Sometimes, integrity comes at a cost, and in one California employee’s case, that cost came directly from his bank account. Reddit user Titan5_Overlord posted his predicament on r/legal, explaining that his employer overpaid him $3,000 on top of his $2,500 monthly salary. He says he contacted HR to report the problem, but payroll staff was “out of office” at the time. Instead of getting back to him about his offer to help return the overpayment, Titan’s employer allegedly took matters into their own hands.
“Thursday night I logged into my bank app and saw that my checking account was negative thirty-two hundred dollars,” Titan recalled in disbelief. Instead of simply taking back the $3,000 overpayment, the payroll department did two separate reverse wires. They pulled the total $5,500 and then another $3,000, a grave mistake for his bank account.
“They completely DRAINED my personal savings, triggered five overdraft fees, and bounced my automatic mortgage payment,” exclaimed Titan. After this shocking discovery, he says he immediately contacted HR about what happened, and they said they’d fix it in two weeks when payroll came around. The bank was of no help either, claiming it was an authorized ACH reversal.
“My employer is acting like leaving an employee with negative three thousand dollars for two weeks is just an administrative inconvenience,” groaned Titan, regretting his decision for direct deposit. Reddit collectively sided with him in the comments, demanding he be firm with his employer over this careless error.
Reddit Urges OP Fight for an Off-Cycle Reversal with His California Employer
“If they can pull the overpayment on an offcycle, no reason they can’t process offcycle wages/refund one of the overpayments,” wrote a commenter. They continued, recommending OP email the boss and HR director directly to demand a fix to the mistake. “The best argument is that they pulled more than they deposited and robbed you,” remarked another user.
“A responsible company would strive to make it right ASAP,” protested a third. “I would also start job searching. A company that does this will screw you over in other ways,” suggested a fourth.
While Titan hasn’t reported back on the conclusion of his wild payroll ordeal, he was in agreement with his employer being able to fix the mistake whenever. “If their systems allow offcycle withdrawals, they can run an offcycle wire to fix it right now,” he stated.
