Complaint Review: Wachvoia

Where should I begin...there has been so much that has occured. My husband was a Georgia Lottery winner ($2million) and was offered the option to cash out the balance of his annuities. ($650,000) That's a lot of money, so he did what any person faced with that decision would do, he asked the people that the Government has insured to handle our deposits...ourlocal bank...not one of those BROKERAGE HOUSES where they aren't FDIC Insured and are only motivated by sales commissions. Remember, this is in 1999 and the effects from the Gramm-Bliley-Glass act had not been felt, yet. And Wachovia was still First Union. My Grandmother had introduced me to Barnett, now Wachovia, in Tampa with my first deposit account about 20 years prior, so there was history with this bank.

We met with a rep from the Wachovia Securities team. The man that came from the down town team to our local office was very impressive and he did his job, we were sold. He was sitting at a desk that boasted FDIC insured, his business card said "FIRST UNION", he, on all counts, was an employee of First Union. He asked us what our goals and needs were, he had graphs and answers. We were shown, and I was there, how using First Union's Investment Team could put the money to work. Stocks and bonds and diversifying along with a few loans with Wachovia POOF. If they do there job and we work hard and pay our bills on time; we could still have our investment, retirement from our business and a nice egg for the kids. We started our business and bought a house, all thru Wachovia, of course. They wanted to see our dreams come true just as bad as we did.

Our business did great! We sell vehicles, so our cash flow is large. It was nothing for us to generate $650,000.00 in revenues a month which was deposited in our Wachovia Business account. Everything was great...except for the people that were watching over our investments. The market went up and down and we went thru some reps and we watched the balance steadily go down from poor trading in a fluctuating market. My husband tried not to be concerned, but he was. He became more concerned when he started receiving the run around about who could help him with his questions. There did not seem to be any consistency in the day to day activities during the Wachovia/First Union merger. We would meet with one rep and update what we were expecting from this TEAM playing with our money and they would turn it over to another team member and so on down the line. Until we became stuck with a man that vengefully sold us out.

About 2002, my husband and I began to follow the chain of command for customer complaints. We had come up against brick walls everywhere. We were refered to the outside customer service survey team. If we are unsure of our rep (or of his intentions) then we thought should talk to the captain of the TEAM. WRONG. This really pissed some one off and it was all down hill from there. Basically, Wachovia and it's employees were angry because my husband was asking for some form of management intervention. That was the attitude we were hit with...hmmmmm... A bank that facilitates on emotion....that could be dangerous. My husband didn't ask for much, "Just please move the investment account to our local branch, they know us there. They know that we are honest and hard working. We trust them and we trust that they will be accountable for our money. No one else is." I believe I cried at this meeting (real tears). I could see for the first time, they were taking us down out of spite.

WRONG AGAIN, that won't be happening like that.... We were informed that Wachovia had run into trouble and they were not able to just transfer the stocks to the local branch. Infact, the stocks had already been sold that day at face value. That is right, $350,000 in stocks sold in one day. They sold $350,000, in one day, without even telling us. and at a low-low price. Why? Because we were bothering them with concerns that we weren't sure if our money was receiving the attention we were promised and we were growing more concerned about the outcome of the prolonged neglect.

So now we have about $350,000 (cash) that was to be placed in the hands of our local branch. And did they move it? No, it was placed in a money market account earning less than one percent interest. Our file was pulled from the local branch by some secret people and we no longer had anyone to help us with our problem. Our local branch was instructed not to discuss the matter with us anymore. Oh yeah, the whole time we are fighting to save our investments, we are paying on our loans. We are paying an average of $5000.00 a month to Wachovia Bank, NA. This goes on; no call backs, no money. We pay them though, every month, like agreed but no one can tell us where the balance of the investment is.

Finally, we get a lawyer involved, who, in turn, contacted the SEC, who contacted Wachovia, who said "It isn't our company that you should contact, it was those other guys" The SEC said "OK" and we got a letter from a nice man at the top of all of Wachovia, Mr. Tom Farr, (hey Tom) Mr. tom farr did not feel that we had been thru enough misery. mr Tom Farr felt that now would be a good time to throw his weight around and finish us off once and for all. After all of our investments, deposits, loan payments and loyal customerness, Mr. Tom Farr felt it necessary to give us bad news on blank letterhed. Added together, we have personally seen millions go thru are beloved bank yet we did not deserve a return address or phone number when we read this:

It went something to this effect"We (Wachovia) have elected to surrender the balance of your investments to pay off the loans you have with our company. We don't need your approval and oh yeah, we want the rest of our money within thirty days or we will sue you. But we were not late on our loans, we had not caused problems. Wachovia had mismanaged our investments to the point that there wasn't enough to security for them so they called our loans due. We were not given enough time to do anything. I had a beacon score of over 700 and we worked very hard, every day to pay our bills on time. It was something we were proud of. We owned a business and it's success could be attributed to the way we lived our lives. Within less than thirty days, we were notified that we were being sued for being in default on our loans. It hadn't even been one billing cycle and Wachovia was coming to get us with there high priced attorneys. We were being taught a lesson by someone at Wachovia, a very valuable lesson. Don't let the loan-sharks hold your money. When the Federal Government changed the Glass act, they gave the power to these banks to grow like they did. That is why I say Wachovia Securities uses Wachovia Bank, NA as a front. They will take your deposit there, but your money is leaving the building and won't be coming back. They don't care if you win or not, they already have your money, "What-cha-gonna-do? huh?"

We chose to fight, probably not the most productive choice, but we really were not offered a choice. The banks are above ethical and legal business procedures and they are allowed to grow out of control. No one was being held accountable for the mismanagement of our future. Instead, we are at a stand off with one of the Worlds largest monopolies in the banking industry. And do you think anyone out there is watching over Wachovia. Hell no! The SEC, remeber, we went there. Wachovia is betting on the fact that we will just give up, just like the thousands of other families (NASD reports of arbitrated cases). They probably just gave up. The only difference is that we are not giving up. I want someone to stand up and make good for what we have been thru. The money was important, but I am facing bankruptcy now because of all of this. What do we have to loose? Hello, Wachovia, get over yourself. I will see you in front of a jury and believe me, when they see how you manipulate the laws to cover your mistakes, you just might get your feelings hurt.

This letter probably jumps around and may not be clear, but someone out there has been thru this and will understand what I am saying. I hope this reached them and they in turn would like to join our legal suit against Wachovia, Bank, NA, Wachovia NA, Wachovia Securities, (and whomever else they have watching the big bucks)

Melissa
hampton, Georgia
U.S.A.

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