Consumer complaint received 2016-05-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low

Complaint:
I was seeking an employment opportunity made available in relationship to my work with the XXXX as an enrolled member of a XXXX. In the process, I had applied to many different jobs, some could be directly applied to on XXXX and others you had to set up separate accounts and apply through those agencies. I got notification from a company called XXXX they conducted an interview, had me take a test of skills & abilities, and then hired me. I got notification saying, " CONGRATULATIONS, XXXX is pleased to offer you the position of an XXXX. You 're Hired '' I asked them certain questions about wanting to meet with them in person, wanting to meet with my training supervisors, wanting to have a video conference. There answers to this was, " Once you receive your working materials, a representative will be coming to your home to inspect your working materials and discuss any issues you will be having. As we proceed further you get to know more about the job and its duties. '' So this did seem little little disguised and not as straight forward as I would like ; however, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt since I did n't want to blindly assume this was a fraudulent activity. So, with my skepticism, I chose to just take this job one step at a time, to not commit myself to anything that seemed fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading, and to try to use the advice of my banking institution to help me make my assessment and judgment in pursuing my career. This company, XXXX said they were going to send me out a check to purchase the computer hardware & software that I had to have for the tracking of this in-home accounting position to track my hours and send my work that I do. I received the cashier 's checks which turned out to be 3 checks from 3 different people from two different organizations, with letters from 3 different financial managers telling me what to do with the funds ( deposit them and report back to them ). Then they told me to purchase the hardware from the their corporate vendor to whom they have all their employees conduct their business through. So, one step at a time, I explained my situation to the to the banking manager. They told me, " It sounds a little fishy .... I would n't even deposit the checks! '' I asked the banking manager, " But, is n't there any way that I could take a more secured manner of approach without completely abandoning my new employment opportunity under a mere assumption that it might not be legitimate? '' But, they refused to advise me any further. So what was I supposed to do? Tell my new employer to go fly a kite and get lost just because my bank had told me, " I do n't know it sounds a little fishy to me? '' I kept thinking, " Is n't there a way that I could test this hypothesis without committing myself to fraud if it existed but not abandoning my new employment opportunity? '' So I decided to deposit the cashier 's checks to see if they were legitimate. After all, they were cashier 's checks, and I could n't be charged a fee for NSF if that was the case! The first cashier 's check cleared so I thought that there must be some legitimacy there! '' But I come to find out a few days later that I had two deficit balances of $ XXXX & $ XXXX in checking & savings, respectively. My accounts were closed. I spoke to the bank manager. She refused to help me but told me to take it up with the human resources department at the bank. Ultimately, they, too, would n't do anything else to assist me in getting to the bottom of this matter. They claimed my account had been closed, that I could no longer bank at this institution, that this would go on my credit record, and that I might not be able to bank with anyone else. Why did n't they just assist me from the beginning in taking some extra preventative steps to hold the checks until they did clear?

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