Consumer complaint received 2017-12-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: PA
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:
My co-workers and I work for a judge in a court system in Pennsylvania. We decided to have a bobblehead made of him for our annual XXXX gift exchange. I volunteered to do all the leg work and all my co-workers had to do was to pitch in their share of the cost. I looked at a few bobblehead companies on line and decided to use a company named XXXX. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I made initial contact with a gentleman by the name of XXXX at XXXX and e-mailed him approximately 5-6 photographs of our judge. We asked XXXX if he could make the body in a tilted or cocked pose like XXXX XXXX would pose after winning a race. We wanted the body to be covered in a black robe. XXXX informed me that I had to pre-pay for the bobblehead doll before any work would commence. I paid with my Bank of America ( BOA ) credit card the sum of {$160.00} on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. The very next day, XXXX, XXXX e-mailed me with two pictures of the body ( proofs ) and requested me to accept it and to move onto the head. I was disappointed with the body as it was not tilted or cocked as much as I would like it to be. I copied a picture of Usain Bolt off the Internet and attached it to my reply e-mail to XXXX : I 'm attaching a photo of XXXX XXXX in his pose. As you can see, XXXX is a little more cocked or bent. I would prefer if you could try to replicate this pose. The next day XXXX replied to my e-mail with Pls see the doll body and head, can we mold and finsh the bobblehead? 
I replied to XXXX e-mail with I 'm not sure about the head. Let me get back to you on that. Also, you did n't change the body as I requested. Did you get my e-mail yesterday with the attached photo of XXXX XXXX? If not, let me know and I will re-send. 
Aggies next e-mail read : How about this new version? My reply e-mail was : This pose is no different from the first one you sent if not the exact same pose. Please look at the photo that I sent to you of XXXX XXXX and make the body pose for the doll just like the pose of XXXX XXXX in the photo. As far as the head, I am resending you three of the six photos. Make the head using the first photo of the judge with a big smile on his face. I do not wish to have the face you originally sent. Also please let me know that you actually received the XXXX XXXX photo that I sent to you. 
By now I was getting frustrated that XXXX was only sending me the same body pose and not making the changes I requested. On XXXX XXXX responded : We did change it. about the pose. if it 's correct, we will add the robe. I responded to XXXX : We are having a problem communicating. You did not answer my question about the photo of XXXX XXXX. Did you see the photo I sent you of XXXX XXXX? That photo shows a pose that is much more bent or cocked than what your body is. That is what I want for the body pose. Also with the face I want you to use the photo of the judge smiling. If you ca n't do this, then I will cancel my order. XXXX reply to my e-mail was : We are fixing the doll head, i will let you see it later about the pose, it 's almost the same, can we just make the left hand a little lower and the body tilted a little? i painted on the picture. because he will wear a robe, the legs could not be too separate. I again respond : You mention making the pose of the body with dropping the left hand down a little lower and tilting the body a little. Show me what it will look like. You still did not answer my question of whether you saw the photo of XXXX XXXX that I sent you. I told you several times that is the pose that I wish you to do for the body. If you 're having a problem doing that, let me know. 
Aggies next e-mail : We saw the picture you provided, pls see the picture " XXXX '' the background picture is XXXX XXXX. you can see the pose is almost the same as XXXX XXXX 's. but after we add the robe it will look like " XXXX ''. how about the doll head? My next e-mail : Okay, if you lower the right hand of the body as in your picture of XXXX XXXX, I 'll agree to that. Go ahead with the head with the smile. But when you 've completed both the body and head, send me some photos of what it looks like. Aggies next e-mail : pls see the pose. can we add the robe? I then agreed that they could add the robe, although I still wasnt completely happy with the body pose. On XXXX Aggies e-mail was : Pls see the doll body, can we mold and finsh the bobblehead? On XXXX I respond : Can I see the finished painted head first? Thanks. Later that same date XXXX responds : pls see the new body. can we finish it? 
On XXXX XXXX informed me that they had finished the head of the doll but my co-workers and I were dissatisfied with how the head looked. My e-mail response was : I had my co-workers all look at the finished head and we all agree that it does not look like our judge. We have no problem with the body. Please re-do the head and make it look like the pictures I 've sent. XXXX responded on XXXX : But you approved it at the first stage, at this step, we only can change the XXXX of it. or we have to make a new doll head, it will take us about XXXX days to finish it. do you mind that? I respond on XXXX : Please re-do entirely the head of the doll. We were all very dissatisfied with your completed/painted head. XXXX responded on XXXX : OK, we will redo the doll head. XXXX sent me another unpainted proof of the head and wanted me to proceed to accept this doll before it was painted. I responded : I want to see it when you 've painted the head, then I 'll make my decision. 
