Consumer complaint received 2024-07-16
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (FL)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I first notified Bank of America XXXX customer service that the XXXX. XXXX XXXX contacted us that a Romanian thief had stolen several XXXX XXXX checks out of our XXXX 's mailbox -- over a period of several months in XXXX. The XXXX checks were issued from our Bank of America checking account. 

Bank of America has reimbursed XXXX checks and has refused to reimburse us for XXXX of the XXXX {$340.00} checks totaling {$2000.00}. 

XXXX NOT REIMBURSED Online Case # XXXX Check # XXXX Online Case # XXXX Check # XXXX Online Case # XXXX Check # XXXX Online Case # XXXX ( XXXX total ) Check # XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX ; Check # XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX ; Check # XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX XXXX REIMBURSED Online Case # XXXX Check # XXXX ( Resolved XX/XX/XXXX ) Online Case # XXXX Check # XXXX ( Resolved XX/XX/XXXX ) For the last decade, we have had BillPay set up to send $ XXXX to our church. Unfortunately, during the first half of XXXX, a criminal stole XXXX ( XXXX ) of our weekly donation checks sent through XXXX XXXX XXXX out of the mailbox of our church. We first learned that the checks had been stolen when the United States XXXX XXXX contacted us on XX/XX/XXXX. The thief was stealing XXXX or XXXX XXXX XXXX checks a month and the canceled checks were never returned to us, just to Bank of America, so we would have no way to detect the thefts ourselves. The envelopes from XXXX XXXX were an easy target for this crime ring because the envelopes were apparently marked CHECKS ENCLOSED and contained multiple XXXX XXXX checks for multiple members of the congregation. These thefts went undetected for months in part because the XXXX does not " bill '' congregants like a creditor would, and donation summaries are only sent out at the end of the year. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, the XXXX XXXX notified us when he caught the thief who was part of the crime ring that targeted churches, stealing more than {$150000.00}. We immediately contacted Bank of America to report the theft and request copies of the checks. The XX/XX/XXXX who stole the checks was convicted XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and is serving his time in prison, but Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX department ( which appears was outsourced to a company called XXXX ) has yet to resolve its " investigation '' and refund our money. 

Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Bank of America more than a dozen times at the Customer Service XXXX XXXX for XXXX BillPay. I was told repeatedly that the " investigation was ongoing. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent a letter ( certified mail, return receipt requested ) to Bank of America XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX delivered to Bank of America XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX but have not received any response whatsoever from Bank of America XXXX 

Bank of America has reimbursed us only for XXXX of the XXXX checks that the thief stole, even though was the same criminal who stole them, and Bank of America has the originals and can see that the church did not endorse them and did not cash them. 

We recently learned that the XXXX XXXX has botched their research into the stolen checks- they have contacted the XXXX repeatedly about certain stolen check numbers, and yet has not even asked about several others that were also stolen.