Consumer complaint received 2017-10-14
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION ()

I am writing to complain about service through Bank Of America. I have been a customer with them for approximately 20 years, and this is the first problem I have encountered with them, but it is a major mistake on their part, involving over {$50000.00} of my money. It suggests incompetence and perhaps even fraud. 
This is the story. Mine is a joint account with my wife, a XXXX XXXX. The bank called on the phone and my parents answered. The bank 's Compliance Office said that they needed my wife to update her information. Of course, my parents were suspicious about a bank calling and asking for personal information such as Social Security numbers, so they did not respond with the information. 
About a week later, my wife received a letter from Bank of America asking for such information. We decided to fill in the information and send it back in the enclosed envelope. However, we were suspicious because of the low quality of the letter itself, so we made a copy of the sheet XXXX XXXX # XXXX XXXX. We still have this document, but it contains sensitive information such as my wife 's Social Security number, birthdate, signature, etc. My wife dated this document XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and we sent it in a few days later. It should have arrived at Bank of America by the end of XXXX. 
That seemed to be the end of things, although we were worried that the information we had sent in might be part of a scam. My father actually went to his local branch to ask about this, and the teller there said that Bank of America NEVER calls it customers and asks for personal information over the phone, so this increased our worries. However, the worst part -- and it gets much worse -- was still to come. 
Around XXXX XXXX, my wife and I received an email from Bank of America that said I had no funds in my account. This, of course, panicked us. And I looked on the internet ( I do most of my banking over the internet due to travel and work restrictions ) and there it was : My {$53000.00} account was now saying {$0.00}! 
My first reaction was that the sheet we had sent in to Bank of America had somehow allowed the scammers to completely flush my account. I hurriedly called Bank of America -- an international call on a mobile phone from XXXX, where I am presently -- and told them that I thought my money had been stolen. I was told that the money was not stolen, and was safe with the bank, but that my account was being closed and I was being forwarded a cashier 's check in the aforementioned amount. I asked why, and they said that we had never updated our account information ( by the way, this wheas an active account that I used perhaps every few months ). I told them that we had sent in the information, and that we had proof of the sheet. The representative said that he had other similar complaints and would forward this problem on to his superiors. 
In the meantime, he said he would re-open my account, which he promptly did. I asked him to put the money back as well, but he said that the cashier 's check had already been issued, and he could n't do anything about that. I said I was in XXXX, and had no plans to go back to the XXXX until XXXX, so a cashier 's check would be worthless to me. He said I could return the check to Bank of America and then get the funds put back in my account. This was not a terribly attractive offer, and put my money under undue risk, but it seemed to be the best option available, so I followed the plan. 
About five days after our money had been deleted, I received an official letter from the bank stating that our account had been closed. A few days later, I received the actual cashier 's check. I called Bank of America to confirm the proecdures, and I got an XXXX XXXX. address to send the check to. In confirming the process, I was told that it would take about a week for them to process the check, and after that I would see the funds back in my account. This, however, was not to be the end of the nightmare. 
After waiting one week for the postal system, and one more for the bank to process things, I checked my account, and still it was {$0.00}. By this time, it was early XXXX ( I think XXXX XXXX or XXXX, and about a month had passed since the initial problem. I once again made a long, expensive international call from my mobile phone -- no landline due to frequent moving -- and asked what the delay was. The representative said that the bank had not received the cashier 's check ( can a company really just lose two very important documents? ). I said that this was not acceptable, and she was understanding and stated that she would be able to 1 ) cancel the cashier 's check, and 2 ) electronically transfer the money back into my  account, which I could confirm no later than Tuesday, XXXX XXXX. I am not sure why this path was rejected when I had suggested it a month before, but I was just happy that it SEEMED that my troubles might be in the past soon. However, I think you can guess that my troubles were n't over. 
I checked my account online on Wednesday the XXXX, but I still did n't have any money there. So I called them once again, on XXXX XXXX, to ask why my funds had n't been replenished. One of the first representatives I spoke to said that I would get the funds on XXXX XXXX, after a three-month wait for the cashier 's check to clear. This seemed outrageous to me, so I asked to speak to a manager. The manager, much like the person I spoke to on XXXX XXXX or XXXX, was sympathetic, and said that he would get the funds back in my account by XXXX XXXX. However, as you will now be able to surmise, the funds are not back! 
I now have lost {$53000.00}, plus about {$300.00} worth of international phone calls, plus any potential interest that I would have received. I have no doubt that if Bank of America ever does give me my money back, they will go ahead and fine me for not having money in my account for several months. 
This case suggests not only massive incompetence, but also serious illegalities. I actually have so much more I could write here -- about, for example, all the bad advice I was given by some of the representatives. Regardless, I would like you to contact Bank of America. They have a record of my calls. I have records of various things as well, but I know that the bank has my information, so I will not send any attachments at this time.