I am just curious...for us, it seems that Check 21, thus far, has been a non-event. We still return cancelled checks to our customers, and we have yet to have the first comment. In fact, I have yet to receive a substitute check in my statement, and I thought it would be quite likely for this past statement cycle. I am just curious how many other banks have had little, if any, issues or questions thus far about Check 21. [I may say that today, and be flooded with inquiries tomorrow!]

Nothing yet.

We are an imaging bank, though, so only ONE customer still receives his original cancelled checks back - he was the only one that threw a fit when we converted to imaging 4 years ago.

To the best of my knowledge, we have had very little inquiries or complaints. We went to imaging and online availability a couple of years ago but not required for the customer if they did not want it. So far seems to be much ado about nothing - so far!!

I only had one goofball customer contact me about it, and only because of an article put out by "Consumer Reports" which didn't clarify Check 21, just muddied the waters a little bit.
I sent him enough paper to count for a tree and haven't heard from him yet, he's probably still reading...

I think the press has done a poor job explaining how Check21 really works. Too many people are confused about the process.

But Firefighter, the press makes that so much more difficult for us by their misinformation. I wish they would just keep their traps shut.

We have received very few sub. checks thus far. We did mail out statement stuffers, but people often don't read those. I agree that customer education is the best avenue, as well as making the bank's service outstanding.

Mike, we are also located in TN. I checked with our Sr. Operations Officer the other day about Check 21. She also stated that in has (at least so far) been pretty much of a non-event. (Thank Goodness!)

The American Banker published a very interesting supplement last month titled "From Paper to Imaging: Check 21." It makes some interesting points about where the nation is heading with check imaging along with how and who will be picking up the tab.

Yea, we got our first expedited recredit claim for a duplicated check debit! Turns out that the duplicate debit was because of an indemnified photocopy, not a substitute check. We had to write a letter to deny the expedited recredit claim, and then write a letter saying why we were crediting the account for the duplicate debit. The depositor must think we're bonkers....

I really wouldn't call it much ado about nothing. Consumers Union and the mass media didn't do the banks or the public any favors by trying to whip it up into a bigger story than it needed to be. Also some of the media who may have had good intentions just misreported on it because they didn't really understand a pretty complicated, technical issue. But I think it was a big issue in that it opened the door for banks and others to start taking advantage of the technology.

I think the main reason that it hasn't been the radical change that some feared is that the adoption of the technology will be gradual over time. The ABA and others reminded us that the whole industry wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon and convert overnight. It's going to grow over time, and each bank won't see a big influx of customer questions and complaints until that bank starts seeing a large increase in the volume of substitute checks either because of a change that they themselves make or because their correspondent banks make the change. But it will come. And I'm not saying it will be mayhem, but it will be a problem if banks don't do a good job of alerting their own customers.

We recently had an issue where the New Orleans Fed and I think the Dallas Fed had two shifts print the same Substitute checks twice. So, we got the same batch of substitute checks two days in a row. Doh!