Consumer complaint received 2021-03-01
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
Below is the email that I sent to XXXX XXXX of BOA Customer Service. It details the problem and unfair refund practice of BOA. 

Name : XXXX XXXX BOA Card Account No : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Dear Ms. XXXX XXXX Mr. XXXX XXXX of BOA Credit Department Supervisor asked that I contact you regarding the unacceptable length of time to receive my account adjustment refund. 

I paid my credit card bill of {$620.00} in full on XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XXXX, I noticed that my local bank account was debited again for the same amount. So, I called your customer service. 

Your customer service rep arranged for account adjustment for the duplicated payment and promised that the funds would be returned to me in a week or so. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I saw that {$620.00} adjustment was made in my account. Believing that the funds would be in my local bank account the next day. ( 1 business day has always been how long payments were sent or received from my local bank account from external merchants, including banks. ) I quickly submitted another payment of {$520.00} to bring my account balance down to {$0.00}. ( I have always been an honest and fair client and expect the same level of ethics to be reciprocated. ) I have also received a letter in the mail from BOA stating that the refund has been processed and would be remitted to my local bank account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Since XX/XX/XXXX, I have been calling BOA customer service several times a week and have been given all sorts of answers about the missing funds. I am sure you have records of all the calls. Initially, your rep said in 2 ~ 5 business days, I would see the funds in my local bank account. After 5 business days, then the answers changed to 10 business days. On XX/XX/XXXX, you rep told me that the BOA rep had jotted down the wrong routing code ( 8-digit instead of 9-digt ) for my local bank and told me that her supervisor would fix the problem and the funds would be in my local bank account within 24 ~48 hours. The supervisor was supposed to call me back to confirm on the same day. No one ever called. I then called again today and was given even more outrageous estimate. This time, I was told that the refund won't reach my local bank for 14 ~ 30 business days. 

Why does BOA engage in this type of unethical business practice? It takes one business day for a payment to go from my local bank to BOA bank card. But to receive my rightful refund, it would take 30 business days ... Really? I made the initial refund request on XXXX and it has been almost a month, I am still waiting for it. You have put the blame on the " third party bank '', i.e., my local bank. That is a ridiculous excuse, as I have had many external companies sending me money and it always only took 1~2 business days for the funds to be posted to in my local bank account. Clearly, the problem does not lie with my local bank account. I have used this bank for 30 years and I know they do not withhold my money. They told me that if BOA had sent me the money, it would show up in my account immediately. 

At the very least, during my very first call on XXXX, your rep should have advised me that the refund would take a whole month or longer to reach my local bank account. If I had been told that, I would have asked for the credit to remain in my BOA card account and not be transferred back to my local bank account. It would have saved me a lot of aggravation and time, let alone the time and cost at the BOA end. 

This is inexcusable coming from a large bank like BOA. Can you advise me on which government consumer regulatory organization to which I can file a complaint to? 

I was invited to be on the BOA customer advisory board. So, I assumed that BOA actually cares about customer satisfaction. This experience has been shockingly disappointing. From now on, I will most definitely advise all my friends and families to avoid doing business with BOA. I do not feel like a valued customer and your customer service reps are not well informed and trained either as I received all sorts of inconsistent answers/excuses with each one of my calls to your customer service line in the past 3 weeks. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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 monetary relief