You gotta love Bank of America. On the heels of reports of debt collection harassment—and the recent Bank of America debt collection harassment class action lawsuit that was filed—BofA managed to not only inspire ire in its customers but also make a complete fool out of itself! How did it manage that, you ask? Read on…
In the age of social media-enhanced customer service (ie, have a problem with a company? Tweet it and await your response…), Bank of America is right up there with the best of them responding to customer mentions (#BofA, @BofA, etc…) of the big bank on Twitter. Well, as Gizmodo reported earlier in the week, sometimes too much monitoring for company mentions—along with what looked like either cookie-cutter automated responses or more likely complete incompetence—can make a customer service department look like a bunch of idiots. And, indeed, BofA’s customer service looked that way.
Here’s the low-down: A guy (Twitter handle=@darthmarkh) tweeted that he’d been creating some chalk art on the sidewalk out in front of a BofA location in NYC—and, might I add, he’d done a damn good job recreating the Monopoly game “go to jail” graphic (see pic above). Needless to say, the cops finally told him to stop and move along. He did, and he then tweeted about the incident with the mention of “@bankofamerica”—but his goal was to spread word of BofA’s alleged “illegal foreclosure fraud” rather than to have BofA take notice and ask if he’d like assistance.
Well, the clueless wonders over at BofA customer service reached out to @darthmarkh to find out if there was “anything they could do to help?” Seriously. (See the twitter conversation here). And, it went on to include gems like “We are here to help, listen, and learn from our customers and are glad to assist with any account related inquiries.”
And we’re so glad you are! Can you imagine the level of incompetence it takes to either respond—in person—like that, or to build an automated-response system that would generate such responses regardless of the nature of inquiry it was responding to? #EpicFail doesn’t even do this one justice.
The field day that @darthmarkh’s followers had after that was, as you can imagine, hilarious. And it should be mentioned that as of today, there hasn’t been an official response from BofA or acknowledgment of the screw-up—guess it’s better to stay mum and hope it all just creeps off everyone’s Twitter pages.
Sadly, doesn’t look like BofA has done much since the rallying cry for better customer service from CEO Brian Moynihan back in January of this year. Now, instead of looking like they’re listening to customers and ‘making it easier for customers to do business with the bank’, you have to wonder if anyone at all is actually listening—and, if they are, if they even have a brain.
It sounds like BofA responded accordingly. I'm not sure how it proves they're morons. I am not a fan of BofA myself, having had 3 home loans with them, and almost always frustrated with "customer service". However, if I were in their shoes and saw some guy had created very visible street "art", I might reasonably deduce that he was in foreclosure himself, and inquire as to whether or not he needed assistance. If anything it was brilliant by BofA, showing that they respond with concern. Anyone who spends so much time and energy pointing out potential "mortgage fraud" could reasonably be assumed to have a dog in the fight.
Hi Tammy, Unfortunately, BofA had no clue it was about foreclosure or, more specifically, the chalk art was done in protest of BofA. Had BofA actually had a human responding to the tweets, vs. a robot, they might have seen that they were becoming the butt of a viral joke in the process. BofA clearly depicted that they could not give a hoot by responding generically with a "can I help you with anything" type of tweet. Anyone with a twitter account can set up automated responses in an attempt to look responsive. The descriptor "moron" still holds.
I respectfully view the situation from a different perspective. You may be correct that they "didn't have a clue", but how else do you find out unless you ask the question …"may I help you with anything?". I'm not certain that being the "butt of a viral joke" requires any action. After all, the"joke" says more about the jokester than it does about the subject of the joke. I'm not sure that they "clearly depicted they could not give a hoot" when in fact they asked if they could help. What more do you want? They're not mind readers, and as much as you or I may wish it would be true that they can read this person's mind, that is not the business they are in (mind reading). So, I always value one person's perspective, and I would simply make the suggestion that you (or anyone else) consider that not everyone has the same view of a situation as you, including BofA. Keep in mind that "Bank of America" is not a person. It's a business with buildings, employees doing their best (even if that is subpar in our opinions), and the mandate of conducting the business of banking. Again, I am not a fan, but I'd be very frustrated if I wished that they could read my mind, respond as I wish they would, and then get frustrated when they didn't "get it". You can be right, or you can go for results. I prefer the latter, but BofA is not high on my list of important things to pay attention to in the world. I figure if I pay my bills (as I committed to doing when I signed the loan documents), then all will be well. If I can't pay my bills, well….I knew the consequences when I signed the dotted line.
…one more comment. I know for a fact that I am not a moron, and I'm not sure that I "get" the "joke" either. It seems like this guy is finding that the way he wishes the world "should be" is not in sync with the way the world "is". That is a recipe for stress (or anger, suffering, angst, disappointment, etc…), and the only person who suffers is him. I expect a "joke" to be funny, but his drawing just appears angry or upset (to me). If he wants to influence his experience with Bank of America (or any other person/ entity), he could learn the art of influence. It is far more powerful, and much more gratifying. His kind of expression usually mostly attracts attention from other frustrated people. People like me just shrug. Maybe that is why BofA doesn't "get it".
Hi Tammy, I think you're finally getting it–YES, his picture IS angry or upset, as you've just described it possibly being! The extra large words that say "Illegal Foreclosure Fraud" should have clued you in–he, and many others, are ticked off and his method of drawing attention to BofA is via his street art. It's the Occupy Wall Street method of angst…to rally people to a cause. The "joke" was in the fact that in monitoring online mentions about the company, the BofA customer service dept should have seen the picture and what it said and "gotten it". That is, that this was not a post from someone wanting info about checking accounts or any other BofA product or service offering. And BofA responded to it as if it were. THAT–the absolute clueless nature of the BofA customer service response system–was the joke. And quite a number of people on social media "got" the joke. Sorry if you missed it or felt there was no joke. And, might I add, if you've figured out how one individual can successfully use the art of influence to affect serious change in a massive corporation, please, by all means feel free to share that with the sidewalk chalk artist–I'm sure he's all ears and he'd love to feel some of that gratification you mention.
the bank should give the best service to customers.
I respectfully view the situation from a different perspective. You may be correct that they “didn’t have a clue”, but how else do you find out unless you ask the question …”may I help you with anything?”. I’m not certain that being the “butt of a viral joke” requires any action. After all, the”joke” says more about the jokester than it does about the subject of the joke.