Okay. I'm out.
Been a customer of BofA for over 40 years. I'm just done.
Went in to a branch a few days ago (it was a Monday) needing a small wire transfer (small amount of "earnest money" on a small real estate transaction). Walked in and approached the tellers, and was cut off by the haughtiest woman you've ever experienced. On top of it she was some mud-thing (I think mid east) and spoke with an accent.
Her: "Excuse me, sir. Sir. Excuse me. May I help you?"
Me: "Oh hi. Sure. I need to do a wire transfer."
Her: "Do you have an appointment?"
Me: "Umm... What? No?"
Her: "Well I'm sorry you need an appointment."
Me: "Really? Why?"
Her: "Well all of our bankers are busy."
So I make a big thing of looking around the bank. There are literally no customers - anywhere. There are two "bankers" in their little cages, neither on the phone nor speaking with anyone. The female "banker" gets up and closes the cage door. The male "banker" doesn't even look up.
Me: "Busy? With what? There's nobody here. You all can't help me with a simple wire transfer?"
Her: "I'm sorry sir, you need an appointment." And she just stares at me.
Me: "So ... you're serious? This isn't a joke? You can't help me? I've been as customer with BofA for over 40 years and you can't do a quick and simple wire transfer which should take maybe 5 minutes?"
Her: "I'm sorry sir, you need an appointment." Still just stares at me like a robot.
Me: "Okay, so can I get an appointment for today?"
Her: "Let me look and see what we can do for you. Please have a seat over there."
I turn and go sit on the couch, wondering what world I've stepped in to. After about five minutes she comes over with an iPad.
Her: "May I have your telephone number?"
Me: "Why would you need that?"
Her: "I need to look up your profile." (Oh. I see. You need to know if I'm worth helping.)
Me: "Hey that's pretty lame. I know why you want that and that's a very poor practice."
Her: "I need your phone number to see if I can set up an appointment."
Me: "Whatever. It's (xxx) xxx-xxxx." (She starts tapping on the iPad.)
Her: "Ah. Mister Socks." (Nope, not 'Mister Cats'. She does that foreigner thing and says mister and my first name.) She continues tappng for a moment. "Well I'm sorry sir we can't help you today." (It was about 10:00am at the time.) She stares at me again.
Me: "Uhh ... can you see other branches on that thing? Can another branch help me."
Her: "Yes sir, I've checked them. I think the first we can help you will be Wednesday afternoon."
Me: "What?" I stood up.
Her: "I said the first-"
Me: "Yeah I heard you. Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous."
Her: "Would you like to speak with my manager?"
Me: "Yes I would." She turns away and starts whispering in to her lapel microphone. I hear her say "He'd like to speak with you." This tells me she's already spoken to the manager about me. I see this is going to go nowhere.
Her: "The manager will be out in a moment. Please have a seat."
Me: "You know what? To hell with this." I gather my motorcycle helmet. "I'm done. Right now I'm going down to (Other Bank) and I know they'll do a wire transfer for me right away. Please tell your manager that as an over 40-year customer of BofA, I will be closing all of my accounts and moving everything to (Other Bank)."
She says nothing and just stares at me as I leave.
I rode down to Other Bank, a small, more local bank and walk in. The bankers there (all four of the employees) all recognize me by name, greet me and ask about my Mom. And I had that wire transfer done and finished in under five minutes. Spent an extra 10 minutes chatting with the bankers.
For years my wife has told me how shitty BofA is. I never understood because I never did anything with the bank requiring anything more than a web site. Now I get it. And I'm done. No more BofA.
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