Clear Negligence By Bank of America & they do not care

My Bank of America experience has been a nightmare the last few weeks. It all started the week the poor guy in Florida was refused to cash a check written to him by his wife from B of A. You can find this one on the internet. The man was refused to cash this valid check, because B of A demanded a "finger print". Which in most cases is proper. However, this poor man was born without arms! Instead of someone using their BRAIN and finding a reasonable solution, they simply denied him. B of A reps apologiesed AFTER, but the damage and level of "stupidity" used by B of A employees was very clear.

My case was not as bad as that poor fellow. But the incompitence of B of A employees shown clear and their very uncaring attitude when it was solely THEIR ERROR!

I had went to the San Ysidro, CA branch to make a withdrawl from my B of A checking account, then used part of those funds to make a payment on my B of A credit card, which the teller had my credit card in her hand that the payment was going to be made on.

I get the receipt and check to make sure the amount was correct, and it was. However I did not check the last four digits listed on the receipt. She had the card in her hand, so I did not expect their to be a problem and I would expect any teller to know how to do their job that they are getting paid for.

I had checked a few days later on-line, because I knew my interest charge on the card was coming due and always check to make sure my account is in proper order, never to be late or go over the credit limit. But I did not see my current payment listed online. So I immediately called B of A and the rep told me I should go to the branch where I made the payment and talk to them. I did look at my reciept and notice the last 4 numbers did not match my credit card at that time.

So I went to the bank and asked to speak with the manager. Well, no manager...no assistant manager..just a supervisor who at first told me to use the bank phone and call customer service! I told her I had already talked to them and it was them who instructed me to go to the branch so they could find out what had happened.

The "supervisor" was far less than helpful and in manner was trying to simply "pass the buck" so she didn;t have to deal with the situation. I had to demand that since they were the ones who did the transaction that is was their responsibility to find out what happened. at this point I had no idea where the teller had placed this payment, because I only have one credit card.

After calling customer service again, they instructed the supervisor to research this matter. The supervisor them placed me with another associate who, after many internal calls, found out that the teller had placed the payment to an old B of A credit card I had and closed the account in 2003! How you can even place a payment to a CLOSED account is beyond me, but that is what happened. (note this was 2 1/2 hours later!)

OK, so we finally figured out, it was clearly and soley the teller's error. I said ok, now either post the payment to the correct current acoount or place the money back into my checking account (I had to make arrangements to have someone else make another equal payment that same day, as to avoid the interest charge that was due to post that night and would have placed my balance over the credit limit...then to incur all sorts of fees and problems. this was done whie we were still trying to figure out what had happened and i did not want to risk what could have been another nightmare situation.

Now, we found out what transpired and again, was soley and totally the teller's error/incompitence, so it was clearly B of A's fault. Now that they verified it was clearly their error, I demanded it be correct right then, because there is no legitimate reason why they could not, since they verified it was their error.

Instead, I was told it would be corrected within 5-10 BUSINESS DAYS! this was totally unexceptable, when I knew all they had to do was do a little work on the computer and it could easily be corrected. So the rep made a few phone calls and said they had to call a department located on the east coast. But it was now 5:30 on the east coast and of course that dept. was closed. So the rep stated she would not be working the next day (Tues) but made copies of everything and said she would make sure someone took care of this the next day and that they were suppose to call me to confirm all had been taken care of.

Now note, as I explained to this branch, I am staying in Tijuana Mexico and to just get to this branch I must wait in line to cross the boarder (which can take hours) and that I did not want to have to come back.

The rep promised me it would be taken care of and they would call and confirm. That call never happened. I called the customer service to follow up on the situation. Oh, you might ask why I did not contact the branch..well I tried..for 3 days! Even B of A customer service could not reach the branch! Why? They NEVER answer their phones! I have been in the branch when there was ONE customer besides myself, and they still NEVER answer their phones! It rolls over to the call center.

I finally located the telephone number of the office of the CEO for B of A (704)386-5687. And spoke with a woman named Ty (sp?) on Friday (this had been going on since Monday morning). She researched the situation and did call me back. She stated she could have MY MONEY back into my account in 3 business days! I told her that was totally unexceptable and she relied that was the best she could do (this is from the office of the CEO) I told her there is absolutely no reason why it should take so long, since it had already been confirmed back on Monday it was a clear B of A error. there was no reason they should be holding MY MONEY!

I then informed her that I would be filing a lawsuit against B of A for clear negligence, damages (I did incurr one late fee of $35 because I could not pay one bill on time due to all this) and that she could expect a couple of picket signs in front of that branch sating my case for B of A negligence.

Later that afternoon, since I was close to that ranch I stopped in. WOW! An actuall assistant manager was actually there! While I waited for 30-45 min (it was about 2 pm) on the list to talk to her, I went to the teller window and had them print out my balance. Sure enough..no money.

I finally got into see the assistant manager, explained this whole fiasco, so she made some calls to other depts. After her 3rd or 4th call, she hung up the phone and said (with a bit of a pompus attitude) "Well that money was put into your account this morning". I promptly opened my wallet, took out the printed teller reciet showing my balance as of about 30 min prior, and told her "you might want to take a look at this...its the receipt I just recieve from your tellers about 30 minutes ago. So there is no way in hell it was put in there this morning." She then replied "well its in there now". So I told her "well lets go check." She had the nerve to point me to the long teller line and said "you can go get it". I stated, I have been going through this nightmare from YOUR (B of A) error, and now you want me to go stand in line AGAIN!? I don't think so!" So she then escorted me to the front of the line and got the receipt showing where the funds had FINALLY been placed back into my account.

This is one of THREE types of clear B of A errors that I have had to deal with over the last 3 weeks. taking my time, my resources to fix CLEAR B of A ERRORS by their shear incompitence! And worst of all, they did not seem to care about all the problems it has caused me, my time, my resources, all for their mistakes! the most I got was "sorry for the inconvenience."

As I explained clearly to them, when its taking up my time (and a LOT of it) and my resources (money) and I am fixing their problems which they are getting paid for that job, it's an INSULT to call it an "incovenience"!

In summary, it has been my experience that B of A is negligent, incompitent and totally uncaring about their customers. I have closed my B of A accounts and will never do business with such an institution every again.

I have had my own business for 19 years and have very loyal clients. You can ask any of them how I treat my customers. On the very rare occassion a mistake or error occurs, it is resolved IMMEDIATELY and my clients will NEVER have to pay, or even be "incovenienced" do to our error. We make sure if they are "incovenienced" they are well compensated to let them know we are truly sorry and to make sure error do not occur.

That is why we have never lost a single client due to customer service issues in over 19 years of business.

But it appears B of A could not care less in how they treat their customers.