it’s no different than going to a garage and asking about limited slip differential or going to Nandos and asking about Peri-Peri sauce… the question is specific to the banking industry and therefore should be able to be covered as a basic question that a customer might ask.
I genuinely think it’s been overlooked because it’s probably not something that is very common in the consumer market… i.e the government giving someone a refund!
I received another message from a customer service agent saying that
‘they’d spoken to the payment specialist about this, and if I need the funds urgently to take it to another bank account and if it isn’t, to send it in and they’ll do their best to sort it as soon as possible, but if they can’t credit it, they’ll send it back to me’
Also that ‘it’s not a process they’re overly familiar with, and that they believe that the payment specialists are due to have another look at this tomorrow, and they ‘might’ be able to give me a more definitive answer’.
What I mean is, when the training manual was being devised someone didn’t think of this as a potential question. It’s not something that applied to the prepay days and it seems feasible that someone has just not thought of it when the rollout of the current account was being planned.
Ok that’s a perfectly logical possible scenario. But we’re well into ‘what if’s’ at this point & since this isn’t helping camy solve their problem, I’m happy to move on.
I’d have maybe suggested that someone reworks the old flowcharts in the training manual…
It’s a UK Government issued payment. Whether or not Monzo can process it isn’t the issue, it’s the fact that nobody is certain! which is quite worrying…
I’m sorry it’s taking so long to get you an answer. As mentioned, payable orders are not a normal thing we’ve handled questions about and aren’t currently included in our internal documentation (by that name at least).
Our cheque process is currently handled by a small operations team that work Monday to Friday (in line with the cheque clearing cycle days). They’re the people with the expertise.
I must admit that even I don’t know what a payable order is but it does sound like something we could process as a cheque (I’ll defer to the cheque operations team to say for sure).
Ultimately, we would much rather make certain that we’re giving you the correct information and update our documentation in response (even if it means waiting over the weekend) than the support team giving you inaccurate information and causing issues down the line.
I fully respect that the team is only small. I just don’t like the uncertainty, If i’d been told at the start that they only work Mon-Fri, i’d have been fine with that.
What I don’t like is the attitude of ‘take it to another bank’ - surely that defeats the point of trying to get people to switch?
Also, the attitude of ‘might be able to get an answer’ really isn’t helpful.
I really hate having to write anything negative though 
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