Bank of America review: abusive customer service rep 31

OMG i called this company after seeing a the charge on my bill, i checked and it had been happeining for a few months... i was so upset.. i found all these articles online about people who say they didnt say yes to the service...to make the story short.. i requested that they give me all my money or show me that i agree to it... obviously i didnt agree and i was really mad... well they played me the recording when i accepted the service.. now i wonder if this is what every one is so angry about... did we just agree and lost track? after cancelling i went to their website, and their service isnt really that bad.. im thinking about getting it again.. i just feel ashamed to call and subscribe after the way i treated their employees and manager for something i did get... any one can give me a good suggestion... i may cosider

My complaint is not so much regarding their sales tactics and I have not tried to cancel as yet. I'm finding serious inconsistencies in the credit data I get from Privacy Assist and the respective Credit Bureaus. In one case PA reports 13 more installment loans than Equifax. When I called to ask how that could be, they just flatly repeated that they report the credit bureau reports. When investigated those 13 accounts each of them was closed anywhere from 6 to 8 years ago. My assessment is that PA has serious flaws in how they retrieve and apply the data to their chosen scoring system (Not FICO).
It was quite a stressful conversation and unresovled. Of course at the end they wanted asked to take a survey - so I guess that what the employee reported is true.
I am beginning to suspect that the whole credit score industry is a scam. The values never match each other. for instance in the aforementioned example the PA score for equifax was 707. When I retrieved the Equifax score from Equifax (for $16, by the way), they reported 789!

I had the same exact experience, but it's even worse because I only arrived at the decision to end Privacy Assist after I was already fed up with their auto loan department. I have already contacted the BBB, but I am so upset I want to make sure everyone knows what happened to me, and what is still happening to others.

This morning I spent a total of two hours and fifteen minutes on the phone with Bank of America just trying to cancel privacy assist. I spoke with 7 different people, three of which were managers, two of which "didn't know why the last person transferred me to them", and one of which hung up on me.

It is painfully obvious that:
1) They don't care about the customer until the customer is irate
2) There is practically no line of communication from one department to the other.

I don't usually check my statement just pay the bill. I finally looked at my July statement to see that BOA Privacy Asst has charged me for 4 month. I called today 8/2/2011, to cancel the customer rep said to me "don't you want to receive your reports on of your numbers is higher than the other". I said, "no cancel" it she had to get a supervisor they agreed to cancel the last 2 months. I told them that i haven't received a package for a 30 day trial then the supervior wanted to take back the 2 months refund. This company is a fraud beware. DC20019

Hello, we are a law firm investigating the Privacy Assist program from Bank of America. We would be very interested in hearing consumers' experiences with Privacy Assist as we pursue legal action against Bank of America. Please contact us to share your experiences: pa@glancylaw.com

This is really a scam! The sales caller said she was from FIA Card Services (which she was NOT) and despite my saying repeatedly that I did NOT want any such service, I was billed for 12.99 within a month of the call. The rep said she "had to" read the entire offer to me before I could cancel! I have just been trying to get the charge removed, and they are telling me that they will "discontinue the service" as of today and a credit will be put on my card "within two billing cycles". They must be making millions of dollars on these charges during this gap! This should be stopped!

I have been using Privacy Assist for 1 year and never had any problems with my credit, finances or Privacy Assist, since I mainly used it for security purposes. They offer an internet surveillance option which requires you to enter full credit card numbers of the credit cards you want to surveill. One week after I entered my credit cards information with BofA Privacy assist for internet surveillance, American Express calls me to verify a suspecious charge made online. Unbelievably, Privacy Assist did not catch that and to me it is very suspecious that one week after I gave my credit card information to Privacy assist, my credit card number was stolen. I gave Amex the information on Bankof America and they are currently investigating this. Obvioulsy, I canceled my account with them, gave them an earfull and I am now using LifeLock.

i work for privacy assist we are not out to take your money we just are doing our job and i have never had a customer complaint just the opposite in fact i get many happy customers that love talking to me and i actually help people on a daily basis we pay for the service too you know full price its legit so sorry guys but i have to disagree

Call BOA credit card Executive Customer service - April Miller - [protected]

Like many others, I received the phone call offering Privacy Assist and decided it wouldn't hurt to get a free look at my credit report. I accepted the offer (since I was told I was under no obligation). After I received the credit report, I called to cancel the service. A few days later, I was billed $12.99. I called back and told them that I had tried to cancel before. "The records show you decided to keep it, so that's a legitimate charge." [censor].

I was taken in by this same scam. A man called my home in July informing me that he was calling from FIA card services, I verified if this was a sales call and he lied that he was not selling and said that he was from the card services. He said in these days there are lot of identity thefts and seems that there was a hack into a batch of creditcard numbers at thier end. They were sending out the credit reports and i was to check if there were any misuse of my account. I confirmed if there is any charge for getting the credit report and he said that there was no charge and they sending it out to all people whose account maybe compromised. So they they had reason to believe my card account could have been misused and that they needed to send me the credit reports so I could make sure that my account was ok. He then proceed to tell my credit card number and he asked to confirm my social before he could proceed further. i confirmed my social. He then asked if he could record what we were saying and if i agreed to do this. I said yes. He then proceeded to very quickly read some terms and notices. I halted him saying he was too fast and i did not understand most of it. He lied that its part of his job to read out and make sure i heard it. He was pretty glib and kept on talking. I halted him again and he was pretty irritated and kept on talking.

I immediately went online and monitored my credit card account for a couple of weeks. No credit reports were mailed to me. Today Aug 14th i seen my credit card statement and there is a charge $12.99 a couple of days back by Privacy Assist.

I called Privacy Assist to check what was going on. The lady on customer assist was trying to convince me that it was a good deal to have protection. I said i m not interested. For the last so many years I have been regularly solicited to buy credit protection, and i never brought it. I then proceeded to tell the lady that i did verify if the guy who called was selling and how the guy lied. She then offered to lower the monthly charge if it was too high. It was like she did not understand that i did not want the service period. After much annoyance and petty talk she finally said that she will discontinue.

I asked for her to refund the money charged and she point blank refused, saying it is my fault that i accepted and BofAmerica customers wer given 30 days...it was like she never heard anything i told her about the guy lying and conning me. I finally told her i will lodge complaints. I told her in the first instance i got the card from Wachovia and not BofA. Secondly i never agreed to the service and finally i never got any credit report too. On and on it went, i was really getting angry. I told her to verify the call made by her rep and she had no right to call me a liar. After much trauma she finally agreed to refund the money.

I agree with earlier comments that 1. They are deliberately scaring someone with a lie so they can steal from the average man and this is so wrong. 2. Giving thier dishonest affiliates my credit card number and asking to verify last four digits social security number is also wrong. 3. The customer assist person tried her dammest to hook me to the service and refused to refund $12.99.

It is sad to hear that the USA employees at customer assist have to work in such pitiable circumstances. My heart goes out to them and urge them to leave as soon as they get better oppurtunities. It will not be easy in this economy. But harassing clients or being a fraud is not the better alternative.

For the most part the majority of customer assists call centers are outsourced and the people there are least concerned about service to Americans. I sometimes am inclined to beleive that they take deliberate pleasure in stickin it to Americans. I hope to be wrong in this, as the only ones to blame are other greedy Americans who outsource in the first place just to fatten thier bonuses.

BTW I agree that "tigereyze" has a vested interest in the company. He probably is employed by the company as PR and his job is to discrediting the folks who are complaining.

Do not trust such Corporates to be honest, or act responsibly, when it comes to this scam. They don't really care and just want your money.

I will contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint because this is ILLEGAL. BOA sent me a letter saying to sugn the form if I wanted a FREE credit report. I did so and NOW i'm being charged 12.99 for a service that is USELESS for those who use the acct to cash CHECKS only! I called and asked 4 a refund and 2 cancel the service. I was told that I could NOT get a refund but my services were cancelled. THEN I called BOA and told then that I had cancelled the service JUST so they'd note it. I WILL CANCEL BOA b/c they r being unjustly enriched on OUR SUFFERING and this attempt to get money is IILEGAL!

These people- P.A. are misrepresenting crooks. If my bank can't protect my money, B.O.A., any better than having to have a 'insurance' company to watch over the money then I need another bank to do business with.
I really though better of BOA but have changed my thinking.
PA said they were going to give my money 12.99 back however it has yet to be seen. This all happened yesterday. A very Rude Call with them only led to having it CANCELED and them agreeing to replenish the money into my handicapped sons account. They are idiots! and this is a STUPID service to sell in the first place. Why does BOA let these scams go on under there name?

I am having the same problem. I dont know where to call or where to drive to. 12.99 on a credit card a month when I cannot afford the minimum payment as it is! What kind of a scam is this ?

