A Saskatoon man deposited a $21,000 cheque. Only $210 showed up in his account.

On Valentine’s Day, Tom Williamson found little to love after a visit to the TD Canada Trust Branch in Saskatoon’s Stonebridge neighbourhood.

He went to deposit a $21,000 cheque given to him by a family member. What he thought would be a simple task turned into a two-and-a-half-week nightmare.

“I’m glad I’m alive to do this without a heart attack after it,” he told CTV News.

Williamson said he decided to use the drive-thru ATM as he thought it would be easier due to COVID-19.

“The banks these days, they don’t want you in there. They’d like you to do everything automatically with COVID and everything.”

However, when Williamson got his receipt for the deposit, which included a photo of the cheque, he was surprised to see only $210 went through.

“I figured it was a simple mistake, it can be taken care of very easily,” he said.

That wasn’t the case. Williamson said he immediately went into the bank to get help from a teller but was told the issue would have to go to head office and that there was a policy that needed to be followed.

“I went through the people in the bank several times, online with the customer service, the complaint departments, text messages back and forth, everybody saying ‘oh yes, we will take care of this for you Mr. Williamson and you’ll get your money back.’ Two and a half weeks, I never saw a thing.”

Williamson said the bank’s policy stated it could take between 50 and 60 days to resolve the issue.

“I may not have needed it this second but within the next 60 days, I would really like to have my money,” he said.

“Everyone in the bank said the cheque is valid, there’s no problem there, no debate or issue on that. It’s not like it was a concern of fraud or anything. Everybody said it’s good, but they can’t do anything because of policy. Something sucks in that policy.”

After weeks of discussions with TD and inquiries made by CTV News, Williamson said he woke up Wednesday morning to find he was over $20,000 richer.

“I have a bit of a grin on my face because checking my bank account this morning, I saw that I did have a credit put into my bank account for the difference, for the outstanding amount which I have back now. So, I’m feeling good today,” he said.

“I’m glad to finally get it. It’s got some good uses it’s going to go to.”

Despite getting the money back, Williamson said the experience has left him wary of using an ATM again and warns others to use caution.

“Things have changed, you don’t even punch amounts or anything in the machine, it reads everything. This was a cheque I was able to get traced back. But what if this had been cash? I couldn’t have substantiated anything,” he said.

“Somebody asked me, am I going to use ATMs in the future? Yes, to take money out, but definitely not to put money in.”

In a statement to CTV News, TD apologized to Williamson for the delay as it investigated and resolved the issue.

“We encourage ATM customers to verify the amount of any cheque before completing their transaction. There are procedures to correct errors when making a deposit, but they take time due to processes involving other financial institutions,” said the statement from Ian McColl, manager of corporate and public affairs.