Consumer complaint received 2023-04-24
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
On Friday XX/XX/ I received notification that my account was overdrawn. I reviewed the online banking portal and identified that I entered a scheduled bill pay transaction with Bank of America to transfer funds into an investment account with XXXX XXXX. When I entered the transaction, I made an error and missed the decimal point. The transaction was entered as {$10000.00} instead of {$100.00}. I called Bank of America customer service and was told by both their online banking and bill pay departments that they couldn't do anything with the transaction as it was already in progress. I was advised that if I contacted the recipient, XXXX XXXX, they could correct it on their end. I contacted XXXX and they changed the payment amount from {$10000.00} to {$100.00}. On Monday XXXX I saw a return of posted checkitem refunding the {$10000.00} to my account and thought the matter was closed. 
On Tuesday XXXX  Bank of America made a second attempt to transfer {$10000.00} from my checking account to XXXX XXXX. I called BoA customer service again, was again transferred back and forth between the online banking and bill pay departments. I was advised that the system automatically retries the transfer and it couldn't be stopped but that I would see the funds credited back to my account within 24 hours. On Wednesday XXXX  I saw another return of posted checkitem refunding the {$10000.00} to my account for the second time I thought the matter was closed. 
On Thursday XXXX  Bank of America made a third attempt to transfer {$10000.00} from my checking account to XXXX XXXX. I called BoA customer service again, was again transferred to 5 different online banking and bill pay departments agents before being transferred to a supervisor who assured me that though it is rare there are some agreements with payees that will try the transfer a third time, but this was the last attempt and the funds would be back in my account within 24 to 48 hours. 
On Friday XXXX I called my local Bank of America branch and spoke to branch manager XXXX XXXX. I asked XXXX for assistance with this matter but he indicated that there was nothing that he could do other than provide me with the customer service phone number for online banking. 
On Saturday XXXX  the funds still were not returned. I called BoA customer service and spoke to a manager named XXXX who assured me that because it was Saturday the fund credit wouldn't occur that day but would be seen on Monday. XXXX also took down my cell phone number and assured me that he would call me on Monday after he started work at noon to confirm the issue had been resolved. 
On Monday XX/XX/ the funds were still not returned to my account. By XXXXXXXX XXXX  I still had not received a call from the BoA manager named XXXX and called BoA customer service for the 5th time. I indicated that I had an issue with my account that had been ongoing for over a week and asked to speak to a manager to receive assistance in getting the matter resolved today. I was again transferred between multiple agents in the online banking, bill pay & escalations department and spent more than an hour on the phone again waiting to speak to a manager for assistance before I was connected to a supervisor. 
The supervisor reviewed the history and indicated that XXXX had a hold on the funds and she was contacting them while on the line with me to reverse the payment and return the funds to my account. The representative from XXXX indicated that the reversal was processed on the XXXX and that there is no further activity associated with another transfer attempt of {$10000.00} on XX/XX/23, but they would look into it further while we were on the line. At this point I had been on the line with the BoA customer service line for over 90 minutes. While waiting for the XXXX agent to confirm the status, the call was disconnected. I called BoA customer service again and was connected to an agent. I asked to be reconnected to the supervisor that I was working with but was told that she was on lunch, but not to worry because the funds would be back in my account within 24 to 48 hours. I replied that this is not acceptable, I was told the same thing on the 20th and the funds still have not been returned. I insisted on speaking with another supervisor to have the issue resolved today. That supervisor indicated that the funds would be returned to my account within 24-48 hours, there was nothing further they could do to resolve the issue today, and there was no direct contact to be reconnected to the same person if the issue persists beyond 48 hours.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation