[at-l] OT BofA can bite me

[kellyswhitman at hotmail.com (Kelly Whitman)]

I have to throw in my BofA story here.

When I was in college I deposited a $500 student loan check into my checking 
account via an ATM (I know that wasn't too bright, ATMs were new back then). 
  This was at the beginning of the school year, so I bought textbooks and 
wrote my a check for my rent.  I didn't know the $500 loan check had 
*somehow* "disappeared" after being deposited into the ATM machine.  Since I 
was moving around a lot, being a student, I had opened up a post office box 
and used that for my university mail, bank, bills, and so on so that 
important mail wouldn't have to keep catching up with me.  I picked up my 
mail from the P.O. box once a month.  The bounce notices were being sent to 
that P.O. box and I didn't find out about them until the next month.  
Meanwhile, I kept writing checks...

My parents started a BofA savings account for me when I was 5 years old.  I 
had been a customer for more than 15 years.  I had a checking and savings 
account, a VISA card, and a safe deposit box at that branch.  I had never 
bounced a check in my life.  BofA couldn't care less.  I talked to tellers, 
I talked to customer service people at a 1-800 number, I talked to the bank 
manager.  I produced my ATM receipt, but of course that doesn't mean 
anything.  I cried.  I yelled.  I tried to find out from the financial aid 
office whether or not the check hadn't been cashed, they told me I had to 
wait six months and then contact the government (who had issued the loan 
check).  Gah.  I talked to the attorney that did consulting on campus (he 
laughed at me).  The BofA people figured since I went to a very wealthy 
school, $500 couldn't mean that much and I could simply call up the Bank o' 
Mom and Dad and get more.  My mom and dad passed away when I was 6.  My 
grandmother who had raised me was slowly dying in a nursing home (which I 
was paying for).  I was paying for college ENTIRELY on my own and $500 
vanishing KILLED ME.  My credit rating was ruined and I couldn't get another 
checking account for SEVEN YEARS.  You know how hard it is to go through 
college paying for everything with postal money orders?!  BofA totally blew 
me off.   It was a rude awakening for a 20yo kid about how the rest of the 
world really doesn't care about things like that when they happen to you, 
especially big business.

I will never, EVER do business with BofA.  My roommate uses them and it 
kills me just to step foot in there.  I agree Washington Mutual is a much 
better bank, too bad they don't have them where I live now.

Kelly Whitman
INTP
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"There ARE no other women like me."  -- 7 of 9

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