Every time I would desposit a check, they would clear it in the branch only to put it back on hold at midnight. I escaped them by moving to a city where they're not around, but even then they held on to my relocation check for EIGHT business days!

PNC Bank has non-local checks cleared in 2...

BOA is right up there with Microsoft.

My BOA troubles started in a little state called Rhode Island. Pre-1984, the largest bank in RI was called Industrial National. In 1984, they change to Fleet. Now anybody in Rhode Island would tell you never bank with Fleet. Awful fees, etc.. etc..

Fleet in the early-mid 90's then buys Bank of Boston become FleetBoston which then buys Shawmut and host of whole other banks. And then finally gets bought out a few years back by BOA. Geez, I thought Fleet was bad after they took over my Bank of Boston (or was it BayBank account).

BOA made them (FleetBoston) seem like my local friendly credit union.

January of 2006, Toys closed this store. Along about March of 2006, the Oil Bidness came to Western Colorado like the Huns storming Rome. Halliburton, Schlumberger, you name it, the oil and gas business went from sleepily poking along to an explosion of activity rivaling a pool of gasoline and a lit road flare. The town went from roughly 40,000 to something close to 160,000 in the Valley in a year and a half. Instead of $6 an hour, average blue collar folks were now earning $25 hour and up with the oil services industry. $$$ are flowing through Western Colorado like a dam burst somewhere.

And Toys R Us closed up shop mere moments ahead of the bonanza. In a region now flooded with poor impulse control workers with their Carhartt pockets stuffed with oil business paychecks.

Says something about corporate-level insight.

Consumerist, will these matchups be placed into brackets soon?

Someone at the consumerist has leet photochopping skills.

BoA for the easy victory, its like a MLB team playing a college team.

this one time, i found a toy on the ground that obviously belong to some kid who was in the store. it didn't look dirty, but it didn't have a tag or anything. i brought it up to the lost and found, and my manager literally said 'if no one claims this by the end of the day ill just put a price on it and sell it'. ew. im NEVER entering that store again.

Vote BoA! That's a vote for America!

At least I can that the branch manager at my branch was awesome, and closing the account wasn't a hassle, except they charged me a $2 fee.

And since BofA is international, why should a bank discriminate on national origin (again, when there aren't any laws preventing it). Since when should private companies set public law?

If O'Flannery opens an account in Cork then makes a deposit in Stockton, what entrails is a bank employee supposed to examine to figure if he's a tourist, a visiting businessman or an Irish person overstaying his welcome.

Whoops sorry: White skin. He gets a pass. But let's say he's REALLY tan. Or (gasp) Hispanic.

Why don't the number of internal contradictions whizzing around in your head cause you to spin around and levitate off the ground?

@Buran:

"However, a bank has much more potential to cause actual harm to customers who DO have problems than a toy store does, so I voted for BofA."

Hard to argue with that.

Most...lopsided..."victory"...ever...

Not only are Toys R Us not in the same league as BoA, they aren't even playing the same game.

BoA for that stupid "we're gonna make lots of money" video. f them.

@trujunglist: Most banks charge foreign ATM fees now. It's not just BoA (though I agree that it sucks).

I find it hard to believe anyone still uses Bank of America for anything. I closed my accounts and tore up their visa card right after I heard they were giving mortgages to illegal aliens.

THIS.

From the article, according to a spokesperson from Homeland security, the program is perfectly LEGAL. "the cards are perfectly legal and comply 'fully with all banking and antiterrorism laws governing customer identification.' "

Thanks, though, Consumerist, love the playoffs!

Bank of America seems alittle more suckier.

Toys R Us may be miserable. But I swear to you that they always have Wii's in stock. At least mine does.

I think it's because no one goes there anymore.

Evil!

On a different note, I have to crack up at the posters that say, "Since nothing personally happened to me, I'm going to ignore reams of factual data and vote for EvilCorp."

Since if nothing directly impacts them while they obliviously trudge thru their pale, sad life, it obviously doesn't exist.

Jeezus - develop you empathy muscles, guys: we're humans, not cockroaches.

Second, how is charging a $35 fee fraud? A ripoff, yes. Do you know what fraud means?

Toy R' Us is horrible, but alas BofA is worse. Seems like an unfair matchup because Toys R' Us is "good enough" to make it into the next round.

93% - 7% would disagree with you there Buran. But keeping posting, maybe by volume alone you can win people over.

The illegals thing is exactly what I was going to chime in. Extending credit to them is unacceptable, and I will never do business with them because of it.

Re-opening closed accounts then charging $35 for it? That's not a courtesy, that's fraud.

The only thing that keeps B of A from winning this outright is that there are plenty of customer-friendly banking options out there, from USAA to credit unions, so B of A customers get exactly what they pay (and pay and pay and pay) for.

Personally, I think that BoA gets blasted so often simply because a) they are a bank, and b) they are one of the biggest, most widespread consumer banks. People tend to get very pissed at any disagreement with a bank, since these disputes can often be over quite a bit of money. Probably all banks have a significant percentage of dissatisfied customers, and when you multiply that by the number of customers BoA has, that adds up to a lot of people.

So while I don't doubt that a lot of people have had big problems with BoA, I don't think they're the worst company in America. To earn that title, in my mind, you really have to stand out in providing poor customer service (like Comcast or a lot of the airlines do).

Never worked anywhere else that used as much corporate doublespeak OR that treated their employees as badly.

Are we still on the first round of eliminations..?

Could we put like multiple votes per each round until we get to like the final 4?

good :D

Bastards.

I've been a Bank of America customer for about 3 years now and have not had any major issues with them at this point. But I know sooner or later they'll find thier oppurtunity to screw me, I can't wait. Is there any bank in this country (minus credit unions and that military bank everyone talks about) that isn't full of crooks? You guys have blasted every bank I know on here.

However, a bank has much more potential to cause actual harm to customers who DO have problems than a toy store does, so I voted for BofA.

Can u say overdraft? Lets take billions from the poor every year and feel good about it!

This is such a mismatch, but it is a 16 seed vs a 1 seed, i don't see bank of america being a very strong 1 seed though. i still see best buy as the worst 1 seed.

are you reading this? then sing along!

"i don't wanna grow up, i'm a Toys 'R' Us kid..."

LOL... is this even a fair vote? ;)