Consumer complaint received 2015-04-10
Product: Bank account or service — Other bank product/service
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (FL)

My conflict with Bank of America ( BOA ) can be summarized as follows : BOA refuses to refund my account for an unauthorized transfer of {$1300.00} that occurred on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2015 despite BOA having actual notice of the unauthorized scheduled transfer on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX prior to its occurrence and despite having reassured me that it would not occur at that time. I am pursuing a complete refund. Since the bank has little to no record of my communications, I bring this to your attention in the hopes of impacting legislation so as to improve bank documentation requirements in order to ensure that the right result occurs more timely, efficiently and frequently in conflicts between banks and consumers. Thank you for your assistance. 

As a customer of BOA, I utilize online banking. On XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX, I received a suspicious email from BOA informing me that a recurring transfer was scheduled to occur on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$1300.00}. I recognized the payee as my landlord in XX/XX/XXXX, whom I may have paid via electronic transfer but only a few times. I immediately notified the bank of the email. I spent at least two hours on this call. I was connected to the fraud department after XXXX transfers. They found no record of the transaction. They informed me that the email was not from the bank and to forward to XXXXXXXXXXXX, which I can substantiate. They assured me that the transaction would NOT be done and the money would NOT be withdrawn. More importantly, since it was not authorized by me, if the transaction would continue as indicated, I was assured that the money would promptly be returned to me. I asked them to appropriately note my file and send me written confirmation to that effect. As expected, they refused to send me anything in writing, and I later discovered there are NO notes on my file other than that I called on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. That is unacceptable documentation reflecting formal and actual notice of a material transaction. 

On XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, I received another email reminder that the recurring scheduled payment would be made XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX which is when I discovered the transaction had in fact been made on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. On XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX EST, I immediately visited a BOA branch to contest the transaction that I was told would not occur. They called the same phone number to which I have access thus demonstrating the uselessness of visiting a branch and working with a banker. I was connected to the fraud department, and I went through the same process. Told that I 'd be contacted soon and have the money returned in 48 hours, no action was taken and no call received by the bank in 36 hours so I contacted the bank again. XXXX transfers later I was finally told that it was not fraud and they would not refund the money ; that it was my fault and I was out of the money. 

I informed the representative that I WILL NOT be responsible for an unauthorized transfer because of a software mistake when the bank had actual notice of such prior to its occurrence. I demanded the representative connect me with someone who will help solve my problem. He finally connected me with online and electronic services. They informed me that this was " fraud but not fraud '' as the bank calls it. I said just call it a mistake by the bank. They said the money would be returned whereupon I was connected to someone who had no recollection of that. Repeated the story for the XXXX time and now, XXXX hours after visiting the branch, I have not had my money returned to me and have no reason to believe it will be returned to me in the foreseeable future. Like everyone else who has little time to waste, I have wasted many hours of my time pursuing this matter. I expect to waste more because of the bank 's disjointed and opaque organizational structure. As an attorney, I know my rights and I intend to pursue my rights to the fullest extent of the law.