Consumer complaint received 2025-01-30 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/year> : At XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX I entered an international wire transfer order in the Bank of America customer portal . I entered all the requested information and received a confirmation advice. The funds were withdrawn from my account the same day. 

XX/XX/year> : the BOA customer portal showed that the transfer had not been performed. I tried to contact BOA support using the phone number included on their confirmation advice. Three calls to that number resulted in a 30-minute hold time each time and concluded with an automated response stating all operators were still busy and that I should call back later. Please note, the BOA intake support system does not have a call-back feature, does not identify a wait time, and frequently either goes into a non-responsive loop or simply drops the call. 

I then researched the BOA website and discovered there is neither an email support contact address nor agent chat feature. I used other contact numbers I discovered in my research and was finally connected and worked with two different agents. I was told that there was a government issue related to XXXX requirements. I provided the requested information ( the recipient was my son, so his full name and birthdate ). I also informed them that this transfer was time-critical and needed to be delivered by XX/XX/XXXX. They both confirmed that they were sending escalation emails to the BOA compliance unit because they had no way of contacting them. I was assured we would make this date. They also stated they would contact me to update me on the status of my wire. Neither did contact me. My total time on this issue was 7 hours over the entire day including wait time, being placed on hold by agents, and discussions with agents. 

XX/XX/year> : having received no response and confirming no action from the BOA portal, I again reached out to the provided BOA contact numbers. After three hours, I finally was connected with a wire transfer support agent. I was told that I had done everything requested of me and that the agents had contacted the BOA compliance unit. He informed me it was not a XXXX issue and that for some reason BOA compliance had placed the transfer on hold. He had no way of contacting the compliance unit other than through email. He also stated he would provide me with an update on the transfer and did not. These efforts took four hours of my time. 

XX/XX/year> : having received no update and again confirming no transfer action from the BOA portal, I reached out to the BOA wire support contact number. Again, the system placed me in long wait queues that ultimately disconnected me. I finally reached an agent who could see all the urgent requests to the BOA compliance unit to release the transfer hold. She attempted to contact the wire transfer unit and we both waited 45 minutes. She finally decided to send an email to the group ( this was the third consecutive day of this response ). 

I then went to a BOA branch location. A branch associate attempted to contact the internal support unit to resolve this matter. He was on hold for 45 minutes. While he was on-hold, I attempted to contact the support unit. My call was answered at the 40-minute mark. The agent stated there was nothing she could do, her manager had gone home so there was no escalation opportunity, and there was no SLA for response from the compliance unit. She once again sent an email to that unit to escalate resolving the hold in an urgent manner. 

After this experience, the branch associates call was answered. He was also told there was nothing that could be done, but she would send an urgent request to compliance as well. The branch associate asked me to return the next day to continue our efforts to process this request. These efforts took 3 hours of my time. 

XX/XX/year> : having returned to the branch, the associate continued his outreach to the internal groups to resolve this matter. When finally connected to a wire transfer agent after an hour, he was again informed that nothing could be done but another urgent request would be sent to compliance. He was told that an email would be sent to him with a status update and that I would be updated. I was not contacted. These efforts took 2 hours of my time. 

As a result, I have not had access to my funds for over a week ( over {$6000.00} ), am not able to access these funds to use with an alternative payment method, have missed my time-critical payment dates, and have no information concerning how or when this situation will be resolved.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief