Bank of America SUCKS!

[Nathans_Dad]

Ok, rant on:

I had a BoA military bank account for about 8 years. After leaving the military I decided to switch banks over to USAA since the military bank was fairly quirky and difficult to deal with. I never had a serious customer service issue...until I closed the account.

There was about $800 left in the account when I closed it on January 14th. They were supposed to send me a cashier's check. I never got it. I called them 2 weeks later and was told they would send another check. Never got that one either. Called 2 weeks later and was told that they never sent the second check at all, they needed me to sign an affidavit stating I didn't receive the first check before they would issue another one. I was told that affidavit was sent about 5 days before I called and should be in my mailbox "any day". Waited another week, no affidavit. So I called back. The genius on the phone offered to send ANOTHER affidavit through the mail. I laughed and asked him why he thought the third time around would work when the other two never got here. I then was told if I could go to a local BoA branch they could fax over the form. So I head over to the local BoA. I spent almost an hour in that BoA while the clerk tried to call the military branch and figure out what the hell to do. After 45 minutes he finally figures out which form they want and I fill it out. He calls the military bank to find out what the account number is on the check. He is told there is no account number and to submit the affidavit as is. This was last week, so far my money had been missing for about 6 weeks.

Ok, fast forward to today. I get a call from the local BoA saying that they needed to talk to me and had received a reply from the military BoA. Thinking they had my check, I head over. Turns out the military bank sent the affidavit back to the local BoA branch because IT DIDN'T HAVE THE ACCOUNT NUMBER. Yes, the same ****** account number we specifically asked about a week ago. Furthermore they are now saying that they can't work through a regular BoA branch and that they sent me another affidavit (#4) and it should be in the mail "any day".

7 weeks and counting and I STILL don't have my $800.

Is there any other recourse available to me besides bugging the hell out of the military bank?

[bell]

i've found that when dealing with financial institutions that if you are legitimately having a problem then go to the top........i had a car loan many many years ago which was a little late one month and was called by a "collector" for the bank who proceeded to threaten myself and my step mothers credit (she co-signed) among other insulting comments.......after a few tranfers from his supervisor ect. i ended up on the phone with the vice-president of the bank.
my comment after the explaination was "he had the right to call me if i'm late, but has no right being an ******* and making threats", after put on hold for a few the vice picked up and during an 3 way call the rep apologized then was fired by the vice with me listening.
could've been for show, but taught me the lesson the you need to get someone who can actually make a decision to correct the problem on the phone.

my advice is to get on the phone to the higher-ups, you'll only have a few minutes to sell your problem, so be prepared with your info and timeline of events, and express your frustration "proffesionally".

[id10t]

Ask 'em if they have teh form posted on the web as a PDF --- if they don't ***** at 'em lightly about it and mention that if that works for the IRS it oughta work for them...

Do you have papers showing that you closed the account and what the balance on it was?

[legion]

F***ing Bank of America!

[teenerted1]

what kind of account was it? savings checking? didnt you have an atm card or anything?
why would you want them to send you a check? how did your get access to your money before you tried to close it?

if it was a checking account, why didnt you just write a check for cash and take it to any bank in the country? then just either keep the cash or open a new account where ever you wanted.

BOA has been fairly good to me. have closed several accounts over the years and once the funds are out the account, it will eventually get closed even if i didnt go thru their proper procedure.

[schamp]

If that branch is on a military base you might want to talk to the General or whoever the base commander is. He or she, as the case may be, can get their attention or tell them to get off his base. If they are jerking you around you may not the only one. The state government may have a say so as well. Call your state government and get to the state bank examiner. I wonder along with Ted, why you didn't just drain the account. After all this time why not get them to wire the money to your other account. Good luck.

[450knotOffice]

My wife and I used to be loyal B of A customers when they were just a California bank, but once they became nationwide and became one of the the largest banks in the world, their customer service went to he11. We left them and now jokingly refer to them as the "Evil Empire".

[fingpilot]

But they are the 'Bank of Opportunity', giving credit cards, as good as identity and legal status as well as mortgages to foreigners without legal status, Catholic and Democrats all!

