What You Need To Know About Bank of America

Bank of America bought our local bank some time ago. It's inconvenient to change banks when a paycheck is automatically deposited, so we hang on at B of A, but consider the bank to be "on probation" with us.
The worst episode occurred when I was balancing our checkbook with the statement and found three checks from a month or two earlier that seemed as though they should have passed through the account earlier, and/or actually HAD done so. (I once worked in the banking industry when I was young and used to balance OTHER PEOPLE'S checkbooks for them when they were horribly snarled. Point being: I'm good at this.) I got out the older statements (I save them all! You should too!) and lo, these checks had been debited from our account TWICE! So I took the statements and the checks to the branch (they like to call it a "banking center" - pfui!) and waited for one of the customer service reps who sit at desks.
The one I got was an elderly woman (and I'm not a kid myself by any measure, believe me) and seemed intelligent, but also "loaded for bear". She was eager to blame ME for this problem. She asked a lot of insulting questions like "What did you DO with the checks after they came back the FIRST time?" (they never came back in the statement the first time) "Why didn't you NOTICE that?" (we are people who actually have some money - our bank statements ran to four pages back then). Finally, to make it clear who and what we were dealing with here, I invoked our 20 years' history with the bank (most of it before B of A bought it), the professional status of my husband and myself, a few similar ideas related to our status in the community, and what I thought had happened: someone in the check processing area had embezzled the money by running the checks through our account twice and diverting the funds to some private account, and B of A had better fix this problem STAT.
Ms. Oldster NEVER apologized to me at any point, but when the light dawned in her head she got a freaked-out look on her face, rose from her chair, and said "I have to call the hotline! We have a hotline for things like this!"
After that I left with lukewarm assurances from Ms. Oldster that the matter would be investigated.
A couple of days later I received a phone call from a male bank "officer" who assured me, in a tone as if he were telling me I had won the lottery, that the funds had been replaced in our account. "Well, I should hope so," I told him, "they were only removed due to a bank error or embezzlement. What do you think happened?" This loser would only say repeatedly that he couldn't discuss that (which made me more completely convinced that it was a problem with criminal activity within B of A). I found his attitude nearly as irritating and disrespectful as that of Ms. Oldster, though I know that many corporations disclose nothing when they are at fault, not just B of A.
So that was a very, very big Strike One.
Next came the issue of foreign currency. I needed quite a few Euros for a trip, so B of A was a source I called to inquire about exchanging currency. I was told that the Euros had to be "ordered" and our "banking center" didn't have any normally, and the rate I was quoted was VERY unfavorable and had a large extra surcharge. Forget that! (I got my Euros at American Express, where the charges were only semi-astronomical.)
Strike Two.
The most recent glitch came when I ran out of checks (yes, yes, that was my own fault). I went to the "banking center" to get some temporary checks and was told that that service was not offered! The teller was not very respectful about this, either. Later I visited another, larger "banking center" and was told the same thing. I made phone calls to a mysterious B of A entity also. When I asked the reason for this policy, I was told it was for security reasons. "But other banks provide them!" I protested. The unspoken attitude was "so what?". Also, several of the B of A workers offered me the unattractive option of a "rush order" of checks, and it was notable that all of them sounded brisk and excited about this idea. Good grief, are they on commission?! Do you know what a "rush order" of checks from B of A costs? Over $30! Now call me an old fogey, but one of the first principles of managing your money is to keep service charges low.
Just for reference, I checked with Wachovia/Wells Fargo, where we have other accounts, and asked whether they issue temporary checks. Not only do they offer this service, the customer service reps. at Wachovia were astounded to learn that B of A does not!
So that is Strike Three - it's just that the umpire hasn't yelled "OUT!" yet.
By the way, if you Google on Bank of America, you can find many, many complaints and even remarks by B of A workers that they themselves bank elsewhere.

Bad Business List

In alphabetical order:

1. Bank of America
2. Capital One Credit Card
3. Colorful Images
4. Comcast
5. Herrschner's
6. Verizon

What gets a company onto my list? My own experience with bad (sometimes incredibly bad) customer service, mainly. It's interesting that it's so easy to find other people complaining about the same companies that drive me crazy!
I will post detailed information on these companies in separate entries.