This is long, it's what I've sent to the WV Attorney General, WV Division of Banking, and the Federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency.
An employee of BB&T, Michelle Heatherington, that setup the account for my wife and I either lied to my wife, or was negligent in informing her about the account.
The account was originally setup in the Ravenswood, WV branch by Mrs. Heatherington. At this time my wife was informed that we qualified for Classic Banking, including multiple free benefits, namely free Online Banking and Bill pay, interest bearing checking, etc. Mrs. Heatherington informed us of this because we currently posses a car loan through BB&T which, she said, satisfied the requirements for Classic Banking.
During account setup Mrs. Heatherington asked if we would like Overdraft protection costing $10 annually. Mrs. Heatherington, speaking on behalf of BB&T, informed us there would be no other fees involved and we agreed to this. This charge was deducted from savings upon setting up the account.
In April our statement included a fee for $19.95. BB&T Phone 24 informed us this charge was for Classic Banking, which we believed to be free of fees. My wife was informed at that time to take the issue up with Mrs. Heatherington. Mrs. Heatherington, upon being informed of this, said she would, "make some changes" and deduct the fee. My wife asked if anything would change and Mrs. Heatherington informed her that everything would stay the same. My wife was also informed by Mrs. Heatherington that if we received any more fees she would personally remove them.
In May a fee of $5.95 was charged to us for Online Bill Pay which my wife discovered during a call to Phone24. My wife spoke to a representative, and after being transferred multiple times, was told the fee would be removed, the Online Bill Pay would be cancelled, and my wife was informed that we had an Access Banking account, as opposed to the Classic Banking account we signed up for. My wife at that time informed the Phone24 representative that she did not want to deal with Mrs. Heatherington anymore, but would prefer dealing with someone else. After the conversation with the Phone24 representative my wife called me and I accessed the account online and permanently removed all Online Bill Pay items.
In July, on the 2nd, I withdrew money from an ATM and noticed the account was seriously off! At that time we considered that my Direct Deposit from my employer was delayed due to the holiday. On Tuesday, July 5th my wife called Phone24 and was informed there were multiple overdraft fees, and another fee for $5.95. Upon reviewing the records from May to the present the $5.95 charges had continued and the Online Bill Pay had not been stopped. The Phone24 representative told my wife to call Mrs. Heatherington, to which my wife replied that she did not want to deal exclusively with Mrs. Heatherington. My wife was then transferred to the representative's supervisor. The supervisor took the information and complaint and promised to call back within the hour to get this issue resolved in a timely manner.
During the return call from the Phone24 supervisor my wife was informed that the supervisor spoke directly with Mrs. Heatherington, who stated that she would contact my wife by 4:00 PM that day, she wanted to resolve the issue by 2:00 PM the following day, because other items would post to the account. Mrs. Heatherington never did call my wife back, so my wife called the Ravenswood, WV branch at 3:00 PM on Wednesday July 6th. The employees my wife talked to informed her that Mrs. Heatherington was currently with a client and would call her back.
My wife called the Ravenswood, WV branch back at both 3:30 and 3:58 PM, and was informed Mrs. Heatherington was still occupied with another client, but that she would be there until 4:30 PM. At 4:30 PM on the 6th of July Mrs. Heatherington called and spoke with my wife regarding the issue. Mrs. Heatherington at that time informed my wife that she could credit two back to back overdrafts fees totaling $68 that happened due to the account going into arrears of $2.44. The negative balance was due to the $5.95 Online Bill Pay fee from May. At this Time my wife informed Mrs. Heatherington that we should be credited for all Online Bill Pay and overdraft fees because the fees, which we were promised we would never receive, were directly responsible for our negative balance.
Mrs. Heatherington then stated that the Phone24 supervisor that she spoke with on the previous day did not inform her of the entire issue. Mrs. Heatherington then stated that since we had been using Online Bill Pay she could not credit us for those charges. My wife informed her that we had stopped using Online Bill Pay after learning we were being charged for it, and, Online Bill Pay, according to the account Mrs. Heatherington set us up with, was supposed to be free the
entire time. Mrs. Heatherington then told my wife that she would run this information past her supervisor, Nick Miller, and get back with her the following day, Thursday July 7th.
My wife began calling BB&T Ravenswood Branch after 2:00 PM on July 7th, after having not yet received a call from Mrs. Heatherington. She was unable to talk to Mrs. Heatherington during each of several calls made that day. On the morning of Friday, July 8th my wife spoke with a Ravenswood Branch BB&T employee who told her that Mrs. Hetherington had left for vacation until the 18th of July. At this time my wife asked to speak directly with Mr. Nick Miller.