My husband and i would like to cancel privacy assist. it really doesn't do anything to protect you. if you be careful. you don't need the protection. please cancel ASAP. ruth and micheal svoboda

I Agree with complaints. When called to cancel I kept asking how this could have happened since we had never signed for or ok'd anything. I had to ask several times because I wasn't being listened to, just getting the same old sales spiel repeated. The representative was loud, pushy, and abrupt. Our credit rating is excellent, always has been. We are concerned about fraud and are very careful, which is how we caught this right away. I was told that it is offered when the credit card is activated. So listen very closely to all that is being said. They know most people are so numbed by the constant barrage of unnecessary verbiage that they tune out. My husband activated our credit card renewal and that's what may have happened. They obviously did not follow the procedure that is stated in a previous posting above. When I first complained BOA credited the charge but did not cancel the account. When it showed up again and they were called I was told I had to call a different number to actually cancel the account since it was a separate deal. This leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding BOA.

I'm am only 18 years old and BofA has charged me for this privacy thing. I remember the day that lady called me and asked if I wanted the service. I told her no, but she still patched me through to some other woman. I then told this woman I didn't want the privacy assit. And yet, they charge me $12.99 for December. I'm very pissed off. Just becasue I'm 18, doesn't mean I don't check and manage my account. Planning to call first thing in the moring to sort out this horrific situation.

I am being scammed by Privacy Assist now. They want $12.99 per month and cannot confirm that I got any items they sent to my home. Then they called and left a voice message saying they had been getting what they sent me returned to them by the post office and wanted me to call back to verify my address etc. I went to B of A and got a bit of a run around. The branch manager said she would return 9 months of service fees to me and Privacy Assist would give me back 3 months but they say I consented to having this service back in July 2007 which means I'm out over $400. I want my money back and will do all that is legal to get it. Once I receive the funds back, in order to make sure it stops I'm closing my accounts with B of A and will looking into alternative financial services.

I WORK for Privacy Assist. Well actually BoA subcontracted it out to Intersections who subcontracted it out to Synergy Solutions. BoA sets up the guidelines for us when we take calls and we are monitored by BoA from 1-2p every day. Customers are enrolled either by telemarketing, inbound (calling BoA), website, or by direct mail. We are told we MUST give 2 full rebuttals and then advise of the website, then offer a downsale of 8.99, and then offer the survey. It is a good product if you want the service or had identity theft, but I also wonder how telemarketing actually enrolls people. We are TOLD they have to say 'yes' three times and hit any key on the phone to authorize the service and a 2nd person (verifier) confirms the order - thats what we are told. We are hired as a retention for 8.50/hr (wages lowest in town for a call center) and might get .25 per each save. As an employee, if we do not offer 2 FULL rebuttals or the downsale, we are wrote up. Three write ups and we are fired. There is a high turn over rate. Most people only last 3-4 months.
Working conditions are bad! Not only are we forced to say this stuff that BoA REQUIRES, we are not allowed to have any phones on the property - there is not a phone for anyone to use to call home in a call center. Also if we have to use the toilet, 2-3 times a week we walk to next door b/c our facilities are broken. Two toilets for men and three for women in a 150 person call center. We must make up the mins we left to use the toilets at the end of our shift. If the computer systems go down, we are not paid and have to make up the hours again. If your sales or percentages are low, you are called out in the call center saying something like 'notice the lowest five employees saves percentages' (names given) to the entire call center. Chairs are broken, someone fell hurt their arm (literally having surgury) and was told they could not go home, if they did they would loose a point and need to make up the hours. We get 12 points a year, no sick time. One person had a seizure, fell and cut her head, taken by ambulance, and had a point taken off. We pay 1300 for health care a year, have a co pay, and the maximum health benefit for a 12 months is 1500 total.
Then there is the Quality Control in our call center that monitors and records EVERY call. We cannot say trial, free, or cancel - get in trouble for that. You cannot hardly get a manager to take a call. We can only refund a maximum of 30.00 but then we get called out on how much we give out at the end of the month. We cannot change the billing date, even if someone never received their credit reports. We MUST verify the full name, address, and either phone number, SS No, or date of birth. We must speak to the member directly regardless of who's checking or CC account is being billed.
I was really mad when BoA was in the office 2 weeks ago and gave out tee shirts and a $10 gift card saying this was the most profitable year and the want us to push for more sale during the 4th quarter, from a company that got a $45B bailout. I wish that they would raise our pay but we are subcontracted out twice, and by the way there is no pay increase - pay freeze in effect for yrs. I also wish we could get more advise on how telemarketing works. I had a deaf women enrolled in Privacy Assist from BoA telemarketing - how did she get enrolled?
I am fed up with this job and looking for other jobs. I do my personal best for people and luckily I have not been caught by quality control or BoA. I do tell then of the two rebuttals, but they are not full rebuttals. I offer the downsale and the survey. It is hard to do this job. I refund we I think the person is telling the truth. I end the call without having the caller hang up on me - they dont mind callers hanging up because we are told not to stop talking. I have honestly need 2-3 beers a night and yesterday when I came home I fell asleep exhausted for three hours.
I believe this is unethical but it could be a good service but BoA only cares about the $$$$. Dont blame Privacy Assist or its employees - WE HAVE TO DO THIS BECAUSE BANK OF AMERICA REALLY LISTENS TO OUR CALLS AND WANTS THIS DONE THIS WAY. We, as employees, have no choice and get rewarded for pushing sales. If you do good and BoA hears the call you might get $25 gift card or maybe lunch - wow! I won $1 for having 2 saves in an hour - wow! I dont know if it was on my check because I have direct deposit and hardly see a paystub - wasnt given the last 4 pay periods, doesnt matter because its all lumped into 3 sums - hours worked, overtime, and everything else (bonuses, money you won, attendance bonus, and other - we never know the actual breakdown of what we get paid). Many people are always short on pay - kinda weird.
If you dont like the service - let BoA know and move your money to another bank, preferably one that doesnt have overpaid executives and a federal bailout.

