Bank of America stole $70 from me! They are NOT the same company they used to be!

This is exactly WHY I hate automatic payments.

Wow, that kind of scares me because I switched to Bank of American
after Washington Mutual ripped me off! I hope BOA doen't pull anthing
with me, although I already don't like the way they age their deposits
and credits. It shows everything perfectly normal one minute and the
next you have all these other amounts put ahead of them and it just
creates a big mess for me.

Washington Mutual on the other hand did not even know how to handle
theft from my account! It took them 3 days to close my checking and
realize someone got my debit card number. After 3 days, the party
stealing money were on their 3rd withdrawal!! They started the
investigation right by promising my money back within 5 business days
and canceling my debit card and that is where it ended. They never
returned the money nor did they credit me for all the overdrafts that
were created by the withdrawal and the length of time they took to put
the money back. I have all original correspondence from them. Well,
long story short, it took 3 months to end the nightmare not to mention
hundreds of dollars and one month later they sent me a letter saying I
owed them over $600 for back nsf fees! I don't think so, I wrote them
that I disputed this debt, next I got a letter from a collection
agency asking for 1/2 the amount of which again, I disputed and
offered all copies of proof that I am not responsible for this stuff.
I have not heard anything since but last month my electric service
sent me a letter with a copy of a check drawn on Washington Mutual
from March 5, 2007 for an amount that had cleared the bank and
suddenly 5 months later they pull the check back from WPS (not listing
as an NSF used some kind of "other" code, very vague) and anyway WPS
allowed it and sent it to me with a letter that the amount was
re-applied to my bill! WPS told me to call Washington Mutual because
they really did not know what was going on and to call Washington
Mutual it takes 5 different transfers, 5 different explanations, only
to be transferred again to be told that person is on vacation or out
of the department or blah ...blah...blah...which is what I got with
the theft deal so I just paid for the check to WPS and if I ever have
to see anything from Washington Mutual again, it will be too soon!
Dawn

Why Boycott Bank of America?

Bank of America Supports illegal immigration and open borders.

Bank of America has been identified as part of the OBL Open Borders
Lobby.

You should Boycott them for the following reasons.

1. Bank of America accepts the worthless Mexican ID called a
Matricula Consular card. Only illegal aliens in America need this card
to function.
2. Bank of America knowingly gives illegal aliens bank accounts and
home mortgages at a time when foreclosures are at historically high
levels for legal American citizens.
3. Bank of America is now targeting illegal aliens to receive
credit cards with no social security or credit history. In effect,
illegal aliens will be given preferential treatment over American
credit consumers.
4. Bank of America gives tens of thousands of dollars to racist
groups that support illegal immigration such as La Raza (The Race),
MALDEF, and LULAC. They also give money to try and defeat immigration
enforcement measures supported by the American public such as
Arizona's proposition 200!

Companies like Bank of America want to make a buck off of illegal
immigration while Americans pay the many costs associated with this
crisis.

Existing federal law says they should not do it.

Join our Boycott today!

We create our own reality. We are responsible for that reality
regardless. We can't blame others or another thing for our reality
when things don't go right, or turn out wrong. We have only ourselves
to consider when it happens. It's not the banks fault you got nicked
for 70 bucks. It's your fault. It's not AIG's fault you got nicked
for 70 bucks. It's your fault. It is your fault that you have
automatic withdraw on your account. These things happen with
automatic withdraw, especially when you run your account down to zero.
It's great when you have a higher than usual running balance, then
you don't have to worry about these type of things.

So take accountability for your own actions. Chalk this up as a
lesson learned well and move on.

Unfortunatly, I wrote the letter while I was extremly pissed, the
instructions said "go ahead, let it out, vent" and that's exactly what
I did. I wish I had of read the reply to another members flaming
letter before I wrote this one. The advise given was any letter on
here written in a "confrontational tone" will be responded to the same
way. I should not have used the word "stole" with all the !!!! marks.
I should have written a more civil letter.

