Bank of America Sends You 64 Identical Letters
Reader Ted writes:
Love your website. I've been a fan for quite a while. I finally have a story of my own to add. A couple of weeks ago I called BofA to cancel the Automatic Payment Plan on my BofA Visa. I was taking advantage of a 0% balance transfer offer. The autopay plan would have paid off the entire balance in full at the end of the month. Today I received 64 individual and identical letters from BofA confirming the change to my account.
Mblockquote>How thoughtful! They must've realized I'm slightly ADD so they didn't want me to forget what I had done. They were kind enough to include my full account number on each letter which means I'll be sending all 64 pieces of mail into my undersized shredder (I knew I should have bought the Binford 2000 model).
I was thinking of raising a stink but the damage done (so far) is only a slight inconvenience. I hope they don't send me another 64 letters tomorrow. I guess I could always try and get them to pay for my electric bill and a new shredder. This is gonna take a while.
Thanks,
Ted This is what would happen if my Mom owned a bank. She's very helpful with the reminders. Very.
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Comments:
Rediculous...
Art, man. Art!. I see some potential there.
"the little shredder that could". my mom used to read it to me every night before going to bed, along with scaring me blind about identity theft and all that good jazz.
I could understand if they sent him 10, 12, 100, or something else that starts with "1", because that's just a typo...but 64? It's like the Redundancy Department of Redundancy is in charge at BOA.
That's "Binford 6100", btw. And "ridiculous".
Ugh, ugh, ugh.....
How do you know they're identical until you open them? GET TO WORK!
Oh no--Y2K!!! Toilet paper will be currency, etc, etc...
It's probably some sort of computer glitch. You know, the kind that makes money disappear out of your account?
Wasn't EVERYTHING the "Binford 6100"? And I think he started out with the Craftsman name, which all/most of the real tools were.
@blondegrlz: In computers, 64 is a pretty logical number to see in these sort of errors. 64 in decimal is 100 0000 in binary. Looks like there may have been some strange bit shifting going on in the mailer.
My recommendation is that he needs to contact BoA and bring it to someone's attention. If it is a system glitch it needs to be looked at, if it's Customer Service rep related then there is room for education.
@HalOfBorg: During the first two seasons, every tool had a different model number. From the start of the third season on, everything was the Binford 6100.
They just wanted to make sure you were completely informed. In case you had to read the letter 64 times, they figured that the original would get worn out so they sent you 64 copies to ensure that you had a fresh one to read each time.
Why does BoA always spell it "Banc of America" on the letters they send out?
Ha, just wait until BoA decides that they want her to pay for this mailing expense...
I've had something similar happen before on the State of Texas' website that maintains your toll payment tag. It turns out that if you forget your password, they want to mail you out (snail-mail) a new passcode.
I wasn't paying attention to what is said, so I ended up clicking on the link to reset my password several times expecting it to send me an email. It was actually creating a new code to snail-mail to me each time. I ended up getting about 5-6 of these in the mail a week later.
With all the credit card offers I've been getting as of late, I think I need the 4liter V8-powered crosscut shredder. I hate having to take the application out of the envelope for it to shred correctly.
Hopefully the person that was supposed to change the account actually made the change, instead of just looking like they were busy by sending the confirmation 64 times.
@NameGoesHere: I believe 'Banc of America' is the name of the corporation that handles investment services like equities and mutual funds. Same trade name, different corporations or something...its a legal thing AFAIK.
Well at least it's a power of two. As a programmer that eases my mind slightly.
RTS
x
64
*evil*
No one has blamed the customer yet? I'm dissapointed!
Clearly this is Ted's own fault for making changes to his account.
Does BofA charge a fee for mailed statements and such, instead of electronic? Perhaps the account will show a $2.00 fee x 64 notices on next month's statement. This too would be the customer's fault for not selecting the eco-friendly electronic statement system.
@sgodun: What's ridiculous around here is the constant bitching about spelling. Shut up already, spelling/grammar nazis!
