99% Redux

Yesterday was a long day. The kind of long day that results in collapsing on the couch into the arms of The Cuban. If you know about that sort of thing.

I tried desperately today to find the strength to re-cap it to give some sort of an update. Luckily, I write everything down. It’s why I blog. I’m constantly writing and I keep a Journal of Injustices (that’s just the working title) so that while talking to the five, FIVE, customer service representatives from Bank of America I could keep track of everything. That was, until I started live tweeting my experience. Whenever anyone answered the phone to deal with me I opened with the same thing:

I’m in a bad mood and you’re the unlucky person who’s going to get it today and I will try not to cuss or yell, but my patience is wearing thin, okay? Are you ready?

Amazingly, each of them said they were. I still have my doubts, though.

I explained that last week on November 2 I had spoken to Melissa who said that I could call back after 5 days and get the $605.80 overage I paid them in forced lender insurance because I really needed that money back. Otherwise, she told me, they would keep it in escrow. Unless I asked for it back. So, when I called to ask for it back I kept getting shuffled to different people.

First, it was Rafaella who answered the call at 9:36 am and promptly transferred me to Ellen at 9:39 am who gave me the number for Home Retention because, she said, I had called the wrong number. The same wrong number from Melissa from last week. (And I had also spoken to Deborah/Debra who was the rudest person EVER and seemed to enjoy being hurtful.) After Ellen, I got Darren at 9:49 am and it was at this point that I told him I was going to live-tweet this. He gave me to Lawrence Jackson, a supervisor who called himself a Team Manager.

Between each call I listened to the same two things repeated over and over.

Please hold.

Please wait.

By the time Lawrence picked up I had my speech down pat.

Is this Kelly?

Yes, this is.

Kelly, how are you today?

Lawrence, I’m pissed off and it’s going to end with you, ok? So I’ve told my story three times already and I’ve told it to Rafaella and Ellen and Darren. Do you have notes there at what you’re looking at so you know what I’m talking about?

Uh, no ma’am. There’s no notes here.

Great. Well, now you’ve just pushed me over the edge. Lawrence, what’s your last name?

Jackson.

Great. Lawrence Jackson. Just so you know, I’m live-tweeting that. I hope you know what that means. And everything you say will go out to my 6,000 followers, many of whom will re-tweet it. Here’s the same story I’ve just told FOUR OTHER TIMES AND STILL YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Are you ready? I’m only saying this once more.

So, I recounted everything to him and in the end he said he needed to back up and talk to Melissa from last week. So, for 48 minutes and 2 seconds I spent time on the phone without getting any answers. So I kept going back to Twitter and realized that, even after trying to speak directly to BofA’s Twitter help team, they tend to respond back to people who are rude. One of ones I read simply said “u suck” so I included that in my response to them, asking if I were to just tell them that they “suck” would they respond to me quicker.

I have a few theories why they finally got with me via Twitter and it’s not really my 6,000 followers. I think it’s because Jenny (The Bloggess) and (Shauna) Gluten Free Girl who both have MASSIVE followers started pointing people in my direction. People start to follow stuff like that and one of them that mentioned me noted that I was a blogger. Not for nothing, but bloggers tend to stick together to help each other out (and that really mushy post is for another time, but I have to say that more blogger friends have reached out to me than any other category in my life). Often, I feel like an island in my family and most people depend on me for stuff.

Perhaps the most irritating about having to write this out and blog it and tweet it is that I felt like, in order to be heard by my own bank, I had no other choice. Why you gotta be like that, Big Banks? Indeed, you do suck for forcing my hand like this.

My kids called me to see if I was okay. Mason never mentioned it but asked if he could pray for me and sent the greatest message he’s ever sent me: In all my life in knowing you, being raised by you, and learning from you, I learned to believe that ‘You can keep going long after you can’t’. That’s the one strong trait that I hope I got from you mom.” Mallory called me, too, to see what she could do to help me. (Memo to all my kids: momma’s going to be okay. Stop fretting.) (But maybe Christmas will be really sparse this year, okay?) (Maybe we could just do homemade gifts this year?)

Bank of America? For making my kids scared for me I have to believe that you’re some kind of special jerks. For illegally placing insurance on me, pulling that fraud on me,using terrorist tactics on me and making me go through this I have got to tell you – there is a reserved corner of hell for you where you’re on eternal hold with an automatic phone service.

It took one final person, Elvira, to finally make things start moving for me. She wouldn’t say that she was taking off fees for last month’s mortgage for me, but I did end up not having to pay the extra $479.84 they originally tacked on and that was a small piece of justice. I kept asking if she was taking it off, but she never confirmed that and failed to send it to me in writing. That right there is still some bad customer service.

People shouldn’t have to do this in order to be heard. I have a plan in place and will climb out of this. I’m going to get that book published and make enough money to get out of this and take all my money to the credit union I use for everything other than my mortgage. And I will sign every petition against Bank of America. And I will continue to support and defend Occupy Wall Street. And my children will be the ones who stick to local banking and goods and services.

We all deserve so much better than the crap being pulled on us from big banking institutions who are repossessing some 800,000 American homes this year after they got their bailout money.

We’re better than this. I really want to believe that. For my children, I have to so that I don’t give up entirely.

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”      - Frederick Douglass