Bank Of America - What’s up with this?

As many of you know I have a love/hate relationship with Bank Of America.  I love it when there is money in my bank account and hate it when there is none.  Even better, I hate it when there is negative money.  Someone should figure out how to create an economy based on this negative money.  Oh wait, the big banks already do that by charging overdraft fees.

I went to login to my online banking the other day and found that the BOA SSL Certificate had expired.  Should it concern me that Bank Of America didn’t renew their certificate in time?  Normally, I wouldn’t be concerned.  However, two additional things have come up that make me wonder just how they manage to keep customers.

I lost my ATM card on 8/31, the day that Stephen arrived for a visit.  Not a big deal I tell myself because there was a time before ATM Cards right?  I remember when we got our first ATM machine during my senior year of college.  That was way cool.  Ok, so I finally determine that it is indeed lost and not hiding in my apartment somewhere. Although, I still suspect it is hiding from me.  I call and they are going to send me a replacement that should be here in less than 10 days.  That’s cool as they are usually pretty fast at processing those type of requests.  The customer service agent advised me that I could go into the bank and get a temporary card if I needed one until the replacement arrive.  I wait.  I wait. I finally decided that I can’t wait any longer and go into the branch.  I wait.  I wait.  About 45 minutes later a Customer Service person is available and I explain my situation.  She informs that they can’t do in-state ATM cards in CA.  She could help me with an out-of-state ATM Card though.  I’m confused at this point.  When I was dealing with a check-hold, they couldn’t touch my account because it was out of state.   I left and the ATM Card arrived the next day.  Cool!

Oh wait, not so cool.  You see I closed my DC account way before I ordered a replacement ATM card.  This new card has my picture on it which my DC account has, but not my CA Account.  Also the number is very close to the number on my DC account.  I suspect that this card is for my Closed Account.  I call the activation number and my card can’t be activated over the phone.  The automated “put-me-in-a-bad-mood” guy explains that I can go to ATM and perform a transaction to activate my card.

I go to the machine, and the machine tells me I can’t use this card there.  Just as I thought.  I call BOA customer service on Sunday night around 6PM PT.  Oh, wait customer service goes home at 3PM PT on Sundays.  I tell myself no big deal, I’ll just call on Monday.  People existed before ATM Cards right?  I call, and actually spoke to a very nice young lady who looked up the card number and confirmed that they “did indeed issue me a replacement ATM card for a closed account”.  She informed that a new card was sent out on 9/13.  I wait again.  Hopefully, the card will be here soon.

So, it concerns me that:

1. BOA did not renew their SSL Certificate in time.
2. BOA does not know the rules by state on who can issue temporary cards.  Although, looking back the CSR was probably in my DC account, and I probably could have gone to DC to get a new replacement card for my closed account.
3. BOA can not issue a temporary card and they issued a card for a closed account.

One of these days, I will move on to a smaller bank and establish a personal relationship.  Until then, I’m just going to have to get along with “put-me-in-a-bad-mood” automated guy.