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My B of A Oops Moment…

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Over the weekend, my brother celebrated his 40th birthday by throwing a party in a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown San Diego. Between our family and his friends, the place was packed. The music was awesome, the food was delicious, and it should have been a good night. Should.

My sister and I sat on the edge of the Jacuzzi tub chatting away while enjoying the skyline views across downtown. I’m not sure how it happened, but the subject of Bank of America was brought up. My sister recently financed a car through them and of course, I ‘kindly’ told her she was an idiot to finance through them. I ‘may’ have also said I’d rather die than owe “those life sucking *%@&#%’s an ounce of my future earnings.”

My sister, who knows about my 18 month long fight with B of A, smiled an evil smile and egged me on. “Why don’t you stop paying them?”

“And further my relationship with the devil?!?! I’m not going to sink as low as those scum suckers!” I raged on.

She grinned, knowing I’d explode into a 30 minute ‘show’.

In the middle of my tirade, I happened to notice someone taking an interest in my ‘I hate B of A’ speech. Rather than shut my mouth, I ranted for a few minutes longer to my sister and we moved on to more interesting topics like gastritis, carrot cake, and cancer.

My sister excused herself to use the restroom and the person who was showing an odd interest in my tirade came up to me and said, ‘Hi, my name is Wade. That’s my wife Karen. I’ve known James for 20 years. And I work for Bank of America… in the mortgage division.’

I responded, ‘Hi, my name is Rebekah. That’s my husband Chris. James is my brother. And I enjoy putting my foot in my mouth.’

Wade is a laid back guy, but it’s a little hard to rebound from my claim that all B of A employees are ‘horrific scum suckers.’ He tried to explain that B of A is doing the best they can do and losing client forms is a common occurrence. He encouraged me to keep trying and wished me a good night.

Losing forms is common? Keep trying?

So. Sorry to my brother. Sorry to Wade – a non-scum sucker.

But I still hate Bank of America.


17 Comments

  • Reply Money Beagle |

    Yeah it kind of reminds you that as an entity they suck but there are probably a lot of good people in there that, for one reason or another, are not able to break the collective suckiness (if that’s even a word).

  • Reply Starr |

    There’s a serious problem if they’re constantly losing paperwork. They will not get my business.

  • Reply tctc |

    I saw this over the weekend and it reminded me that you’re not the only one who despises B of A: http://www.bankofsatan.com

  • Reply Mar |

    If he’s in the mortgage division, why didn’t he offer to help you?

    Admitting that losing paperwork is COMMON??? Not even sure how to respond to that…

  • Reply emmi |

    Probably hypothetical, but have you stopped to reconsider dumping more payments into the mortgage to get it in a position for refinancing rather than paying the student loan down faster?

    Oh, that’s right . . . the baby. Never mind 😀

  • Reply RB |

    I totally agree that BofA is incompetent and no sane American should do business with them. Wade may be a nice guy. There may be a room full of nice guys/gals over there. But they still foreclose on the wrong property, “lose” paperwork so they can charge late fees, provide illegal immigrants with credit, and have an escrow department that cannot figure out how to pay taxes and insurance.

    I tend to avoid doing business with monster mega-banks, but I would rather walk away from a deal than have BofA involved. Oh, if only I did not still owe them 10K on a CC (that they bought out, not originally with them) so I could sever all ties.

  • Reply Amy Nievera |

    Losing client forms shouldn’t be a common occurrence. That tells me BofA is badly organized and I should continue staying far far away.

  • Reply dcs |

    Had I been in that situation, my response would have been different. I may have offered a very limited apology, something like “I’m sorry if I offended you. I should have said ‘Every person I’ve dealt with during dozens of calls over many, many months is a…” instead of ‘Everyone who works for B of A is a…’ but I let my tremendous frustration with your employer get the better of me. However, seriously, if this is as you say the best B of A can do, I hope you are actively seeking other employment because your organization’s best is, quite literally, criminally incompetent.”

  • Reply Determined |

    Many many years ago I had a checking account and car loan through BofA. As soon as I paid off the car loan I closed both accounts. I don’t remember why, but I do remember being very upset with them. Now every time I hear the name BofA, I cringe.

  • Reply jaye |

    Did he offer you his card? Now that you’re buddies, why don’t you treat him as your “in”? Maybe he can help you! There must be someone who can help, Maybe Wade’s your man! You could call him up and ask his opinion about how to handle it in the future….
    You never know!

