Consumer complaint received 2023-02-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I was the victim of fraud on my Bank of America checking account last year. This event took place over the course of 3 days, from XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX, XXXX, during which more than {$2200.00} in total were withdrawn progressively ( I sincerely hope death and XXXX for the felons responsible ). 

When I realized this, I immediately notified BoA by placing a formal claim on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, they reimbursed the totality of the stolen money, a service I ended up satisfied with. The real problems started after that... 

BoA put a lock of sorts on my account since the original claim on XX/XX/XXXX, so since then, even when my money was put back into the account and it is showing in the current balance, I have been unable to make any transactions with my money ; it is just stuck there. 

I can access my BoA account, on both my phone and my desktop PC, and check my account status, balance, and other stuff, but I am not allowed by the bank 's system to use my money in any way. I've tried to make several kinds of normal debit card payments and online transfers and none of them have worked so far. So long story short, the bank has locked my account, and this they have confirmed. This is the official status of the account as several customer service agents have told me via phone. 

The account is LOCKED, not blocked. I can still receive money from people, so it's not blocked. It lets money in but won't let it out. 

The very worst part of the ordeal has been the bank 's customer service regarding this particular case of locked account, and that's the real motivator for me to be here today filing a complaint on CFPB. 

The various phone and XXXX chat screenshots I've submitted with this complaint are a testimonial of the many occasions in which I tried to have the bank 's customer service help me unlock the account, none of them ending up satisfactory. The account is still locked. 

And those phonecall records and XXXX chat screenshots you see are just a small portion of all the attempts and methods I've tried to get them to do their job and finally unlock my account. I've tried many more calls, and all of them do nothing but put me through a labyrinth of departments and specialists, with unfruitful results every time. What's more, they have wasted a great deal of my time only by putting me on hold for hours on end. I've even had my son trying to help me with this, but that was for no good either. 

BoA has claimed I have two choices : 1.- I attend personally to any BoA financial center in the XXXX and get the unlocking job done in no time, or 2.- I contact the bank 's fraud department via phone call only, and they will see it get done. 

The first one is not an option for me because I am no longer in XXXX territory. I went there in mid XXXX and came back in mid XXXX. During this period I went to a BoA financial center and opened an account. Back then I was able to physically go there and solve all my issues with my account, but now I'm back in my homeland ( XXXX ) and they have basically no customer service coverage for the XXXX territory. 

Given that fact, I can only rely on option XXXX, so I did try to make it work. As I said, on many occasions, I called and wrote through XXXX for a solution. I used an app that allowed me to make international calls free of charge, you can see that the screenshots attached are of such an app ( it's called XXXX ). When I got news from the bank agents that my problem was to be solved by contacting the frauds department, I tried to, but when they picked up the phone ( which was rarely ), they always came with some bureaucratic malarkey or excuse by which they said they were not able to help me at the moment, inviting me to try again in a few days. 

This went on several times and it quickly got infuriating. You can see how by writing to them through XXXX chat, they would answer promptly but would tell me that all they could do was put through a phone call with XXXX of the bank 's departments ( which sometimes wasn't even directly the frauds department, even though they claimed they knew my case ), so they would call me to my Venezuelan phone number but they would then try to connect me with the XXXX department and every time they put me on hold for many minutes and then the call would get dropped before I could talk to any frauds department agent. 

I'm honestly so very sick of this situation. I'm sick of BoA 's faulty customer service system not helping me at all with my attempt to get them to unlock my account, even though I'm a lawful customer. They have simply more or less hijacked my money for months, and every time I try to gain back my right to use it, they won't cooperate. 

I am unable to physically go to a BoA financial center myself to get the job done. This customer service via phonecall was all I was given by BoA, but it has proven faulty over and over and over. 

I'm writing CFPB to see if you can help me get this situation with BoA sorted out at last. I'm currently in dire need of my money because I will soon need to help my son pay for preventive XXXX and medical treatments to be carried out on him. 

I've attached all the documents I consider pertinent to prove all the claims I've done here. So far : my account 's ownership, balances that show that I was a victim of fraud, the reimbursement of the stolen money on the Bank 's behalf, and the several unfruitful attempts of contacting BoA to get them to unlock my account so I could use my money normally. 

If so, please do not hesitate to write me back and ask for whatever is needed. 

Thank you so very much in advance for your time.

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