Consumer complaint received 2018-11-12
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2018 I took a recreational trip to XXXX XXXX, XXXX. About midway through my trip, on Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I visited the neighborhood of XXXX. Near the main square in XXXX I visited a restaurant called XXXX XXXX. Throughout the trip I had been using my Bank of America American Express card to pay for a number of purchases, as I found the international exchange rates on the card to be favorable. 

At the end of the meal, the check came and I asked the server if I would be able to use a credit card to pay. He looked briefly confused, which almost caused to to just pay with cash instead, but before I fully made that choice, the server returned with an iPad and a credit card swiper extension. The total bill was XXXX pesos ( about XXXX dollars ) and when the server handed me the iPad to sign, that was the amount I saw displayed. XXXX pesos. I signed for that amount and the server asked if I would like to leave a tip. I said of course, was handed back the iPad, and myself typed in the amount of XXXX pesos for a tip and signed for it. They did not offer me a receipt and, thinking nothing of the transaction at the time, I didn't ask for one. 

The next day, while looking at my bank statement in my XXXX, I noticed something off about the pending amounts. On my Bank of America online statement one charge pending charge was at XXXX dollars, and the other charge was at XXXX dollars. These amounts were clearly not correct and concerning, but I figured that it may have just been an issue with a pending charge, as those can frequently display incorrectly before they are formally posted. 

Upon returning home from the trip, I checked my bank account and noticed that the charges had indeed posted as the incorrect values, XXXX dollars and XXXX dollars. My hunch at the time was that, through likely incompentence, the server had punched in the wrong numbers while finalizing the tip. Given that the peso amounts charged were XXXX pesos ( as opposed to XXXX ) and XXXX pesos ( as opposed to XXXX ) my guess was that someone had accidentally punched in a couple extra zeros by accident. No big deal, this amount is clearly off and suspicious, I thought I would make a single phone call to Bank of America and we would quickly take care of the problem. This is where the nightmare begins. 

Upon calling the Bank of America credit services line, I was informed that I would have to go through a formal procedure that could take up to 90 days. This was confusing to me as everything seemed pretty clear cut, but that's what they asked for. Over the course of the next month and a half, I would deal with the credit services team several times. The main point of contention came when I told them that I didn't have a receipt from the restaurant. To me this didn't seem like a huge deal but taken together with the fact that my signature appeared on both of the fraudulent amounts they told me that there was nothing they could do to help. I was gobsmacked. 

( To clarify my signature being on the fraudulent amounts : I work in the restaurant industry. Upon receiving a customers card information, in many systems it is possible to change the amounts charged to their cards. Thus, despite me signing for the proper amounts, the restaurant, somewhere down the line, changed the amount on their system, either incompetently or maliciously, causing me to be charged 100 times the correct amount. ) The representative from Bank of America suggested that, instead of them doing anything to help me as my bank, I try to get in touch with the restaurant myself. Absurd as that was, I'm actually lucky enough to have a friend down in XXXX XXXX who was willing to help me. He went to the restaurant and reported the problem to them. They were aware of the issue and agreed to charge my card back. I gave them my info, my friend actually paid them the amount of money on my original tab, again, so they wouldn't be out anything, and I thought the issue was resolved ... 

... Except it wasn't. I waited and waited but the money didn't come back to my card. I got into contact with both Bank of America and American Express and both of them were unhelpful. I once again contacted my friend and we eventually were told that some sort of international hold had been put on the charge back, so they cancelled it and we decided to try again. By this point months had passed with no help and only frustration from Bank of America and the restaurant. Once again, the charge back failed to come through to my card. I went into Bank of America in person, and there was once again no one willing to help me. 

Eventually I reported Bank of America to the XXXX. Upon doing that Bank of America contacted me from what they called their " highest escalation level ''. Once again, much to my ever growing disbelief and anger, they were unwilling to help, as they kept citing that because my signature existed on the documents, I must have signed for that amount, even though I clearly did not. 

XXXX recommended me to this page, so here I am.

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