If it was determined that there was a duplicate preauthorized transfer sent but the customer received credit for the transfer on the account it went to would this still require credit. For example if the customer was paying a water bill through electronic bill pay and due to an error it went out twice but the water department credited the account for the customers next bill would we still need to reimburse?

Has the water company already issued a credit? And do you have proof of the credit? If so, I would conclude that the customer has received credit and a benefit from the transaction. However, the dispute won't end there. Were there any overdraft or return item fees caused by the duplicate transaction, or interest lost (if it's an interest bearing account)? If so, those will need to be refunded to your customer.

If it is a promised credit that has not been issued by the water company then you will need to dig deeper for the investigation, and will more than likely have to issue credit - along with overdrafts, return items, and lost interest.

Burkemi, it sounds like rather than refunding the duplicate credit, the water company has a credit on the water account so the customer would have a smaller bill the following cycle.

What terpsfan doesn't say is "Whose error was it?" Did the customer accidently click "Submit" twice or did the bank duplicate a file and charge the account twice?

The customer set it up twice but we determined that there may have been some confusion caused by us which led to the customer initiating it twice.

This does not meet the definition of an error in 1005.11(a). The customer does not get to have both a credit on their account with the water company and the bank. From a customer service perspective, I agree with waiving any fees or paying lost interest if you believe that an issue with your system led to the customer being confused, but there is no obligation to reimburse of the payment.

A water district or water company is not likely to just say it will credit the account when the next billing cycle comes around. Instead, most such companies would post the second credit and show a credit balance due to their customer. The customer will most lil;ey be able to just ask the water company to issue him a check to take the credit of the books, rather than leave it sitting there.

I was recently told off by a Sprint representative for this very situation. Apparently our member ordered a new phone for which there was a $900 charge. The phone didn't work or wasn't satisfactory so she returned it. Sprint billed her in error even though she had returned the phone at their retail location per their instructions. Sprint told her they would post a credit to her account. She told them she needed the funds back to pay monthly bills. They told her to dispute with us. I explained to her that I could not refund since the telephone account was credited. The member called Sprint back to explain our stance on the problem. The Sprint rep then called me to tell me we offer horrible customer service and the customer needed to be made whole. I told him how glad I was that Sprint was going to step up to the plate and refund her. It apparently wasn't the answer he was looking for, but I hung up before he could regroup. I have these same situations with internet providers, TV service providers and electric companies. None of them will refund/send a check and they paint us as the bad guys.

At the heart of the matter, the consumer did the transfer, AND received benefit. No error, no credit.

I get frustrated sometimes because the consumer says "I want my money back" and "back" is the operative word. I always wanted to say "we don't have it so I can't give it back, go to whomever YOU gave the money to."