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A Google+ page parodying Bank of America made a splash during the second week of November. Being the butt of a joke isn't the worst thing in the world, but it can make a company look clueless.
January 1 -
As banks search for their place in the fast evolving world of social media, they are increasingly looking to technology to help them cope with a tangle of potential regulatory and legal challenges.
June 24 -
More and more bank managers are slowly coming around to the fact that thousands of conversations are occurring online every day about their brands, and not surprisingly, many of them aren't very nice.
April 7
Don't get mad, get social media.
An Atlanta-area couple, after waiting weeks for their home loan to close, posted a humorous — and scathing —
Within a day of posting their homemade music video on Dec. 11, Ken and Meredith Williams of Decatur, Ga., got a call from a Bank of America social media representative, and their case was sent a few days later to the office of Chief Executive Brian Moynihan. Several media outlets reported on the couple's plight.
The Williams said on their website that they created the video because they were being charged $50 a day by the seller for delays in closing the loan. The couple said they were getting no response from B of A. Charges by sellers have become more common because lenders are backed up in processing applications.
In the video, Ken Williams strums a guitar, singing, "Why can't a house go fast when a buyer's got cash, preapproval and two cats?" Later he sings, "All I want is to have a home, and a front yard for my garden gnome."
The bank apparently was not put off by the song's refrain: "Don't let anybody tell you you're too big to fail, 'cause you belong in jail."
The Williams' $203,000 rehabilitation loan, which is insured by the Federal Housing Administration, closed on Dec. 16. The couple said on their website that the loan was originally set to close on Oct. 31. B of A says it also reimbursed some of their seller fees.
"There is no doubt in my mind that B of A would have taken another month to close our loan without the video," Ken Williams told American Banker by email.
Terry Francisco, a B of A spokesman, said the loan would have closed on the same date even if the couple had not posted the video. Williams' complaint was routed to the bank's "escalation group that handles client issues that come from a variety of sources, including social media," Francisco says. "While we actively monitor social media for customer issues, the group that works to resolve those issues are not set apart from our primary customer service team."
The loan is a section 203K rehabilitation loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, B of A says. Those loans often take longer to close because they involve a more detailed appraisal process since the borrower is financing the acquisition and the rehabilitation of the property at the same time.