On XXXX XXXX responded : Hello, if we paint the doll head, we can not come back to change the facial expression. Later that day I respond : I do n't know what to tell you but your attempts to make the head look like our judge is n't acceptable to us. We ca n't determine if this " new '' head will be any better at this stage because it 's not painted. I would like to communicate with a manager to resolve this issue. Please have someone contact me via e-mail. Aggies response on XXXX : i had asked our artist to change it. And then subsequently : Changes made. Pls see the new version, can we go to the next stage and finish the bobblehead? 
Again on XXXX I respond : Some subtle changes for the better. However, the upper lip is shaped like a handlebar moustache ; whereas the photograph shows his upper lip to be straight across. Please change the upper lip to the previous version where it was straight across and then get back to me. After XXXX made the change, the bobblehead doll still bore very little resemblance to our judge and I responded : Sorry for the delay. I had to wait until today for my colleagues to see it. Go ahead and paint the head. I can only tell you that our final decision will be made once you paint the head. As I looked on your website and the customers who you have featured who have posed with their bobbleheads, those bobbleheads very much match the featured customers. That was not the case with your finished bobblehead of our boss the last time. Please put your best artist on this project. If we are not satisfied with this one, we will withdraw our request to use your company. 
As you can see with this last response of mine, XXXX was not doing a very good job of pleasing its customer/s. 
XXXX responded on XXXX : pls see this one, if not problem, we will mold and finish it. Unfortunately there were little, if any, changes made and I responded : This is no different from the last version which I commented on in my previous e-mail to you at XXXX this morning. As I said in my previous e-mail, go ahead and paint the head. When you 've finished it, send us a photo of it and we will make our decision. 
On XXXX Aggies response : Done, Pls see the whole bobblehead, is the color correct? if the color is correct, we will ship it, pls confirm. 
My response on XXXX : Sorry, we are just as disappointed with this one as we were with the others. You just are not capturing his image. I wish to request a full refund of the {$160.00} that I paid. Please advise. 
XXXX response on XXXX : It 's custom made, we can change the color at this step. you approved 2 doll heads and the bobblehead body, it 's the final product now, we can not sell it to others if you cancel this order. we can give you a 50 % refund, if you really want to cancel this order. https : XXXX inXXXX XXXX this is the refund policy we list online, usually we refund 30 % if our client cancel the order at this step. i will ask our artist to take a compare picture. On XXXX my response : Sorry, your finished bobblehead hardly resembles the judge. I gave you more than enough chances to correct it but you have n't even come close. Please refund my {$160.00}. I have disputed this charge on my credit card. 
These included e-mails and response e-mails I included in my appeal to BOA to show that XXXX just wasnt making a bobblehead doll to our satisfaction. My included e-mails make that fact very plainly. I believe my e-mails are a much stronger argument to satisfy BOA to agree with me that XXXX just wasnt delivering a good product. But BOA gave me no weight or consideration of my e-mails but simply summarily denied my claim because I didnt include the second opinion letter. 
When BOA contacted me acknowledging my dispute with XXXX by letter dated XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, I was instructed to provide evidence of my dispute ( e-mails ) and provide a second opinion letter. The exact verbiage is : We need a signed second opinion letter from another qualified merchant in the same profession, on their business letterhead that specifically details how each disputed item listed on the merchants original invoice is considered defective or not as described. The letter should include an explanation of the steps that are necessary to correct the merchandise or services, along with an estimated cost to repair. Second opinion letters based on a photograph are not considered valid. The qualified merchant must physically inspect the merchandise or service in dispute. 
As a consumer, I believe BOAs second opinion letter to be unreasonable and vexatious. It definitely puts a tremendous burden on ones time to have to provide such a thing. But yet BOA informed me by letter dated XXXX/XXXX/XXXX ( which I didnt receive until XXXX/XXXX/XXXX ) that because of a lack of the second opinion letter, BOA was denying my claim for my dispute with XXXX. I called BOA and spoke to a BOA rep and the rep claimed that BOA did read my e-mails but still denied me because of the lack of the second opinion letter. 
In conclusion, I believe BOA is wrong with not giving any weight to my e-mails but just resting its decision on the lace of a second opinion letter. 
Thank you

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