The vast majority of these evaluations are extremely negative, the lack of balance compels me to write up my own brief story. Bank of America has redeemed itself. A few days ago, a lunch place that I frequent filed all of their receipts from the past business week; which is to say I was actually all at once for purchases made over the course of a week, and a week after they were made. My account balance, which was sufficient to cover all of the charges at the times of purchase, was overdrawn not once or twice, but three times. Then, adding insult to injury, I made two other purchases on the card without knowing it was overdrawn, resulting in five (5—count em’) overdraft fees for a total of $175.
Perhaps needless to say, I thought that that was ridiculous. It wasn’t my fault that the merchant posted their receipts all at once, and I had more enough money to cover the purchases when they were made. Why was I being punished for practices that were outside of my control?
I called BofA’s customer service and had an awful time trying to get some sympathy for my situation. The people I spoke with were terrible, and maintained that the charges were ‘valid’, and that therefore the only thing I could do was pay Bank of America 175 of my hard earned dollars.
I have banked with them for over five years, and was disgusted that such a long relationship clearly meant nothing to the customer service providers who refused to refund even one of these erroneous charges. I was incensed, and became even more angry when the customer service representative with whom I was speaking refused to transfer me to her superior, instead offering a mailing address to file a written complaint. Absurd—in this day and age, I’m going to wait weeks to get a response?!
Finally, after being on the phone with someone there for over an hour, she relented and transferred me to the voicemail of her superior. I left a long and detailed message, ending with the frustrated threat that, after this experience, I intended to close my account as soon as possible. Bank of America can fool me once, but they would never get another penny from me.
When I hadn’t heard back from the superior by the next day, I assumed that my call had fallen through the cracks. Determined to make good on my threat, I went to the branch closest to my office to terminate my account. Here, however, is where the story begins to turn. The associate listened to my story and offered to refund two of the five charges; she had to check with the branch manager before refunding any more. I accepted this temporary agreement, still sure that if not all of these spurious charges were refunded I would close the account. Later in the day I received a call back from the customer service superior, and repeated my ultimatum: no refund, they lose a customer. Rightfully, all 5 of my overdraft fees were returned to me. I didn’t get an apology, but my experience did not end on a sour note.
I never thought I would be drafting a positive account of this debacle. But, there it is. Bank of America has redeemed itself in my eyes, and I remain a customer.
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