Consumer complaint received 2021-08-09
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
On XX/XX/21, two XXXX XXXX XXXX  charges were posted on my account from a station in XXXX, MD. The first charge was for {$18.00} and the one made two minutes later was for {$49.00}. I authorized the first charge, but not the second. I first raised the issue with Bank of America on the morning of XX/XX/21, well within their 60-day statute of limitations for {$0.00} fraud liability. 

As their online form directed, it submitted a billing dispute for an unauthorized additional billing. I even called the gas station at their request to inquire and was told " it may have been a pump malfunction, please dispute the charge with your credit card company. '' When BoA inquired to ask me for the additional details, the agent wanted me to sign a form stating that I authorized the purchase, but I did not receive the goods in question. I shared that I did not authorize the purchase and felt uncomfortable signing a document stating otherwise at which point she suggested simply crossing out that it was unauthorized and submitting it anyways. 

I was still uncomfortable with this step, so I decided to call later that evening and spoke with a pleasant gentleman who said he'd switch my claim to a fraud claim because it was unauthorized. I called a week later to check the status of my claim only to find no such action had been taken on my account, but this associate did in fact make it a fraud claim and posted a temporary credit to my account. 

Just over a month later, much to my surprise, I received a letter in the mail stating my fraud claim was not able to be approved and BoA will be putting the disputed charge back on my account leaving me responsible for the money. Their reasoning was that the transaction was recorded as reading the chip on the credit card and I previously had visited the merchant in question. While I accept their second reason, as these transactions were made two minutes apart and I did authorize the first charge, I full-heartedly reject the claim that my chip was correctly read, in person. 

Upon receiving my first rejection letter, I called and spent over 2 hours, on the phone with the manager, XXXX. XXXX resubmitted my fraud claim and looked through my entire charge history with BoA. Upon looking at my charge history, she said " this charge was clearly not made by you '' as it was made only two minutes after my purchase and was more than the {$30.00} maximum I had ever spent on fuel. 

Today, I received a letter saying their re-evaluation had not led to them being able to take the disputed charge off of my account. Their reasoning was again that the transaction is categorized as a charge where the chip was read. It wasn't I again called, and the agent, XXXX, suggested filling a billing dispute, which I have already done. Then they suggested reopening the investigation for the third time but submitting a written narrative to support my case. I have already repeated the details surrounding this situation for over four hours with them on a recorded line.

I am out of ideas on how to get my money refunded for a charge I did not make. I fulfilled my legal duty by disputing the charge on day one of the allotted sixty. I have given BoA over 5 hours of my time on a recorded line. I am exhausted and feel taken advantage of as a customer of BoA who has always paid on time and keep other accounts with them.

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