Today I decided to cancel my “Privacy Assist” credit monitoring account through Bank of America. Fun times, fun times.
I’d used Bank of America’s Privacy Assist service for a few years. Recently, I pulled a credit report for all three bureaus to see where I stood. Thanks for that by the way, Comcast, my several-years-closed account which you sent to collections after claiming I hadn’t returned equipment, despite the receipt I produced on several occasions really reminded me to watch my credit score like a hawk … assholes. In any case, the service that “comes with” freecreditreport.com’s “free credit report” seems a little more detailed, so I thought I’d switch.
I logged into my account – which is separate from my Bank of America online banking account for reasons unknown – and looked around for what I figured a large corporation like Bank of America would easily provide: the cancel link. I consider myself fairly web savvy – I mean, come on – but it struck me as odd that I simply couldn’t find the link. I checked the FAQ: the only mention of cancellation is a warning about how it would affect some bullshit software they provide. I clicked the contact link: no e-mail address, no form to fill out, just a telephone number and a mailing address.
It was at this point I realized what I was in for, exactly. Asshole Tactics. The Asshole Tactics Rules of Engagement state the following:
- Make it easy (or involuntary) to sign up for a service online.
- Require recurring payments by credit card.
- Make it impossible to cancel the service online.
- Mention nothing about how to cancel, only warnings of bad things happening should the consumer decide to cancel.
- Make the most convenient method of contact a live, person-to-person telephone conversation.
- Make every effort to side-step the cancellation request (including dire warnings, guilt trips, implications of irresponsibility at not wanting the service, etc.).
- Imply the consumer is unfriendly if they don’t play along with item #6.
- “Mistakenly” ignore the request, resulting in at least one more recurring bill.
With the exception of Rule #8, the “gentleman” with whom I spoke today followed the rules perfectly that I could tell. Whether Asshole Tactic 8 is followed or not remains to be seen. It will be another month until I know for sure. Make no mistake, there will be no need to “imply” that this consumer is unfriendly (#7) if #8 is followed.
After a mostly standard identity verification process, the guy noted I’d been “with them for some time” and asked me, “Is there any reason you don’t want to continue this important service?” I fully understood he was doing his job (customer retention or, better yet, up-sell), so I said in a kind tone, “Oh, I’d just like to cancel.”
What followed was a flurry of (scripted) attempts at attacking the ‘problem’ from different angles. Comically, one of them sounded like a spurned boyfriend/girlfriend along the lines of “if it’s anything we did wrong”. I kept responding, “no, I’d just like to cancel.” Could I have told him why? Sure, but it would’ve resulted in a whole different page of questions, selling points of their particular service versus the competition, and attempts at offers of a free month or a temporary upgrade (which I’d have to call back to ‘downgrade’ in a month, lest it turn into a ‘permanent temporary upgrade’), etc. I’ve been through this before. Many, many times.
After the first four or five times I had calmly restated that I’d “just like to cancel”, the man’s tone became … desperate? Impatient? Annoyed? I’m not sure what word best describes it. In any case, I finally told him I’m just trying to get this done and don’t want to answer any questions – please, just cancel the service.
This prompted what must be the “emergency question of last resort” in his script – it involved the dire consequences of a lack of credit monitoring service, with the implication of irresponsibility and lack of reason on my part. That’s when my patience ran out.
I didn’t curse, I didn’t yell, I only said forcefully, “Sir, either cancel the account with no further questions or put me through to your supervisor.”
At the time, I was highly annoyed by the response (in fact I sat there biting my tongue to keep from yelling), but now it’s almost entirely comical. He said, “Alright, sir, I see you prefer automation. We try to have a conversation with people, but I see you have zero tolerance. I’ve canceled the account. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Me: “Nope.” Click.
I mean … seriously? What the fuck, Bank of America? Do you really need to retain customers on that service so badly that you’re willing to resort to fly-by-night industry Asshole Tactics? I’m seriously considering moving to another bank on principle alone. Douchebags.
I realize I’ll probably have to go through the same thing with freecreditreport.com (all the signs are there – you can apparently only cancel by phone), but hey, I fight the battles as they come.
Update: I’ve since learned that the providers of Privacy Assist is a completely different entity than Bank of America (hence the crossed-out references above). That doesn’t make Bank of America look much better, however – they should be aware of Privacy Assist’s customer service practices by now, which begs the question: why would BoA continue to associate themselves with these people?
OH MY GOD!!!
Okay, so I just deposited a lot of money from a fairly large paycheck I just received and I thought, “I should save all of this to prevent me from spending it all and if I am about to go over on my checking account, I can just easily transfer through mobile banking”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bank of America but when I went to check my transactions, I noticed a $12.99 charge under PRIVACY ASSIST right on there!! I thought to myself, “did I sign up for this?? I dont think so!” but then, the farther back i went into my history, I found one that popped up every month!! I decided I would look that up and see what it even it, not really expecting a good result but there it was! EVERY SINGLE LINK was title “PRIVACY ASSIST… BANK OF AMERICA”!! I decided I would read what people wrote. Some people sued the bank, others were just describing what it was, but when I read what this page had to say, I just had to comment!!! I completely agree with how immature these salespeople are and how ridiculous the company’s methodology is when it comes to “convincing people” they “need” privacy assist.
