Banned from Bank of America for a phone number typo: a customer service disaster and recovery

"I'm going to move on to the next caller.  I suggest you open an account at another bank."

As a BAC shareholder, I feel obligated to share a recent experience I had with Bank of America.  I'm a patient and understanding person and, frankly, Bank of America's Risk Department provided me with the absolute worst, most frustrating customer service experience I've ever had in my entire life. I'm not trying to be dramatic, and I try hard to avoid using absolutes.  I also don't usually give disclosures at the start of an entry, but I think it's important to keep in mind that I'm a BAC shareholder.  I accumulated shares for a while, per my own advice to buy and sell in increments, and I've been selling shares into the recent strength.  Let me also say up front that the representatives at the local branch were extremely helpful, and I have no idea how these two groups -- the Risk Department and the local branch workers -- are part of the same company.

Here's the story: My fiancee and I just moved.  Our new landlord has an account with BofA, and BofA happens to be the bank geographically closest to our new place.  We didn't have BofA accounts, but we thought those were two good reasons to open one: easy to pay rent through online intra-bank transfers and it's close.

After browsing over to the BofA web site to figure out which account made the most sense, I filled out forms to sign up for a MyAccess checking account. Easy enough.  A few business days later I received word that the account was opened successfully, and I visited the local branch to make the initial deposit.  All was well until I received two unexpected letters from BofA.

The first letter was a Notice of Hold letter, which indicated that BofA was "delaying the availability" of the funds from my initial deposit check -- from a friend who bought some furniture from me -- "due to confidential information indicating check(s) may not be paid."  Hmm, OK.  That's strange.  I don't need the money right away, so no big deal. Onto the next letter...

"We regret to inform you ..."

As I began reading, I was thinking "it's strange that I'm getting two letters about the same thing."

"We regret to inform you that Bank of America has elected to close your account(s) in accordinace with the provisions of our Deposit Agreement and disclosures provided to you at the time your account(s) was opened."

Umm, what the hell?  Closing my account?  I read on.

"When the account(s) is closed... A Cashier's check for any collected balance will be mailed to you after all previously deposited items have been verified."

It went on...

"If you have any questions about this matter, please contact Risk Identification Support Center Customer Service at <phone number; option> between 8:00 AM and 06:00 PM Eastern Time Monday through Friday"

The first letter, fine.  The second, huh?  I figured surely a next-day call to Risk Identification Support Center Customer Service should clear things up.  There must have been a misunderstanding.

Bright and early the next day I called the Risk Department number.  I provided my case number and explained my confusion to a Risk Department Representative (RDR from here out).  He quickly looked over my file and said that my account was flagged and marked for closure because of a phone number discrepancy: a phone number provided during the initial account setup mapped to a hotel in Hawaii.  To correct the mistake I offered to the RDR my phone number, and he responded that said number appears on my account just fine; however, another very similar number -- that contained an 8 where there should be a 5 -- appeared as well.  My mistake.  When I typed in the account setup information, I entered my phone number with the 10-key pad on the keyboard and the 8 and 5 keys are one on top of the other.  Fair enough, my mistake.

The question came to mind, "Why didn't they call both numbers?  Surely anyone looking at the data can see that the numbers are exactly the same except for one digit.  Perhaps there was an entry mistake."

Since he couldn't update information in my file, the RDR transferred me over to Customer Service so I could fix the one digit in the phone number so that both numbers match and are correct.

I explained my situation to a Customer Service Representative, who promptly fixed my number in their file so that my daytime and evening phone numbers agreed.  When I asked if the account could be reinstated, she explained that I probably should head to a branch since she can't take that action herself.  Simple enough.

Only slightly annoyed, I cruised down to the nearest BofA branch.  I spoke with a friendly representative who I'll refer to as Bob.  I explained my story to Bob, who was shocked at my predicament.  He quickly called the Risk Department, who reported -- no joke -- that I was put on a permanent block list for fraudulent activity (???).

That's right; Bank of America's Risk Department banned me indefinitely because I made a phone number typo.

Bob could hardly believe what he was hearing, and after the call he apologized.  He spoke with his branch manager (who I'll call Jenny), who explained that neither she nor anyone in her bank could override a decision made by the Risk Department.  Fantastic.

Bob never had heard of anything like this happening before, and he continued to apologize.  He said if I want to keep trying, I could try giving a call to the Customer Solutions department.  Fair enough.  I drove home and mentally prepared for battle.

I could hardly believe it: a single-digit typo in a phone number is fraud, and no one took thirty seconds to call the other, valid number to clear it up.  Mind boggling.

