B of A's Latest PR Nightmare Is Part Teen Novel, Part Whodunit

We all wish we could have just stayed in bed some days, and Bank of America officials have had more than their share of those days in the past week.

Bank of America (BAC) has fielded very public complaints that it has been unresponsive to a prolific author's request for a loan modification on her L.A. home, and that it drove up home construction costs for one man after accidentally reporting him dead to the three major credit bureaus.

These consumer gripes followed renewed criticism in recent weeks of the longstanding tests the bank has been running to establish new checking account fees.

Francesca Lia Block, author of more than 20 novels including the young adult "Weetzie Bat" series, has taken to the Internet to publicize her struggle to renegotiate her 2007 mortgage with Countrywide, the mortgage company B of A snapped up during the financial crisis.

She's been posting on Facebook and in a new blog about the difficulty she's had getting in touch with the bank for close to a year. Block say she has good credit and has never missed a mortgage payment.

Block's home, Faerie Cottage, is about $150,000 underwater, according to the Los Angeles Times. Other outlets, including the Christian Science Monitor and the website Jezebel, have picked up the story.

Health issues along with the death of her mother, whose name was on the mortgage loan, have added to Block's financial struggles, the author says.

But her fans are rallying to her side: a petition to B of A to renegotiate the terms of the loan had over 1,000 signatures as of Monday, according to Block's blog.

Meanwhile, Arthur Livingston of Prosperity, S.C., is seeking compensation from the bank for wrongfully reporting him dead to the three major credit bureaus.

Livingston (oh, the irony of that name!) discovered the error in October when applying for a loan from a mortgage company. Bank of America began reporting him deceased in May 2009.

The error was finally corrected last month, but Livingston says the "inexcusable" mistake has significantly delayed construction on his family's new home, according to ABC News.

The bank did not respond to a request for comment on the complaints by Block or Livingston.