LOS ANGELES, March 30, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP is continuing to pursue claims on behalf of Californians with respect to Bank of America's aggressive sales and marketing of its Privacy Assist product. The amended complaint in the class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Bank of America, N.A. ("Bank of America") (NYSE:BAC) and others is captioned Chavez v. Bank of America Corporation et al, Case No. 10-cv-00653-JCS.
A copy of the First Amended Complaint is available from the court or from Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP. Please contact us by phone to discuss this action or to obtain a copy of the Complaint at (310) 201‑9150, Toll Free at (888) 773‑9224, or by email to pa@glancylaw.com.
The lawsuit alleges that Bank of America and others violated consumer protection statutes, including the California Unfair Competition Act and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, by charging customers for Privacy Assist when they did not agree to such charges. Bank of America is the largest bank holding company in the United States and offers a wide variety of consumer and corporate banking, investment and wealth management products in California and throughout the world.
The Complaint alleges that Bank of America's Privacy Assist "product" is so aggressively marketed that customers often are enrolled in the program without their knowledge or without a full understanding of the terms of the service, including how to avoid charges after a purported free, 30-day trial period. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that: (1) defendants encourage sales representatives, who solicit Privacy Assist "services" through boiler-room call centers situated throughout the country, to aggressively enroll customers into the program by subjecting customers to "sales blitzes" and by penalizing those representatives who do not meet sales quotas; (2) defendants fail to adequately monitor sales representatives, resulting in customers being enrolled in Privacy Assist without their knowledge or without a full understanding of the program's terms and conditions; (3) defendants fail to maintain adequate procedures to ensure that customers who request "non-solicitation" status are not contacted by Privacy Assist sales representatives; (4) when customers realize they are being charged for Privacy Assist and attempt to cancel, they are confronted with sales representatives who attempt to persuade the customer not to cancel or otherwise make it difficult for the customer to cancel; and (5), customers are not informed that a purported 30-day window to cancel their enrollment in Privacy Assist without incurring any charges begins when Privacy Assist is initially solicited to the customer -- rather than when customers subsequently receive their Privacy Assist enrollment in the mail.
If you are a former or current Bank of America customer enrolled in Privacy Assist since September 2006 through the present, or have information relating to similar issues with Privacy Assist, or if you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this Notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Coby Turner, Esquire, of Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP, 1801 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 311, Los Angeles, California 90067, by telephone at (310) 201‑9150, Toll Free at (888) 773‑9224, or by e‑mail to pa@glancylaw.com.