Bank Of America
Ripoff Held me responsible for charges after my Visa was lost/stolen

My Visa card was either lost or stolen from me on January 11th at a local restaurant. I did not discover that the card was missing until I went to pay for my college books the next day, January 12th. I then realized that my regular card was missing, but I still had my keychain card.

I called Bank of America to ask them to cancel the card and issue another, and there was a transaction listed that I did not initiate. So, I was sent some "dispute" forms by the representative. After receiving these forms, I immediately filled them out and faxed them to Bank of America on February 2nd (I have copies and proof of the fax being sent) and also mailed the same forms in the event that the fax was not received.

Not too long after that, I received a notice from Bank of America that the item in question, a charge at a "Sconecutter" restaurant was placed into dispute status while it was being investigated.

On March 16th, I received a letter stating that as of that date, the merchant had not provided a copy of the sales draft so my account was being credited back the amount of $20.48.

Then, on April 13th, I received a second letter indicating that Bank of America had "discovered" that no billing error had occurred in that instance (case 4871114). The letter further stated that the sales draft has an authorizing signature and indicates that my card was read by magnetic strip, so it was present at the time. Well, no kidding, since it was out of my possession. I have a copy of the sales draft and the signature on it is not even a close match to mine.

So I phoned Bank of America and was told that there was nothing that they could do, I had to contact the merchant, which I did, and the merchant flatly refused to even talk to me, so I made a police report and better business bureau complaint regarding their business practices. I called Bank of America back and spoke with a supervisor in the "claims" department who was the worst phone representative I have EVER encountered anywhere. She told me that the signiture looked like it matched to her and that I was liable for the charge, even though the card ironically stated on the front of it "Fraud Protection". I tried to reason with this so-called supervisor for over half-an-hour, but she would not listen.

In desparation, I phoned every other department, and finally spoke to a customer service supervisor who did give me a "courtesy credit" for the amount of $20.48. I am writing this because I don't believe it's right that the merchant still got paid, since they were just as much at fault since they obviously didn't compare signatures. Bank of America's fraud protection is a scam, and I count myself as an extremely dissatisfied customer.

Two other cards were also stolen that night, one issued by Mervyn's and one issued by First USA/Bank One (Now Chase), and charges were immediately removed from both of those cards, a $22 dollar charge at Target on the Mervyn's card, and a $40 gas charge on the Bank One issued card, and I never had to even go through a "dispute" process like I did with B of A. Don't count on the fraud department at Bank of America to protect you, apparently their only job is to maximize profits and to hold cardholders accountable for incorrect charges or to ruin their credit.

Company: Bank Of America
Country: USA
State: Virginia
City: Norfolk
Address: PO Box 1390
Phone: 8007329194

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