Consumer complaint received 2021-04-28
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Complaint:
My issue began XX/XX/2021 I made a reasonably high dollar purchase online using my California EDD unemployment prepaid debit card : issued by Bank of America. This raised a security flag & temp locked my card. This is common & so I called in to verify the charge and unlock my card. The agent I spoke to was very stern & was speaking to me the entire time as if I had done something wrong & even made the remark " this Unemployment scenario is terrible, between that and everything going on nowadays never a bad time for a little retail therapy to keep you people sane". A condescending blow because he's referring to people who were laid off due to Covid as "you people" & then another additional blow to me personally regarding where I spent MY own money , which he had ZERO idea what it was actually on & was making an assumption based on the merchant from where it was bought & my previous account purchases. He validated that last part because after putting me on hold for 30 minutes to review my account he returned to inform me " after a review of your account we are NOT going to remove the hold/block on your card at this time". "You are going to need to contact your "sponsor" (which is OBV EDD) and have them submit to us a completed BENEFITS ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION form. A what? First of all one does not just contact EDD and have them do anything. Lets just clear that part up. Getting EDD on the phone is another task that you basically need a masters degree in doing. 

I contact EDD finally & am informed there is no ACTUAL Form persae. Its more like they just verify all my personal information with me and then its updated and by them continuing to to issue me my bi weekly unemployment benefits via direct deposit into my Bank of America card account th6e system on B of As end will reflect there are no more issues at all. Because why would there be any. Let me rephrase that in one of the   simplified contexts I have had to use with Bank of America to TRY and get them to process the issue at its core. EDD is saying " Your account is fine. There are no issues with your claim, no issues with verifying you & no further actions we are able to take that we haven't already to inform B of A of this. We are going to continue to deposit money for you into your B of A account , every two weeks that you certify. " For the past month ANY time I would call B of A they would verify EVERY piece of verifying info they have for me including sending a code to my phone and my security question I setup. Then they would tell me they still have not been notified that my claim is verified yet by EDD. Keep in mind one of the questions they ask me when verifying me when I call is 
"when was the last deposit from EDD made"? Which is usually a few days prior because I call these people every couple days. Some will tell me they COULD unlock it if they could get direct info from EDD. Others will tell me their system won't even allow it. Most will literally gaslight me and tell me I NEED to call EDD this is their issue. And some will just repeat " You need to contact your sponsor and ask for the form". On XXXX XXXX I was somewhat lucky enough to reach an EDD agent who was determined to figure this out. He filed what's called a EBP ID ISSUES LOG with the EDD technical support team to try and fix it. But still was certain and confident that there was nothing more EDD can do. I began contacting B of A daily at this point explaining to every agent at their high level dept called : RISK what was going on , all the points & repeating over and over there is nothing more EDD will do this is a Bof A issue. Why are you ignoring the fact that I am still getting payments!!? Not only that but when I login to the app I can't even see my account balance or account history at all..they have all the info blacked out. 

Then something different finally happened when I called in on XXXX XXXX  They placed me on hold and then spoke to someone and came back & said okay so you will need to go into a Bank of America branch with TWO forms of ID and then have the branch manager either call us or call us and then hand them the phone & then we can unlock the account! So to verify I said "You want me to actually go into a public building to show 2 forms of ID & speak to the bank manager & basically give him or her no choice but to contact you & you want me to hand over my own device that my mouth is near everyday to speak to you?" And this is on the assumption that I am able to even leave my house or feel comfortable enough to go into a bank? If I have had covid recently (Which I HAVE..2 weeks ago!) im just XX/XX/XXXX? l regardless went into the bank the following day with two forms of ID & the manager contacted them after explaining this whole story to him & they said my card would be reactivated in 24-48 hours. Tuesday rolls around and would you believe me if I told you that the CARD STATUS IS : LOCKED ..still! So I call Bank of America back and talk to them I tell them I went into the bank etc etc. The agent at RISK tells me " Well then you are going to have to give EDD a call because this is obviously an issue on their end" !! LOL. WOW. I hit him with all the logical points because B of A also fails to adequately note ANYTHING..so also keep in mind I have to Re EXPLAIN EVERYTHING I just did EVERYTIME to EVERY person. Which also keep in mind has resulted in more hang ups and transfers due to the rep being to lazy or annoyed because they dont know what to do then you care to know..and the hold times to get to these reps has been up to 2 hours max. Anyway..after re iterating to him AGAIN his final response is this : "Oh" here is the issue "You need to contact your sponsor EDD & have them complete and send over a Benefits Eligibility Verification form. I hung up. 

This has been going on for 2 months. EDD has been actually polite and helpful and BofA has been rude, unprofessional & very condescending 90% of the time and been providing me with false and misleading information. I am relying on this money to support my family. Both of my grandparents lost their lives in a disturbingly difficult battle with this virus not even a month ago & it we weren't even able to hold a funeral service. Our children are suffering because our benefits have been unavailable for 2 months while they continue to accumulate as I certify every 2 weeks & still have not been able to return to my job. Please if there is anything you can do to help I am begging you to do so. I dont know where else to turn with this.

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 non-monetary relief