Consumer complaint received 2021-12-28
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Hi, I contacted Bank Of America in XX/XX/2021 because I happened to review my bank records for the past year and found on XX/XX/2021 theyd withdrawn a check ( called a debit adjustment ) in the amount of {$1400.00} that I deposited through their mobile deposit app initially on XX/XX/2021. Their policy states that if they decide to not honor a mobile deposit for any reason, that they will mail you a letter informing you that they withdrew the funds out of your account. This would give you the opportunity to redeposit the check so that you can still be paid. 

Well, they never mailed me any letter or informed me in any way. I got my statements in the mail from them that month ( and every month afterwards ) yet NO LETTER. Instead, they withdrew the money and apparently kept it because the bank it was drawn on XXXX XXXX - NEVER GOT THE MONEY BACK. 

Well the rep told me that he would mail out a letter as well as the copy of the check itself so that I could redeposit it. He said it would take several weeks. What he didnt tell me was that after 6 months I would not be allowed to redeposit the check scan that he was mailing to me. So I waited. Well months later, I still hadnt received anything. 

So I contacted Bank Of America again in XX/XX/2021. I had to call them on 5 separate occasions and each time wait on hold for 30 minutes before having to explain to a new rep each and every time what I was calling about. Then I had to wait for the rep to find and pull up the disputed debit adjustment only for them to tell me the same thing. To try and redeposit the physical check which of course I no longer had in my possession. Plus, as the first rep informed me, since this was over 6 months old, I couldnt redeposit it anyway. I had to inform all of the other Bank Of America reps. of this same fact.

This was ridiculous as they are supposed to be the experts on Bank Of Americas policy. I had to keep calling back because once I was mysteriously disconnected when the rep couldnt figure out what to do. The other times the reps transferred me to the wrong dept. When the rep from the new dept. answered they instantly told me that they couldnt help me. 

What makes matters worst was that if I had actually received the letter from when I talked to the rep back in XXXX, I WOULD have been able to redeposit it because I was still within the 6 month window and could have used the banks scan of the check to redeposit it. Yet I never received that one either and Bank Of America wont email it or fax it to you.

By this point I was furious and I demanded to speak to a supervisor. They took my information and tell me that someone will call me.

In the meantime, I contact the company that wrote me the check and tell them what happened. I asked them if they can reissue it. They got back to me and said that their records showed the amount being debited from their account YET NEVER BEING REDEPOSITED. They even called XXXX XXXX, their bank, to verify it. XXXX XXXX said the funds were NEVER returned. 

Hours later the supervisor called me. He was brief and tried to rush me off the phone. He said to have the company reissue the check. I explained to him Id already done that and what the outcome was. He then said there was nothing he could do. 

At this point. Id had enough and demanded that he research it and find whatever transaction number that Bank Of America bank must have to prove that they sent the money back to XXXX XXXX because XXXX  XXXX had no record of receiving it. After hearing how upset I was getting, he finally agreed. He put in a request and told me Id get a reply through the mail. 

Well their reply was a denial letter ( see the attached denial letter dated XX/XX/2021 ). They simply said they wouldnt credit my account for the funds and that was that. Though this was not what I asked them to do. I asked them to provide me with PROOF, whether it be a transaction number along with the date and time of the transaction, or a letter of some kind that I could then take to XXXX XXXX to prove that Bank Of America had returned the funds. They did not do this. 

To recap, they took the money out of the XXXX XXXX account and put it into my account. Then after an amazing 11 days, determined that the image of the check provided by their own app didnt meet their standards ( so why would they honor the check in the first place, take the money out of XXXX XXXX and deposit it into my account? ) so they took it back out of my account and NEVER informed me that they had done so. Plus, NEVER sent the money back to XXXX XXXX. 

They could care less and are done with this. I am still struggling to financially recover from the pandemic shut down and need my money back from them. {$1400.00} is a lot of money! 

Please help me.

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