Comments on: Hospiblogging, or B of A = Bunch of A-Holes

By: Kevin LaMontagne

Kevin LaMontagne — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:25:51 +0000

I am an attorney in Florida and prepare Durable Powers of Attorney on a regular basis for clients. The Florida Statute also provides that third parties can be held liable for damages, including attorney’s fees and costs, for failure to honor such powers of attorney.

Bank of America is the only bank in our area which has refused to honor the Durable Powers of Attorney which we prepare. Today, my paralegal informed a representative of Bank of America that we will be informing our clients of this fact and recommending that clients move their accounts from Bank of America. The representative told my paralegal that if this is what we need to tell our clients, then so be it.

By: Withheld for obvious reasons

Withheld for obvious reasons — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:04:31 +0000

I’ll be forwarding this link to all of my fellow morons (ahem) co-workers.

Not that it will help any… we’re just tech geeks, but love a good story. Sorry you had to endure so much.

By: nk

nk — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:25:12 +0000

“On the other, morons notwithstanding, there’s something to be said for having a local branch, and B of A is the only bank that has branches in all three relevant cities (mine, Sr. X’s and fellow attorney-in-fact Bubba X’s).”

Bravo, Xrlq #13. In the end we signed a new “signature card” (actually a contract) with the AIF’s signature on it. It was a minor nuisance that we did not want to make bigger. Our real concern was that the nurses were giving my father his pain medication as needed.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:19:01 +0000

Teqjack, I was kidding about the idea of federally chartered banks being exempt from all state laws, as opposed to all state banking laws, which I’m pretty sure they are. Neither Moron #6 nor the “legal” department raised any arguments anywhere near that sophisticated. They finally accepted the power of attorney yesterday, but your point about lodging a complaint is well taken. I also called Bill Handel’s show asking for advice. His marginal legal advice, which should air early in the first hour on Saturday, was to set up a conservatorship, then sue them for the costs of setting up a conservatorship that would have been unnecessary but for their foot/knuckle-dragging. He also suggested getting my dad’s money out of there. That’s tempting on the one hand. On the other, morons notwithstanding, there’s something to be said for having a local branch, and B of A is the only bank that has branches in all three relevant cities (mine, Sr. X’s and fellow attorney-in-fact Bubba X’s).

By: teqjack

teqjack — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:33:14 +0000

Bad enough to have your Da in pain and hospitalized, but this idiocy from BOfA is certainly no help. Especially the one who claimed the State law did not apply because BofA is federally registered – uh, not many banks are not registered (FICA is cheap for them): indeed, those with “National” in their title must be, even if they have a total of one outlet and do not allow transfer of funds across state or national boundaries. For a bank to operate as a bank at all they must be registered within the state[s] in which they have a presence and abide by the laws thereof.

May I suggest you re-write this as a polite letter and send it to the Chief Operating Officer and/or the Chief Executive Officer? You may only get a form-letter apology as direct response, but I suspect there would also be many sore tooth-marked fundaments in the Legal department and possibly some new standees in the unemployment line. And future customers would unknowingly owe you a debt of gratitude.

Names and addresses for these officers can be found at the Securities and Exchange website http://www.sec.gov/index.htm

By: Bradley J. Fikes

Bradley J. Fikes — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:53:53 +0000

That’s horrible! Doubly horrible. I hope this and other examples of customer unfriendliness gets more notice – in a venue where the executives can’t escape attention. Legal action? Wall Street Journal article about numbskull companies? Consumer Reports? Congressional hearing? Just anything to hold them accountable.

Best wishes to you and your father.

By: Anwyn

Anwyn — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 03:14:15 +0000

Mark’s comment is a bot of some kind, although his blog appears to be real. He hit mine and EV too.

By: Fodder

Fodder — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:47:24 +0000

I hope your Dad recovers soonest. Hang tough, you can do this.

I left B of A because of this sort of stupidity, 25 years ago. Wells Fargo has about caught up with B of A now, unfortunately.

Good luck.

By: MichaelW

MichaelW — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:45:27 +0000

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Xrlq. Hope he gets well soon.

And, Mark? I’m really hoping you’re a spambot, because the alternative is that you are really tone deaf with respect to social situations.

By: Bound in a Nutshell » Blog Archive » And if you believe that, I have a nice piece of prime farmland in the middle of San Francisco Bay i’d like to sell you.

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:13:01 +0000

[...] is a nice theory, but this rant by a conservative blogger about his attempts to get his father’s bank to recognize a power of [...]