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HomeBankingBank of America Responds...Far Too Late

Bank of America Responds…Far Too Late

Last month, Peter over at Bible Money Matters wrote about his horrendous experience with closing his Bank of America account. Well, he is not alone with his Bank of America troubles.

I opened my account last March (15 months ago) and in July 2009, I wanted to take advantage of a promotion to use bill pay for $25. I had just graduated college and started to pay my bills, so it was great timing to get some free money for something I was going to do anyway.

I expected to see the money deposited in my account within 3 months. Nothing. I called up to see what the deal was and they told me that I was not eligible for the promotion because when I opened the account in the branch, I had technically “activated” bill-pay even though I had never used it.

For obvious reasons, that didn’t sit well with me, so I went into the branch where a nice woman named Jenny made a few calls and said that it would be taken care of.

Two months later and I still hadn’t heard anything. I went back to Jenny, who apologized, investigated again, and came to the same conclusion that I should be eligible and compensated. I sat there while she made a few calls to confirm that I should get paid.

2 months later? Bingo: still no payment.

Now it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I was ready to go back to Jenny, who agreed months ago that if they couldn’t get it done the proper way, would find another way to credit me my $25, possibly through a referral that didn’t really occur (see? I told you she was nice!).

Instead of going back to the branch, I used Peter’s tip and contacted Bank of America through twitter. Sure enough, mere minutes after I sent them a message, I got one back with contact information (Their twitter handle is @BofA_Help).

I told them my situation, gave them my bank information, and they looked into it. What did they find? That I had previously been credited. What? Did I make a HUGE mistake? Nope, they did. They saw a referral bonus and assumed it was the same thing.

I made it clear that I was quickly losing patience and explained their mistake. Finally, I got another email back saying that in order to keep my business, they would be crediting me $35 and they hoped that would make me happy.

Sure, it solved the problem, but it took too much of my time and I’ve already switched to ING as my primary bank. I don’t stand for bad customer service.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. We’ve had the same run around with Bank of America years ago. It was the motivation for us to try out ING Direct. With all the competition out there, bad customer service is insane. I hope you enjoy ING!

  2. Yeah, it seems like they only get their act together after you jump through hoops, make a hundred phone calls and spend way too much time doing something you shouldn’t have to.

    At least they gave you the credit, and gave me a gift card for the trouble, right?

  3. This is the problem with big arse organizations. They don’t have time for their customers.

    I recommend checking out your local banks or boutique banks. They give way better service and personalized attention.

    • @Financial Samurai, There’s actually only one reason I still use them: My roommates and I transfer money around frequently, so until they switch too, it’s far more convenient for everyone. Soon I hope to be completely done with them. Closing my account will be so, so sweet.

  4. I’m glad you stuck with it and got what you were owed!

    I’m seeing stories like this all over the personal finance blogs I read…I now need to avoid BOA, Chase, Fedex, and a bunch of clothing stores, lol. Sadly Chase is still our brick and mortar bank out of laziness, but ING gets all our money.

  5. I went through something similar to this with my small business account at BoA. Since my cash flow is so infrequent (coming mostly from tax preparation), they gave me an account that waives the fees if you use the check card once per month. However, I was getting charged fees in months that I clearly used the card – it would even be on the statement. After several “errors” in a little over a year, I finally moved my account to Capital One – they have a “no fee” small business checking account.

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