Consumer complaint received 2021-02-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
I have been in contact with Bank of America multiple times on this ongoing issue and have yet to receive any help from them whatsoever. I have had customer service agents walk me through setting up auto payments multiple times and every time they find a way to set me up wrong to defraud me of my hard-earned money. I am just trying to pay them ; that should not be so hard, should it? 

Their first customer service agent walked me through the process but instead of having me set up a minimum payment, they had me set up a standard X dollar payment ( this was explained to me by the second agent ). This payment did not adjust when some sort of period was over ( like a no-interest period or something ). So at that point, I was contacted by the collections department because my payment was insufficient ( I was told this by them as I had no idea ). At that time, I was under the impression that my payments had been set up, they had been taken out of my bank account successfully every month, so I had no reason to think anything would change or that I would ever make a late payment. 

I had a supervisor call me back because the person on the phone could not help me. The supervisor then walked me through setting up a new autopay for a minimum amount instead of an X amount. I asked several times if I was set and if everything would be paid automatically now, made the payment that was missing, and was assured that I was all set up. 

Fast forward to this week. I receive a message that AGAIN the payment did not come out. AGAIN, I'm charged a late fee. I contact customer service ( this person was nice ), but they could not help me as the last late fee was refunded, and indicated that their manager of customer service, XXXX, would call me instead. 

Today, I receive a call from their manager XXXX. She did not listen to the call detailing the setup, which I had already indicated would show the conversation, and immediately stated that as I was the one putting in the information online, even if someone was walking me through it, they were under no obligation to tell me that the payment would skip a month because I should have read that. I'm sorry? I am literally trying to talk to a person on the phone, get an issue resolved, prevent any further mishaps/fees, and asked multiple times if I was all set and if there wouldn't be any more issues. No one mentioned that I needed to put in an extra payment for the upcoming month because their system doesn't set up until the next billing cycle. If they had, I would simply have put the payment in at that time ( why subject myself to more lost time, more calls, and more fees? ). 

Never mind the hours I have spent so far trying to get my payments set up without being late, having everything come out on time, and avoiding late fees. No matter what I do, their " customer service '' seems hellbent on screwing me over at every turn, feeding me misinformation, and simply not helping me and wasting my time. I am still floored that Manager XXXX is a manager of customer service as she didn't even try to help me, get to the bottom of things, or anything, but right away went into the statement 'it 's your own fault, you should have read the pop-ups even if someone is walking you through it '. I have no way of knowing if such a pop-up even exists. After multiple failed calls, it is started to look more and more like a setup with the sole purpose of filching fees from customers by whatever means possible. I no longer trust them and will cease to be a customer as soon as my accounts are paid up, but at this time I am not letting go of the issue of being misinformed and being charged a {$39.00} fee because of it! I want that money back and have the tapes reviewed. 

I have to be honest, I have little hope of my message being read, let alone that something will be done about the blatant lack of customer service and their attempts to collect fees from their customers through dishonest means at BoA.

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