The battle began on an idle Sunday. I opened my account to notice that it was overdrawn. I noticed two Amazon charges were posted to my account three weeks after the purchase date. Since I thought they went through I had not accounted for them; I was wrong. Once I noticed, I transferred money enough to make my account positive. But since my account sat in the negative for a day, I was charged an overdraft fee. I called on the Monday, and the fee was given back to me. But the overdraft fee charged to me put my account in the negative, and thus, I was then charged two more overdraft fees on the Tuesday.
I called again, hoping that my story would garner a diversion from BOA's fee course, but alas I was met with perfunctory answers, and "nothing more we can do". I was given an amorphous PO Box in Los Angles, CA to send a letter of complaint. My partner did not want to let it go so we called again, and again were met with the same.
So, as my father's son, I decided to not let it go. The following might strike you a little crazy, but I think it sort of genius. I trolled the Internet for Bank of America e-mail addresses (including the CEO's email) a decided if reason would not work to resolve my issue, poking might!
The e-mail went out 2/8/10 and it worked. I received a couple, "not sure why I got this" e-mails, but it was clear one e-mail worked. On 2/10/10, Dan, from "the CEO's office" called me. While he gave me the same 'you should have known better" speech he ultimately refunded my money. Whether or not I will stay with BOA is up in the air, but right now I am very happy.
(Below I copied my letter/e-mail:)
Cuidate, Hasta Pronto,
Michael
________________________________________
I was directed to send a letter by Salina, a customer service representative with whom I talked to on February 3, 2010. I have decided to send an e-mail in hopes of a faster resolution.
The reason for my call was about overdraft fees. On February 2, 2010 I called about my account, which was in the negative due to an overdraft fee that was charged. I noticed on January 31, 2010 that my account was in the negative and transferred money enough to put my account in the positive. The representative refunded $35 to my account and told me no further fees would be charged. However, since I was charged that overdraft fee, it put my account in the negative, which I was then charged overdraft fees that totaled $70 on February 3, 2010.
No overdraft fee was levied until the following Monday of the original transaction, if it had been, I would have floated more money to my account to cover the overdraft fee and then called on Monday and took care of the issue. At that point my ‘courtesy’ refund would have covered all my costs and I would not have incurred another $70 in fees. Since I did not, when the overdraft fee was levied, it put me in the negative. I know that the overdraft fee is automatically put on the account at day’s end, so why not every day? Is this another way to make sure that people do not ‘see’ what is going on behind the scenes? Why are fees to an account not shown when ‘pending’? If the former had occurred, there would be no reason for this correspondence.
While I recognize that these fees are valid, insofar as BOA policy, what I take issue with is the inability to recognize that I did my best to put my account in the positive, and the length of time that my account was in the negative was short. Further, it was the overdraft fees that put my account in the negative, which then perpetuated further overdraft fees. While it looks like items were posted to my account after I transferred money, I never made a purchase with this account after January 30, 2010. What first put my account in the negative was an Amazon order I made on January 7, 2010, that I thought posted to my account, but did not until January 29, 2010.
I had hoped to resolve this issue without sending a letter, so I called again last night and met the same stonewall tactics by a supervisor named Tammy. She, like Salina, said that there was no one above her I could talk to, but at the end of the conversation Tammy gave me a manager’s escalation line, but told me nothing further could be done. Salina never gave me this option, just told me I could send a letter to an amorphous P.O. Box in LA. If the Bank wants to reiterate that the rules are the rules and are applied perfunctorily, than why is it that each person I talk to at Bank of America gives different information and does not know what others have told me? I know you log your calls, is it a purposeful bureaucratic move not to note what a representative states to customers so you all can claim plausible deniability about promises made?
I ask that you refund the $70. Much like when Bank of America needed help from the taxpayers we helped, I am asking you to do the same. The rules of the game were bent in your time of need, so why am I not privy to the same? As you well know, we all make mistakes, I just hope you grant me the same grace during the time of my mistake as the government did during the time of your mistakes.
I am just a middle class kid, that is trying to move up in the world. I went to college, then to graduate school and am now just starting to get my finances in order. $70 is a lot of money to me.
I hope to remain a Bank of America customer, as I have been for a number of years now, thus I ask you to please give me reason to do so.
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