Consumer complaint received 2020-04-09
Company: BANK OF THE WEST
State: IA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Bounced checks or returned payments

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern, Please, may I kindly request your help in regard to a very serious matter that has caused tremendous harm to my personal finances due to blatant irresponsibility? I put my sole trust in a financial banking institution known as the Bank of the West. I have attempted many times to contact this organization and get the appropriate answers needed to correct a horrendous situation to no avail. This organization returned an ACH withdrawal to my mortgage company known as XXXX XXXX XXXX on two separate occasions. Therefore causing the mortgage company to report a late notice to all three major credit reporting bureaus, on three separate occasions. As the mortgage company has a policy in place to not retry an entry that has been returned after 30 days, marking the account 60-days late in XX/XX/XXXX and again in XX/XX/XXXX after they once again returned an ACH withdrawal with a 30- day late notice to all three bureaus. All I have received to date is a telephone number to a low-rank employee named Ms. XXXX XXXX @ ( XXXX ) XXXX. I have tried numerous times to reach this individual, leaving many messages and there is no response. I even put in a telephone call to the ACH department for the Bank of the West and again was told they could not help me. I have contacted the local branch that originally set-up the ACH and was given a 67-page Deposit Account Disclosure Booklet. In that booklet, dis it clearly states that it was up to the discretion of the bank to return the ACH  withdrawal sighting it as an overdraft. Furthermore, the booklet also suggests " overdraft protection '' for such important drafts. It was never made known to me that when setting up such an important instrument as an ACH for your home mortgage, overdraft protection should be put in place. more importantly, The very day the Mortage was drafting through the bank system in XX/XX/XXXX, I sat personally in the Bank Manager / Vice Presidents ' office in XXXX, Iowa and was told personally By Mrs. XXXX XXXX, that she could see the draft coming in. I had telephoned XXXX XXXX XXXX while sitting there and they demanded that she guarantee the payment would be processed. Mrs. XXXX stated there was nothing she could do. The payment was returned again for the second time. The most important aspect of all here is that when opening the account, I was never given a disclosure booklet, as the banker laughed when she offered it to me, suggesting that I did not need it and why would I want it for anyway. It was I after this disaster happened who drove to the bank and demanded it. The Bank of the West is entirely responsible for their negligence. They have single-handedly destroyed my personal credit. In closing, this bank is very mismanaged. No one will accept responsibility for their wrong-doing. Very clearly there were bylaws in place to avoid such errors, such as overdraft protection. As an end-all, the bank manager could have acted to avoid the return of the most important payment of all, your home mortgage. In fact, what overdraft the account was a PIZZA posted that night in XXXX that started this diabolical mess. This is my lifeline, my personal credit is for XXXX XXXX and it's procurement. I had good credit until this happened, now no bank will touch me and I have received notices from credit companies that my FICO score has dropped nearly XXXX points. Things like this should be made illegal. There should be a system put in place for the prioritization of withdrawals from the Federal Reserve. To think that a PIZZA overturned my {$2300.00} mortgage payment is utterly ludicrous. The people involved here should be fired. They are handling personal finances and lives here and look at their behavior. I am left to suffer the consequences of their neglect and responsibility. You wonder how many people and their finances have they destroyed along the way? I ask for your guidance, please.

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 explanation