http://www.synergysolutionsinc.com/
http://www.intersections.com/

I to got all of the same antics got cacelled but was told they could not stop the auth on my accout for the 12.99 even though it was agreed to be only 29 days into the 30. Hate them ccalled boa and they noted my account so I can get money refunded. What a nigmare now they will proably screw my credit up plus they have all of my information. I am in on a lawsuit.

Gary

I agree, I had the same .I use debit card a lot and I do not notice the 12.99 charge and they charged me for the whole year . when you call them they are very rude and they are not willing to cancel the account . Let us know if you plan to take this to court, I will join .

BOA - ### Of America .

I just stumbled accross this site, because my husbands account was charged by B o A Privacy Assist. What a nightmare! My husband ordered the service so he could get a free credit report, but he cancelled the same day. he also received a packet that stated that if you want to activate your account, you could go online enter your pin#, or you could fill out the bottom of the order form and mail or fax it in, but that your account would not be activated unless you did one of these three things. My husband went to check his account on 08/24/2009 to find out that he was charged twice, once in July and then again in August. I was told by B of A that I had to call privacy assist to have it credited back. My husband had also received an e-mail when he cancelled. I called privacy assit and was told that they don't show the account ever being cancelled. I explained to them that we received an e-mail, they stated they didn't send an e-mail. I advised I wanted my account credited and this service cancelled. The rep. sounded like a broken record, I can give you a credit because we don't show you cancelled. I aske to speak with a supervisor and was transfered to Angela, what a big help she was NOT! she wanted to argue, i advised her that the packet stated that it would not be activated unless you received his authorization, she stated where does it say that. I was floored.I was unable to locate the packet at the time, so she gave me her direct number. When I located it, I called back was advised she was on another esculated call (I wonder why). I had previously advised her that I wanted the account cancelled and credited for the 25.99 they had taken, she refused. After holding for several minutes I was transfred to another supervisor named Carol, as I was holding I called B of A on another phone. I spoke with the claims department, I gave the phone to my husband to talk to Privacy Asist . B of A immediatley gave us credit for the charges, Carol from Privacy Assit also told my husband she would credit the account and cancel the service. I kid you not I started this process at 5:16pm and didn't get this all resolved until 7:09pm two hours! for $25.99...what a joke...BEWARE!

Trying to cancel Bank of America Privacy Assist. . . . awful, awful, awful! It was just like people said. You keep yelling "no, i want to cancel the service" into the phone but they will not take no for an answer. The guy even tried to get me to sign up for a different product without my permission. Then, I asked to do the customer service survey at the end of the phone session. . . and the guy freaked out on me and started backtracking on some of the comments he made. He finally said "ok" but hung up the phone (so I didn't get to give my 2 cents in the survey). It was all very weird. I finally had them cancel my service but it took a lot of PERSISTANCE!

