Consumer complaint received 2019-08-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I am writing to ask for help and call your attention to a deceptive practice by Bank of America which I think is not just an abuse, but downright fraud.   If not intentional, it shows that Bank of America’s compliance program for handling of a stolen credit card and subsequent credit dispute is insufficient, resulting in abusive treatment of customers.  I am only one person, and given my repeated attempts to resolve this, I expect that Bank of America is doing the same thing to trick other customers.  Background:On XX/XX/XXXX, my wallet was stolen while I was on vacation, and the thief charged $XXXX to my Bank of America credit card for XXXX gift cards at XXXX in XXXX, CA.  Minutes later, when the thief tried to buy more gift cards, Bank of America’s fraud alert program identified the problem, declined the charge and sent me a fraud alert, which is how I realized my wallet had been stolen.  The police were called and a police report made.  I closed all my credit cards and bank accounts and placed a freeze with the credit bureaus.  Bank of America immediately re-credited the $XXXX   charge by the thief.  Strangely, since they were the ones who identified that the card had been stolen, Bank of America then declined the fraud dispute, re-charging the $XXXX back to my account, but after several phone calls and an in-person meeting at my Bank of America branch, they again reversed that charge.  Then, when reviewing my April credit card statement, I saw that Bank of America (not a merchant) had made two charges on my credit card on XX/XX/XXXX, for $26.18 and $XXXX, labelled “Fraud Dispute.”.  When I called to ask what this was, the customer service agent said they were related to merchandise returns I had made in XXXX   XXXX, New York – on XX/XX/XXXX for $XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX for $XXXX.  These transactions had nothing to do with the theft!  The amounts are different, obviously not the $XXXX in gift cards that the thief had charged across the country in California.  And Bank of America never contacted me before making the very strange decision to just add it to my bill.  It can’t possibly be legal to add charges to my bill without any documentation or contact – they are just stealing from me.  Also, since the legitimate merchandise returns to XXXX had occurred months earlier and had been properly credited, I woudln’t even be looking for them.  If I hadn’t carefully reviewed the statement, Bank of America would have gotten away with the fraud.  Current:But actually, so far Bank of America is getting away with defrauding me because they still haven’t corrected their error!  I always pay my credit card bill balance in full, so have paid the false charges because I want to keep my high credit score.  Here are my attempts to resolve the situation and the unacceptable response of Bank of America.On approximately  XX/XX/XXXX, when I discovered the unauthorized charges by Bank of America, I called the customer service department.  The agent explained to me that they were recharging me part of the $XXXX that was charged by the thief – inaccurately believing that my merchandise returns to XXXX were somehow related to that.  (Again, without any documentation or outreach to me this is deceptive and fraudulent!)  However, the agent apologized and said the false charges would be reversed immediately.  I paid the full bill, expecting that the credit would appear on the next statement.A couple weeks later, the charges had still not been reverse and I called back.  This customer service agent again explained that they believed that both Bank of America and XXXX were refunding me for the same $XXXX theft (though how they thought $XXXX and $XXXX that XXXX identified as “merchandise return” were related to the $XXXX purchase of XXXX gift cards is something that no one can explain.) I explained, again, was put on hold for a long time, and eventually told that it would take 45 days to do an investigation. So, 45 days later, I called back again, went through the same song and dance, but this time, after a long hold, was told that the agent had spoken “with the back office” and there was nothing they could do about it! I was very angry.Finally, earlier this week I called again, hoping to get a competent agent. This time, the agent was knowledgeable, read the notes in the file, filed an official dispute of the charges (which none of the prior calls had produced) and suggested that I provide receipts from the merchandise returns.  Unfortunately, since it is now XXXX and the merchandise was returned (and properly credited by XXXX) in XXXX, I no longer have receipts.  So I spent an hour on the phone with a lovely customer service agent at XXXX who has found a copy of the receipt for $XXXX.  We have not yet been able to find the $XXXX documentation.  Please keep in mind that I have dozens of transaction at the XXXX near my home and often return part of the purchase.  Since XXXX ties the merchandise returns to the original purchase, I need to figure out what day I purchased  items that were then returned.) I have spent HOURS working on this. I don’t understand why I am having to prove this, when Bank of America is the one who placed an unauthorized charge on my account.  They are  committing fraud.  Their customer complaint process is a mess – and their compliance department that should be preventing this or at least correcting the mistake when a customer contacts them and informs them of their violation, is broken.  For a long time, I was angry that Bank of America is placing illegal charges on customer’s credit cards bills, but thought the bank would at least correct this mistake, but now I’m even worried about whether they will ever refund my money.  Please help with this particular case and make sure that Bank of America stops doing this any of its customers.

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