@Buran: Don't be so defensive.
Just take your time and look up stuff if you don't know how to spell it. It just takes practice.
Meg.... You may want to fix your opening blocquote tag. Mblockquote> isn't quite working :-)
Since no one has stated the obvious yet ...
Maybe they sent you 64 so you'd have a copy for each bank charge you'll need to have reversed if they failed to cancel the auto pay. I'd make sure to keep a copy (or two), just in case.
I say it's a conspiracy from the USPS. If they do this every 100 customers of BoA, that is $26.24 each customer. And you think of how many people are attempting to call up and change their BoA credit card, that is a ton of postage money!
/sarcasm :)
And I thought it was bad when my school sent a student 26 emails in one month...for an already-resolved issue.
@sgodun: It wasn't aimed specifically at you, so please, don't overreact. Are you more than one spelling nazi? nope.
I know people are trying to be "helpful" but it's gotten so out of hand that you have to scroll through a dozen whines about the OP's grammar/spelling/wording/length to get to the actual discussion, and that's what's ridiculous and SHOULD be called out.
@Buran: Then you can get me for pointing out to another poster that it's the "Department of Redundancy Department", not "Redundancy Department of Redundancy" :)
This is really minor for BoA.
I spent over 2 years trying sever my ties (and cancel my account) with BoA. During the course of 2, nearly 3 years, BoA re-opened my closed credit card account at least three times which included issuing a new physical Credit Card at least two times. I've been added to their do-not-contact list several times and I still get unsolicited credit card offers to this day, nearly 5 years after I started this. I also get Terms of Service updates on the account I no longer have.
Long Version:
I paid off and closed my BoA Credit Card Account several years ago.
I ended up with a $0.07 balance on the account and I requested a rebate. God forbid they just send you the money they owe you automatically.
BoA mailed me a check for $7.00 dollars, which I thought was incorrect at the time but I went and cashed it assuming BoA should know what they're doing.
6 months later I'm informed that I owe them $6.93. I contact BoA, explain that this is their fault and I don't want to get into an endless cycle of spare pennies here and there keeping my BoA account hanging. They agreed and zero'ed my total. Account Closed and settled.
~3 months later, I receive a bill for $6.93. I call, explain the issue. BoA zeros the account. Account closed and settled.
Over the next 6 months, BoA bills me for $6.93 a couple more times. They open and send me a new Credit Card which I immediately destroyed (they wanted that number when I called subsequently). I asked to never be contacted again and they assured me I was added to their do-not-contact list (I wasn't).
At some point during all this, I filed a BBB complaint and received a message from a BoA VP (couldn't understand his name). I also found that BoA added a credit of ~ $0.40 onto my account for no particular reason.
I called the VP (everyone above teller in a bank is a VP) and asked him why the hell they put a 40 some cent credit on an account I've been trying to close for 2 years. He said HE did that but couldn't explain why. I can't think of any reasonable explanation other than it was retribution for the BBB complaint, they did exactly what I was complaining about in a blatant and obvious way.
Over the next year I had another card sent out. The account was reopened. I filed an update to my BBB complaint and heard nothing. I continued to receive ToS updates and other mailings. I discovered that I had never been added to a Do-Not-Contact list before because someone at the help desk finally transfered me to the separate phone number that would add me to that list (of course that didn't help either, I talked to the REAL do-not-contact people several times to no avail).
Today:
I get mailings from BoA. I recieved ToS update a few months back. I have had absolutely way to compel BoA to do anything to resolve this situation. I was completely at the mercy of the BoA machine. I had seriously considered calling a lawyer and filing a lawsuit.
Steven
@SkokieGuy: $2? Nah, that's too generous. More like $5 x 64! We're talking about THE BANK OF AMERICA here, the Bank of Opportunists and the bank showcasing the mutilated American flag.
Big companies don't pay .41 for postage.
64 letters going to the same 5-digit zip code would most likely pay only .323 for each of those letters.
It adds up to big savings.
Bank of America takes notification about your account "very seriously".