Bank of America "Bait and Switch"

There was a time when sides were not necessary, lines weren't drawn and all things being equal , a person's banker was some one you could depend on. A friend you could lean on without all the normal dramas that go in to a friendship. Some one who was there for you or at least that was what i thought when I was a delusional child and not being wined and dined by managers from Bank of America. To put them in to perspective they are similar to people at a carnival whose job it is to get you into the tent and also on another hand they are also similar to the guys on Bourbon Street in New Orleans who try to lure you into the strip clubs. Either way I am sure their jobs are interchangeable. In fact the more I think about it I am sure that some of Bank Of America's managers probably did come from either of those two places! These people lure the innocents in...promising them anything and everything....and then when they have you "pow" they slam it to you. This of course has been evidenced most recently and continuously by the two news events I most recently discussed.

Do you think that when the wife of the disabled man opened her account she was told that her husband's basic rights were going to be violated??? I don't think so. I do not believe that the same branch manager who did not allow her husband to cash the check she had written would have mentioned this while opening an account "Oh by the way if your husband is missing his hands, we will not cash his checks because he has no thumbprint to validate his ID". Or the 98 year old woman paying for car insurance because she didn't tell anybody that she didn't want insurance even though she didn't order it!

How about the corporate division, the slimy bottom feeders who wine and dine a small business, give it lines of credit and loans and then say. Oh we're not your friend anymore, we're tired and bored, we want a new friend....so even though the small business has been paying everything back according to the terms, Bank of America says "enough" we want it all NOW!!!! How many businesses have they put out of business??? They are such a Goliath and I say we have got to all
be Davids. We have got to get our sling shots out and hit them right between the eyes. Why, because a bully only understands one thing and that is being tough right back to it!

Providing customer service....is it a foreign concept???

I believe that all people are looking for in this day and age and in these times is just some good old basic customer service and some basic niceness. Virtues that seem to have taken a back burner to rudeness, insincerity and just plan old non-caring. What has happened? Is niceness and caring something that is just archaic and old fashioned. Is it just "not hip" any more to be nice or to want to do a good job? Have people skills disappeared with the advent of text messaging, email and telephone answering machines?

We have certainly started to use technology and non-personal contact to help us with scams. Take for instance my old friend Bank of America. In the September issue of the AARP bulletin a story is written by Sid Kirchheimer. Mr. Kircheimer relays a story about a 98 year woman from California who neither drives or owns a car. Yet Bank of America was deducting $18.95 a month from her checking account for Bank of America Auto Insurance, that was never ordered. This makes total sense since the 98 year old lady doesn't even drive or more importantly own a car! The woman's 78 year old daughter discovered that this money had been deducted over an unspecified period of time when she went to take care of her mother after she had suffered a fall. The daughter called Bank of America customer service and even went in to 2 branches and throughout all of those interactions not one person did anything about it. the daughter was finally told that the insurance money was being deducted due to the fact that it had not been cancelled during the initial 30 day period. The daughter said "but how can you cancel something you never ordered?" A policy was never received and a bank account number was never provided.
Now to continue this story you have to let go of all sense of reason. Apparently Bank of America, yes good old Bank Of America, the people who are constantly teaching us about how not to provide customer satisfaction or care about their clients can send an offer to your house for life insurance, car insurance whatever and if you do not specifically say that you do not want it. IT"S YOURS!!!!!! Yay, doesn't that just make you all secure and happy. I know I feel much happier and more secure about all of my Bank of America accounts! I may find out one day that since I didn't cancel the offer for insurance for a house in Zimbabwe I am actually insuring a house I do not actually own, wow. that is certainly going to help me sleep a lot better at night!
Of course after much dialogue and lack of customer service the charges were eventually refunded to the 98 year woman. But what if her daughter hadn't come? What if nobody ever noticed? Why couldn't it just be handled immediately? More importantly, why can't people just be nice!

And in spite of their incompetance they still go on....

