My father-in-law passed away on September 20. He listed my husband as beneficiary of a CD he owned through Band of America.
When we tried contacting Bank of America, we learned they offer minimal support via phone. Additionally, no contact addresses or phone numbers are listed on their website. They outsource their calls to an offshore call center. The people there ARE NOT empowered to resolve issues via the phone. The person I spoke with phone told me to take copies of our paperwork to a local B of A branch.
Originally we requested B of A simply convert ownership of this CD to Johnnie's name, and that we'd cash it out upon maturity. B of A stated their company rules and regulations do not allow this as an option. We were instructed to go to any local B of A branch with our paperwork.
The branch my husband and brother-in-law went to, took their paperwork, had Tom sign some additional forms, and faxed everything to what they we told was the correct department. They told them a check would be issued within 10 days. Two weeks later when no check had been forthcoming, I again contacted B of A via their phone system. I was again told they could not answer my questions, and that I needed to visit the same bank that took our paperwork.
This time I went with my husband, as Tom was too ill to walk. After waiting nearly an hour we learned that our local branch routinely shreds paperwork after a week. Our paperwork had been lost, the originals shredded and we needed to bring copies in again.
We went home, made copies (thank God I had them) and returned to the bank, were we were again forced to wait nearly an hour. THE PLACE WAS DESERTED!!! They again told us a check would be issued in 10 days.
Nine am Thursday morning (02/05/09), after no check had been received, we returned to our local B of A branch. There was no manager or associate manager available. This seems to be the case most of the time. We were told she would be in meetings all day (same story we were told before) and we needed to return tomorrow.
I asked their concierge if he meant to say there wasn't a single employee there who could help us determine the status of our funds. He placed us in an empty office and asked a bank teller to call corporate for us. The end result being that the person on the other end of the phone stated they had our paperwork, but didn't realize we wanted a check sent to us. Unfortunately my husband lost it at that point, and became way too loud and demanding. I spent a good portion of the visit apologizing for his behavior, and trying to explain why we both felt so frustrated by the situation.
The people they had spoken with stated they needed my husband to write up a short note requesting B of A issue us a check, which the local branch would FAX to them, and that B of A would issue a check in seven to ten days. (Boy have I heard that one time too often) As this was obviously another stalling tactic, I refused. I said I'd be contacting you and the media, and thanked them for their time.
We are stuck in a seemingly never ending shuffle of promises, lies and bullshit, while B of A continues holding our money. Everyone we've spoken to at B of A, says we'll get the check, or that it's coming, but it never arrives. When we complain that the check never arrived, we're told to sign this that or the other thing and to wait yet another seven or ten days for a check.
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