"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Bank of America Sucks Ass

Part of the fun of being a web application professional is bitching about crappy online services I'm stuck with on my work blog.

UPDATE: Wes schools me. B of A and MBNA ROCK!

UPDATE TWO: In the spirit of fairness, and because this blog post is apparently somewhat popular, I should mention that many of the points in my post have been addressed in terms of BofA's user experience.

Responses

...Bank of America is super cool with some real hepcats for employees!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tyS3GreG0g

I'm adding that to the post right this second.

that is unreal. proud bofa customer.

I am SO pissed I am vibrating right now. Seems that when I called Bank of America on March 19th about their debt consolidation loan mailer (and was of course turned down as you NEVER get the rate the offer is for with them) they took it upon themselves to close both of the cards I have with them. Of course they did not see fit to tell me or send back the overpayment of $91.90 still setting in my account. In fact they just sent me checks to use to transfer money at 3.99% onto a card and their website shows both cards as still active! After having the card declined I called customer support which told me the account I was calling about was closed and asked if I'd like a check sent with the money they owed me. I asked why they had not done that already and he said "we hang onto it till you ask for it". BTW per my quarterly report from Discover my credit score as of March 10th was 777. One card had a $20500 limit and the other $17000. One can only imagine how they treat people with average credit. I also have cards with Discover, AmEx, Capital One, Household and 3 with Chase after mergers and I am not seeing this nonsense with them. Though Cap One has other privacy issues. (They gave my number to collection agencies looking for my ex-wife.)

BOA is the same company that screwed me on a promotion last year. I transferred a balance onto one of their cards and signed up for e-statements. I setup automatic payments with my bank and forgot about it. Well they changed the due date so the first payment was 2 days late and raised my rate from 0% to 21%. As it seems that the email address I gave had issues AND oddly their Quicken interface seemed to fail about this time, AGAIN, it set there for a few months before I noticed Quicken was no longer getting data from them. By then I had racked up over $1000 in interest charges. At that point I transferred the balance to Chase. Note they did not bother sending a letter that the email account was not working till later.

Before that I let them sign me up for a trial credit monitoring / protection service to compare it against Discovers service. I never heard ONE word from them and so I completely forgot about it. A year later they charged my account. Since I had not used the card in 3 months I did not look at that statement. And of course it is not updating Quicken AGAIN, though since I have not charged anything that would seem right. Anyway the next month I happen to check the statement and I see a late fee on it and call them up. It takes awhile for them to even route me to the right place to cancel this useless service. AND it will take them a few weeks more to reverse the charge. In the mean time I need to pay the $99 charge PLUS $46.25 in fees and interest to avoid another late fee AND ANOTHER nonpayment mark on my credit history! Note for the same cost, Discover's service sends me a quarterly summary AND a notice EVERYTIME someone queries my credit. This BOA partner could not even be bothered to let me know the service had started.

BOA was supposed to do my final mortgage on the house I just built but I think I would go with even Citi Bank over them at this point.

They did raise my purchase rate too but then all the cards are doing that these days. It is getting cheaper to get money from the mob than carry a balance on your cards.

Dave

Here's a chat session I just had with BofA customer support. I did change my name in the transcript to protect my identity but the rest is 100% cut-paste. Unbelieveable that a bank can provide this level of service. This is why Bill Maher calls them "Skank of America".

Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. You are currently 1 in queue. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

Paris: Hello. Thank you for being a valued Bank of America customer. My name is

Paris. I'm here to assist you with your personal accounts today.

Paris: How are you doing today?

You: ok...wondering where my money is?

Paris: I absolutely understand your concerns.

Paris: I will check that for you right away!!!

Paris: May I please have your full name as it appears on your statement?

You: John K. Smith, Jr.

Paris: Thank you, John

You: At work I recently ordered my direct deposit to be sent to acct 6321. I got a check on 3/27 in the mail and it said that direct deposit was ordered but I don't see my paycheck being posted to my account. When should I expect to see this?

You: The amount of the deposit was 4025.67

Paris: I understand! I will provide you with the details.

Paris: John, we apply direct deposits as they are received throughout the day.

You: The deposit should have happened on 3/27

Paris: Okay!

You: Okay what?

Paris: John, the posting of the direct deposit depends upon the issuer.

Paris: Once we receive it we will post to the account immediately.

Paris: So, did you checked it from the issuer's end?

You: The issuer is "Bank of America"...that's the name of the bank on the check...that's you guys.

You: I am checking with them right now aren't I?

Paris: John, the name on the check is bank of America, correct.

You: Correct

Paris: But, did you verified it from the employer's end?

You: Why from the employers end? The check has already been cut?

You: The employer already paid out the money...from their "Bank of America" account.

Paris: Okay! I see....

You: The check says it is pending "account verification". When will BofA verify that they can deposit my money in my "BofA" account?

Paris: Then in this case, we do have a dedicated department who will take care of this issue for you and will let you know the status.

Paris: To get quick assistance if you like I can get the contact phone number of our trained specialist.

Paris: John, please call us at 1.800.432.1000. We are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday through Sunday, local time.

Paris: I am extremely sorry, I would have to request you to call.

Paris: If I would have been aware of this matter and had the required information with me, I would have been more than happy to provide it to you through this channel.

You: I'm sorry too...

Paris: You sound upset, John

Paris: I am sure the associates at the concerned department will be able to assist you and will resolve the issue effectively.

Paris: John, the research team will be investigating your issue and will get back to you with the outcome.

Paris: I hope I have cleared everything from my end.

Paris: If I am not clear, please do not hesitate to ask.

Paris: Is there anything else I may assist you with today?

You: No

Paris: John, please do call at the aforementioned number.

Paris: I know how doers it feel.

Paris: And that too when your direct deposit is not located........

Paris: I understand situations like the one you are experiencing can cause a great deal of frustration and anxiety.

Paris: Thank you for being such a nice and a wonderful customer, John

Paris: I appreciate your time and patience to chat with me.

Paris: Bye and take very good care of yourself.
Last text message received

Paris: To safeguard your information, please close this chat session, click the "Close" in the upper right corner of this chat window.

Bank of America destroys families and anyone who calls them super cool needs their head examined.

Visit http://www.justiceandlight.com/ and look at what they are doing to that poor family. Not to mention the companies that Bank of America does business with and for because they are all cut from the same dirty cloth.

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