Bank of America, and childhood, a timely post

Today I woke up to this news. Bank of America, my trusted, childhood (will get to this in a minute) friendly local bank, reporting huge losses and miscalculations in earnings. Boo. Admittedly, I'm hardly surprised, as I've had a sneaking suspicion that their customer service has been correlated with their business performance for about a year now, i.e., I've noticed a decline in both.

It all goes back to 1997. I was 12. My dad set up a checking account for me with, what was then, Fleet Bank (merged with Bank of America in 2004). Getting a checking account at 12 is a highly emotional experience. It meant being grown up, learning the value of money, and most importantly, being able to part with all of my hard-earned babysitting cash, and trust that despite not being in my eyesight, that it was in a safe place, "earning interest." This is a pretty cemented relationship for a consumer. A brand your father "bestows" upon you, that you grow up with, that holds your life savings.

For years, I loved Bank of America. There was an ATM on Brown's campus. "Ha!" I thought, in comparison to those unlucky first years who had to pay ATM fees. I also got free checks. I was also treated, when I called, like a long-time customer (I WAS a long time customer, but being so young, and in relation to other freshman on campus, this seemed like a secret honor). And finally, Bank of America was always very supportive of refunding accidental overdraft fees. Did I come to depend on this a little too much? Perhaps. But my gosh, was I appreciative of it. Overdraft fees are a lot of money when you're 19.

So, I'm not going to say ALL of this deteriorated a few months ago, but certainly most of my respect and admiration did. Here is what happened:

Can you see them? Thats FOUR overdraft fees in a row totaling $140.00. Now, I know, I used my card for four little charges when my account was overdrawn. Certainly, that is my fault. But I monitor my account daily, practically hourly, and I swear, something screwy happened with the timing of "cleared" charges, and "pending" charges, and money coming in from my saving account. I was incensed. $140.00 in fees and I'm going to probably overdraw my account again as a result of them! I felt so personally hurt, betrayed, helpless. Called the "customer love" line. Twice. To no avail. I wrote the included letter, to no

avail. Unfortunately this is not a success story.

Despite pleading, my personal feelings, and all my loyalty to Bank of America, my overdraft fees have not been refunded. I'm so let down. But what are they to do? I suppose they have to charge customers $140 to get themselves out of the hole. I think it's a short term solution that is going to hurt them in the long run, as customer service, and their resulting brand image, decline.