About March after being laid off from work, I came up from Portland, OR to visit a friend in Tacoma, WA. She had four kids and no food to speak of in her apartment and no income.
I decided that I would get groceries for her and lend her some money before returning to Portland. I stopped at my bank BOA at the branch at 11315 Pacific Ave and wrote out a withdrawel slip for $200 from my savings account. I had planned giving my friend around $100 between groceries and some cash, but ended up giving her around $100 after buying her around $70 worth of groceries. I never made it out of town that day and was down to around $10 so I went back to the bank the next morning to withdraw at least enough money to cover the cost of gas back to Portland.
When I got back to Portland I stopped at a BOA branch shortly after returning. A teller asked me if I would like my balance, and I said sure. I was getting down to my last few hundred dollars and realized immediatly that my account was short about $100. I immediatly asked to see a statement of my last transactions history and saw that the $200 withdrawel that I had made in Tacoma was shown as a $300 withdrawel. The teller didn't know what to say about that and I left the bank wondering how I was going to deal with this situation.
Within a few minutes of driving to where I was headed next, I remembered and discovered that I still had the receipt for the $200 withdrawel in my wallet. I then stopped at the BOA branch on 3757 SE Hawthorne Blvd in Portland, OR and showed a teller there my withdrawel receipt from the Tacoma BOA against my ministatement which showed that $300 had been deducted from my account against the $200 I had written on the withdrawel slip. I then also noticed that the withdrawel slip had been electronically stamped for $300 against the $200 I had written and received.
The teller told me that there was nothing that they could do about this there and that I would have to return to the bank in Tacoma where I had done this transation and take care of it there.
I did not have the time, money or inclination to spend $40 in gas for another round trip to Tacoma, but finally made it back up to the branch at 11315 Pacific Ave there and showed my receipt to a lady at the information counter and told her my situation. She took off with my receipt and came back a minute later and told me that the teller who had done this transaction with me told her that his till had balanced out on that shift. She then asked me if I would like them to research this further. I was stunned that she had no intention of recompensing me right then, especially after driving all the way back to Tacoma when she had the proof (my receipt) right in front of her (which she kept)
I guessed that maybe she was afraid to bust the teller herself and that maybe she was going to turn it over to someone else and so I just replied 'yes' to her question.
This all eventually came down to me refusing to pay on an overdraft for my account as a way to force BOA into looking at the proof I submitted where they shortchanged me.
BOA in turn said that I was a bad person and closed out my account and turned me in to Corporation Compliance (?) and told me it would be years before I could open another banking account unless I settled MY DEBT.
If there is anyone out there reading this message who is familiar with this BOA branch in Tacoma and you also have had a similar experience at this bank, I suggest taking a picture of any teller who you believe is a ripoff and sending me this picture at (I ask that consumer complaints pass pics on to me), and I will verify as to whether or not this is the person who ripped me off.
If Bank of America does not have the spine to discipline its employees, or right the wrongs to its customers, then I think we the people should get together and take action ourselves.
Gaylen
Auburn, Washington
U.S.A.
0 comments