Anyway, the whole point of me writing this, is the same as yours: WHAT DOUCHEBAGS INDEED!!!
I’m going to go to the bank tomorrow morning and see what torture they put me through:/ crossing my fingers!
-Fizza Zaidi
With stories like this,this, and this, it’s not hard to imagine why someone might need to kick their Bank of America problem all the way to the top of the dung heap . Here’s some executive contact phone numbers:
Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687
Nancy M. Condos
VP/ Customer Advocate
Executive Customer Relations
Office of the Chairman
nancy.m.condos@bankofamerica.com(email is bouncing)
Martha Dominguez, Executive Customer Relations Specialist: 714-792-4264
Corporate Headquarters: 704-386-5972 / 704-386-5681
Operator: 800-900-9000 (press 0 twice)
Corporate Headquarters (Bank of America):
Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
You can always write the CEO:
Brian Monahan
100 N. Tryon Street.
Mail Code NC-1-007-18-01
Charlotte, NC 28255
Your links didn’t come through, but I wanted to say outright: The Privacy Assist people have nothing to do with Bank of America. I discovered this soon after posting this story and updated it accordingly. Granted, BoA shouldn’t be sending its customers to companies like that.
The exact same thing happened to me also with privacy assist.
Mr. T
Does anyone know how to reach privacy assist to cancel this? BOA says its not related therefore they can not cancel. They have been duping my 80 year old mother out of this money ($12.99) for several years. I am now handling her finances and know one seems to be able to help at BOA. HELP PLEASE
Have you tried looking at their web site? There’s a “contact us” page. Also, googling “bank of america privacy assist phone number” works.
So did they really cancel it or have you been charged one more recurring bill? Did you have to give any other personal information? It scares me to give this information over the phone.
No, they canceled it. I only had to give my account name and continue pressuring the guy a bit. I watched for a month or two and received no further charges.
Josh,
I’m about to embark on the same thing as you experienced. I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for the program (I literally just needed to see my credit report, thusly it’s been less than a month). This is going to be fun! Wish me luck!
Ugh. Best of luck.
I just cancelled mine. The lady said about the same stuff but seemed to be less passionate about the program and after 3 tries gave me the cancellation. Thanks for this blog post …I did exactly what you said to do, repeatedly state “I just want to cancel my account.” and it worked!
I just called and it was easy as pie. The guy was friendly, it only took two tries (I told him I was more likely to have a heart attack than have my identity stolen), and the wait time was absolutely minimal. I’ve had bad phone experiences – this was not one of them
Anecdotally speaking, yours appears to be a rare experience with Privacy Assist. Given your “more likely to have a heart attack” comment, may I assume you used a disarming “kindly old lady” voice?
I just got off the phone with those pinheads! I noticed two months ago that they had been charging me since last September. When I called for a refund I was not as calm as you as I am so sick of people ripping off other people. Bank of America is worthless as far as help. The PAssist people told me that they could prove they talked to me because they record all the phone calls. Funny, I wasn’t at the number they called on the day they said they called. It has been 6 weeks and the guy I just spoke to said they have tried to contact me several times and they do have voice confirmation from me. Of course, he wasn’t the one handling it and the girl who is handling it just stepped out of the office. He is the SUPERVISOR for goodness sake but he couldn’t access the recording they supposedly have? In this day and age, I have a secretary and voicemail but yet have never recieved a message from them when they supposedly tried to contact me? He had no answers and was getting perturbed by my questions.
I am going to be embarrased if they really do have my voice on tape but I am 100 percent positive they don’t. I wonder if they are just seeing how far they can push it?
Any advice?
Don’t take no for an answer. If you’re certain you never talked to them then they don’t have you recorded.
Just dealt with a lady there, fired a couple bullets at me about lowering the price and the risk of not monitoring credit, but was generally agreeable and cancelled without any issues.
I had a really horrible time a few years ago trying to cancel this… so much that I literally just hung up in frustration. Thinking about it again today I found your article and called them up, the lady was really nice and after offering me a cheaper service just went ahead and canceled it for me. They must’ve had so many complaints that they revamped the whole system. If anyone tried before and got pissed go ahead and try it now. Too bad I don’t have back those hundreds of dollars from the last few years…
Though this seems to have become the most popular blog post on the subject, I still see plenty of recent reports of the same old tactic around the web. More than likely, the lady you spoke to was new and was either indoctrinated into the hard retention/up-sell mindset or lost her job due to poor numbers.
I’m just a tad bit hard-headed, so sparks tend to fly when I not only receive poor customer service but am actively blocked from firing a service. That just won’t fly with me.
OMG! I am so glad to read these accounts, I was going to sign up, not now! —– thanks for the 411!