Attention Bank of Amer. safe-deposit box holders

[mm-ll-kk.livejournal.com]

I went to access my safe-deposit box at the Bank of America branch on Highland Ave. in Davis on Friday and found that my box had been drilled open in July, "inventoried" and the contents put in a sealed plastic bag in the event I showed up to retrieve it. Apparently, the bank sent out letters to box holders earlier this year telling them to come in and empty out their boxes, because they were moving the vault which stored them from the basement to a new vault upstairs.

I never received this letter and the bank made no other effort to contact me. The bank manager told me that they are sending all of the unclaimed items to the state's abandoned property division next week. My bag of stuff was in a pile on the floor with what looked like dozens of other similar bags, so there are obviously many other people who this will affect.

The reason I have the word "inventoried" in quotation marks above is because certain very valuable items that I knew were in the box were missing. Luckily they were insured, and I've filed claims with my insurance company and the bank, but the entire situation has been infuriating. I spoke to the police today and they said that while there wasn't anything they could do about it, I may want to get in touch with the Attorney General's office, which I'm considering doing.

Comments

[tendertalons.livejournal.com]

holy crap that is AWFUL.
i would totally get in touch with the attorney general's office!
good luck!

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

If they're a federally chartered bank, you may want to talk to the appropriate federal law enforcement agency (FBI? Secret Service?) in addition to the local PD and state Attorney General. There's also the matter of the various state and federal regulatory agencies that are responsible for the oversight of banks.

This is well and truly awful. I wish you the best of luck.

[joifulgurl.livejournal.com]

i would absolutely get the attorney general involved. that whole situation is insane. i can't believe that the bank has the contents of people's safe deposit boxes strewn on the floor, in plastic bags.

good luck with your insurance claims. i can't believe you even had to file them. this is a seriously fucked situation.

[mm-ll-kk.livejournal.com]

The crazy thing is that they had a notary and two witnesses fill out the inventory form when they opened up the box. They gave me this form before we went and got my stuff and as soon as I saw it, I immediately said, "This isn't everything". I hadn't been back to the box since I initially opened it a year ago, and nobody else has access to it, so who knows where my missing items are now.

I was practically yelling at the manager today, because the letter wasn't sent out registered mail and they didn't try to call anyone who didn't respond. Hell, why do they bother making you give them a phone number if they aren't going to use it in a situation like this? The manager's response was that the bank had done everything they needed to do, and I'd have to take it up with their legal department.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

that is bullshit. I can't think of anything more eloquent to say right now, so I'll just leave it at that.

[prog.livejournal.com]

BoA is also the bank that merrily calls the cops on customers who confuse tellers with questions about fraud (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/15/bank_of_america_lose.html). They suck.

Not to say they should get away with any of it. The other commenters' advice on who to contact sounds good; best of luck with your situation.

[sasha-bee.livejournal.com]

i might also send an email/letter to the boston globe and wcvb or one of hte other local news outlet's consumer department. that stinks.

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a job for Hank Phillip Ryan!

Seriously.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I can totally see Brian McGrory at the Globe writing one of his angry columns about this.

Specific resources to contact

[ariwriter.livejournal.com]

First, fill out an official complaint with the state Division of Banks (http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Banks+%26+Banking&L3=Consumer+Complaints+%26+Public+Resources&L4=Complaints&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=dob_complaint&csid=Eoca). You could try calling one of the numbers there, but they'll likely tell you to fill out a form.

Second, contact the Attorney General's office. This page (http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=962) indicates you can call the main office or a consumer hotline.

Third, depending what the AG's office says, you may want to contact the Boston field office of the FBI. This page (http://boston.fbi.gov/) has the names and numbers.

Fourth, if you want to contact the Secret Service, as they are charged with protecting the country's financial systems, the Boston field office number is 617-565-5640.

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Unbelievable. I use BoA and I have to say, the recent news stories about them have me strongly considering finding a new bank, convenience be damned. Let us know how this progresses.

[heliopsis.livejournal.com]

If you're near Davis Square, I recommend Wainwright Bank. They have branches in many convenient locations, and you can use almost any SUM ATM for free. And they do all sorts of good community things. I've had my account there for years, and I've found it extremely convenient.

[ron_newman]

Tell all the newspapers -- especially the two local ones, Somerville Journal and Somerville News.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I had an account with Fleet that became BoA and they sent my CDs to abandoned property even though I had withdrawn one of my CDs about a year and a half before. They treated me like a number, not a name.

ariwriter's links and numbers seem like the best way to go. The best way in the long run to get revenge is to do it the right and legal way.

Don't know if the Better Business Bureau can help in this matter but they do in similar instances. They do log complaints and figure out if its an isolated incident or a trend.

[spud.livejournal.com]

I shot the link over to a friend at the globe... maybe someone there will follow up on it. It all sounds very much on the fringe of legal, and I (and most anyone I know) would be very shocked to find that the law sides with the bank on this specified situation.

[overstim.livejournal.com]

you should absolutely email this story to the consumerist. www.consumerist.com
they eat up stories like this, and have a great track record of getting things done...

Switched to a local bank last year

[lesliet-ma.livejournal.com]

When BoA took over Fleet Bank, I wasn't thrilled. But what pushed me over the edge was one time when I needed to call to confirm receipt of a replacement ATM card, and was subjected to a super-hard sell of some sort of add-on banking product that I didn't want. I moved my account to a local bank (for me that was Watertown Savings Bank, since I actually live over in Watertown). I told them I was the kiss of death - that as soon as I set up an account at a small bank, they get taken over by a huge corporation. (My Fleet account was originally at Pioneer, which got taken over by some other bank, which got taken over by Fleet.) But Watertown Savings is privately owned, so they assured me that wouldn't happen. And I've learned that they even contribute to local community causes. So I'm very happy to be banking with them. I don't know if there's any locally-owned bank in the Davis Square area; perhaps someone could comment on that.

Re: Switched to a local bank last year

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I bank with Wainwright, and have been very happy about it. There's a Wainwright branch in just about every square in Camberville, plus a few others downtown and elsewhere. There's also a Winter Hill Bank branch in Davis, but I don't know anything about them. Any locally owned small bank is part of the SUM network, which means you can use any of their ATMs for free. The big banks want to convince you that they're more convenient because they have more ATMs, but because of SUM, that's just not true.

I have no idea what Wainwright's safe deposit box situation is like.

Re: Switched to a local bank last year

[ron_newman]

Winter Hill Bank, Middlesex Federal, and Central Bank are all in Davis Square, and all locally-owned. Cambridge Savings Bank in nearby Porter Square is also locally-owned.

[sarahcoyne.livejournal.com]

how completely frustrating and outrageous.
"SAFE" deposit box anyone?
and isnt the whole point of a SDB the peace of mind you get out of being able to leave your stuff somewhere and not worry about it?

i'm so sorry that this happened to you.

and what a field day the employees must have had, getting to just pick and choose whatever they wanted from the 'abandonded' goods.

please dont let them get away with this. call everyone! CALL STONE PHILLIPS! Dateline expose!

[mm-ll-kk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all these suggestions, particularly the links to the various authorities. I'm definitely going to pursue a few of these. I'm a little reluctant to go on a press binge until I get a better sense of how my claims are going to shake out, but I am going to shoot some messages to a couple of the consumer-beat people (like the guy in the Sunday Globe business section whose name escapes me at the moment) and see what they say.

And you can be damn sure I'm switching banks at the end of all this.

[katespace.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just... wow. I have been considering switching banks for a long time, and this has just put me over the edge. I don't have a safe deposit box, but you can bet your ass I'm never *going* to have one with them.

Cambridge Savings, here I come.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Woah. I've heard a lot of BOA horror stories, some much worse than that, but that doesn't make that suck less for you. Hope you are able to get recompense for everything. If they keep fucking people over at the rate they're going, I think that they're going to go the way of Enron. They seem much to sleazy to still be in business. It boggles the mind.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Actually, they'd be plenty happy to scare off all the small individual accounts - it's the large business accounts where they get their profits. *spits on large banks who prefer corps to human beings*

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Oh, and here's a small example of some of the stunts they've pulled:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_america#Controversy