Consumer complaint received 2023-11-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase or transfer

Complaint:
With the goal of brevity being the main focus I will attempt to sufficiently describe the problem without being excessively verbose. Thank you. 

Basically back in XXXX I was at the tail end of having been on unemployment in CA. In XX/XX/XXXX I had lost a total of {$5000.00} between two unauthorized transfers out of my Bank of America CA unemployment prepaid account. I filed a fraud claim and it took Bank of America 21 months to refund the money. I did not realize the money had been refunded until a month or so after the refund actually took place. 

In order to access the funds and the account BofA needed to send me a new prepaid card to activate and regain access to the account. So I called BofA to request a new card be sent out I was informed that they had just issued a new card and I informed them that I wished for my card to be expedited to me so that it would arrive at my door and not to the cluster box at the apartment complex DUE TO ONGOING SECURITY ISSUES/FAILURES OF THE MAIL ARRIVING WITHOUT HAVING ITEMS STOLEN AND/OR TAMPERED WITH WHICH HAD BEEN A SERIOUS ISSUE AT THE COMPLEX FOR AT LEAST A XXXX  AND A HAL PRIOR TO THIS TIME. 

THE customer service agent I spoke with told me that despite my request to have the card expedited to me which is an optional service that costs a fee if {$15.00} which I stated I would gladly pay that they would not be able to send the card expedited. This was on XX/XX/XXXX. Not understanding why I was being denied an optional service that I was willing to pay the fee for I attempted to once again call BofA prepaid cardholder services and attempt to again secure the expedited ordering of my new card so that the card would be delivered to MY DOOR AND NOT TO THE CLUSTERBOX WHIch had been proven to be compromised at our apartments numerous times during the period in question. I communicated this to the customer service operator now this was the SECOND TIME and the SECOND OPERATOR THAT DENIED ME MY REQUEST TO PAY THE FEE AND HAVE MY NEW CARD EXPEDITED TO ME. 

So after arbitrarily declining to send me my card expedited because I had security concerns the new card also took nearly XXXX weeks to arrive and before the card arrived I had left town on vacation for XXXX month. I came back to discover my debit card prepaid card from BofA had been tampered with ( opened and resealed ) and that the funds that had taken 2 years for BofA to replace, {$5000.00} had all been spent. 

All of this took place because BofA XXXX XXXX XXXX arbitrarily decided they would not allow me to have my card expedited to me which I requested and explained it was for security reasons and that I would gladly pay the fee to have this service be afforded to me. Therefore BofA directly caused my loss of these {$5000.00} which I HAD ALREADY WAITED XXXX YEARS TO BE REFUNDED. 

BofA refuses to refund the monies despite the transactions taken place while I was out of state for weeks and a significant amount of the money was used to a cash app account which I don't recognize the name it certainly isn't my name or anyone that I know. BOFA REALLY XXXX XXXX XXXX HERE AND I HAD MADE EVERY EFFORT TO SECURELY RECEIVE MY NEW PREPAID DEBIT CARD AND BECAUSE THEY ARBITRARILY REFUSED TO EXPEDITE ME MY CARD FOR A FEE WHICH I WOULD GLADLY HAVE PAID THEY ARE REFUSING TO HELP ME OUT AFTER HAVING ME WAIT 2 YEARS FOR THE! MONEY LOST PREVIOUSLY TO FRAUD NOW I LOST IT TO FRAUD AGAIN BECAUSE THE CUSTOMER SERVICE CARDHOLDER HELP REFUSED TO SECURELY EXPEDITE MY NEW CARD TO ME FOR NO REASON ABD DIRECTLY AS A RESULT THE MONEY REFUNDED TO ME FROM XXXX {$5000.00} WAS STOLEN FROM ME AGAIN.

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