Banks A-Twitter for Tweeting

"I thought I'd paid off my last cent of debt and you buzzards want another $16 for interest?" said Broudy. "Kiss my..."

And so on.

Broudy's sentiment is echoed by others across the online gamut, from Twitter to Facebook and MySpace to online diaries that have complained of the injustices of bank fees for as long as anyone has been blogging.

Addressing those complaints has had mixed results, though banks report that the response has been more favorable than negative. Some users turn from obscenities to pleasantries. They seem to be in a state of shock and slight embarrassment, thinking: Was my curse-laden, informal attack on a large corporate enterprise just responded to directly, on a human level?

But others, like Chris Pugh, are not so easily charmed.

Pugh posted a tweet that he'd be closing out his BofA account after crummy customer service experiences on the phone and at a local branch. BofA rep David Knapp responded with a, "Hello! I work for Bank of America. Please let me know if I can try to help!"

But as Pugh's ensuing blog post -- titled "Bank of America Customer Service Fail" -- made clear, he was already too frustrated with his experience to be wooed. He seemed to poke fun at the bank's overly polite gesture.

"I'm sorry @BofA_help," Pugh writes, "not even your tweet can save this account."

Something in Pugh's humorous post rings true. It's difficult to believe that big old Bank of America, with its $2.25 trillion balance sheet, is truly concerned about each customer's happiness. Of course part of its strategy is intended to boost the bottom line and restore a badly tainted public image.