Bank Of America Customer Battles $245 In Cascading Overdrafts, Wins

We don’t want to admit it, but most of us have done it before. We’ve misjudged how much money was in our checking accounts, leading to a cascade of overdraft fees. It happened to Bob: he used his Bank of America debit card for each transaction during a night out and was hit with a total of $245 in fees. Sure, he could have taken the fees as an expensive lesson, but he chose to fight back instead.

A Starbucks drink here, a dinner tab there…it adds up when you get smacked with a $35 overdraft fee every time you swipe your card. The best solution is to avoid overdrafting in the first place, or to remove overdraft protection from your account, but it was too late to do that. Instead, Bob called up Bank of America.

The front-line customer service rep was helpful enough, but only had the authority to waive one of the overdraft fees. Bob remembered one of the most basic lessons in dealing with customer service: appeal to a greater authority. “I knew to ask to plead to a higher power,” he wrote to us in his letter of thanks, “and after a brief wait in the supervisor queue – I was thrilled to find out that the supervisor was willing to reverse not just a portion – but ALL of the charges. I can’t explain the feeling of euphoria that generated.”

That’s okay. Most people reading this right now will understand the euphoria and satisfaction that come from fighting to get your money back and winning. Consumer satisfaction: one of the best natural highs of all.

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