The next however many paragraphs will be beyond a rant and rave. So read it or come back tomorrow.
An Open Letter to Kenneth D. Lewis CEO of Bank of America-
I am not sure what happened to the day and age of customers being important or for that matter your desire to keep your customers. It seems that in this type of economy you would want to keep each and every customer that you currently have. Are you in a position that Bank of America is making so much money that you can afford to lose a few customers here and there? Actually based on your questionable business practices I will assume the answer to that is yes.
I will tell you my story and what you choose to do with it is up to you. I however have the right to let the public know, exactly how Bank of America treats their customers.
I currently bank with your Georgetown, TX location. Towards the end of June, I went into the negative in my account and was charged 7 overdraft fees. I was also charged an additional $35 for what was called "Extended Overdrawn Balance Charge". This wasn't the first time in my life that I have had overdraft fees. However, I was shocked to find that on top of the 7 fees I got the extended one as well. I didn't complain when this happened I paid the $280 dollars and realized lessons learned. I won't get into all the exacts about how, when or why I had overages, but the two weeks before that, other things were more important then following this as close as I should have.
Fast forward to 15 days later and here entails the problem. In a down economy like this one I am sure I don't have to tell you that $280 out of someones pocket that wasn't budgeted, is a big deal. Or actually maybe I do have to tell you. Maybe you make so much money that you forget about the little people. Maybe you forget that sometimes life happens and some things are out of our control.
On July 14th I realize that my account was in the negative by $47. In reality it was only in the negative for $29.50 because there was a charge for $17.50 that was in pending that was never going to clear. Regardless that morning of the 14th I deposited $60 dollars in my account. More then enough to cover what was over. This morning I wake up and find that I have 8 overdraft charges. Another $280 dollars!!!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!! I start to scrub through my account and I realize that you paid the highest withdraws first. You chose to pay the highest charge first even though it was days after the smaller charges. Had you of paid them in order I would of had 1 overdraft with you at best. Not to mention the fact that I put a deposit in immediately to cover the charges. So instead you pay the high ones and let charges of $13/$10/$7/$6/$3/$3/$2 get hit with overdraft charges. This is beyond ridiculous.
As soon as I saw the charges in my account this morning I called Bank of America customer service. The gentleman that I spoke to was VERY cordial and got me to a supervisor named "Lydia". I explained to "Lydia" my situation. I told her all the above that Bank of America had gotten a total of $560 dollars out of me for the past two weeks and asked her to look at my account a little closer. I expressed to her that I didn't expect my charges to be taken off every time but this time I felt I was in the right and I wanted them removed. She took about half a second to say NO and tell me that $78 was all that she was WILLING to remove. At this point I was in tears and asked to speak with her manager, she informed that I couldn't speak to her and that she would take my number and have someone call me back in 48 hours. I explained to her that I had made a deposit within 4 hours of noticing anything wrong with my account and that Bank of America wasted no time in charging the fees and that I wanted to speak with someone now. She again said no one was available but her, she said this over and over and then HUNG up the phone.
Immediately I drove to my local branch. The gentleman that I sat with was very nice although he said he couldn't do anything without the managers approval. I explained my situation and told him that I was ready to cancel my account. That I wanted all 8 fees removed and that I was ready to go as high up as needed. He logged into my account and saw that the lady that hung up on me had credited me $78 dollars and then locked my account so that no further fees could be deducted. He said the only thing we could do is look at the fees before and talk to the manager, she put back in my account $122 dollars. So in all I was credited $200 back in my account. He told me that this was more then most people get back and that I should be happy. That fighting it wouldn't be smart. I was told that I could go up as high as I wanted but from his experience it would do no good. I left came home and this is where I sit, wondering what in the world happened to customer service. What happened to morals or sometimes people doing whats right even if its not written in the handbook.
I am beyond mad and you will lose a customer over this. What sense does it make to "tell" your customers that the highest charge is paid first because "you" assume its priority. When in reality all the charges get paid. You simply pick and choose which ones you "LIST" as paid first. In my situation had you of paid it correctly as it came in or for that matter took two seconds to look at my account, I never would have been charged that many overages. It makes me sick to think how much money your company makes a week buy using these practices. I can understand if you weren't going to pay the small charges. But you were going to pay them how else could you collect your fee. I wont reduce myself to making idle threats about telling everyone I know to choose another bank. I will however put my words out there on every blog, feed, twitter and send this to anyone else that will listen. I will let people make there own judgement about your practices.
Anyone other then a robot should have been able to look at my account as a person and realize that what I was saying was correct. They could see the deposit I made and everything after, instead I was made to feel like an idiot customer that didn't matter. I don't claim to be the perfect banking customer. Have I had overdrafts in my life, yes. Haven't we all? Do I call and complain every time I get a charge, NO. Should I have been treated better, YES. Someone please tell me why I should ALLOW Bank of America to be my bank. Is your ego so large that you don't realize that you need us just as much as we need you. So yes my complaint is over $80 but at this point its not even about the $80 its about a company that doesn't care about the little people. And that is just sad!
Your Former Customer.
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