  • Reply Beks |

    Jaye – I would have but he works in the mortgage sales division, not with HAMP. He did offer to get the guy who made me cry fired. I thought that was nice. : )

  • Reply Fran |

    I have been following your blog for a couple of years now – okay, not EVERY day, but I just had to finally write and tell you how much I love your posts and I am very impressed with your skill at saving money. I am really interested in your personal touches about family, etc. – it makes you a real person and it makes me feel like I know you. So, GREAT BLOG!

  • Reply Lizzie |

    Totally agree with Mar, I mean, admitting total incompetence? Crazy! Hopefully he is looking for a better job.

  • Reply Abby |

    I work for a major nationwide home insurance company, so I know what it’s like working for a company that gets a bad rep (luckily the main part of my job is helping people who have been in fires and other catastrophic events and not denying claims). I also know that there are measures in place for large companies to not “lose paperwork”. Most of the time, documents are scanned into computer systems so that anytime anyone accesses your account, they are able to view all the documents related to your account. There shouldn’t be “lost paperwork” after they receive it from you. It’s not like BAC has thousands of filing cabinets with paper documents… it’s the 21st century – everything is electronic. We aren’t idiots people!

  • Reply C.J. |

    Funny story! It just goes to show that the whole is not exactly the sum of all the parts. I have a good friend who is an IRS agent. Who on earth likes the IRS? But my friend is a genuinely good guy and well liked by many. Like everything in life, you just can’t stereotype. I still hate BoA too! Thanks for your great work here. I’m enjoying your blog a lot!

  • Reply Anita Rohmer |

    I have to agree 100% with Rebekka! BOA is a SAD EXCUSE for a bank, a mortgage servicer, or anyhing else I can think of. And, Rebekka, I feel it was not an OOPS Moment. Wade is possibly young and blind to the fact that other instiutions actually keep up with their paperwork and service their customers’ needs!
    Our struggle with BOA has been going on since 2010. It is about to be 2013.
    During that time, my husband & I were approved for the MHA Program.. . Within one month of our successfully completing the trial period (making three payments on time…. ours were early.), we received a letter via FedEx stating, “You told us you were not interested in the MHA Program. Therefore, we are not continuing with your application.”
    WHAT! ? ! * ? ? ?
    Oh, yes, that was only the beginning! Of course we denied that orally and in writing. ‘Can’t remember if we ever got a statement saying we WERE still in the program, or not. But they continued to accept our payments as full payments, with the same amount due each month. However, during the first year, we were placed in foreclosure twice…Once, which took hours on the phone, and they finally found our paperwork and removed the foreclosure status. They continued to accept our payments. Then in February of the following year, My husband called to make the usual payment.. .
    It could not be accepted, “because of your impending foreclosure.” Might I add that the payments were on time or early each and every month! Not only were we in freclosure, our property was already on the block to be SOLD at our LOCAL COURTHOUSE! My husband was on the phone again for hours on end. He was finally told that he could. . . “Mail the payment and we’ll be workng on it.” ? ! ! ! I called on the date my husband was given to see if they had “it worked out.” The Rep stated, “Your paperwork did not make it to the correct department, therefore placing you in a state of foreclosure. . . I apologize.” Well, that’s all fine and good, but just suppose we had not called to make that payment and our property HAD BEEN SOLD at the COURTHOUSE?
    I forgot to mention that also, sinice 2010, we have been removed from the HMA Program three times with NO explanation, either time! We are now sending in more forms, more bank statements, more paystubs. . . get the picture?
    I finally found the name of the “President” and wrote a letter to him (via USPS Certified mail.). I’m not sure he READ it, because in the second paragraph of his response he said, “In October 2010 you were approved and in November 2010 you told us you were not interested in the MHA Program. We sent you a letter to that effect.” He continued to elaborate on the fact that with a regular mortgage your payments fluctuate. (That was his answer to the questions: Why were we removed from the MHA Program three times already, causing our payments to go up?) . . .
    Our next step? To have our Attorney write them a letter. We pray this works because we fear we would not be able to beat them in court, even if we could afford it! Possibly, we can be reinstated into the program and refinance somehow. I don’t feel I can take much more of BOA’s treatment! It ha definitely effected my health.

So, what do you think ?