"Never" Is A Real Strong Word
Stank Of America, the bank that gave a total of $12,000 of my money to identity thieves with ONLY a fake driver's license in my name...no bank card required, no PIN punched in, no signature check...on SEVEN separate occasions...is at it again.
B of A said they were sorry in the way only they would or could -- by subsequently firing me as a customer for complaining that they failed their fiduciary duty to me by...well, failing to require anything but a driver's license from the thieves...a piece of ID banks know is often and easily forged. (You can buy a fake driver's license pronto for $150 just down Wilshire Boulevard at MacArthur Park, of cake/rain fame.)
Now, my least favorite spokes-enabler, B of A's Betty Riess, is at it again, after the bank fired a customer, apparently for complaining about her credit limit being halved. Arthur Delaney writes on HuffPo:
According to Padgett, when she protested further, pointing out that she'd never made a late payment on the card in question, the Bank of America representative responded by canceling her credit card altogether -- ending a 12-year relationship in which she'd done nothing but make full payments, and on-time, too."Why don't you put the limit back where it was?" she recalled asking. The response: "No, you've been canceled."
This happened on Tuesday. On Thursday, a Bank of America spokeswoman told the Huffington Post that Bank of America would never cancel a card to punish a customer for griping.
"We do monitor accounts for risks and may adjust customer lines up or down as appropriate based on their risk profile based on their performance," said spokeswoman Betty Riess. "We would not close an account just because somebody would call in about it."
Short memory or flaming liar? You choose!
Thanks, David!
Did you ever get your money back from B of A? Did you have to sue them?
vi at October 31, 2009 9:57 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/10/31/never_is_a_real.html#comment-1675494">comment from viI got my money back, but that wasn't the main issue. From my investigation, I found that they put their customers in substantial risk of identity theft by not investing in a bank-wide computer system to connect the banks. They basically HOPE it's you when you go to a branch that isn't connect to your branch. I think that's sick, an abuse, and an utter travesty.
What's particularly awful is that the watchdog of the banks, The Comptroller of the Currency, ignored my repeated written complaints, including one to the Fed that they were ignoring my complaints. I wasn't petitioning them to get my money back, as most people are. I documented the findings of my reportorial investigation of the bank, and the way they put their customers at risk. This was not about me getting justice, but about wanting to protect other people from going through what I did.
Oh, and the House Banking Committee, Senate Finance Committee, Jerry Brown's office and Andrew Cuomo's office (atty gens of CA and NY, respectively) also ignored my complaints -- all of them documented with details from my investigation.
And Propublica bungled a story on this. Their reporter covered it from his chair on the east coast -- ass in chair, on the phone -- and couldn't for the life of him figure out why no tellers would endanger their jobs for a voice on the phone. Stephen Engelberg, the managing editor of Propublica, promised me he'd place the story elsewhere if they dropped it, and never did.
On the bright side, this isn't the last anyone's heard of me on this bank, and that's all I'll say for now.
Amy Alkon
at October 31, 2009 10:05 AM
They lie for the same reason a dog licks its balls. They LIKE it.
Go get 'em, Amy!
Jay R at October 31, 2009 3:00 PM
When I get elected...a great many things will change.
Robert at October 31, 2009 9:52 PM
I am a BofA customer and loathe them. I transfered only because my ex and I had a joint account for our future wedding - it made transfer of money simpler... but then came the car.
I could switch to another bank, but I'm still working out a few of the harry details with my loan (like trying to get the transfer of title etc...ex is not being cooperative).
In August... they shut off my check-card. Apparently for the last week, some thief had stolen my card number somewhere (they dont know) and was working on decoding the rest of my card info via dry-runs somewhere in Washington DC on a point of sale machine. After the second day, they got my expiration date and were working to decode my CVC (?) number.
SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES. I live in California. Seven days later and 67 "checks" later from Washington DC they finally decided to put my account on hold and call me. Thank goodness nothing was stolen.
Funny, because when I called to tell them that I would be in Costa Rica back in June of 2007, my debit card got shut off any way for 5 of the 10 days while I was there - I called for three days before they lifted the block on the card and even then (WITH A PIN CODE) I was unable to use ATM's.
Once the car gets sold. I am el gonzo.
Feebie at October 31, 2009 11:27 PM
They get away with it because they know the government won't punish them. After all, they're too big to fail.
And all the big banks are punishing their less profitable customers. If you don't carry a balance on your credit card, look to have your limit slashed. If you haven't used your card in a year or two, look to have it canceled.
And the more TARP money a bank took, the more likely they are to fuck you.
brian at November 1, 2009 5:41 AM
I suppose we're in trouble if Citi, HSBC, our local Bank, and 2 Credit Unions all decide the want none of our business.
Too much? Perhaps, but our daughter did a semester abroad once, and when we went to buy her plane ticket, the card we normally use was declined. HSBC discovered that the place I normally buy my gas had a massive security breach and thousands of card numbers were compromised. A seldom used Sears Mastercard saved the day, and since then we've always kept two cards current.
They make no money off of me, and I can see where this no-fee, cash back business will eventually end. I can't complain. The ability to use a credit card as an electronic check, with a $50 liability limit in case of fraud is worth something. Banks are a business. They can't continue without makeing a profit.
MarkD at November 1, 2009 6:59 AM
Bank of America just stinks.
My first credit card was through MBNA. When BofA bought them out, I didn't think anything of it. But they started slashing my credit limit when I started paying of my debt in earnest. Their excuse was my payment history with them.
The poetical bit was that the reason for a crappy payment history with them was their fault. They misapplied several online payments I had made, and I had a week's worth of go rounds with them before they would even look at my payment confirmation information.
I finally paid off that card July 31. When I called to close down the account, I think I flabbergasted the woman on the phone when I requested a confirmation letter. Thank God I did.
They sent me a letter mid-August stating that my account had been closed due to credit concerns. Most of my credit concerns were caused by their futz-ups that were later fixed with the bureaus. If I hadn't had that letter, I think they would have denied their mistake.
The guy I talked to when I called in to their "Hey, we dumped you," department started and ended the call with an attitude of utter disdain. I told him that I had hard proof that I closed the account after having paid it off. It was then implied that them messing up *yet again* was my fault for trying to leave them in the first place, thereby setting myself up for special scrutiny.
They finally fixed my records, but I don't think for a second that they've fixed anything internally. I would rather bank with Mattress Savings & Loan and Wal-Mart's Money Order Counter then even think about crossing the threshold of a BoA ever again.
Nyssa at November 3, 2009 11:06 PM
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