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Customer unhappiness with Bank of America has earned the financial giant a repeat appearance in the MSN Money Customer Service Hall of Shame.
In this year's MSN Money-Zogby International survey, 31% of respondents familiar with Bank of America's customer service rated it "poor." In 2007, 30% rated it "poor."
The company's breadth and scale certainly played into the poor scores, Bank of America spokeswoman Diane Wagner said. "Part of that means as the largest consumer bank we come into contact with our customers 3,000 times per second," she said, referring to any type of banking or credit card transaction.
As to specifically why customers might be dissatisfied with customer service, Wagner wouldn't speculate "because I think it's different for each customer situation."
Readers who posted to MSN Money message boards last year expressed frustration with the megabank's confusing bureaucracy, fees and apparent internal miscommunication.
Wagner acknowledged those concerns. She said marrying the bank's technology with the legacy platforms of its acquisitions has not been easy, "and we're working to improve that."
In addition, she said Bank of America has taken steps to help customers understand its fees, through educational videos on its Web site and simplified text in its brochures. Its mobile banking lets customers receive electronic alerts about their accounts and complete transactions by cell phone.
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The bank also created a Web site for customers to post reviews and reduced the number of times customers were relayed to another agent by 2.7 million transfers.
In the MSN Money-Zogby survey, 22% of those familiar with the company's customer service rated it "fair," 33% "good" and 13% "excellent."
A series of acquisitions in recent years has made Bank of America the largest provider of consumer and small-business banking in the country, with 6,100 retail offices, 18,500 ATMs and more than 59 million customers.
If a deal to buy Countrywide Financial, the country's largest lender, for $4 billion in stock goes through, Bank of America will control a quarter of the nation's mortgage market. Bank of America posted a $15 billion profit in 2007.
Published May 28, 2008
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