We have a customer that mailed a check for payment to a vendor. The vendor never received the check. Customer calls and asks about the stop payment fee and then asks who would be liable for the check if it was forged/altered. Bottom line is that they just don't want to pay the stop payment fee and want to roll the dice knowing that the bank would be liable if they notified the bank of the forgery within the appropriate time frame. The logical side of me says to just waive the stop payment fee and protect the bank from any potential loss. But there is this other side of me that doesn't want to waive the fee on principal.
My question is, since the customer knows about the potential risk of fraud, would the bank's liability be lessened at all because the customer knew and didn't take action? Of course I suppose the same could be said for the bank, right?
It's just sticking in my craw...
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Sometimes you have to burn a few bridges to keep the crazies from following you.