Ok - where do I start? I have been a loyal customer with Bank of America since 2003. That may not sound like a long time to many others I have read about on this site, but I try hard to keep my strong banking relationship.
They had different time slots depending on when I used to make deposits via the ATM. I purposely use more than one bank. The reason is one time, when BofA was my only bank, I couldn't use my debit card to buy gasoline on the way to work, because their computer system went down temporarily. I understand that can happen at any company, so to avoid that, I opened up a second account at a smaller bank and used it primarily as a specific bill pay account and as back-up to BofA. Well one of the things I noticed was every other bank (not BofA, banks I deposited for my business and then my own secondary bank) would tell me both verbally and in writing EXACTLY what was the cut off time to make ATM deposits and I naturally complied. I wasn't always perfect, and I accepted the consequences from time to time of occasional overdraft fees.
But with Bank of America, they NEVER would tell me precisely the ATM cut-off times. The 1-800 number is the worst customer service number to get through and the average wait time is about 10 minutes. Try it and see for yourself.
Back to my story. Almost 2 years ago, I had a deposit to make and noticed it was after the 4 pm cut off to have it post. So I called up BofA to verify that time with their customer service. I was told there was NO CUT OFF TIME whenever deposits were made in their ATM. Today all of you, including myself, will find this ridiculous, but crazy me believed it to be true. So I promptly deposited my check to the ATM and BOFA posted it immediately just as they said they would. Amazing! I thought. Too bad all the other banks couldn't be that liberal. For the next 2 years up until recent, I continued to make ATM Deposits whenever I wanted and they always posted, or so it seemed (I'm getting to that part).
Then I moved 30 minutes across town and went to my new local BofA branch in Buford to deposit a check around 9pm. I had just learned that my wife had done some spending on the account recently and forgot to tell me until that day. It was after this incident that she and I forever got SEPARATE accounts. Well, the next day after my deposit was made, the check did NOT POST! Oh, but everything else posted and I sucked up about $140 in overdraft fees!
Ok, I know anybody out there (like me) will be saying, "balance your checkbook" and "don't spend against what you don't have" and on and on. But here is the catch - I was under a long standing impression that BofA was the best bank to make 24 hour deposits in. Wrong. I called and called their customer service and when I explained the whole thing, they did an analysis on the account and stated it appeared like I always had a positive balance (regardless of outstanding checks) at the time my ATM deposits were made. So the nice Customer service rep said she will reverse ONE overdraft fee. I felt horrible for believing too much and suffering later for it.
Why couldn't BofA be as direct as all my other banks had been. I know the legal experts will say I signed on to accept all their policies and so on. But we all know the policies are forever changing to benefit their owners' heavy pockets.
So with Long lines at the branches EVERYDAY, and long wait times on the phones ALL THE TIME, and negative press about Bank of America from everywhere, such as the Bank arresting an innocent man for trying to cash a check that was fraudulent because BOFA thought he was the mastermind, only to find out later they were wrong and took weeks, while the poor guy languished in jail, just to make up a formal written statement. Talk show host, Clark Howard, offered to pay HALF of the guy's legal fees and BofA declined. That was the last straw.
I called all of my bill payers and gave them new banking information and about a week later, I called and closed down my Bank of America account for good. This was about 4 months ago, but its still not over. Bank of America told me over the phone that the process takes about 2 or 3 days to close entirely. At that time I had maybe 2 cents in the account. On the 3rd day, one of my old bill collectors (my life insurance company) went into my BofA account to extract $11.40 and $8.48. Weeks before, I gave them my new bank info and verified it with them, so this is why it hit me as a surprise. Naturally, BofA, with their eye on the bottom dollar, nailed me with two $35 overdraft fees bringing my balance to nearly $100 overdrawn.
When I first learned of this, I called them and explained - talked to a nice girl. And tried to make a deal where I will pay BofA the amount of the Life Insurance Charges and battle it out with the life insurance company if BofA will just waive the overdraft fees. She said they could not do that because I already had one waived. Remember when I moved and made that 9pm deposit? The only alternative, and she admitted it would take a while, was to dispute the charges as not mine.
So I disputed the charges, took over 2 weeks to get the paperwork, which I immediatetly signed and returned. I kept following up with them and about 2 more weeks later, now a month, they received it and credited back everything. But during that time, BOFA saw it fit to nail me with a $5.95 monthly maintanence fee since I no longer had direct deposit on the account. They refused to acknowledge I had closed the account once. The dispute department said they will look into the $5.95 fee, but never did anything about it. Long story short, I deposited that amount and a little more just to try and hurry and make it go away.
But no sooner did BofA fix the charges, then the same company automatically tried to nail me AGAIN! $11.40 $8.48 and the whole thing repeated itself. I called them up to complain and they said, AND I QUOTE "Go down to the bank branch and tell them to make this a deposit only account. This will wipe out any future $5.95 maintanence fee and stop bill collectors from hitting the account." So that is what I did. Just a few days later, I noticed that BofA credited me for everything. This must be the ending to the long dispute, I thought. So this time, instead of getting a different answer by phone, I went into the BofA branch and explained everything I was trying to do, close the account. They said the account was in good standing and on December 20th, the account was closed.
A few days later, I received a distressing letter from their dispute department mentioning they never received my affidavit, I didn't even know they were sending one because they told me to go to the branch and my account was credited much sooner than the first occurance. So, to be safe I held onto the letter. I could never get through on the phone line. The wait time everyday and night was 30 or 60 minutes! Sure enough on January 5th, they reversed what they did and put back in my account $19. Close to, but not exactly the original amount.
So last week, upon learning of this, I called them from work and held the phone to my ear for what seemed to be an hour while I worked at my desk. Finally I got a nice guy who apologized and said the quickest way to get the affidavit was for BofA to fax it to my local bank branch. No, they were not allowed to fax it anywhere else and email was a no-go. And they said it would take about 3 business days. Monday was the Martin Luther King Holiday, so I have yet to contact the branch and see if they received the fax.
The battle rages on... Please, anyone, I have exhausted EVERYTHING and even though I feel I am at the end of my long war, its the same bad feeling I've been experincing with them for almost a year.
Any and all comments will be helpful. Thank you.
Frank
Buford, Georgia
U.S.A.
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