So after two weeks of cleaning up deposits, bills and so on, I got to ditch BoA. They were remarkably polite about it and after I explained the problem (basically, if I bank somewhere for years and move a significant amount of money with my account, I expect the bank to at least consider extending me a personal loan: trust must be symmetrical to apply) the person I talked to gave me the "I agree, but it's how the system works" line. My reply was that the system isn't working and I'm definitely available to help fix it if they can use a robotics expert, at which we ended up discussing educational robots and life in Europe while she processed my exit.
What I'm trying to get across here is: When dumping a bank, PLEASE BE POLITE TO THE BANK TELLERS! If you're getting out of a TBTF bank, the people who you want to shout at are most likely not in the building and are certainly not deigning to talk to you... Whatever it takes to dispel the DFH meme, please!
That said, one great thing of a smaller bank or a CU is the high likelihood of getting to talk to the same teller each time -- makes solving problems a lot easier.