During the conversation with Mr. Miller she was informed that he was unaware of the situation. My wife expressed disgust with Mrs. Heatherington's behavior, and that she would like answers immediately. Mr. Nick Miller then told my wife he would get on top of the issue and back in touch with her. She responded that the only person from BB&T who have ever called back in a timely manner was the Phone24 supervisor. He then assured her that he would contact her.
At this time my wife called me and I called Mr. Miller. I explained that in my opinion Mrs. Heatherington had either lied about the account when she set it up, which would be fraud, or that she was negligent which would be an internal BB&T Human Resources problem. I also informed him that as far as I was concerned she was acting on behalf of BB&T so the bank should be bound to keep its promises.
I then took half a day of vacation to get my paycheck cashed, I had stopped the Direct Deposit on Tuesday July 5th, and go to the bank to deal with this. My wife and I then went to BB&T at 3:45 PM on Friday July 8th. Mr. Miller met us in the lobby, never once inviting us into his office, and informed us that he was only midway through auditing our account and that he would be there until 5:30 PM. At that time we asked for a Regulation E complaint form. Mr. Miller seemed unaware of what the form even was. Upon finding it he asked the specific reason for the Federal complaint and I told him that I would research it more and return later.
At 4:55 PM we returned to the Ravenswood Branch BB&T and met Mr. Miller in his office. At this time he produced our account transaction record and a receipt slip. He went on at length about how cool the receipt slip was. Finally he began discussing our account. Mr. Miller, regardless of the issues we brought up, returned to a specific $34 overdraft fee, along with a $78 transfer from savings. We explained that the transfer was understood as part of the original account agreement, but the fee should never have been charged. Mr. Nick Miller then changed subject to a $128 check that he said would be overdrawn regardless of the single $34 fee.
At this time my wife pointed out another $34 fee two lines above the one he was talking about, plus a $5.95 fee for Online Bill Pay. She explained that the two $34 fees plus a $5.95 fee plus a $7 fee should never have been deducted. Mr. Miller again changed the subject at which time my wife requested him to start at the beginning of the transactions and walk us through one by one with all fees removed. At this time Mr. Miller typed into his desk calculator and began making up hypothetical numbers and transactions that never occurred.
Fed up with this treatment my wife requested a copy of our BB&T of WV Account Transaction History from May 27 to current, July 7. Once we got home my wife, using a spreadsheet application on our home PC she went through the account line by line removing the fees. Upon finishing, within 90 minutes, and concluded that a Direct Deposit on Thursday June 30th was held over until July 1st. The June 30th Direct Deposit was marked as effective. Mr. Miller had told us earlier that to properly read the transaction sheet we need to go line by line and take note of the Process and Effective dates. Transactions are final on the Effective date. This transaction sheet had, for the first time in the account's history as printed on this transaction sheet, two Effective Direct Deposits with the same reference number, on different days: June 30th and July 1st 2005.
My wife then, on Monday July 11th, met with Mr. Nick Miller at approximately 10:45. She took with her the BB&T of WV Account Transaction History we were given, plus two spreadsheets that she had completed. She proceeded to go line by line with Mr. Miller quoting him the ending balance for each line while he reviewed the BB&T of WV Account Transaction History. Mr. Miller was fine until the date of June 17th at which time he had her place a star by the ending balance and MR. Miller told her that was a, "grey area", because overdraft fees along with a $7 overdraft protection fee had occurred and he stated that he was continuing to add those fees so his results were different from my wife's. There was no reason for him to add those fees, because according to the transactions that should have occurred, our account would have never been overdrawn. My wife then continued line by line according to her spreadsheet and was stopped again on June 30th due to the Direct Deposit mentioned earlier. He stated that the Direct Deposit that was marked Effective on June 30th was just a reminder to let them know to post the Direct Deposit the following day. Had we never been charged the fees we were promised we would not get, the Direct Deposit would not have mattered as our account balance would have never been overdrawn.
Mr. Miller then made copies of my wife's spreadsheets and asked her what she made it in. He stated it was very helpful and that he was willing to pass it along to someone looking into the issue. He also said he would contact her by the end of the day. Mr. Miller called my wife at the end of the day and told my wife that he was informed it was not a banking error, at which time my wife was verbally fed up with this. He then informed her that he could extend a $136 "courtesy" credit. My wife told Mr. Miller that she would not take the credit because she was afraid the bank would view it as a settled matter. As our account currently stands we have received multiple notification of returned checks that are not our fault and BB&T states our balance at -$776.32 with our savings account completely drained. The entire amount of the -$776.32 is from overdraft fees and miscellaneous charges that would never have taken affect if BB&T kept its word, or set us up in the proper account to start with.
The wife is going down first thing to find out the businesses the returned checks belonged to. We'll contact them and explain the situation, pay them what we owe, plus probably $25 per check.
Also, can anyone tell me if a bank employee changing the type of account I have, without my authorization, is a crime?
Charles
Millwood, West Virginia
U.S.A.
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