Um...Amy, you put your phone number in there again, might want to yank it before someone unlovely latches on.

Ugh...thanks so much...just removed it...not myself lately.

I would recommend emailing over snail mail. In my experience, email goes directly to the person whereas mail is opened by a secretary and forwarded to the appropriate person, and the executive never sees it. As for Claudius not being able to put an out of office on her stuff, utter bullshit. Most businesses have ways to access email from any computer and she could have had someone in her office do it if she was too dumb to figure it out from home.

Amy K's right. And I've been a secretary for a long time. And, yeah, her secretary certainly should have been able to put that on for her. In fact, her secretary can probably read and respond to her e-mail. I thought it was a dodge plain and simple. I doubt she even had jury duty. But if she had said vacation (even though she was probably there ignoring you and hoping you'd go away) you'd have asked the obvious question: "Don't you arrange to have someone cover your duties while your gone?"

Thanks, Amy K (yet again!), and T's Grammy. I suspected you were right. And I suspect they're trying to get revenge on me (just my suspicion, gut feeling) for not behaving like a docile little victim, like most of them.

Claudius now refuses to communicate with me except in writing -- adding to my time burden, and consistently fails to answer questions I pose her in the e-mails, like about what I need to send them to have them send me video and documentation of all transactions (down to the thieves forging of my signature...to see if it resembles mine...which I need to know to be able to know the extent to which I am damaged on a data level and need to protect myself).

I suspect her stonewalling is part and parcel of their trying to punish me for not just taking it, and for reminding them again and again, as a lawyer I spoke to told me, that they have "a fiduciary duty to you, handling your money and your I.D." I have that on a Post-It note on the front of my computer.

I'm going to change the blog item per what you said. I hope this isn't too long and boring, by the way...this blog item. Let me know...don't mean to bore people with this stuff...I just am determined to get the word out so others understand my experience of what passes for "security" at BofA...and surely, the seven times this happened to me and my account are not isolated incidents. Just guessing on that, but what do you think?

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered - have you gotten a lawyer to write on your behalf? Because as much as I resent the way that this is true, I've seen a lot of situations where the individual gets brushed off as a nuisance but a nasty lawyer letter and call gets respect (for being "legit" or something - as I said, I'm sorry that this seems to be how things go).

At the very least, they are trying to stonewall you. Make you put it in writing is another effort to discourage you from pursuing the matter. Also, they're probably hoping that you put something stupid that their lawyer can misconstrue. Obviously, they don't know who they're dealing with. You get them. I am so sick of businesses getting away with shit just because they are able to wear individuals down.

But do tend to your book too. We look forward to reading it.

Um, Amy, this blog and your column wouldn't be doing so well if you were boring. I daresay you wouldn't have the book deal either.

As for getting a lawyer to write on my behalf, perhaps I'll have to, but I have lost an enormous amount of time (and therefore money, because I would've been writing during that time) thanks to their negligence, and things are bad at papers, so this isn't a time when I should be spending $300 to have a legal letter written. I bought Mari Frank's book, and for $40, I have legal letters in there...going to send them the letter to demand documents as soon as I can.

Of course, I have to go switch banks today...and then order a new stamp for my checks from Staples and do numerous other pickup stuff related to the BofA debacle. I just realized that Erin, who helps me with administrative stuff, stamped about 40 checks I got with my old bank account number...and now I have to call the bank and figure out what to do about that.

I have ADHD and administrative stuff is not my strong suit. I can research complex anthropological stuff or dig ditches for hours...not lazy...but administrative stuff isn't that compatible with my brain, and all the systems I have set up to deal with that (direct pay with Kaiser that I had to cancel again, since BofA is cancelling me)...it's eating my life dealing with it...and extremely stressful for me where for an ordinary person it would just be tedious.

Oh, and thanks, T's Grammy...makes me feel better.

See if a friend has a lawyer friend - all are not demons and someone cool might be willing to write a letter and make a few calls very cheap or free-ish (providing that they confirm first that their firm doesn't already represent BOA). Maybe a trusted journo friend knows a cool first amendment lawyer who could hook you up.

Email is good, but so are faxes. I sent my email to Ken. But I'd suggest getting a lawyer friend to send them a letter.

And why not an Op-ed in the LAT? Nothing gets a bank's attention like bad publicity.

I'd suggets you sending some emails to your State attroney general. B of A is aiding and abetting identity theft by their failure to act, and by now you have some names of individuals who have aided and abetted this felony by their personal failure to act and refusal to cooperate with you. Identity happens to be a political hot-button crime for the time being, so you can expect some action. Maybe it's time for them to hire some lawyers themselves.