I was going to relegate myself to only responding to the commenter who
agreed that you had been "robbed" and go about my merry way.

Then I read your responses.

I feel your pain, Scott - If I had a dime for the times I failed to
pay attention to my account and got smacked in the wallet for it, I'd
have surpassed Donald Trump by now!

But I fail to see how you can equate BOA's refusal to accomodate your
request to have them reverse fees that they didn't cause with "bad
customer service."

I have been on both sides of the counter - both customer and employee
- and it's given me a better perspective on how business works. As
others have pointed out, your letter and subsequent responses here are
a little myopic. You've convinced yourself that what you are asking
is not unreasonable or unacceptable and the fact that BOA (and AIG) is
sticking to their guns is nothing less than a declaration of war
against you. You couldn't be more off base.

As others have pointed out, every time there is an "exception" made,
somebody has to pay for that. It's all fine and good to say, "Well,
they're a big company with deep pockets - they can afford it." But
the truth is, that money has to come from somewhere and ultimately,
it'll end up coming out of ALL of us in the form of higher fees for
every service they provide.

But at the moment, you aren't seeing that, you are just seeing getting
your $70 back. Multiply that by the tens of thousands of customers
with BOA and you're looking at some pretty big bucks.

We all get it - you got charged and you're ticked off about it. But
if you would step back and rationally look at this for a moment, you'd
be able to see how unreasonable your request really is.

For your sake and the sake of your sanity, I hope you can do that.

i agree with you scott they did steal the money from you. They could
have
refunded the money to you but there is
no longer any such thing as customer service any longer. I can
remember when banks bent over backwards to keep their customers now
its screw you we dont need you or your money.

"Believe me, I am [upset with AIG]. Unfortunatly, their agreement
gives them a 5 day
window. Until now they have never exercied it. The auto-draft is now
canceled, but they refuse to refund me the $70. Even if they did, BOA
would still have profited from the whole mess."

So AIG acted WITHIN their policy. And so did BOA. And you are still
upset and believe you deserve $70.

The next step for you is a thread here titled "Regarding the members
of Planet Feedback". It is the garbage can of this site where all the
people who don't understand reason and feel wronged go to cry on each
other's shoulders.

Maybe I can understand the being furious over the NSF charge on the
9/12 autopayment however why are you mad about the debit charge? If
you know there is close to no money in there don't use your card. You
should pay for that one.

I think the real problem is that people are so used to being screwed
over by banks (thus the earlier comment, "that's what banks do") that
they believe it's right. Bad customer service has become so common
people believe thats the way it's supposed to be. I fully understand
that BOA had the RIGHT to take the $70, but that doesn't make it
right.

I have the RIGHT in my business to deny a customer a refund if they
are 1 day past the 30 day return policy. But if they tell me they just
got back from vacation and that's why their late, the RIGHT thing to
do is give them their refund with a smile. That's why managers exist
in my business, to decide when breaking the rules is the RIGHT thing
to due.

Every time I break the rules my "computer" warns me that I'm going
against policy, my job is to push the overide button when it's right.
If my company ever erases the gray areas, that's when I hit the door
for good.

I haven't read all the posts so maybe someone asked and you nswered
already.

I was wondering if BofA sent you a notice of the policy changes?

It really pisses me off when people who cannot read and fully
understand a post pass judgement upon someone. I know the post was
long and ranting but it seems like several of you are missing the
point. Several replies contain information that is completly false.

1. Bank of America has not credited me for any of the 3 or 4 overdraft
fees charged in the past 7 years. They were MY mistakes and I didn't
complain.

2. I was told by 2 different BOA reps that they agreed with me and
thought the charges were unwarranted. But, DUE TO RECENT POLICY
CHANGES they were no longer allowed to refund ANY fees. They both told
me that the "computer" makes those decisions now, not a person.
Everthing is either black or white now, no more gray area.

