Patience Lost

Welcome to my (Bank of America) nightmare. It continues.

Today, I received an automated call reminding me that my Visa payment is still overdue. I also received a statement from my loan, which includes a "past due amount"! Past due?! How can I have a past due amount on a bill for which payment is supposed to be deducted from my account before the due date?

And so, having lost it, I phoned Bank of America's Homewood Branch to speak with branch manager, Susan Mandras, who got my letter yesterday and finally had a chance to read it, though not well, as she kept referring to my MasterCard. She doesn't know what is going on. Why not? Well, Maureen, the bank rep helping me last week, also got a letter. So.... But Maureen was cc'd on the letter; it was addressed to Susan and the CEO and the two ladies at Visa.

So again, why hasn't she looked into it? Well, she was going to get with Maureen about it—Maureen. Who sits two desks away.

I tell her the news--that my bill shows a past due, that I'm still getting the calls. How can this be? She doesn't know. I ask her, now that I sent letters to people at Bank of America, shouldn't someone take care of this for me? Or is everyone going to assume that one or another of the addressees is going to do it? (See Breaking News II below.)

It's Kitty Genovese all over again. Only I'm getting raped by the bank, and they're leaving me to bleed.

Calgon, take me away!

Breaking News!

At 5:35, Jay Jacobs, from the (I imagine) very busy complaint center at Bank of America, Greensboro, North Carolina called. He was professional and helpful and vowed to get to the bottom of this. He has been "on it" all afternoon since receiving my letter, forwarded from the CEO's office (and he didn't even chuckle that I'd sent the letter there!). Funny how they get the mail in Greensboro, NC just as quickly as Charles Village gets mail. Funny how he didn't wait for me to call him nor ask what I'd like him to do. In fact, he called just to tell me he got my letter and was working on it. He'd already sent messages to several bank persons.

Not only was he kind, considerate, and courteous, but he wrote down my new complaint (my statement); I could hear him typing in the background, and he actually apologized for typing (I'm sorry; I'm typing this so I can get it all down)!

And when he was finished, he told me he would call me back no later than May 3rd.

Breaking News II!

Susan called this morning and was very apologetic. I must have caught her off guard yesterday. This morning, she assured me that everything would be taken care of, that she's going to work on it, too, that whomever gets it solved first would have it solved first, etc. (I was also, apparently, wrong about my interest rate; the 1/2 percent is, indeed, being deducted.)

My mind is at ease. For now.