Debit Cards

I’ve never beeen too comfortable with cards. Sometime ago, I encountered a problem I haven’t faced before although I’m told that it’s common enough — I went to a shop and paid using a debit card. Later, when I updated my passbook, I noticed that I’d been charged twice for the purchase.
Assuming the shop had charged me twice, I tried to follow it up with them (and get my money back). They were polite and helpful – having a membership card with them may have helped — although they told me that they problem was with the bank. They took about ten minutes to give me a letter to give to the bank saying that I’d made a purchase for which they had received payment only once (although I’d been charged twice), and asked that the bank give me back my money.
I then went to the bank with the letter and had a completely different experience there. To begin with, they were completely ill-equipped to handle the situation — such as it is. First they couldn’t find the form which needed to be filled up. When they did finally find it, they discovered that they had just one copy (and have therefore asked me to come back tomorrow to collect the form). It turns out that they also need the form to be submitted in triplicate with three sets of photocopies of the first and last pages of my passbook, and the letter which the shop gave me to give them. Not too surprisingly, they’re not planning to pay for the photocopying charges and to make matters even more annoying, they plan to take a minimum of 45 days to reimburse me. Also, they tell me that it isn’t their fault.
At this stage though I don’t care whose fault it is. I want my money to be returned to me and I am astounded that the bank doesn’t have a quicker procedure to deal with problems like this. The amount in this particular case is small but I dread ever having the same thing occur with a large amount of money being involved.