Consumer complaint received 2024-04-24
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Non-sufficient funds and associated fees
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (TN)

On XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX Bank of America withdrew Almost {$3000.00} from EACH of my XXXX business accounts. I had no idea why. I immediately called them and they told me it was a tax garnishment from XXXX, which I was not aware that we owed any money to them. Bank of America said a letter was generated on XX/XX/XXXX, the day before, which I had not even received yet. The garnishment as I said was only around {$2800.00} but because we did not have sufficient funds in the account, they garnished every account I had for that amount. How is this legal? The agent at BofA also advised us that if we pay BoA, they would have to send the funds to XXXX which takes time and if we pay XXXX they would need to send a fax releasing the garnishments. Once fax is received they would revert the garnishments right away. 

So we ( my husband and I ) immediately called XXXX and although I have not had time to verify what was owed, we paid XXXX immediately in full as we did not want to jeopardize our businesses or reputation. We also thought that by paying the source it would fix the issue faster. We were immensely mistaken. 

XXXX also faxed BoA that day ( Thursday XX/XX/XXXX ). When I called BofA back they said they had not received it and that it takes XXXX hrs to process, which was the first I heard of this. I asked to speak to legal many times but they said that was not possible. So I called again the next day, again they had not received any fax. So we called XXXX again and asked them to again fax both releases. They did so again. I called BofA back again. Still they said they did not receive and this time it xouskntake XXXX hrs, which is again different from what I was told. 

We were beyond stressed throughout this entire time but then had to wait through the weekend. Meanwhile my businesses did not stop and I could not purchase things needed for my business nor could I pay my people, which hurts my businesses and reputation. 

Come Monday, again on the phone with BofA. BoA said they received a fax but it did not indicate releases for both garnishments ( there were XXXX, XXXX for XXXX {$2100.00} and XXXX for XXXX {$710.00} ). So it seems they just picked the lower amount as being satisfied and removed it because they could not tell me which XXXX or how they knew which garnishment it was. 

Again we got on the phone with XXXX and asked them to fax again. We did this XXXX times and each time called BoA to see if it was received. The process was extremely stressful, frustrating, maddening and infuriating as we could not get any resolution from either side and here we were being damaged. Our XXXX accounts were in negative status even though we did our part and paid immediately. 

How is it legal for BoA to garnish triple the amount? They said they were just following orders. XXXX says it was only asking for the original amounts and not more. 

It took many days and many hours of stress and frustration to clear this up. What recourse do we have?