Tuesday, May 12, 2009

More from BoA: Who was that masked man?

A lone ranger at Bank of America responded to my post yesterday. He wrote me on Twitter, saying: I work for Bank of America, please send me a DM with your contact information so I can call you to help. Thank you.

Who is this stranger called @BofA_help? He claims to be David Knapp, from Phoenix.
The "Future Banking Blog" tells us more here.

David's home page says: Official BofA Twitter rep to help, listen, and learn from our customers. To ensure your privacy, never share account information in unsecured locations.

I appreciated the contact from David and didn't want to discourage him, but
I felt it necessary to reply (as I was concerned about security issues): If you really work for the Bank you already have my contact information.

Let's see what the next chapter is. David, you can reply here with a direct line phone number. I won't post that comment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well wait a minute, he just knows you're Paul F Levy and your job. Maybe, like hospitals, they have duplicate names so he needs to verify which PFL you are. Or have I missed something?
Anyhow, it's pretty funny they have to be on Twitter to catch complaints - the clerk you talked to should have bumped the problem upstairs while you were on the phone. Like I said, muddy thinking......

nonlocal

jessica lipnack said...

There's really not enough room on the web for my comments on banking with what once was my local co-op (literally that's what it was called) in the small village of Newton where I live that has become this behemoth through a series of gulps - Hometown Cooperative became Pioneer Financial became BayBank became Bank of Boston became BankBoston became Fleet became BoA.

I've used that very same machine that ate your checks and while it appears to be a good innovation I've made the mistake of feeding checks without having copied them, leading to not knowing precise amounts of what I deposited, which I'm then asked to verify...which seems to defeat the purpose of reducing waste.

I won't comment on the monthly fees now being imposed on small firms like mine (without warning).

I won't comment on interest rates being increased 50% without warning: ("well, you can stop using your credit card").

I won't comment on the chat service that never can answer the question you have.

I won't. I won't. I won't.

Now, will they find me on Twitter?

Greg Reibman said...

This guy is getting around.

Nick Dawson said...

Paul - really sorry to hear about your lost checks. We've had our own BoA nightmares, they are not best at customer service (does Studer Group work with banks yet, they should!)

Dave from BoA is real - he's following in the footsteps of @ComcastCares (although I applaud your fact checking, wonder how many people have gotten scammed be disingenuous tweets?)

Our hospital system is just beginning to embrace social media and have looked to your blog as an example. One of the other thing I have cited is the customer service work being done by Comcast and Bank of America.

Is there a similar need in healthcare? what happens if someone mentions BIDMC on twitter or in a blog?

Medical Quack said...

It is very interesting with who and what companies are scanning Twitter. In Chicago Blue Cross scans for those who may be in need of customer service and I wonder if this will be expanded. The gal wanting a response from Blue Cross though already knew the game plan up front and was a serious user of Twitter too.

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/customer-service-with-twitter-blue.html

This person tweeted about her ear infection and complained about all the messages she received about cures, products, etc. It's a whole new world, so I guess it's our choice to not include issues where we might not want to be marketed, but on the other hand like your experience it can be a good thing too.

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/ear-infection-sufferer-gets-her.html

Kirsten Shah said...

Sorry to hear about your travails with Bank of America. I had my own 2 hr lunch hour ordeal trying to sort a bank error between my BoA credit card and BoA checking account. The bank personel and I went back and forth on hold with the credit card department trying to resolve the issue. One cc representative eventually hung up on one of the bank representatives helping me. It became an uncomfortable situation for the bank representative and for me. The issue eventually was escalated to management in both departments following the embarrasing infighting. Bank of America has some serious global management problems. I hope they read your blog for tips on listening and acting in a constructive manner to clients concerns, especially when the problem was the fault of the bank. I plan to twitter my experience; perhaps someone out there will be listening.