Denys (name changed, known to editors) told The Postedia that in early May he decided to deposit up to 10,000 into the Paysera account. euros (he already had a similar amount). He deposited some of the money through a chain store, but the person still had to go to the Vilnius branch due to the limitation of operations.
He claims to have heard a strange response
“I arrived, I handed over the money, I was counted, everything is fine. I go to the car dealership, the money is in my account, they gave me the amount to pay. The money was not signed, but it was reserved”, begins Dionysius in his unpleasant history.
He says he received inquiries about the purpose of the payment, what other agreements he had with the car salesman, and was asked to attach a contract and an invoice to the form. The man says that due to his lack of skills, he could not perform this operation remotely, so he again went to the e-money institution to submit the documents directly.
“I didn’t suspect anything wrong, I took these papers and came to the office. I took the coupon for the queue. The girl sits, greeted very rudely, says ‘didn’t you I didn’t see that you have to send papers online”? I say that I did not upset her, I am 57 years old, and she says to me: “go to your Ukraine, everything is simpler and better there” .What is this sentence for?, the interviewer cites the details of the conversation.
Denys says he had all the documents and was communicating discreetly. He said he sat down and waited until he called back.
Then the client comes to remember himself, but is again pushed aside. Denys says he asked to serve him because he has already stood in line and is a customer like everyone else. The employee finally asked the customer to leave the service.
“He gets up, walks away and says ‘I’m not sitting down until you get out of here.’ I understood that I would not resolve the conflict,” says the interviewer.
We cannot independently confirm the possibly disrespectful communication between Denys’s words and the Paysera employee (it is true that the client sent screenshots of his discounts).
However, the man who provided the Ukrainian with accommodation contacted the editorial staff of “The Postedia”. He pointed out that Dionysius had been living with him for six months and that he was “a very neat, educated and enterprising person”, moreover “intelligent and very patient”, which is why the Lithuanian doubts that the Ukrainian can lie.
Denys himself claims that another employee of Paysera was more polite and time offered him to come the next day and sort out the situation. He then stopped at the car dealership, where he had to hand over the original 1.5 thousand. contributions in euros. Plan to pay the remaining amount later.
Denys suspects that the special attention paid to his account is not only due to the prevention of money laundering and terrorism, but by the figures in the office of the institution.
In addition, the man was told that the inspection could take 30 days or more, and after receiving only standard official responses to all inquiries. And at this time, it actually remains without money, because about 21,000 are now unavailable on the account. euros. A total of 35,000 was distributed in the account in a few years. euros.
“I run around Kaunas, Vilnius – I borrow money. I am shocked, what is this attitude towards people? From my experience in the police, I understand what financial control is. For a good specialist, 2-3 hours would be enough for the inspection. But not 30 days. Millions, hundreds of thousands are ‘walking’ to people, and it’s coming in on time,” he says.
He explains that he got the money after selling two cars and recovering some money he had borrowed from an acquaintance.
“I don’t have time, my mother is sick, I was going to buy a car to go there and I’m not very well myself. Left without money. My hands are hanging down, there is despair, l apathy – I did nothing”, says Denysas.
In the complaint to the Paysera company, the person writes that he “has no choice but to turn to public organizations supporting Ukraine, asking for legal support to take legal action due to the personalities and insolent behavior of your bank employees, which specifically caused me personal loss and loss.”
“The owner of the salon wants to withdraw the deposit (he has every right to do so), there is no money to live on, I can’t go to my mother’s house, my nerves are on the edge of despair”, says the person.
Paysera: existing fundamental rights and duties
Paysera’s head of customer service, Deimintas Mažuolis, told The Postedia that due to personal and customer data privacy principles applied to financial institutions, he cannot detail and make public specific cases.
“Generally, financial institutions are required to comply with money laundering prevention requirements. That is why, before opening accounts, financial institutions ask customers to complete questionnaires to find out the customer, and after the start of a business relationship, institutions monitor monetary transactions and other financial behavior of customers.
In some cases, the purpose of monitoring may be to protect the client himself from fraudsters and cases of money laundering, in other cases – to protect the financial system from suspicious actions,” says D. Mažuolis .
According to him, upon noticing certain transactions initiated, employees have a “fundamental right and duty” to stop transactions themselves or to restrict access to the account and carry out a detailed audit as required by law.
“For example: it is natural that a financial institution can and should ask questions if customers have indicated their main income from salaried activity in the familiarization questionnaire, and they begin to receive large sums of other people in their accounts or deposit large sums of cash, the origin of which they cannot properly justify”, – says the representative of Paysera.
D. Mažuolis claims that auditing customers’ financial transactions is aimed at dispelling any doubts about the origin of money or verifying the validity of payment transactions. After ensuring that everything is fine during the audit, the restrictions on the use of the account for the client are removed. If signs of possible illegal activity appear during the audit, the information is transferred to law enforcement authorities.
“We have no information indicating that there has been a conflict at the service center, but we take any reports of potentially disrespectful behavior seriously and will assess the situation internally objectively,” he said.
Paysera recalls that it was one of the first financial institutions in the world to announce on February 23, 2022 (one day before the hostilities) that it was suspending transfers to and from Russia and closing the accounts of Russian citizens. As Ukrainians fled the war, the company adapted one of the office floors in Vilnius to the needs of refugees and housed more than 25 Ukrainians there, employing several of them.
“Ukrainians still live in the company’s offices. The fintech company issued a payment card in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to show solidarity with Ukraine,” notes D. Mažuolis.
Two weeks after depositing the money, Denys still had no favorable news regarding the funds remaining in the account.
Source: The Delfi
