After failed attempts to get badly needed gas fill up and a few embarrassing moments in 3 convenience stores, I checked my checking account balance online at work to notice it was negative by $3,000.00. There was a debit ACH memo for $5,300.00 on our account and no notation or information. The money was just gone! I was told by my bank that it was lawfully withdrawn by a company I had obviously been doing business with and had given permission to do so.

In reality, I did not know the company nor the bank responsible for the mishap. Needless to say, the duress of not knowing where our money went or who took it was devastating ! Our bank, Chase, told us there was nothing we could do except wait for the transaction to post and more details would become available. After a grueling night of no sleep, the next morning, we checked the balance and the ACH hold was still there along with the negative balance.

After several more phone calls that morning and checking the balance online around 10am central, the funds were back in place and the hold was withdrawn.

Much to our surprise, Chase only knew that the bank was legitimate, the company very viable and the transaction was a mistake (fat-fingered) by 1 digit. We lodged a complaint with the bank and they are investigating.

Don't blink! It happened again today, 1 week later!!! The same bank! The same company! The same account and the same situation! Only this time, we have checks pending. Our bank again is at a lost as to why this has re-occurred. We have more information now about the bank and the company, Harris Bank, Chicago and West Thomson, publisher.

We called Customer service at Harris bank, only to be told that we should have been expecting this transaction since, we are legitimate customers of West Thomson... huh? West Thomson told us that these transactions occur when they are trying to get their money for products delivered... huh? I was told that because I received the materials, I should have not problems paying for them... huh? The products are legal manuals... ha!

West Thomson is a publisher, the publisher, of legal publications, manuals and materials.

Somehow, our bank routing information or account number is incorrectly entered into their database and they want to spend days researching the problem. Unbelievable!