From pillar to post

I had to make a payment to a standard bank and a external company contracted by std bank gave me a reference nr. I used it and now my payment cannot be traced. I spent over an hour in the bank trying to resolve the issue. They referred me to my bank, who cannot assist as the money was paid over to standard bank. Instead of trying to search for the incorrect ref nr they just passed the buck and referred me back to my bank, who has no fault in this,