Consumer complaint received 2018-02-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: SC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Bank of America refusal to refund non authorized payments on my debit card. This started in mid XX/XX/2017. The remainder of this complaint refers to withdrawals from my debit card made to a merchant in XXXX totaling XXXX dollars. The first 3 non authorized transactions were for XXXX. I followed protocol on a timely manner by phoning Bank of America and notifying their fraud department. The employee said no problem, and explained the procedure. I informed him that my wallet had recently been stolen and my card was in the wallet. I also informed him that i had never once in my life ordered anything directly from XXXX or received anything directly from XXXX. As i would repeat and plead with them the same statement over the next year time and time again. No problem again i was told, and that the money would probably appear back in my account in the next couple of days showing a temporary credit until the investigation was complete. I will state that im not ware of any correlation between my stolen wallet and these XXXX transactions that im aware of, nor is Bank of America. Sounded good to me. The nightmare has only began. I received a new card in the mail and would watch for the return. Next up was a total of 22 transactions that were two separate claims, one being XXXX, and the other being XXXX. Same XXXX merchant, same response from me, only my card is now present, and im beginning to panic because that wiped out my entire account, that ended up being XXXX non sufficient. Again i followed the timely protocol by phoning the fraud department, only this time to seem to have better news. Evidently i caught it so fast, the employee said that was going to be very good, because payments to XXXX had not been sent. He stated if you have not ordered anything, and you do receive merchandise to refuse it and let them know. Sounded good to me. He then stated it would take 10 business days to receive temporary credit while the investigation took place, No good this time, i was unemployed and we now had no money. XXXX or XXXX cash to us is a very significant amount of money. I explained to him that i was not disputing a credit card charge of a XXXX dollar pair of tennis shoes, this was money that had been stolen out of my account. He did inform me that since the money was significant they could expidite the claim, and i would receive the deposit within 3 days, worst case 5 days, There was nothing else i could do. Now, here we are almost one year later, i have not received a dime. I have tried to do the right thing, always being corteous and on several occasions giving them a solution to this problem within 2 weeks. They have stated all along that this is not cash, but on my statements under the large withdrawals are international transaction fees that range between XXXX and XXXX dollars each. My solution, notify the merchant. You have a written contract with them. There you will find what their services are and most likely the products they sell. You will have a physical address, and transaction numbers unique to their terminal payment system. You will also have a phone number. Call them, give them my information, tell them i am disputing almost 13k in fraudulent charges. They will find it, if its legit. Find out what my XXXX bought that some thief has stolen from me. They will have shipped it, and yes they will have the shipping information. I dont know, maybe its XXXX or XXXX. Lets say its XXXX. Call them, give them the information from the merchant. Within minutes they can tell you when it was shipped, the physical address it was shipped to, a phone number, who it was shippped to, the time and day it arrived, and there is going to be a signature. That signature will not be mine. This may not be able to be done over the phone, but with overnite shipping, we are done in 2 weeks max. ONE year later not one dime deposited into my account. The research ive done says i have rights. Federal regulations called REG E written by the FEDERAL RESERVE. I happening to notice that one regulation states, total full refund even if temporary must be done to the consumer until the investigation is complete within a ten day time period. Not one dime in my account. Can you think about possible circumstances of this over this amount of time. Late fees, no payments, repo of automobile, FICO score dropping daily. They have closed this case and reopened it three times due to my pleading for them to help me rectify this. Now they say, their policy states it can not be opened anymore, and thats alll they can do. Wonder what they have done? Reg E reads to me pretty broad protection for the consumer. It appears that they must prove that i authorized the transactions, which will never happen. They have given me a recent reason that on one earlier occasion i had approved a transaction in mid XXXX, and since i approved it then, that every other transaction i guess until eternity i will be responsible for, I feverishly tried to run that scenario by a supervisor to no avail. Maybe im wrong, but i believe bank of america is gon na be the only one standing that will agree that constitutes i approved the others, In talking with him for hours, i knew i had approved no transactions to XXXX period, then it hit me. REMEMBER those tirst 3 claims for only XXXX dollars? You know the one where the employee told me no problem, this will problem be put back in your account tomorrow. I wondered why i never received the refund??? well ill be, they now have no record of it being reported. Just disappeared. SO to the supervisor i explained agian. I really thought i was making headway, because this guy was beginning to believe me now. He said now me must report those charges again, so they will be on record, and i will make notes on your file explaining everything. He even read me about a half page note he had written to the guys in the back of what had happened. Two weeks later, denied again. Im frustrated, Bank of America should not be able to make decisions on what they think happened, espicailly when they have money in the game also. Makes me sick when i speak with an outside bank consultant and he tells me they use that excuse all the time. He knows of customers that have been denied refunds, and simply made to believe it was their fault and they would have to eat the cost. AND WE are speaking of one of the wealthiest banks in the world versus me or most of the time people less fortunate than me that may not have the resources i have or lawyers in my family. Word of wisdom, be careful of the crowd you hang with and allow to handle your money. HELP ME anyone if you know of my next move, BUT old bv will see this one to the end!!!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation