back to article Plutus Payroll finally pays up ... but pays people TOO MUCH!

Beleaguered Plutus Payroll has a new mess on its hands: after a fortnight during which its customers went without pay, some have now been paid too much. The company took to Facebook to say that “Owing to the unusual nature of the transactions, we are aware that the Commonwealth Bank, in processing these payments, has …

  1. Mark 65

    Yeah but no but

    Plutus puts the blame for the overpayments on the Commonwealth Bank. But in The Register's experience, banks tend to do exactly what they're told. We therefore suspect that when Plutus hit Go on its delayed pay runs, the instructions were somehow awry.

    Hmmm, it was CBA though so all bets are off.

    1. LaeMing
      Happy

      Re: Yeah but no but

      My mum (bless her) gets absolutely livid when people (especially bank staff) try to tell her that 'the computer' made a mistake. It is usually the operator (or occasionally the programmer) that makes the mistake, and the computer does what it is told, as she is happy to tell them!

      1. tedleaf

        Re: Yeah but no but

        Ahh,but sometimes the machines do manage to somehow make mistakes..

        I was told the exact same thing when £60 was "ghosted" out of my account with Lloyds,deputy manager told me if I could show one mistake their machines had made,I could have my money back,it took me three weeks of me scanning through piles of printout but I finally found a payment from an ARM made at 5.56 AM,Lloyds own ATM(s were not meant to start working until 6AM !!!

        Give the girl her due,she excepted it realy was a computer mistake and paid me my £60,even if she wasn't smileing when she did...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Yeah but no but

          "deputy manager told me if I could show one mistake their machines had made"

          Deputy manager now looking for new job.

          On the other hand: customer asks for bank's proof that it genuinely was the computer that made the mistake .... unless bank can prove customer made mistake, it's their mistake. Yeah right.

          As far as Plutus is concerned, contractors should keep it but move the money to a reserve account, just in case Plutus does it again? :)

          1. katrinab Silver badge

            Re: Yeah but no but

            No, don't move it to another account, leave it in the account it was transferred to, as if the transaction is reversed without notice, you don't want to go overdrawn.

        2. LaeMing
          Boffin

          Re: Yeah but no but

          "Ahh,but sometimes the machines do manage to somehow make mistakes."

          I am pretty confident, if you dug deeper, you would find it was caused by an edge case that a human programmer had not accounted for, and yes, the computer was still doing what it was instructed to do.

          About the only 'computer mistake' I will accept is the outside chance of a cosmic ray flipping a bit in memory, but even that could be blamed a designer not putting in enough redundancy, especially in a critical system such as used in finance.

  2. macjules

    Plutus' post tells overpaid contractors”It would be appreciated if you could keep the overpaid amount in your account as you may find it gets reversed in the near future

    Always presuming that the contractor is still working in Australia and now, having just received 4x the amount owed, has not transferred all the money back home and shut down his account.

    1. Chris Evans

      Risky

      "Always presuming that the contractor is still working in Australia and now, having just received 4x the amount owed, has not transferred all the money back home and shut down his account."

      The courts in the UK can take a very dim view of such actions and may consider that criminal. I could move the money to my 'offset'. account and if 'reclaimed' my main account is automatically replenished from the offset account. Money in my offset account reduces my mortgage interest|

  3. Herby

    Proves the axiom...

    The err is human, to really foul things, you need a computer.

    If this is anything like the bank error that was made on my account when the company I worked for went Chapter 7 (death of a company, under extreme duress), the bank will suck back anything it thought was in error.

    I was (if the company lived) to have an automatic deposit. Well, the deposit happened, but a couple of days later, it was slurped back. Live and learn. The next time I was paid by what I considered a "dodgy" company, I went right to the bank, and got CASH (in the USA, folded nice green paper with pictures of presidents and other elder statesmen) then went over to MY bank and deposited it. They can't suck back CASH!

    Live and learn!

  4. mathew42

    Any connection to ATO official Michael Cranston facing charges over son's alleged $165m fraud? The radio said it involved a payroll company.

    1. mathew42
      Unhappy

      Answer is yes.

      I feel sorry for the innocent caught up in this mess.

  5. Pu02
    Joke

    I bet anyone w that money still in their account is rushing to take it out today!

    Today's news explains all: Clearly by overpaying some contractors earlier, someone capable of making a 'terrible mistake' acted to save the bacon of their mates before the plod turned up this morning. Getting it back won't prove hard though, not for this taxman:

    Taxman: "As a debtor, we come first. Give it 'ere!"

    Ex Platus contractor: "But they gave it to me first, and you came along after the business was busted!"

    Taxman: "No, it was a a mistake you were informed about previously. It is payable."

    Ex Platus contractor: "But I hear your boss was responsible, not just the company. I have no obligation to pay you, you're a bunch of crooks!"

    Taxman: "If you do not agree immediately, we will begin enforcement action right now. I can still send armed men in sports cars to collect."

    Ex Platus contractor: "Okay guvnor. unfair cop. To which of your manager's accounts in the BVI would you like me to send it?"

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon