Consumer complaint received 2017-10-29
Company: BB&T CORPORATION
State: VA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Fee problem

Complaint:
On XXXX I went over to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX BB & T to pay an overdraft charge of {$38.00} that I had incurred while I was ill before my foot XXXX on XXXX and after I had paid off the charge, the clerk at the drive thru window told me that I had more charges to pay. She printed off a partial statement and besides the rest of the overcharge that I needed to pay, I saw charges titled Debit Card Non BB & T ATM Fee ( {$3.00} each ), XXXX XXXX XXXX BB & T ATM Inquiry Fee ( {$3.00} each ), Auto Overdraft Transfer Fee ( {$12.00} each ), and Paper Statement Fee ( {$3.00} each ) that I had never seen before. She told me that to discuss the matter more, I needed to pull around and go in to talk to the banker that was there. 
When I began to converse with the banker, XXXX XXXX, she and I discovered that my online portal was extremely screwed up. I had been logging in using one username XXXX XXXX XXXX when she had another down on my account XXXX XXXX XXXX. She said from what she was looking at, the username I was using did not exist ; the frozen screens and the messed up statements suddenly made a lot of sense. I had stopped using the online portal due to the continuous frozen screens and loading issues in XXXX. 
None of the banks charges ever showed up on my portal. I do not know how, I do not know why ; XXXX was trying to find a reason and could not. I believe that the bank should own up to their mistakes with my account and my portal. Its ridiculous that I had to take my complaint this far and send it to you all. 
Beyond me not knowing that the charges were there, I never knew they even existed as a type of charge. I was extremely misled I believe due to my inexperience with banks and I feel very taken advantage of by BB & T. Up until XXXX I considered myself a budding loyal customer, as my mother and many other people in my community use this particular BB & T and other local branches, so I had the feeling like my money was safe. 
The First type of fee that I mentioned above, the XXXX XXXX XXXX BB & T ATM Fee ( {$3.00} each ), was charged to XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. This was a total of XXXX times for a total of {$51.00}. I am disputing these charges due to the fact that I asked what kind of charges a student account could accrue and all I was told about was the Paper Statement Fee ( will explain this charge below ). 
The second type of charge that I am disputing is the smallest in this complaint, the XXXX XXXX XXXX BB & T ATM Inquiry Fee ( {$3.00} each ), and the dates for this charge are XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. The total was {$9.00}. I am disputing the Inquiry charge because, again, I asked what kind of charges could be accrued by my XXXX account and was only told about the XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
The largest total that I will be complaining about is from the charge titled XXXX XXXX Transfer Fee ( {$12.00} each ). This was charged to me a total of 37 times, the majority starting in XXXX, after I had stopped looking at my online portal due to my frustrations with it glitching, however I do not see how I would have ever known it was being charged anyway due to me not receiving the notifications at all because the portal I was using was so screwed up. The dates for this charge are XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. This charge accrued a total of {$460.00}. I can not believe I was not made aware of this type of fee when I set up my account. I believe frequency alone speaks to the fact that I did not know I was being charged. I am an extremely fiscally minded person in the way that I do not just fling money here or there. I am a nanny, I work very hard for the money I get by being XXXX, XXXX at, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX on, XXXX on, and XXXX and pooped on. I work my XXXX off to make sure other peoples kids are always clean, well fed, happy, and I keep them safe. 
The last fee I will be disputing is the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$3.00} each ). This was charged to me on the following dates : XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. The total is {$18.00}. I signed up for a paperless account initially and when I first signed into the portal, I was never prompted by a screen to verify that I really did want my account paperless, which as told by XXXX XXXX when I went in to dispute the charges, is what is supposed to happen. When I was sitting there with her, I said well I would certainly like my money back for that charge because # 1 I did not want that service, # 2 I  was not told I would have to verify that I wanted the account paperless when I logged into the portal because that would have immediately tipped me off that something was wrong with my portal, and # XXXX I never received the service I was apparently paying for, so being refunded would have been the answer even if I had wanted a paper statement because I was not receiving them. 
The rest of the complaint I have for XXXX XXXX BB & T is that after XXXX was helpful trying to figure out the issues with my portal, she realized I was attempting to rightfully get my money back and completely clammed up and changed her attitude. I became very frustrated and told her that I would just like to get my money back and close my account because I was just done with it all at that point, I did not want to keep going round and round. She told me that if I closed my account I could not get all my money back. I was very taken aback by hearing that and asked her two different times about that statement and she verified that she really meant I would not be able to get my money back if I closed my account. I even made sure she knew I meant I wanted it closed after I received all my refunds while we were sitting here and she nodded and said, No, no, I know what you meant. I just stared at her in amazement because I could not believe she was blackmailing me into keeping the account open which had over the course of 7 months, had screwed me out of what I would later tally up to over {$500.00}. 
At that point, I knew it was best for me to get out of there and take my complaint above her head. She begrudgingly refunded me XXXX payments of {$12.00} from the Auto Overdraft Transfer Fee charges and XXXX payments of {$3.00} subtracted from my Paper Statement Fee and said that was all she could do for me. I calculated the percentage of what I was refunded ( {$31.00} ) subtracted from the grand total, leaving what I am demanding I be refunded ( {$500.00} ) and it was a minuscule 5.74 % of the fees that I was refunded. That is not acceptable at all. 
I am still waiting on the XXXX statement to review, I had to wait long enough to get the XXXX statement, I just really want to get the ball rolling on this so I can get my money back and get my own place finally. 
Thank you so much for your time. I really hope you all can help me. This money was supposed to go towards my rent fund for when my significant other and I get our own place like I mentioned above. It was never meant to be taken by the very bank meant to keep my money safe. 
**NOTE : All the documents I need to send you are too big, no matter what format I put them in. Please send me an alternative method to get them to you. **

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation