Consumer complaint received 2022-09-10
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: BANK OF THE WEST (CO)

On XX/XX/XXXX My brother brought my parents into Bank of the West in XXXX AZ to close out my parents bank accounts for the second time as they first tried in XX/XX/XXXX. My brother is not on the account and my parents recently moved to AZ near him. My brother said that the employee along with the XXXX XXXX assured him and my parents that the accounts were closed and that there will be no more service fees and all XXXX transactions will be blocked. They were given cashiers checks payable to my brother instead of my parents and the balances were brought to a XXXX. I looked online and I noticed that the accounts were not closed and several ACH have gone though as well as a check that was stale dated along with their overdraft protection transferred over to cover these items along with more fees. My brother has spent hours with Bank of the West and will not go back to the location in XXXX AZ anymore to resolve the issue. My parents are in their mid XXXX with severe health issues and I am a signer on the accounts. 
So on XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the Highlands Ranch location where I live and talked to the BM XXXX XXXX. He said that that he would have to see if it is really a bank error and reach out to the branch XXXX in AZ to see what he can find out and that he could not dispute any ACH since originally as it had been set up years ago and I let him know it was cancelled months ago but they still keep pulling them out creating fees and not being able to close the accounts. I asked him if I could get the BM name so I could reach out directly to him because it really had nothing to do with XXXX XXXX but wasnt given the information. 
I spoke to my parents and found out the location was XXXX AZ and the BM was XXXX XXXX and tried to reach out to him but he was out of the office a few days and they gave me an email address that went I tried to send was invalid. 
XX/XX/XXXX I called customer service spoke to XXXX to dispute the XXXX XXXX that came out of the account since it was supposed to be closed on XX/XX/XXXX and asked about getting the fees refunded. She completed the disputes and then said that I had to hold to get any refunds, so I was on hold for another XXXX minutes and said it was the only way to get them refunded to find out that only XXXX was refunded and that I needed to go into the branch for anymore. She was very nice but didnt know that keeping me on hold trying to reach someone that would not be able to help. I was on the phone for about XXXX? She by far was the most helpful of everyone and did what she could do. 
With not getting any return calls from the BM I reached out to their corporate headquarters on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX XXXX and she was very nice and said that she will ask that the Region XXXX contact me by tomorrow and followed up with her email if I have any issues. I emailed her on XX/XX/XXXX stating they never contacted me so I expected beginning of the next week. On XX/XX/XXXX I called her to let her know I still havent heard from anyone. On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed my disappointment to her that no one will follow up and that I will have to reach out to someone else above her and I still have never received a response from anyone. 
A very simple matter has caused unnecessary hours on our part with no resolution forcing me to take this action. I am not XXXX to complain so that how frustrating this is dealing with unprofessional people.