Send a fax with soild black on it a few hunndered times and force them to run out of toner

Hello,
I am happy to say I closed my Bank of America account last year. Not because of any trouble more because I just didn't like them. Have you considered going the route of contacting as many of the corporate board of directors as you can? According to the BoA website customer complaints are not shared with board members so they are totally unaware of any consumer dissatisfaction with BoA. Unless of course they read blogs. It would take a little digging on the internet but I did find Monica Lozano who is the publisher & CEO of La Opinion, offices located in Los Angeles, California. There are a lot of others, some are retired CEOs of companies on the east coast, most are men of a certain age. I wish you luck in your quest for justice from BoA.

Re "Share the hate".
Hate shared, from each of my email accounts.
Good luck Amy.
G_R

Keep the pressure on 'em, Amy.

What I would find very interesting, is a sit in protest.

Miss Alkon isn't the only one to be so abused, and I would wager very highly that it wouldn't be hard to find said abused customers.

BofA is gobbling up local banks left and right, and has the power and resources to ignore individual complaints across the country.

Consider this option:

Contact as many abused bank of America customers as possible, and at a prearranged date and time, with all relevant local media outlets alerted, sit down outside the Bank of America branches in protest until the issues are resolved and compensation is made.

They might ignore one irate customer at one branch.

But a thousand, ten thousand, at branches around the country with the media looking on?

Frankly I would even go so far as to contact the antitrust division of the justice department. The bank is growing to the point where many people will lack options except for their service. They may not be a monopoly, but neither was Southern Bell when it was broken up.

And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.

And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may think it's a movement.

You can get anything you want, at Alices Resturaunt (exceptin Alice).
I LOVED that song ... and the movie wasn't so bad either.

Oh the memories that brings back!

Gunner Retired

Good luck, personally I think the only thing that might improve things is changing banks. Back in the late 1998 I went to open an account. I found out BOA had reported me to check systems. I had never had an account with them. They claimed a bank they acquired was owed money. I asked them to prove this since I still don't believe it. To date they have never showed me anything to prove I owed a single cent. While they had me listed in check systems for money they never proved I owed, they opened an account for me. I have always wondered what the other check systems members would think of that. I paid the charge since I realized they were going to make my life miserable until I did. They also tried to charge me for researching this "debt" they said I owed. They are not allowed to do that. I finally got them to correct that. But to this day they have never showed me anything saying I actually owed the money. Neat way to collect money even if it's not owed. If this was a legal action they would have had to prove their claim. Since it was check systems they don't. But since they are big, they can ignore small accounts I guess.

I don't think you will get accountability from them. I still haven't. Good luck in your battle though. Keep blogging about this problem. If it doesn't go away maybe something might get done finally. I trust BOA. The issue is simply, what do I trust them to do.

Amy, if BOA objects to my comments or claims I am being less than truthful you can give Nereida Claudius my email address. I would be more than happy to discuss it with them some more. Even though I believe it will get as far as it did last time, no where.

You might drop Ken Davis a note to let him know how you feel -- about your own issue there and the way they've been treating me.

I want people to know what I've experienced at BofA -- not so much how they treated me in the wake of these thefts, but my experience of their "security" on multiple occasions...seven, in fact.

If I heard a story like what happened to me, I sure wouldn't consider my money safe in that bank.

I have to do further investigation to determine whether I have the info bombshell I think I do. If you're a regular commenter here and a BofA customer, and you want to help me investigate this please e-mail me at adviceamy at a o l dot com.

My idea is legal, won't take much of your time, and should prove instructive if a few people do it.

Amy,
I routed your letter to Ken ... to Ken... on each of my personal email accounts. If you could provide us with a Readers Digest condensed rendition of your treatment with BofA and attach the list of BofA e-recipients I can throw it to a mailing list and perhaps generate some emails for you.
G_R

Condensed version:

The background (from syndicated columnist and advicegoddess.com blogger Amy Alkon):

Bank of America tellers gave away $12,000 of my money on seven separate occasions to thieves (probably two of them) with fake driver's licenses in my name with the wrong expiration date. They didn't require a PIN...the women just walked up with the fake licenses and a withdrawal slip.

Now, I am unlike most people in the way I protect my data (don't use debit cards, don't get mail at home in my name, don't use checks, which I consider risky instruments, have had my credit bureau accounts frozen since 2005). If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. And frankly, identity theft is the fastest growing crime right now, says the FBI.

The thing is, had Bank of America done their minimum due diligence the first time the thief walked in there, they would likely have arrested her and the license would be in a police evidence locker now...and all the residual stuff I'm dealing with, especially related to their stonewalling me for information, would not have sucked my time as it has (and when I have a book due at on August 1).

Additionally, they have fired me as a customer as of the end of July! -- apparently for complaining a bit too vigorously that they failed in their fiduciary duty to me.

I want people to hear what I've gone through at Bank of America. Had I known this could happen -- that they'd give away my money so cavalierly -- I sure wouldn't have continued banking there. Others may feel differently, but a Bank of America spokeslady, Betty Riess, has bragged in the press that they have "multiple layers of security," and I think their customers have a right to know how, exactly, that's played out in my case.

Please pass this message on.

Best,-Amy Alkon, syndicated columnist, blogging daily at advicegoddess.com

And thanks so much Gunner, for sending that.

Hey Amy...

I can't even imagine what you are going through. Identity theft on top of losing faith in an institution you've become accustomed too- I can completely understand your frustrations. I currently am a customer of bank of america. I am nowhere near as successful as you though. I myself have had several minor frustrations with them in the past. "Minor" meaning the amount of cash involved would be little to most of you- but I am young and still trying to get on my feet. Let me tell you- from my experiences with them- these guys will neglect resposibility and pinch every single penny they can.

When I originally signed up for them, I was to be awarded for signing up for three different types of accounts. Months and months go by, and I receive nothing. I call off and on for weeks... constantly being told it's being corrected. Then what?- nothing. Finally, I am told that I am no longer eligible for this reward and never got it. I figured shit happens... things fall through the crack. I was locked into my credit card debt with them (you know.. the card they were able to talk me into getting for the "reward"... the one I was "using for emergencies" that would later lock me into $7000 debt with them) so I just hung in there and accepted it. Since then I have had a number of problems with them and there customer service. I went into default APR on my credit card ( a new problem for me that occurred due to employment issues at the time) and would BOA help me? Nope. Not one bit. Didn't matter that I had been loyal and on time pretty much up to that. I have since transferred that balance to another bank and am trying to pay it off.

Currently, I am awaiting my Visa gift card I redeemed with my world points. Considering what happened with my firt "award"- what are the chances of them messing up again with a little old $100 dollar visa gift card. Small stuff, right? Wrong. I have been talking to them since I redeemed my giftcard on 5/19. I have been being told since that time it would take 4-6 weeks to receive it. Several phone calls have gotten me nowhere but back to where I started- getting the "run around". As of yesterday I was told it will be atleast another 2 weeks until I get my card. I was also informed that the "world points" associates I spoke with in the past were in fact regular customer service reps- and worldpoints was never informed of my problem. I emailed them and told them I expected a call from a manager with good news- since I had called several times and was disconnected and misinformed. What did that get me?- An email back saying I had to call (Did they not read the part where I explained my issues with calling and that I had called? duh...)

I don't in any way think my situation is even 1/100,000,000th as serious as yours- so I hope I didn't offend you. I actually came across your site looking for contact emails for BOA. After reading your story, I am positive that I would have gotten no where if I did email them.

It isn't so much the amount of my missing rewards that angers me, but the fact that BOA can get away with the things they do. I mean, what if they do that with every other customers rewards? You realize how much profit BOA may be making at the expense of their customers? BOA in my opinion is fraudulant. They are playing with peoples time and money- and seem to be in no way the least bit remorseful for their sloppy and unprofessional actions. It all make sense though- considering what I have read about the CEO and company iteself. You can't have a successful customer oriented company when the employees aren't held accountable for their actions. After all, they are just following their leader, who is also apparently incompetent. It sickens me to know that they could take advantage of people like me who are jsut trying to make it. It sickens me even more to think they could belittle an issue as serious as yours. What are we going to do about the increase in identity theft in this country, when major (financial) institutions such as BOA won't even address the issue? Especially when (in your case) BOA ALLOWED it to happen. Ridiculous.

I am waiting for my card- which I will call about AGAIN here shortly. Once I receive it, I am LEAVING BOA and will NEVER look back. Well, that's what I am assuming. However, after I hang up with them (for the ~10th time) maybe they will fire me too.

I also wanted to mention that I found your page way down in the listing on google. I think your story deserves some recognition- and peole deserve to know the truth about Bank of america. Have you considering applying your blog to programs such as google adwords and adsense? I don't have much experience with them myself- but I know that if you got your blog moved up in the rankings- a lot more people would be hesitant to jump on the BOA bandwagon. just a thought...

Again, I am very sorry to hear what is happening to you. I wish you the best of luck. Perhaps more people like us will speak up and one day Bank Of America will end up being investigated for it's fraudulant activities.

What goes around comes around. I hope they bury themselves in the holes they seem to be continuously digging.

Take care.

To followup on my last note-

I did just call them and FINALLY got a supervisor on the phone. She was very nice- but did confirm it will be atleast 2 weeks until I hear anything. Grrr. I can't wait to close my accounts with them.

Take care.

Thanks so much -- and based on my experience, I think you're wise to close your accounts there. Actually, knowing what I know now, not all of which I can reveal here, while they're firing me as a customer, if I knew what I believe I've since figured out about the bank, I would've taken my money out immediately. I've been calling and e-mailing friends to ask them if they bank with them and telling them my story and telling them why I think everyone who banks with BofA (in consumer banking) could likely be violated the way I was...easy as pie.