BOA Privacy Assist is a sham. I had been trying to cancel for more than a month and had my account closed. When I opened a new account BOA allowed them to connect the old account with the new and charge me for 3 months of "service" instead of 6 that they said i received service. I called Privacy Assist and asked them why they would send me a letter saying that If they couldn't charge my account (previous acct) that they would cancel my Privacy Assist account. A month later BOA allowed them to charge for 3 months instead of six and wouldn't remove the charges. Thats probably because they got OD charges. If you have been affected by this please report them to HELPWITHMYBANK.ORG. This is a government agency that helps when banks lie to you or do illegal things. PLEASE PLEASE REPORT THEM and all of our cases will be stronger against them.

I can't get them to stop collecting payments! This is very fraud like in its operation. I have been trying to cancel for 3 months. Even disputing the charges. Nothing works. When I get them they get my information, pausing a lot between questions, then decide they cannot verify my account. They will not tell my what it is that cannot be verified. This gives their type of operation a black eye. They need to be put out of business.

How do you stop these guys! For 3 months I have been trying to stop them. Even faxed them so now they have my Dr Lic. also! Guess what, they said today that they have no record. They cannot verify my account. They immediately change the subject when you ask what it is they cannot verify. I think this is some kind of fraud, legal or not. They are taking my money ($12.99 per month) and will not stop.

Exact same thing happened to me... one of the supervisors was awful... worst costumer service ever.

I, too, was taken in by this same scam. A woman called my business yesterday saying she was calling from BofA to tell me they had reason to believe my personal identity had been compromised and that they needed to send me my my credit reports so I could make sure that this had happened. I asked her 7 times during this call if this was a sales call; if she was selling anything, and she lied every single time and said no, that she was from the bank. What made me believe her was that she had my credit card number and my social security number.She then asked if she could record what we were saying, and when she asked me if I would agree to do "this, " I asked her what "this" was, to which she replied that she would take my "answer" as a yes. A question is not a "yes."
Then, as soon as I got off the phone, I did a search for this scam and found this has happened to a lot of people. And when I called BofA this morning to file a complaint, they refused to acknowledge that they had done anything wrong or that any wrong had even occurred. Is lying in BofA's name not wrong? Is deliberately scaring someone with a lie so you can steal from them not wrong? Is their giving dishonest affiliates my social and credit card number not wrong?
BTW, I, too, suspect that tigereyze has a vested interest in discrediting the folks who are complaining. But my combined three agency credit score is over 800 and has been for years. And for anyone interested, the phone number from which this call originated is [protected] . The point. Do not trust BofA to be honest, or act responsibly, when it comes to this scam. They don't really care and just want your money.

Do NOT sign up for BOA's buyer protection plan - they give 12 months free BUT after the expiration I've been trying to cancel for two months now. They automatically started billing me over $200 a month after the 12 month expiration. They don't accept cancelations over the telephone and somehow their fax machine is never working. It is a pain. Not worth the free 12-month period. I can only imagine how difficult they would be if someone actually tries to make a claim with them. Forget about this program and opt out! No worth the hassle! And since it is not insurance, they are not regulated like insurance companies. Read the fine print! Buyer beware!

Kris' description of the telemarketing call to purchase the plan is accurate. I too was contacted by BOA and sold the Privacy Assist plan though at the time I did not realize there was charge for this service, as crazy as that seems. On 2/24/09, I received the plan, reviewed its contents and decided I did not want it. I called that same day to cancel and the customer service rep's tone was not shall we say very helpful. He kept trying different techniques to confuse me and get me to stay on the plan, finally asking me if a less expensive plan would work. I had to repeat to him at least three times that I wanted to cancel the plan before he finally canceled it. I was reading this post while I was on the phone and am glad I did. Something in the tone and marketing scheme at the beginning of the call did not sound on the up and up so I searched the web and found this post.

tigereyze - Some people have protection and don't necessarily want this plan. The tone of your message sounds like you work for BOA as one of their reps. Too bad you felt you had to mock the original poster. My credit scores are all in the good range. Not excellent but good which is fine with me. I do care about protecting my identity and take precautions to monitor it frequently. I reject your criticism and suggest you refrain from starting flame wars in the future.

I am guessing that you are one of those individuals who don't have a good credit score or just don't care if they are protecting thier identity. Privacy assist is the only company that offers Internet survelence in protection. If one is all about protection of thier identity and protecting themselves against credit fraud this is for you. If you are into recieving a free credit report, go online once a year you are intitled to it. Privacy Assist are for those who care about the hard work they put forth everyday to achieve the great rates they are entitled to. Privacy Assist is like buying a protection plan on a vehicle, home, life insurance any asset you would normally secure. You obviously didn't read the info. Be more informed when posting blogs about a service We all know you didn't get the picture.