Bank of America, what happened?

Yep, I use Bank of America. I never really had a problem with them. Until this week.

Bank of America is like a giant state college. If you just want to drift through, you'll be fine. But if you need any kind of special help, you're screwed. And I, dear friends, got screwed.

On Sunday I bought 3 pairs of theatre tickets, resulting in three charges of identical amounts. Bank of America's computers computed this and thought, "That tiny theatre must be trying to rip of The Tough Broad! We must stop them!" and put a hold on my account. I called BoA, and they said, "Oh, whoopsie, we let one of the transactions clear, but the other two we denied. You'll have to call the merchant and have them process it again." So I e-mail the theatre twice, attaching the original confirmation e-mails for the tickets that were denied, and said, "Hey, if you want money, please process again. My bank sucks." And the theatre wrote back and said, "no, we got the money, just bring your e-mail confirmation to the door." BUT THEY DIDN'T GET MY MONEY!

I'm really worried because the show is in February! I bought them this early because I wanted great seats. Now I'm worried that by the time they figure this mess out, they're going to give my tickets away, and I'm going to get to the theatre and be turned away. If I'm going to spend my hard earned money on something, I need it to work out!

Today I checked my online banking, and noticed that the one pair of tickets BoA had ok'ed had magically disappeared from my account, and the funds added back to my balance. WTF? So I called them again. Now I have a headache.

They claim that the theatre never processed the payment or "requested the funds" or something. Sure, whatever.

Then the lady said that the other person I spoke with should have told me that when the theatre tries to process payment, they can only do one per day. I think that's kind of important information, don't you?

THEN, she was kind enough to tell me that apparently, when I took out my $100 on Monday afternoon for my weekly spending money, I typed in the wrong PIN on the first try, so after I got it right and took out the weekly allowance, they FROZE my account entirely. Hmm, maybe that's why the theatre hasn't gotten its money? Perhaps!

And then she asked in the nicest of tones, "Would you like me to take the hold off the account?"

I need a new bank.