Consumer complaint received 2020-11-19
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
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: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
I am a XXXX XXXX rewards member with Bank of Amercia, and I have been with them for many years. I received a fraud alert from the bank on XX/XX/2020, with 3 recent transaction listed, asking me if I had made those purchases. 2 out of the 3 were not mine, so I said no and the card was blocked. Since I had credit card fraud happen to me before, I knew I had to look back into my recent transaction history to find the fraudulent charges. I did and filed a claim. Charges were mostly made for XXXX gift cards, which I never buy, and a couple of charges at XXXX and XXXX XXXX in NV. I live in XXXX XXXX and have not left California since the lockdown started in XX/XX/2020. All of the NV charges also say " online '' when I look up the details through online banking. A couple of weeks later I noticed the charges were back on my account and I received a letter from the bank that the claim was denied. The letter said the basis was that I was present at the time of these transactions and also the purchase pattern matched my purchase history. Both of these are groundless, as I don't have a history of buying XXXX gift cards or making XXXX or XXXX XXXX purchases. I had carefully examined my transactions to make sure I find ones that were fraudulent. I called the bank again ( talked to XXXX ) and also sent an email to XXXX XXXX describing the situation on XX/XX/XXXX. I was not given the name of the investigator, nor was I connected to the department to be able to talk to them directly. I had the back re-open the case and they said they'd get back to me soon. This week, I got a voice message from XXXX, a client advocate, saying that the claim was denied again. I have tried calling him and left a couple of messages, but haven't been able to connect with him to talk yet. 
I have proof that I was in CA on the dates of the NV transactions ( for example, My mom and I got our flu shots on XX/XX/XXXX at a XXXX in XXXX XXXX, which is the date of one of the NV XXXX XXXX transactions ). In fact, I can prove that I have been in CA this whole time. I have many meetings during the day ; my coworkers can attest to me sitting in my usual work place at home taking my meetings, and my location can also be proven from the IP addresses of my emails - I work at XXXX, which was formerly XXXX XXXX XXXX. My mom and other friends in the area that I have met in person can also attest to my presence in CA as well. The amount of the charges are a few XXXX dollars in total, so not a big deal for me, but this dysfunction and lack of professionalism and competency is beyond infuriating to me. So I looked up the way in which I can escalate this and this was one of the ways I found. 
I am not sure if this is a result of some kind of discrimination or stereotyping by the back or not. I will be taking every and any legal action possible to fight this. I have come too far to have my time wasted, my rights denied, and be disrespected by incompetent bank employees and/or executives.

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