OFF BEAT: Bank gets the message after hundreds of robocalls
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An ill-timed robocall can foul anyone’s mood, but for one couple, there was a pleasant payoff in the end, albeit hundreds of calls later.
Bank of America Corp. will have to pay $1 million to the Florida couple who say the bank harassed them with more than 700 robocalls after they failed to pay their mortgage.
Nelson and Joyce Coniglio sued Bank of America in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, in July, claiming in court documents that a Bank of America subsidiary “intentionally harassed and abused” them after they began missing mortgage payments in 2009.
The Coniglios said in their complaint that they sent attorney-drafted letters to Bank of America asking them to stop the calls. Still, they said they continued to receive up to five calls a day from the bank on their cell phones and residential phone.
A federal judge found in favor of the Coniglios and ordered Bank of America to pay $1.05 million in damages plus $61,657 in attorney fees to the Coniglios, according to a court record filed Friday. That comes out to about $1,588 per call.
In a statement to the blog Consumerist, Bank of America said calls received by the Coniglios “were not to collect a debt, but rather to help them avoid foreclosure,” and said the bank is “committed to (helping) homeowners in need of assistance avoid foreclosure.”
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