I called Customer Solutions, who explained to me that only the Risk Department can override a decision made by the Risk Department.  Customer Solutions can't override and the branches can't override.  How's that for checks and balances?

I called the Risk Department, and for whatever reason the RDR transferred me over to the Check Fraud Department.  The lady in Check Fraud was very nice, but she indicated that she could not help me since the issue didn't concern check fraud.  Imagine that!  She apologized and transferred me back to the Risk Department.

Recall that I'm a very patient person.  I was politely explaining my situation and thanking the representatives for their time.

So back to the Risk Department call.  This guy on the other end heard my story, and said he had to go talk to his supervisor.  He asked if I would hold, and I said "sure, no problem."  After hearing headset fumbles that sounded like someone shaking a jar of rocks, I was put on hold.  No music, just the faint sound of other RDRs talking to other callers.  I waited.  Ten minutes pass. Then 20, 30, ... 45 minutes and a few yelled "HELLO!"s later I hung up.  How annoying.

At that point I was tempted to throw my hands in the air and give up, but the principle of being banned from getting a Bank of America bank account because I made a typo in a phone number ate away at me.  So I called back.

This next RDR was particularly rude.  He flat out told me that there is nothing he could do, and he suggested I try another bank. When I told him that I was not satisfied with that outcome, resulting from a typo'd phone number, he said "I'm going to move on to the next caller.  I suggest you open an account at another bank."  Getting more frustrated, I explained that as a shareholder I was really disappointed and that I couldn't see how someone could be banned indefinitely under those circumstances.  Like a cuckoo clock: "I'm going to move on to the next caller.  I suggest you open an account at another bank."

Becoming more irritated, I asked to speak with supervisor.  He responded that there was a 20 minute queue to talk with a supervisor, and I said that's fine.  After all, I'd already spent how much time trying to resolve this issue?  On hold I went, and five holding minutes had passed when, wouldn't you know it, the call magically disconnected.  Lovely.

I called back again, went through the story ... again ... (I feel like Forrest Gump telling this story), and this person was more helpful.  I asked to speak to her supervisor, and told her I already had been waiting in a supervisor queue before my previous call was disconnected.  She responded that there is no supervisor queue; instead, supervisors walk the call floor and she just has to flag one down.  How quaint.

After a few minutes I spoke with a Risk Department supervisor, who said she couldn't do anything herself but that I had two options:

1. Mail a dispute to what looked like a generic PO Box in Florida
2. Go back to my branch and have the local Consumer Market Executive (CME) personally approve my account

At least she didn't give me the run-around.  I don't understand why the other RDRs were rude and unhelpful when they could have provided those options to me.

I called the local branch again and I'll repeat that Bob and Jenny were extremely helpful.  Jenny politely explained that in order for the account to be approved the CME had to personally assume liability for my account.  That would mean if I were defrauding them (which I wasn't) then her job would be on the line.  She asked that I not get my hopes up, but she thanked me for putting in my own due diligence on the matter.

A few business days later Jenny called me back and said that her CME would approve the account if I signed up for overdraft protection.  After all this I certainly didn't want to open a savings account with BofA, so I opted to link the checking account with a BofA credit card (which I had to sign up for).  I had to wait until the credit card application was accepted and approved before the account could be opened, and I was told it could be 5-7 business days.  I thought that was funny because for the last month I'd been receiving "Pre-approved" credit card notices from BofA, but what's another few days?

After that conversation I collected my postal mail only to see an envelope from the BofA Risk/Account closure department.  What now?  It was a letter explaining that per the initial notice, my account would be closed and here's a cashier's check to cover the balance I had deposited.  Whatever.  I look at the cashier's check, and the amount is $60 smaller than what I had deposited.

"@#!$! What else can go wrong?"

The next day I received my one and only account statement indicating a $60 "Research Fee."  What in the world is a research fee and why was I charged one?  I glanced through the fee schedule and saw an item called research services, which are billed out at $20/hr.  Are you telling me someone spent three hours looking over my information, not calling both phone numbers on record, and concluding that I'm defrauding Bank of America?  Absolutely ridiculous.

The credit card was approved fine, I opened the checking account, and as intended I've used the account once to pay my rent.  The people in my local branch say they're working on recovering the $60 for me, but I haven't seen it yet.

That's my story.  Again, I have no idea how the nice folks at my local branch and those in the Risk Department work for the same company.  Although probably irrational, after speaking with the RDRs I wanted to immediately dump my BAC shares.  I'm still evaluating the situation and I struggle with the fact that I own shares in a company that provided such absolutely horrible customer service.

As BAC shares have been climbing higher, I've felt unusually really good pulling the sell trigger.  I still own shares, but my position is about half the size it was before this mess started.