FRO Bank garnishment~ Your not going to believe this.

[supar3]

Some of you are aware of my issues with FRO. They garnished my ex's bank account last month and I have been given conflicting information regarding what happens next.

This morning I was informed that the bank responded to FRO that they do not have a customer by his name, and therefore there was no account to garnish. This made no sense to me and on pressing further it was discovered they garnished the wrong bank. Despite me providing them with the bank name, transit number, the bank's address including postal code, the account number, and names on the account, they sent the garnishment to the wrong bank. A bank he has never used, a bank I have never used. As a matter of fact, I do not know anyone who uses the bank they tried to garnish.

Needless to say, I am completely fed up. They did not even attempt to reach me to confirm with me the information I provided them with. Had I not called to find out why the new support deduction order had not been updated in my file yet (they have had it since May 21st), no one would have known they garnished the wrong bank.

Nice eh. I asked to speak to my caseworker....but no...... I was told to call back in 2 days instead.

Seriously.

[phoenix]

I believe it.

In 2005 I filed an Application to get child support and spousal support started. The court issued a temp child support amount, and ordered us to negotiate the spousal. We eventually were able to negotiate agreeable terms and drew up a Separation Agreement. Since I filed the original Application, it was my responsibility to officially "withdraw" it formally, and send a photocopy of the form to the FRO. Which I did. Then my FRO deposits suddenly stopped. I called in and asked what was going on... where were the support payments? The clerk said "You withdrew from the FRO program." Excuse me??? I certainly did not. "Yes, you did. I have the form right in front of me." I asked her to look closer, that was a photocopy of the court form to withdraw my court Application.

"Oh dear, somebody didn't read this whole paper and thought you were withdrawing from the FRO."

Because of THEIR mistake I had to start all over again and wait all over again for the FRO to start handling the payments. I asked if they could 'fast track' my case since it was THEIR fault they cancelled it by mistake. Nope. My ex was entitled to a certain amount of notification, etc, all over again, just like the first time.

It took months and I had 4 children still at home.

GRRRRR.

[supar3]

Oh Wow!!! What a mess eh?

Yesterday too, I had called for 2 reasons, the change in the order and the garnishment. She quickly told me about the "no customer" at this bank and just tried to move onto the next issue. If I had not pressed harder or made her aware that was just not possible, he definately had an account at that bank..she would not have dug deeper. She also put me on hold to leave a "voice mail" for my caseworker, yet I was on hold about 4 minutes, much too long for just a message. She came back to me and said she left a note with my worker....I knew this was a lie and asked if she had mentioned about the file not being updated and she told me what my caseworker said...basically letting me know they spoke and she did not leave a message but spoke directly with her. These people are terrible. I assure you, if I screwed up at work the way these people do, I would be unemployed. Plain and simple.

[lee1869]

The people at FRO are not terrible; I believe that they are doing the best that they can under the circumstances. The problem is that they are overworked and under-resourced - the wait time due to call volumes alone is ridiculous. That speaks volumes.

Get your MPP involved.

[lawchanger]

Oh give me a break, overworked, please I see alot of them sitting around with coffee.

[supar3]

Well things just keep getting better.

I called again this morning as I was told. This time, the gentleman I spoke with gave me all new, and you guessed it, different information from what I got 2 days ago.

According to him, the wrong bank was not garnished and he could not find anything in his computer that said otherwise. Also, the correct bank was garnished just not on the day I was originally told or is on the recording. He tells me the correct bank has not responded and that it can take up to 60 days. He told me to fax the support deduction order directly to my case worker to help speed things along. He sent another note to my case worker direct, to let her know I had called back and went over again all of the misinformation I have been given. I asked him what I should do next besides faxing my copy of the order and he actually said to keep calling back. He told me straight out not to stop calling, call often, and make sure my caseworker was on top of everything. He said its unfortunate, but the people who get things done are the ones who keep calling. At least he was honest.

As for them being over worked, I do believe they are over worked. I also believe they are understaffed and not properly trained. I think the gov't should hire more people, update training, and allow people in the system to talk directly to their case workers as I believe there would be less communication problems and in turn less screw ups. Trying to get a call through to them can take a long time and wait times once you do get in are close to 30 mins. I think less people would be calling the system if they were consistently given correct information and only dealt with one person each time they called. I personally have been told to call back twice this week by two different case workers due to a previous agent's mistake. Kinda silly.

I really hope that things get fixed over there soon cause the program is a great idea, it is just not being run properly.

I guess I will need to wait and see what next week brings.

Never a dull moment.

[dadtotheend]

I really hope that things get fixed over there soon cause the program is a great idea, it is just not being run properly.

Don't hold your breath. It's been a f*****g mess for many many years.

[LostFather]

Don't hold your breath. It's been a f*****g mess for many many years.

Yeah, where is MR FRO on this one, thought he'd way in and tell everyone how great it is and give her the stories about ex's giving flowers and going o dinner together LOL!! Thoughts of Kumbaya are rolling in my head.

[Nathank]

Nothing about the FRO in my opinion is good. I do not personally have to deal with them.....but i sure have heard alot of horror stories about them.

[blinkandimgone]

Yeah, where is MR FRO on this one, thought he'd way in and tell everyone how great it is and give her the stories about ex's giving flowers and going o dinner together LOL!! Thoughts of Kumbaya are rolling in my head.

I don't know that 'Mr. FRO' wants to spend all his time here defending FRO. I believe he came to offer what advice he can to those in need and those going out of their way to be defensive and argumentative just because he works for FRO are not appreciating the reason he's here.

He's offering free advice and insight on how FRO works, he didn't design FRO nor does he decide how it's run so it makes no sense to lambast the guy for doing his job - at least he's doing his job and trying to help others!

P.S. My ex gives me flowers, what of it?

[LostFather]

I don't know that 'Mr. FRO' wants to spend all his time here defending FRO. I believe he came to offer what advice he can to those in need and those going out of their way to be defensive and argumentative just because he works for FRO are not appreciating the reason he's here.

He's offering free advice and insight on how FRO works, he didn't design FRO nor does he decide how it's run so it makes no sense to lambast the guy for doing his job - at least he's doing his job and trying to help others!

P.S. My ex gives me flowers, what of it?

Goodie, Goodie for you , I'm happy for you, but as far as Mr FRO is concerned, I have no problem with his opinion, but I take exception to the insults directed at me personally as a father and my ability to parent, as I would think most of would. There is no excuse for it, he's supposedly the professional here.

[supar3]

I had no idea there was a "Mr. FRO" in this forum. I have however thought about how good it would be if there was one. If he wants to jump in here and give me advice (he might have already as someone here did clear up a few things for me in my last post), I would really appreciate it.

All I have ever wanted is straight answers from someone at FRO. I hate calling all the time and getting confused by all the different information I get. The straight goods plain and simple. Its not knowing what is going on that is the most frustrating.



I would really appreciate the help. Really.