'I need to know where my money is': TD customers react to direct deposit issue

Friday marked pay-day for many British Columbians, but some were shocked to find no cheque had been deposited.

TD Bank was hit with "technical issues" that caused widespread outages for customers across western Canada.

As minutes turned into hours, the damage from the disruption was being felt as money was being taken out of accounts as bills came due.

"I said let me go into my (TD branch). I'm still on hold; what's the worst thing that can happen? I need to know where my money is," said Simran Lal, a Surrey resident.

On hold for nearly four and half hours, Lal says she felt left in the dark as the money remained absent.

The disruption spread to businesses and industries.

Eric Naygard, a Coquitlam realtor, was forced to scramble as sales hung in the balance as he says lawyer trust accounts were frozen.

"They are unable to complete because lawyers can't access their trust accounts. As a result, this has the whole real estate industry, anybody with a real estate completion date today (June 16), scrambling to try to figure out how to complete their purchase or sale," said Nygard.

The long-time realtor says he has never seen a disruption like this in nearly two decades of working in real estate.

On Saturday morning, the issue had been resolved, and the sale went through, but the emotional damage of the chaos persisted.

"Fortunately, everybody that I was working with was very accommodating, but it was still a very stressful situation. I was managing my client's tears through numerous calls throughout the day and again this morning," said Nygard.

Nygard went on to say that communication throughout Friday was lacking and believes it was downplayed as a "direct deposit" issue, which he says was not the case.

TD Bank would not answer questions specifically about this situation, but did release a statement on Saturday.

"The technical issues that impacted some of our customers yesterday, primarily in Western provinces, have been resolved. Our customers should now have full access to most bank services, including delayed direct deposits," wrote Mick Ramos, the Western Canada public affairs manager for TD Bank.

"We know that some customers experienced significant stress, and we sincerely apologize for this experience. We understand the importance of being able to use banking services wherever and whenever customers want, and we will continue to work with individual customers that require additional support."

TD Bank also promised to reimburse customers who have incurred a TD NSF or Pay As You Go overdraft fee.

The bank assured CTV News that the tech issue did not compromise customers' personal information.