GREENSBORO, N.C. — While riding with a friend down I-40, John Pannell heard his cell phone beep. He pulled out his phone and noticed a text message. It was from his bank. The text was a low balance alert.
“I was like what, what was going on? I know I had plenty of money in my account,” Pannell said.
He would quickly learn an issue with his Truliant bank account - that started a few weeks earlier - was now a big problem. The issue stemmed from an online bill Pannell sent to Duke Energy. The amount he had scheduled to pay was $65, but either he or the online payment company scheduled payment of $6,500.
“Because I pay my bills generally in fixed amounts, that’s my fault for not checking on my bank account constantly,” Pannell said.
Pannell didn’t notice the mistake until Truliant alerted him when it flagged the payment and opened an investigation.
“I saw it hadn’t gone through, it was stopped because of the amount,” Pannell said.
The bank was looking into the issue and Pannell thought it would be resolved without a major problem. Instead, it appeared the bank allowed the transaction to continue and sent the $6,500 payment to Duke Energy.
“I got a human on the line (at Truliant) and explained to them what happened, he said, 'Well, Mr. Pannell we can’t reverse it,'” Pannell said. “I would say I lost my temper on the phone more than once.”
Pannell reached out to WFMY News 2 to see if we could help resolve the matter. We immediately contacted Duke Energy and Truliant about the payment. A short time later, a Duke Energy representative contacted Pannell.
“They were able to reverse the charge, but they had to send me a paper check which would take about a week,” Pannell said.
When we reached out to Truliant to better understand what happened and why the money that was initially flagged was sent to Duke Energy, a representative sent us this statement: We’re unable to disclose information about our members’ accounts. Truliant is owned by our members and they are our top priority. We work with them on an individual basis to address whatever situation they might have.
The spokesperson did encourage us to reach back out to Pannell and told us the bank had been in contact with him.
“I’m glad (News 2) was able to help, (you) got the issue resolved and I appreciate it,” Pannell said.