Wells Fargo, Quite Possibly the Worst Bank in the World

After some really awful customer service, I struggled with whether or not to post this on my blog or take further action. After letting things stew for 24 hours, I just can't hold it back. So I relay the story for you here.

My husband and I are doing an addition and complete remodel of our house. This involves paying a lot of different people large sums of mostly cash. Credit cards, while widely usable everywhere else in society, apparently haven't much caught on in the world of home remodeling. While we've already refinanced once, of course we've gone a bit over budget. We refinanced a second time, but while were waiting for the check to come in, we had to pay some people.

Along comes a a lovely credit card offer, checks with a .99% APR until 2007. Great, we only need the access to cash for a few weeks (and yes, we know about the fees for taking cash on the credit card). Excellent, we'll deposit the check, pay our contractors, and be ok. Hmm, turns out Wells Fargo has different plans.

I deposit the check and 3 days later it shows up in my account. I pay a credit card and some smaller bills. The next day, I login to check my balance, and boom! Apparently I'm $4000 in the hole. Interesting.

I try to call and talk to someone at their customer service center. I enter my ATM card number to get a live person. This live person tells me a need a password. Password? Now what would that be? My pin number, because I don't remember a password. "Well, that's something you set up when you first set up your account." Great, I think to myself.

"But, if you call back and enter your checking account number instead of ATM card, you don't need the password." Ok, so that's what I do. I get through finally and explain the situation. This next person tells me that Wells Fargo doesn't take credit card checks through ATM's, only inside branches. How am I supposed to know that. And this is the best part --- She actually says to me, "Ma'am, this information is in your terms and disclosures. If you'd like I can send those out to you if you don't have them."

Come on now, how could she even say that with a straight face? Even if I read the 100+ pages they give you when you open an account, how would I remember that one little line? Is that the one next to the line that says, "Wells Fargo intends to screw you out of all your money and treat you like shit in the process."?

This most helpful woman also precedes to tell me that any time I make a deposit larger than $1000 I should do it inside the bank. Umm, then what the hell are ATM's for? Most deposits I make are larger than that.

I'm going to end it just like that for tonight. But I'll follow up with more on my search for a good bank. Which, surprisingly enough is hard to do, even with the Internet.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wells Fargo froze 5 accounts when a legitimate check that was accepted 7 months ago was reversed by Comerica by my ex. They have not returned calls nor have they made an attempt to protect my rights.
I have no recourse but to wait. I expect at the end of 90 days it will be closed for them. I am thousands in overdraft. You have been warned.
Theory Cow said…
I totally hear you. Wells Fargo is the worst customer service I've ever had.
Tuba said…
Wells Fargo is the worst mistake I Have ever made. They made a mistake in my account and hounded me for 2 months after I faxed in my bank account copy. They got very rude with me and my wife. Even after correcting my account they still refuse to credit my account the extra interest they charged while they say it was in default. be fore warned, do not ever deal with Wells Fargo, you will be sorry you did.
Carlee said…
I am in the process of closing my account with them. They are HORRIBLE. I deposited a check for 900.00 from my husbands checking account into my wells account. For some reason, they thought that this check might not clear (Hello, this is my husbands paycheck that is direct deposited into his account). So they decided to put a hold on my account. They then regular mail me a letter that states my account is on hold which of course I do not get for 2 days. In the meantime, checks are bouncing and they are charging me NSF fees. We call my husbands bank and they say that wells never even tried to cash the check, and yes it would have cleared if they had. Once the check does finally clear his account, I call their incompetent customer service department and they credit me back the NSF fees, but have the nerve to tell me that the ones that were returned I will have to deal with as this was my fault. WHAT!!! My fault, yes they say because they sent me a letter in the mail. Come on people. Wells Fargo is out to screw anybody and everybody. I will warn anyone I know to never even think about using them.
Anonymous said…
Not to mention the online banking is one of the worst I have ever seen.

First I get transactions as pending and overdraft for no reason.

And the cherry on the cake is they never give available balance for each transaction, they do it only in total; but you wont know if they include the pending transaction in total or not.

