Access Credit Union members got a little something extra in their monthly statements: part of someone else's statement.
Access CU officials said a third-party vendor equipment malfunction and lapse in quality control inadvertently mailed the second page of two-page statements inside the wrong envelopes.
Officials with the $69-million credit union said members quickly began calling in and CU employees also brought it to the attention of management as soon as they received their statements. ACU SVP Gary McDade also got someone else's page in the mail.
"We jumped on it immediately," McDade said, adding that no more than 8%, or 1,000, of ACU's 10,000 members could be affected with the mix-up, but a more accurate number would be closer to a "couple of hundred" members receiving the wrong second page of their statements. Statements that included three or four pages weren't affected by the malfunction.
McDade said no social security numbers were on the statements, only the name and account number plus balances on some of the statements. McDade declined to name the vendor but said the company quickly produced a second printing overnight and took full responsibility for the incident, but also emphasized that Access CU wasn't at fault.
"They'll take care of the costs. We appreciate them doing that," he said. McDade said ACU has placed temporary passwords on the 1,000 accounts that might be affected by the mailing mishap and will change the account number of any member who asks. Also, CU employees are asking additional security questions to anyone performing transactions on the affected accounts and will continue for the next few weeks, he said.
McDade said the CU is a former single-sponsor for utility workers, many of whom know each other by name and recognized the name on the statements. McDade said the affected members have been very understanding and even asked if they should mail the wayward statement pages to the proper member.
