Consumer complaint received 2023-12-19
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX of 2023 someone got a hold of my cellphone and sent themselves {$3500.00} through XXXX  after being able to access my bank of america account through my phone. I contacted Bank of America to help me with this since this was from my XXXX XXXX XXXX account and I was a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX member at the time. Instead all I got was more frustration, anger, pain, problems, and a lot of wasted time. I contacted the bank to let them know what happened, that I had lost my phone at a bar and someone got a hold of it and XXXX themselves money. BOA said they understood and opened a dispute and investigate. When you open a dispute they are suppose to provide provisional credit. They did not do ANY of that. And when they finished their investigation they said that I am at fault and there's nothing they can do. How can I be at fault for something where I am the victim. Bank of America is a victim blamer company. I called them back and asked them why I lost the dispute and they didn't give me any info, they just said I am not in the right and they need more information. They also wanted a police report done. In my city there is a lot of crime and I had to go in person to do a police report. They are only open from XXXX and I have work too from XXXX so I had to use some of my hard earned PAID TIME OFF to go there and get a police report, and the station was very disorganized and it took me XXXX hours there to just get a report. Bank of America also thought I was lying when I said I lost my phone at the bar so I contacted the bar and kept calling for weeks and emailing them to verify that I lost my phone there and that they returned it to me. I finally got an email from the owner about it and sent me a letter stating they found my phone. I provided all this information to BOA after spending a ton of time and resources and mental stress to do what THEY ASKED FOR. When I gave Bank of America what they asked for they took months to review the claim again and deny me my claim stating that whoever took my phone shouldn't have gotten into it. Once again VICTIM BLAMING. So I wasted my time, got a lot of emotional and mental stress inflicted upon me, and lost a great portion of my funds after getting the run around multiple times. I did exactly what they asked for which was get a police report and a confirmation from the bar owner. In the end they denied me. 

IF you value your assets and want to protect yourself from fraud please do yourself a favor and keep your funds in another bank. It is clear BOA does not care about their customers but only to inflict them pain and cause them more stress and waste their time. Think of Banks like XXXX or XXXX if you want to keep your money secure and protected. Not at this bank.

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