Bank of America comes through with great customer service

We all love to vent about poor customer service -- long waits on the phone, overseas reps talking from a script, repeating the same story over and over again to every new person who fails to resolve the problem. It's pretty much my expectation, and it's why I dread making the call. And why it's worthy of comment when a company, especially a a big bad bank, confounds expectation.

Racing through Whole Foods yesterday morning, I was momentarily stymied at the checkout counter when my Mastercard failed approval. The clerk was confused; it wasn't an overdraft notice. I paid with (sigh) another of my handful of cards, and went on my merry way. At home, though, I had a voicemail from Bank of America requesting that I call. Figuring it relates to the non-approval (brilliant deduction, I know), I called, and here's where the happy story begins.

First, my wait time was but a few seconds until Juan picked up and tells me the card was suspended due to possible fraudulent activity. He read out a list of recent transactions on the card, and it turns out the main ones in question had just happened a few hours earlier: three "magazine subscriptions" within minutes of each other at about 5:40 am, adding up to less than $100 total. He also wondered about several over the last few days from California (where my daughter is in college). 

Juan is extremely nice and helpful, but now I have to hang up and check with my daughter on a few transactions just to be safe. 

After waking up said daughter in her dorm room (hey, it was only 9 am for her; she's a student!) and confirming that she had indeed bought the books, hats, and whatever else, I had to call BofA again.

This time Greg picks up instantly, quickly reviews my situation, double checks a few more recent transactions, finalizes the fraud investigation, and agrees to send me new cards overnight (waiving the FedEx fee although normal policy is apparently regular mail and 5-7 day wait). He updates a few more things on my account, points out a few service providers with whom I'll  need to update my card number once I get the new cards, and we chat briefly about Red Sox opening day and how great Boston is, and then I'm done.

So BofA flags possible fraud within a few hours, puts a temporary hold on it, and calls me right up with an alert. Juan is extremely nice and helpful on the phone, lays out the situation and my options, and gives me a more direct number to call back once I've checked with my daughter. Greg is equally friendly, helpful, and efficient. Total time on phone: 15 minutes. Inconvenience level: minimal. Satisfaction that BofA is on the case: Absolutely. I'll resist a cute line ending with "priceless," but this is how customer service is supposed to work.

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