Ripped off by Bank of America

[figmo]

I have been a Bank of America customer since 1981. I have had an Alaska Airlines Debit Card through them for several years.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to use my card at Myrtle's Lodge, owned by Fenton's in Oakland, right after I ate there with my fiancé and his cousin. My charge was declined by the bank even though the money was in the account. When I checked my account online, it showed the two declined charges as having gone through -- and since I saw the denials, I knew it wasn't the cashier's doing.

The next day I spoke on the phone with someone and explained that yes, those were legitimate charge attempts by me and no, they should not be processed because you denied them.

Monday I tried to get gas at Costco. My ATM/Visa didn't work. WTF????? I checked and yes, the money was there.

I called Bank of America yesterday, found out that some idiot had mistakenly closed my account and that they had sent me a "new" card, and that it was not an Alaska Airlines Debit Card because the Alaska Airlines program is going away at the end of May. I demanded that the old card be reinstated (I never asked for it to be closed; I have had the card the whole time!!!) and that the new card be closed. After several escalations, I was told it was enabled and that I would be able to continue accruing miles through the end of May.

Today I decided to test this by making a small charge. It got denied. This time I tried an online chat so I'd have a paper trail.

After several escalations, the person told me that my "new" card (that I never asked for and wanted turned off) would not accrue Alaska Airlines miles, "apologized" for the screwup, and gave me a useless number at Alaska Airlines to call. My chat window then hung (I presume the guy at the other end didn't want to escalate it and did this on purpose) so I couldn't reply.

I am furious. I have been ripped off, and I am ready to take my business elsewhere unless someone at Bank of America fixes this and soon.

Comments

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

As for miles, $80 is a lot of money in my book. If I can do better than that, even cooler! :-)

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Well, if it takes 10 hours for you to get $80 of benefit, you're only making $8 per hour, which is barely above minimum wage. There are a lot of factors which go into whether a person would think that was worth the trouble. From what I've read, most people trade their time against money at a ratio which is close to their after-tax wage. And I figure you must be making more than that.