Hands down the worst bank.

Had better experience with Bank of America though.
Unknown said…
thanks for the comment. Their online banking seems very 1996.

I personally enjoy both bank of america and ING online. Bank of America also has a new online feature that allows you to deduct checks you have written from your available balance. It's genius.
Anonymous said…
NEVER BANK WITH WELLS FARGO.
THEY ARE THE WORST BANK PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE GOT SCREWED ON OUR HOME MORTGAGE AND FOR 3 WEEKS NOW WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CLOSE. TALK ABOUT BEING STUCK IN LIMBO. ITS A MIRACLE THE SELLERS HAVENT BACKED OUT YET!!!!


WE EVEN HAVE A NEW LENDER NOW BUT WE ARE STILL WAITING ON WELLS TO TRANSFER THE LOAN. YEAH IM SURE WE'RE A PRIORITY FOR THEM......



ASSHOLES.....
Anonymous said…
Wells Fargo is committing criminal acts against people every day. They are currently foreclosing on our home even though we were not behind on our loan...in fact they sent 4 months worth of payments, which were made on time back to us with the foreclosure notice!!
PLEASE JOIN ME IN AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND YOUR LOCAL STATE SENATORS OFFICES CALLING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF THIS EVIL BANK. IF EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN CHEATED BY WELLS FARGO CONTINUES TO EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE EVERY DAY, THEY WILL PROBABLY HAVE A COMPUTER SYSTEM MELT DOWN! EMAIL THE PRESIDENT EVERY DAY ASKING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF WELLS FARGO...ASK EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST TO DO THE SAME...AND EVERYONE ON THEIR CONTACT LIST...ETC. Dont be like a friend of one of my friends who is a victim of WF who said "the president doesnt care...he wont do anything" If we join together WE CAN STOP THIS BANK!! DO YOU THINK ANY OF THE CORPORATE HEADS AT WF ARE WORRIED ABOUT WHERE THEY WILL LIVE IF THEY LOSE THEIR HOME? ME AND MY HUSBAND ARE...the worst part is that WE DIDNT ASK WELLS FARGO FOR THE LOAN THEY BOUGHT IT FROM FIRST NATIONAL...we are having to deal with these theives because they bought thousands of loans that they couldnt handle the responsibility for!! EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE AND YOUR STATE SENATORS OFFICE EVERY DAY...TELL SOMEONE NEW TO START EMAILING EVERY DAY...SOON, THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO IGNORE US!!!!!!!!!
Tony said…
My wife & I are about to pay off our mortgage from Wells Fargo. In the many years we have done business with Wells Fargo - I must say they are the most unprofessional backwards institute I have ever dealt with. Countless times they have not applied our payments toward our principal correctly. Any given day when you want to know your balance, they are "unable" to reveal that bit of info. It's almost as if they are not really a bank and anything your expect or ask of them is out of left field.
Unknown said…
Thanks everyone for your comments. Tony, hope you are paying that mortgage off for good! If not, at least I certainly hope the bank or credit union you are moving it to is much better!

I actually work for one of the largest banks in the world (ironic, I know, considering this post). I was wary at first to do any banking with them, but about a year in I guess I was taken in by all the internal PR. Well, 2 years later, I'm completely not banking with them at all, with just a small loan left to pay off, and a mortgage that I'm not responsible for left from a divorce.

I have switched everything to the University Credit Union where at the University of Maine, where I have held an account in some form since 1997. It feels good to know that a local institution and its employees are benefiting, and that there are real people behind the decisions.

Another great alternative is ING (www.ingdirect.com). In addition to being great with customer service, their rates and online banking can't be beat. They even have very entertaining and useful twitter and facebook accounts.

Would love to hear more from all of you.
Anonymous said…
wow sounds like bank of america. they freaking screwed me over & so did us bank. there's no such thing as a descent bank. what a shame.
Anonymous said…
They are absolutely the worst bank. I've spent hours upon hours fixing all their mistakes

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