So what do they do to the customers they don't value?

I went to the bank yesterday (Bank of America) to make a deposit. The teller was very friendly and told me to wait a minute. I momentarily got kind of excited, wondering if I was going to get something cool like the free flowers at Trader Joe's. Silly Allison, this isn't Trader Joe's. My bubble was burst when she brought out a disclosure statement and said that since I'm such a valued B of A customer I can have this great credit card blah blah blah. We get them in the mail all the time, so I thought nothing of it. I declined, she persisted, I said no thank you, she relented, Emaline got her lollipop, teller said "thanks so much, have a great day," and despite the pushiness, was really sweet. I thought they were supposed to be tightening up on credit, though.

Fast forward to last night. Slickdeals had a post to a free equifax credit score. I've never found out my score, I just get the free annual report. So Dave and I get our scores. His was a bit higher than mine, which was surprising (since our credit history is basically the same) and irritating (since I pay all the bills--his student loan probably helped his credit, but didn't even know what the monthy payment was). The main thing hurting mine was "recent inquiries." I hadn't had any hard pulls in over a year. I was due for my annual credit report from equifax, so I pulled it, and what do you know, there's was hard pull that day. Google the name, and it's a B of A card. Ummmm......

Found a number, called, and was told that yes, I had applied and been approved for a card today. The number should be assigned tomorrow. I explained the whole situation and the person was very helpful, said to call back after the number has been assigned and the account and inquiry will be removed from my credit report. Unfortunately, these things happen as employees and branches get incentives for the number of cards they open.

Even though I was quite confident everything could be worked out over the phone, Mabes and I headed back to the bank today to have words with the manager. I grabbed another lollipop to keep Mabes occupied. When the manager came out, she said, "Oh, you were just here yesterday--I remember those pigtails!" (Mabes', not mine.) Yes, it's that visit I'd like to discuss... Told her the whole thing, she was very nice, she said that's only happened one other time at their branch, and it's because the teller accidentally hit the "okay, get card" button instead of the "decline" button. Apparently it comes up when a customer comes in for a transaction. But then she said something about needing a signature in order to properly process it, so I'm not sure if the "honest mistake" thing was just a line. Everything should be resolved by next week, but I'm still ticked it's that easy for the bank to "accidentally" open a credit card that I very clearly stated I did not want.

On the way out, I grabbed another lollipop. I showed them!

Laura and Jemaine flip the bird at Bank of America.
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