Consumer complaint received 2022-12-07
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CT
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/22 and XX/XX/22 there were three charges for each day totaling 6 different charges I did not make. I called Bank of America in early XXXX to dispute the charges. These charges were to USPS.com for {$240.00} each for a total of {$1400.00}. They credited the charges back to my account while they investigated. On XX/XX/22 the charges reappeared on my credit card charging me. These charges were now called 'fraud dispute '. I called Bank of America to dispute this. I was told that the investigation concluded with them posting a message in my account that says we were unable to approve your claim. The reason was that the merchant said the product was shipped to an address listed on my account. The purchase was listed as postage stamps. After a XXXX minute phone call on the evening of XX/XX/22, I was told to call the fraud department during their working hours. Due to my job, I reached out again on XX/XX/22 and was told that a claim would be reopened and the charged were unable to be credited while they are researching the claim. They told me the claim would be researched for up to 45 days. My complaint is that their notification says that they would investigate " using information I provide, my account, my account history, as well as information from the merchant '' yet I feel those steps were not properly taken. They did not reach out to me to hear from me any information, while they included something from the merchant, nothing from the merchant lists my name or states the address where these items were shipped so the evidence they claim to have was not shared with me. If they in fact checked my account history, they would recognize I have never made any purchases like this in my history of being a customer with them for 18 years. While the employee today told me she would 'reopen the claim to be reinvestigated ', no one allowed me to share information so I am left to believe that they will 'reinvestigate " using the same information they reviewed initially and declined me. Additionally, the fact that this {$1400.00} charge is taking up room within my credit and not being allowed to be temporarily removed while the investigation is taking place seems unfair and as if a penalty to me. Within 45 days of the investigation, that will be the end of one and possibly two billing cycles. I will be required to pay off this charge that I did not make in order to keep my credit rating and avoid late fees or not paying in full. This policy seems punitive for something that I did not do but yet am being inconvenienced for. The hours of their fraud department is XXXX XXXX  -either XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I am XXXX  time and work during those hours or am driving my children around. I spend XXXX minutes on XXXX on the phone and over XXXX hours today on XXXX. Due to their fraud claims department hours, the next week day I will be off during those working hours will be XX/XX/XXXX. I can not afford for these charges to remain on my account for this duration. I went to my town of XXXX XXXX police department tonight to file a fraud claim and the reference number is XXXX.

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 monetary relief