I read with great sadness and guile this morning about a gentleman from Tampa who tried to cash a check at Bank of America and was not allowed to. This was reported by staff writer Robbyn Mitchell in the St. Petersburg Times. Why you may ask??? Did he have an account there??? No, he did not, but his wife did and it was a check from his wife... so why could he not cash this?? Well folks, If a person does not have a checking account at Bank of America then you need to give a thumb print in order to cash a check. Well that is well and dandy as long as you have thumbs or any other fingers. Unfortunately, this man was born without any arms and his prosthetic devices just couldn't satisfy the bank's needs! In this case the teller went to the branch manager, and what did the branch manager do, well he decided to follow the policy of the bank and the man could NOT cash his check because he could not give a thumb print. He was told however that he could go get his wife bring her back and then they would cash it. That just brings customer service to a whole new level! Wow and I thought that they just hated me....Now I am beginning to see that they are just so grossly incompetent it is mind boggling! They obviously have not heard of people with disabilities!!!! I hope that the American Civil Liberties Association gets involved. While the bank eventually did offer an apology they did remind everyone that the manager did the appropriate thing by following Bank Policy!

Wow I am just so happy that as taxpayers we had the privilege to give this bank TARP money. But I do realize the necessity for doing this, please do not get me wrong. I realize that if we had not done this, all of the top personnel at the bank would not have gotten appropriate bonuses and that their mediocre work ethics and lavish lifestyles would not have been appropriately rewarded. Where would we have all been then???? They are also one of only 2 big banks left that have not even made their interest payments owed or paid down any of the monies given to them by the government (which means you and me). But I am so thankful that they can walk all over the little people. Foreclose on people and do whatever else they can to turn good loans into bad!! It really should help them rest oh so much more easily at night.

And by the way.....remember the check I told you about yesterday. The one I was told I walked out of the bank with and they did not have. Well it cleared last night!

Bank of america Or (How I went Mad)

If you are one of the many people banking with Bank of America then you will totally be able to relate to what I have to say. I don't know how tightly I was wound before dealing with them but now I am completely unwound....Yes, Bank of America "the bank of opportunity" but giving my husband due credit, he would say in reality is the "Bank of Misfortune"...Everyday seems to have a new trial a new challenge and new terror all done with a smile as you walk into the happy bank lobby. Walking in there is actually more akin to walking into a "Fun House at a carnival" or Halloween Horror Nights at Universal studios. But at least at those two places you know before hand that you are going to be scared and that you blood pressure is going to rise, you are going to get a churning in your stomach and you will feel ill. Yes, they are the bank that is there for you as long as you have lawyers on retainer! Some of the things that have happened to me are just so ridiculous that I wonder if they are really true. But no one could make this up. For instance last Wednesday, when I went in to the bank to make a commercial loan payment. I handed the teller the check and the payment coupon. i in return was handed a receipt. All appears quite normal then but then the great Bank of America comes in to play. On Thursday while checking the corporate account I noted that the check did not clear, I waited one more day and it still did not clear. Went back in to the smiling happy branch of "fools" and was told A) the receipt I had was basically meaningless. Wow, that was something to learn, I wonder if this is just peculiar to Bank of America or if all these years I have been misguided believing that receipts were worthwhile. (Wow)! I then was told that they had no idea what had happened to the check and that I probably walked out with it. I could not see how that could happen since they usually issue the receipt after they have the check in their grubby and greedy hands. I was then told that the genius teller had only worked there for 7 months and did not have any experience. Wow another plus for this company. I know that as an owner of a company if I had an employee that could still not do the basics with her job after 7 months they would not be working for me anymore...but maybe that's just me!!!!! Well after true customer satisfaction that took 4 days of "BLAMING THE CUSTOMER" I decided that this bill really needed to be paid and that was not going to be accomplished at this branch. So I wrote another check, went to a different branch and deposited the check yesterday. It did clear today! But, I will have a new Bank of America story tomorrow......