Consumer complaint received 2025-11-25 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account — Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
We were told by our XXXX XXXX financial advisor that we could initiate a Roth rollover from XXXX edge self-managed to one managed by our XXXX financial advisor. After logging in there didn't seem to be a way to do this from the landing portal, so we tried chat to get directions. 

The person who responded on chat did not understand English well enough to be able to help. Had poor communication skills and was adversarial. They also indicated there was no escalation path, no manager available nor no option to transfer to another agent. We ended chat and then called the 1-800 number. 

There is no feedback option available on chats. There is no feedback available when you call in. There's also no public email address to send complaints to and once you log in you are funneled down a secure messaging path that also inhibits the ability to complain. 

While on the phone and waiting to get assigned anagent, we logged into our account and noticed it was locked. While asking the agent on the phone how to enroll our Roth IRA over, they became very cagey and just said they wanted to contact our financial advisor. We provided all information including direction to roll the account over. We are not told of any problems. We specifically asked if there was a problem and we're told there was nothing they just needed to contact our financial advisor. 

With each interaction I successfully and without hesitation was able to provide the necessary information to establish my identity. 

After waiting 48 hours, we received a call from our financial advisor that we need to get on a call with both internal parties at XXXX XXXX to authorize the rollover and when we did so we found a completely different story was being told to us. One that didn't match the facts of the previous interactions and seemed to be a lot of trying to cover something up. 

Our funds were locked from transfer for 4 days and if we had not escalated they would have remained that way until some internal process was went through. 

There is significant evidence that the first agent we dealt with on chat made a false fraud claim and did so intentionally to block our roll over request. 

Once escalated it appears that notes were added to the case to say something about my voice didn't match the expectations of the agent and that's why the fraud lock was placed on the account. This is patently false as the account was locked before I talked to anybody on the phone. 

When I broached this with the XXXX XXXX representatives on the phone on day XXXX of the issue I was told it was an internal matter and we would not be told anything else. 

To me, this is no different than an IT administrator changing account passwords or having a unique elevated password and not providing it to the company with the intent to impact their ability to provide services. This agent appears to have intentionally misused an internal tool they have access to to cause disruption and penalize us. 

If this was a case of solid fraud prevention, there is no explanation why XXXX XXXX never reached out to us. There was more ever than this. This is a misuse of internal twos in an unprofessional or possibly illegal action by an employee. 

We agree that for our protection is very important and sometimes wonder why banks don't do more. That isn't the case here. This appears to be the misuse of legitimate internal tools to negatively and possibly legally impact a customer and it seems to highlight that XXXX XXXX  has poor internal controls for these processes.

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 explanation