Bank of America Anecdote

Updated Monday, March 22, 2010

The purpose of this page is to describe an inexcusable customer service experience that we had with Bank of America. If you have a customer service experience that you would like to share, either good or bad, please email us your anecdote at [email protected] so that we can share with our readers.

Our Experience
I have an IRA at Bank of America Investment Services. I decided to move a portion of these funds into a CD. I talked to a BOA representative and was told that this would not be a problem. She informed me that she would send me the necessary paperwork in the mail. I filled out these forms and mailed them back on December 5, 2008.

On January 2, 2009, I logged into online services and still did not see the CD listed in my account. I called my BOA representative and I was told that they would look into it. When I heard back from them on January 6, they told me that they did not receive one of the necessary forms. I remember filling out both required forms and returning them back exactly as the instructions specified. Nevertheless, I filled out a second copy of the one form and faxed it in.

On January 13, I logged into online services to discover that my IRA now had an account value of $0.00 and there was still no CD opened! I immediately called BOA and was told by the representative that my IRA account had been closed and my CD was in the process of being opened. This was a major issue because I specified to move only a specific dollar amount of the IRA into a CD and not the whole account value! At this point, I told them that I wished to cancel the CD and have the funds transferred back into my IRA account so that I could prepare to move the funds to another bank. I had had just about enough. The representative told me to send in a fax to cancel the CD for documentation purposes. I agreed and complied immediately.

Two days later, I received a call from a different company representative. He told me that I needed to fill out a separate form to cancel the transfer. I gave him a fax number to send me the form but I never received the fax. I called him back and left him multiple messages but he never returned my phone call.

The next day, I checked online services and my IRA account had been reopened. The only problem is that some of the funds were missing! Upon further inspection, I was charged a $75 account closing fee! I immediately called BOA and demanded that the fee be removed. They entered a fee canceling ticket and said that the funds would be returned within 2-3 business days.

Tired from the entire experience, I still had enough energy left to request to speak to a supervisor to give him a piece of my mind. After waiting for ten minutes, I finally spoke to one. I told him that I had the single worst customer experience of my life with his bank. I told him that their back office is a mess and their company representatives have no idea how to navigate their bureaucracy. I told him that it was inexcusable that a major bank could not handle opening a CD, a most mundane basic banking function. Not only did they cost me money by having my money sit dormant making no interest for over a month, but they tried to charge me a fee to do it! The guy made a meek apology but said nothing else.

In the end, it is obvious that the company is simply too big and bureaucratic to care about its customers.