They ARE the Evil Empire.

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally Posted by teenerted1

what kind of account was it? savings checking? didnt you have an atm card or anything?
why would you want them to send you a check? how did your get access to your money before you tried to close it?

if it was a checking account, why didnt you just write a check for cash and take it to any bank in the country? then just either keep the cash or open a new account where ever you wanted.

BOA has been fairly good to me. have closed several accounts over the years and once the funds are out the account, it will eventually get closed even if i didnt go thru their proper procedure.

Well, the account originally had over $2k in it while we let it sit to allow the outstanding checks and such to clear. Once that was done we took out most of the cash. In retrospect what I should have done is take out all but like $5 and then close the account. The problem with BoA is that when you take out all the funds, you then incur a fee to keep the account open (this happened to me before). So then your account has a negative balance and they send you a bill. Same thing happened with my savings account at the BoA, I transferred all the money out, called the next few days to close the account and there was a negative balance in the account. They cleared it, but I was trying to be "good" and do it there way. Serves me right I guess.

Oh, and I asked them if they could just wire transfer the funds to my new account with USAA and they said no, the only way they send out the funds is by cashier's check.

[Halm]

Back when it was NCNB, we used to say that the initials stood for No Cash for No Body. I see things haven't changed much over the years. Sorry to hear that.

[Joe Bob]

Send them a grenade in the mail....



I once went in and asked for change for a 100...do you have an account? no dice....

Another time I asked to cash a check drawn on the branch I was in....have an account?....no dice....

I lived down the street from my branch....
When I DID have an account at BofA, I made a payment on a personal loan and an auto loan...the dork behind the counter doubled one loan and I went delinquent on the other....BofA reported me to TRW...wouldn't remove the ding even when the teller admitted to the fuch up.....

I closed the account and have been a BofA hater ever since....I had a Crocker bank CD and when BofA bought them out...closed that too.....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Agreed. I opened an account with them after I moved to Illinois for grad. school some years ago. Took me about two weeks to realize how much they sucked. Closed the account and that was the end of my dealings with them.

They're the Wal-Mart of banking and they won't get a dime from me.

[Joe Bob]

They burned the BofA in Isla Vista (UCSB) back in the 60s....they never replaced. They have an ATM at the site that is frequently vandalized. We have long memories.....

[stealthn]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, I would ask for the bank manager, demand my money and if he doesn't deliver the cheque there and now I would call the police to press theft charges on the bank.

[campbellcj]

I had enough bad experiences with BofA that I would rather perform surgery on myself with a rusty saw blade than ever do business with them again. FWIW I hate Wells Fargo almost as much, but not quite...

[Hetmann]

I've had several little issues with them and amazingly each time it cost me some BS fee or interest expense. The last time, they took over a week to post an electronic payment. When I called, they denied "holding" it. It took a call from my bank to get them to post it correctly. I will never do business with BOA again.

[steve911]

Originally Posted by mikez

....I had a Crocker bank CD and when BofA bought them out...closed that too.....

Just to keep the record straight, Wells Fargo bought Crocker back in the late '80s IIRC.

BofA bought Security Pacific in 1991 and then was bought by NationsBank (fka NCNB). They (Nations) kept the BofA name but the bank is hq'd in Charlotte, NC. I don't think any decisions are made in CA anymore.

I've never been a fan of BofA either - I worked for Security Pacific when they were bought by BofA and the wife was recently laid off by BofA after 23 years there with no warning whatsoever. Only good news is that her severance goes on for a while and she's enjoying be home now.

No love lost here about them. Yes, they do s*ck.

[Joe Bob]

Yer right...it WAS Security Pacific....

[dewolf]

sounds like BoA stands for .....bunch of *********s

[ELLSSUU]

Go into branch and ask them to immediatly transfer the military account to a regular "free" checking account. See a personal teller to do this. Next day ask for a teller, or counter, check and cash it for the exact amount transfered and tell them to close the account.

Done!


BTW, I work for one of the large national banks. Just not BoA.