According to a tale, possibly apocryphal, we picked up while visiting Charlotte, Bank of America’s home base, BoA CEO Ken Lewis was once standing behind some customers having trouble with a malfunctioning BoA ATM.

As the story goes, he then introduced himself and said, come with me, I’ll get you some money. He then drove them in his own car to another ATM, withdrew money from his account for the amount they wanted, and gave them his business card. Call the main line, he said, tell them how the machine was broken, and tell ’em I sent you.

Hogwash? Perhaps, but our source tell us that BoA really pounds the idea of customer service into all of its employees, even ones who don’t work on the retail side.

We know that writing a complaint letter to Mr. Lewis has actually lead to very positive results for some of readers. We don’t know, then, how a company so damn dedicated to customer service, people seem to hate them so much. (see our reader poll, “If Banks Came To Life, 42% Of Our Readers Say Bank Of America Would Be A Deadbeat Dad“) — BEN POPKEN

(Image: Euromoney)

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