Australia has a banking ombudsman that resolves disputes like this, though I've never had reason to use it. There's also a telecommunications ombudsman - it's a magic word whenever the phone companies screw up (a fairly regular occurrence, though less so recently), I just say I'm recording this call to send to the ombudsman and everything is fixed really quickly.

I believe there a sort of government service but the banks/telcos pay for them by each complaint they get charged - it's free for consumers and works well.

I realise it doesn't help the ops current problem but just mentioning it as a good solution.