Bell MTS overpayment rings clear

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This article was published 30/06/2022 (1166 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipegger who mistakenly transferred Bell MTS one month of his and his wife’s pension income says he has more than 2,000 reasons to be thankful for calling the Free Press.

George Wootten, 68, says he is on his way to getting most of both pension funds back — more than $2,000 — after the Free Press intervened when he said the telephone company had stonewalled him for a month.

“I admit it: I made a mistake,” Wootten said Wednesday. “I’m an idiot — I hit the wrong button on the computer.

“But when I called, they said I would get it back six weeks. I said it’s robbery; I told them, this isn’t your money, it is ours. But all that happened was they took out a monthly payment from it two days later, and now they’ve taken another payment out.”

A Free Press reporter put an inquiry in at 10:32 a.m. Wednesday. A Bell MTS spokeswoman said she would look into it at 11:19 a.m., asking a clarification question at 12:32 p.m.

Meanwhile, Wootten said a company representative called him at 12:30 p.m.

“He called me and asked me to call my bank to cancel the request for reversal,” Wootten said.

“He said once that was done, he could go get a cheque issued to me that I will receive next week. He said the Free Press had contacted them and he was doing everything he could to make this happen fast.”

Bell MTS spokeswoman Morgan Shipley said when a customer overpays “it can take up to several weeks for Bell MTS to receive the reverse payment request from their financial institution.”

“Once we are notified by the bank, we typically refund the balance within 24 hours. In this case, we were notified of the issue by the customer yesterday, and have offered an immediate alternative solution,” she said.

Wootten said he’s just glad to get the money back now. “Since the call from Bell MTS, I’m no longer in the doghouse with my wife.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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