3. Acording to AIG, they have a 5 day window to remove the funds. They
had no explanation as to why they had never chosen to exercise that
window until now. They refuse to refund the $70. Their reply was "BOA
took it, BOA can give it back, not us." I am very peeved with them,
but they also refuse to pay back the $70. I have canceled the
auto-draft and will probably cancel the policy.

4. My recent money problems have been due to several large unexpected
expenses (auto & medical) over the past couple of months. Those that
tell me I need to readjust my budget need to mind their own business.

I'm confused. Personally, I would be rather hacked off at AIG and
their habit of taking the money whenever it suits their purposes. I
don't get why you are so angry at the bank, since the bank is just
doing what banks do. It doesn't really matter to them that AIG took
your money early, what matters to them is that a charge came around
without the funds to cover it.

If I were you, I would be giving AIG a piece of my mind and arranging
for more control over when they take the money out of your account.
It's your account, not theirs.

I'm guessing that based on the amount of the fee, there have been
multiple overdrafts. We use BOA and my kids did too and over time and
more than a few "mistakes" on their parts, the fees gradually went up.

How many times should a bank remove overdraft charges, especially when
they have done so in the past?

(Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I refuse to allow regular
automatic debits from my account from any company. I will not allow
another company to have that much control over what happens to my
money. But I digress...)

At some point, a bank must decide when they are going to stop removing
those charges. Unfortunately, whether they stop removing after one
time or ten times, it's always one time less than the customer thinks
they should.

I sympathize with the OP in that another company took out the money
earlier than expected. However, I know of no bank that will allow
unlimited overdraft situations. This is not a situation unique to
Bank of America.

They did not steal the money. They simply charged fees per your
agreement with the bank.
You admit this was AIG's "mistake". Why should BOA be held
accountable? You have had overdraft charges in the past, your grace
period is now over.
They probably do appreciate your business, but profits come first.

Like I stated in the original post, I know that Bank of America
didn't
cause the original problem, AIG insurance did. BUT, AIG got their
money a couple days early, Bank of America got an extra $70. I have
had things "bounce" before and paid the fees because I screwed up.
This time is very different, AIG took the money out 2 days earlier
than normal (their cs dept says they have a 5 day window). BOA would
lose nothing, by giving me the $70 back, but them would retain a
customer. Just because a company CAN do something, it deosn't mean
they SHOULD. I work in customer service myself and I know that
sometimes the RULES are just plain wrong! THAT'S WHY CUSTOMER SERVICE
EXISTS! It's their job to make a judgement when following the rules
just doesn't make sense. Two different BOA reps told me that in the
past it would not have been a problem, but the rules have been
changed. If the company takes away customer services power to bend
the
rules, you don't need them. All you need is a big sign that states
the
rules and a sentence at the end saying "If you don't like it, get the
F out!"

If you don't believe me, do a search on this site of every major bank
you can think of, then do one on Bank of America. Every other bank I
could think of had less than 100 complaints, even the really big
ones.
BOA had thousands. I'm not the only one who has noticed a BIG change
in their customer service practices.

They did not steal you money, they charged you two NSF's in accordance
with the terms and conditions of your account. You did not have the
money in there when AIG took the money out.

You should really be angry with AIG if they took the money out early.
I do suspect though, that their terms are going to say that they can
take a draft out X number of days before or after the due date.

You should not allow any business access to your bank account. It's
better to set up your own online banking to make an autopayment on a
certain date. Once you allow a business access, they take their money
and then you have a heck of a time getting it back it there's a
billing issue that needs to be resolved. If you search the net,
you'll find tons of complaints about money being taken out of an
account by a business even after people terminate services with that
business.

If AIG pulled the money before they were supposed to, you can try to
call them and get the fees reimbursed. If you put up a big enough
stink, they'll likely do it. Otherwise BOA doesn't owe you anything.
A draft was pulled and there wasn't money to cover it.

LOL Drama.

You didn't have the money in your account when the items were
processed... yes, it'd be nice if they'd give you a break and not
charge the NSF fees, but they are by no means obligated to - and they
certainly didn't "steal" your $70 as you claim in your subject line.