Consumer complaint received 2015-04-08
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Transaction issue

Complaint:
We are a small business and have used our Bank of America credit card to pay for a plumbing service. We have provided the credit card number to the plumber since otherwise he will not even go to look at the problem ; however, by doing that we did not authorize him to charge any amount to our card. We provided him with the credit card number like we do when we purchase other things from our Air Conditioning service supplier or XXXX or XXXX XXXX or any other of our suppliers. None of those suppliers charge our credit cards prior for us to review the charge and approve it. Once the plumber went to the job place we asked him to do the job and provide us with the invoice ; not even then we authorized him to charge the credit card since we did not know the charge amount. Instead he asked the tenant to sign the invoice in our stead and charged the card without our approval ; he provided the invoice to us afterwards. We have disputed that charge with Bank Of America showing that the amount was charged without our approval and that we authorized it to pay the merchant a different amount ( {$300.00} instead of {$660.00} since the job was not completed and the charge included an item that the plumber did not work on but that was included in the invoice - snaking the entire drain ; our technician went and verified that and the access panel on the main drain has not been touched ). Bank of America closed the claim saying that once we gave the merchant our credit card number he was authorized to charge it. Is that how it is supposed to work? 
We completely disagree. When asked ( by the other authorized user and company principal ) to provide us with a proof where Bank of America disclosed that information to us when we signed the credit card agreement, supervisor XXXX in the Claims department said that we do not have a claim anymore and we have to pay the amount charged since we authorized the merchant to charge our credit card when we gave him the number. Why do we have to sign, review or approve any other credit card charge when we use that card for different purposes? We have XXXX credit cards stored on the XXXX website, why whould n't XXXX charge us for a product that we did not need just because it has our credit card numbers? Simple, because it asks us to review and approve a charge before it charges anything. Well, the plumber was provided with the credit card number and was asked to supply an invoice for us to review and approve. Instead he charged the credit card number directly and Bank of America approved the charge without our approving it. When told that we will not pay a part of the charge that the plumber charged and did not provide service for BofA 's XXXX told us that we will be sent to collection. 
We ca n't afford to take this {$660.00} charge to a court - we are a small business, however, we believe that BofA process does not work the way it is supposed to and that the plumber charged our card fraudulently. 
Please advise and help.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief