Bank of America, Kafka, and I – A Continuing Relationship
by Mike Kimel
Bank of America, Kafka, and I – A Continuing Relationship
A year and a half ago I wrote a post about how Countrywide, by then a division of Bank of America, had filed to foreclose on our home, apparently on the basis that someone with a similar name to the previous owner of the home owed them money. Needless to say, we were surprised given that a) we had no relationship with B of A, b) we had made a point to always pay more than was due on our mortgage each month, c) nobody with the name of the person they were trying to collect from had ever owned the home (I’ve seen the property records going back to when the house was built) and d) as surreal and the whole thing was, we had to hire an attorney to make the whole mess go away.
In part because of that experience, some time after that my wife and I closed out all of our B of A accounts. Or so I thought. In the process of closing out my account, our account balance by definition became zero. This is important because when one’s balance is below $2,500, one is charged a monthly service fee. Apparently, we have been assessing monthly service fees since the point where we thought we closed our accounts. It seems that now we are carrying a negative balance that happens to equal a multiple of the service fee on an account that I closed a while ago.
Now, the Supreme Court has stated that corporations are essentially similar to a person. But imagine if a person did something like this. Imagine what would happen to me, for instance, if I filed papers to foreclose on a branch of B of A using, as an excuse, the fact that someone that B of A had no relationship with owed me money. And what would happen if I followed that up some time later by sending B of A a bill for services they not only had not requested, but had been most vehement that they didn’t want. In addition to being charged with fraud, I imagine at this point it would also be considered harassment.
In general, a human being behaving this way would face consequences. Even a human being well-connected enough not to have to worry about being arrested by the cops or prosecuted by the DA still has to worry about whether the next time his intended victim would be waiting with a shotgun. B of A, on the other hand, truly has no constraints on its behavior. No matter how unprofitable its behavior, it has been deemed too big to fail. And society, having made the decision to privilege some sociopaths, also implicitly made the decision that everyone else qualifies as prey.
Had something similar happen to me 15-20 years ago with a much smaller regional bank. I wrote the branch account manager, cc’d the CEO and a bogus attorney on the letter (e.g., “Mike Kimel, esq.”), and threatened to use my “affinity network” to bad mouth the bank (I originally signed up through a campus affiliation). This was after months of trying to resolve the issue through what are likely considered proper channels. It was taken care of within 24 hours after faxing that letter. I’ve used this technique with great success ever since.
Which is why the human sociopaths feel free to no longer hide their behavior when society condones and even celebrates corporate sociopathic behavior.
Jed:
I took it a step farther. I wrote the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board, each Board Member, the President of the Bank, the supposed VP who wrote me on my son’s account. I explained the circumstance at least 15 times and they finally backed off.
cat
may be on to something
the corps have been pretending to be nice for fifty years or so because they had to worry about their p.r.
once they own the government.. as they all but do now… they won’t need to be nice anymore.
“you think there was a mistake in your bill? har, har, tell it to the judge.”
Police state………………..
Police riots!
Y’all forget. In this day and age reputation, at least for B of A, doesn’t matter. 60 Minutes could have a story about the B of A board sacrificing puppies and kittens and drinking the blood of babies before every meeting and it won’t make their reputation worse.
coberly,
I think you are wrong to be talking about “corporations” as being this way. Yes, some are, but some industries are different from others. B of A is a big player in an industry that periodically messes up bigtime and gets a bailout. It creates a sense of entitlement, not to mention incompetence.
Write a letter to the FDIC with a copy to your member of congress and send both copies to the branch where you closed the account. As an insider I can tell you that will quickly ring their bell and get the attention it deserves.