One reader had tried contacting Bank of America a dozen different times and three different ways, but one tweet to BofA_help got him in touch with executive customer service.
Elle got some fees refunded:
I contacted him a few days ago about a couple overdraft fees I got this month — the fees were both completely justified and completely my fault, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if he could do anything (who doesn't want an extra $50 back, right?). He responded within 10 minutes of my tweet, got my contact information from me, and forwarded it onto a BoA rep in my area. I missed their first call, but before I even had a chance to call them back, I saw that both my fees had been refunded.
fauxtale wrote in the comments:
BoA actually helped me through Twitter..they were really good about fixing it, too...I got the fee I was disputing canceled, and they promised to send me a gift certificate. We'll see. BoA has been just wretched in the past, so if they keep up this level of customer service I might not switch banks when I move this spring.
Their presence is still new but the initial results seem very positive. If you're listening to the elevator music on the phone with Bank of America, why not shoot a tweet over to twitter.com/BofA_help? Maybe he'll solve your problem before you get off hold. It'll only cost you a few seconds and 140, or less, characters.
]]>I called the customer service number, after waiting 40 minutes on hold for before speaking with someone, I requested to speak with a supervisor, told there was not a supervisor available then I got cut off, I called back after 18 minutes I spoke with another analyst, still no supervisor.
I called customer service at BOA in reference to a credit card account I was using to operate a small business, they cut the available credit to less than half placing the account in an over limit status. I explained that this was the only way I had of operating this business, without the business I cannot pay the payments on the card. I was told that a personal credit could not be used for operating a business, that I should obtain a business account. I have had this account for 14 years, have not been late on the account and 2 months ago I paid a large sum of money on this account, 2/3rds of the balance owed on the account, if I had known the account was going to be rendered unusable I would have retained that money, I could have continued to operate my business. If I had any intentions of not paying this account I would not have paid that sum of money but I was looking ahead to keeping the business operating. I would encourage everyone to be careful of transactions with BOA and contact your congressional representative about your tax money that the banks received, they have received our tax money and looks like they no longer need our business.
But, if you are having problems I highly reccommend talking to BofA_help on Twitter. I had made a huge stink on Twitter because I had called the phone customer service again because of another fee they had tacked on and I was so upset. I didn't realize it would actually result in anyone helping me, I was just pissed. David at BofA_help wrote me right away and then I got a phone call today and the fees are all refunded. It made me feel much better about the customer service but as someone else here wrote, it would be nice if they could have good service on the phone too!
For once, having a Twitter account amounted to something though. I still hadn't quite figured out the point of it other than from a business perspective.
]]>Maybe Comcast should patent the concept of answering customer associate questions via Twitter.
]]>I just got a copy of my credit report never missed payment or late payments in years. They have been lowering my credit limit looks to crediters like I went over limit Is this legal.
]]>Daniel ............... Toronto
]]>The squeakiest wheel gets the most grease. Let us do a contrast:
Grandpaw Bob in Anytown, USA will only b*tch to his morning coffee buddies that he couldn't get service/product X to work etc even from being on the phone for a total of 10 hours and spending $$$ to have an independent repair person fix it.
Tech Guru Jimmy had the same experience- he couldn't get service/product X to work etc even from being on the phone for a total of 10 hours and spending $$$ to have an independent repair person fix it. Jimmy may then report about the problem on his personal blog -which then might be "digg"ed, write multiple complaints on consumer related complaints/reporting websites, give a service an amazon one star, send it to twitter, post on his linkedin professional profile, detail the problem on his facebook/myspace profile, send information to ceo / exec management of the company in an EECB, and maybe even set up a full blown "I hate your company" complaint website which then traffics other people with the same problem to report on their problems in comments sections... And gawd forbid if Jimmy recorded one of the telephone tech calls that showed how unfriendly/unhelpfull that the 5th called phone tech was or some comment a phone tech made that was out of line- positively explosive viral content potential.
All of this results in that then next time someone Googles for info on service/product X the top rankings are related to Tech Guru Jimmy's difficulties. Remember how the Dell Hell computer problems of a tech blogger blew up in Dell's face or how AOL was outed with the famous "Cancel My Account" recording...
]]>@Ash78: Yeah, it was difficult for me to qwell the urge to call it "twitting" instead of "tweeting." Twitting just makes more sense since the site isn't called "Tweeter." What an apt name too ;-).
("Skills: Twit" is a great qualification, btw.)
If bofa hired the people I suspect they did, I bet the hirees are a bunch of tweaking twits. That's what makes them so fast.
]]>@ravensfire: I tried to hire some Twitter guys to handle corporate Tweeting and I ended up with a bunch of corporate twits who enjoy tweaking. Dammit!
]]>Maybe it all has to do with the people assigned to watch the twitter group. If I were BofA I'd make sure I'd assign very outgoing, tech savy people to the twitter group. Prefferably, these people would live and breath to tweet (how's that for a job qualification? "Skills: Tweeting").
On a side note, I'm a little concerned about what sort of information customers and bofa are passing back and forth using the public twitter service. I can't help but wonder what information precursed the message to the customer "I was able to get in. Are you still having trouble?" I hope it wasn't logon credentials.
]]>@nataku83: I think it secretly comes down to low overhead. I've had better luck with companies that offer chat/email vs. phone. It's almost like they're more willing to make concessions if you contact them through more cost-effective methods.
Sort of like the other side of the coin from brokers or airlines, who charge you extra for calling them at all. Extra charge vs. extra concession, same net result.
Tech discrimination!
]]>Wow -- BoA refunded your fees? Kudos to that, they NEVER helped me out. I hated my reps and after several horrible interactions with them, I closed my account. But hey, now I get 78 bucks from those bastards. Sweet 78 bucks, too ;)
]]>