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Share Your Story or Post a Video Margaret Harrison, a young wife and mother living in San Diego, first noticed the problem four years ago when she applied for unemployment. “They asked if I worked on a horse ranch in eastern Washington, and I said no,” laughs Harrison. “[I'm] not quite the rancher type.” She investigated and found out a laborer named Pablo has been using her Social Security number. And while Margaret pays for credit monitoring, she says the Equifax credit reporting bureau never noticed the problem until she told the agency. Now Equifax has put a fraud alert on her account. And then there’s this: Last month, the Bank of America sent her a new debit card bearing her name and Pablo’s picture! Margaret says the Bank of America claims it can’t take any action against Pablo because he pays his bills on time — that her case is in what they call “a reactive state.” “Because currently it’s not negatively impacting my credit, so I have no legal recourse for any action,” says Harrison. Is this what a bank calls Customer Service? Bank of America Sucks!!! An email recently sent to Bank of America customer service: I just spent a considerable amount of time trying to reserve a spot on a JetBlue flight from JFK to New Orleans. Inexplicably, every time I tried my card was declined. I checked my balance here on the website and everything looked fine. I finally called (international direct dial, may I add, which is not cheap) the airline to find out what the problem was and perhaps if it could be sorted over the phone. They said that Visa (by which, I assume the mean Bank of America) had a 'manual hold' (or some such thing) on my account and that the retailer was required to get approval over the phone first. I waited on the phone (did I mention that this was at international direct dial rates?) while the nice lady at Jet Blue called Bank of America. After about 5 minutes (which makes it approximately 20 minutes with all hold and talk time combined), she came back to apologize for the wait because she TOO was waiting on hold. At that point, realizing the costs I was incurring, I finally gave up and decided to use a non-preferred credit card (American Express) which went ahead flawlessly. A few questions come to mind here: Why is there a manual hold on my credit card when I have more than enough available credit and my payment was made (as it always is) well before the due date? Why am I not somehow notified through the web interface that my card is not working? And why can this not be rectified through the same? How am I, an American expatriate living in Budapest, Hungary, supposed to contact you all to discuss some unilateral action on your part without incurring further and significant costs myself? Costs that I am quite certain you will never agree to reimburse? Why does this seem to happen from time to time and how can I make it stop? I am referring to the manual block you all put on my card approximately a year ago because my statement was returned to you as undeliverable. Undeliverable, of course, because the address mutated on its own in the Bank of America computer system from a working address one month to a complete non-working address the next. This problem, combined with several others I've had in the past regarding multiple (8!!) $3 bank fees for completely unsuccessful ATM transactions, a vicious cycle of overdraft fees caused by another fee misapplied by BofA (which was reversed but without reversing the overdraft fees!) and numerous others, makes me wonder if perhaps I am doing business with the wrong institution. Please make me understand that that is not the case as I have been a Bank of America customer for many years and don't take switching banks lightly. Sincerely, Jay Allen The Official Response Thank you for contacting Bank of America. Bank of America recognizes the importance of providing quality service and we were disappointed to learn of the difficulties that you have encountered. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. At this time, we are not able to assist with your inquiry. Please contact us directly at 1.800.428.1888, or call collect worldwide at 757.677.4701, and request to be transferred to the number provided. We apologize for the inconvenience. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you online. Should you have any further inquiries, please e-mail us again. Sincerely, Kemia Hall, Bank of America It's amazing to me that the largest banking institution in the entire United States cannot answer a simple fucking question: Why can't I use my credit card. The next "inquiry" I'm going to have for BofA is when I close my damn account. The Epilogue I called (direct collect through the AT&T operator! HA!) Bank of America. After a hilarious and dizzying echo chamber of operators and recorded voicemail trees trying to talk to one another, I was finally put through to a BofA customer service rep. After verifying my identity by telling her every distinguishing mark on my body, submitting to an over the phone anal probe and retina scan, she finally tells me that there has been suspicious activity on my account and that she would pass me to the security department. This, I find to be very interesting considering that I have visited the website at least 2300 times in the last 48 hours to make sure that there was nothing amiss (which of course, there wasn't). I wait on the phone for another five minutes or so (which honestly, I wish had been longer now that they're paying for it) before a "security service agent" (ooh scary) comes on the line. Now, why is it that when I am transferred internally, I have to reverify all of my information? Do they think terrorists have broken into my home and tied me up just so that they could find out the balance of my account? It's ridiculous, that with all of the computer technology that they have, they can't figure out that a customer on the phone has already been sufficiently identified and authorized by the previous agent. Anyhow, after sending in a blood sample, the man on the other end of the line told me that I had some suspicious activity on my account: a $70 charge from Register.com and an $850 charge from a "German airline", both originating from within the U.S. Since they understand that I live in Hungary, they were concerned about these charges. It should, of course, be no surprise -- considering BofA's craptastic website -- that news of this crazy thing we call the Internet hasn't yet filtered down to their security department. I explained to the nice man how, using nothing but a credit card, someone can make a purchase from all the way around the world. "E-commerce", I called it, as he gasped at the brilliance of it all... So now, I can use my card again. I suppose that I will enjoy it while it lasts, because the second I get to the States, this account will be thrown into the trashbin of my financial history. Goodbye Bank of America. Good luck with your campaign of world domination. You'll have to run it without the benefit of ridiculous array of fees you charge me every single week. I'm sure that that will be no problem for you compared to that caused by having your corporate head up your collective asses. Oh, and don't forget to tell your security department about the Internet. Who knows, maybe one day they will even read this story and laugh about the good old days when they actually had customers to protect.
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I politely (at first) told them that their processing delays were not my problem, the money is to be refunded and NO other remedy would be acceptable. I was hung up on THREE TIMES. I then drove to the nearest branch with my landlord in tow (and a digital voice recorder in my pocket). They claimed they would have to "research" the issue and call back. I did not leave until their call to the local police. (I was also warning EVERY customer as they walked in the door about the banks theft)
I have caught them doing this same thing twice and have three times caught the bank reversing the order of records to make it appear that there were nsf checks when they actually weren't.
Watch them VERY closely. Wachovia bank or Fuckovia bank as I call them WILL steal from you.
They also process checks from largest to smallest to maxamise the number of NSF fees they charge.
I will keep you posted on their alleged research.