Complaint Rating:

My husband travels. He occasionally writes a check from his check book. He obviously has a different check book than I do. We can't share the same set of checks when we are not in the same town. We happened to be together today shopping at Walgreens. I wrote a check to pay for our purchase which was declined. I stood at the register and called Certegy because I have funds in my account and have never bounced a check. I could not for the life of me imagine why my check was declined. It was because my husband wrote a check from his book earlier this week and our checks were out of sequence. Have you ever grabbed the wrong check book - not to mention couples who may operate out of two check books. This ques the Certegy system to decline your check. Although my husband was with me, we had both check books with both sequences with us, we both had multiple forms of ID, we have very high check numbers from an account that has been open for over 20 years and we had a deposit slip showing funds of over $5000 available as of yesterday - there was no exception to the rule. Centergy refused to make any kind of exception. They also informed me that if either of us attempted to write a check at ANY store in the Centergy system, it would be declined for the next three days. I discussed this with the manager of Walgreens and he is at the mercy of the Centergy system. I have worked in the collection and check recovery business for over twenty years. I helped develop and impliment an electronic check solution. Our solution allowed our client to use the system to alert them of red flags but also to make sure they could provide good customer service in a case like mine. My entire family uses Walgreens for prescriptions, personal items and household items. We may spend an average of $500 per month, easily. I will opt NOT to shop at Walgreens and I will attempt to find a non-Centergy contracted store to make my purchases, even if I have to pay more at a local, family owned, pharmacy in my area. This system bullies consumers. Stores that buy in to the philosephy that the need that kind of service to protect themselves are foolish. There is another pharmacy down the street from almost every Walgreens in the United States. When you are in a competitive market like that, you need to think just as much about customer service as protecting yourself from fraud.