Wells Fargo Bad Banking deceptive company abused & mistreated Aurora Colorado
I was contacted via the Internet by an overseas vendor needing HP Inkjet Cartridges. We agreed on a price and even though the shipping was outrageous, he still agreed. I received a large check from him and when I went to Wells Fargo, I asked them if there was any special handling I could request to verify funds. They said no. I the asked how long I should wait before sending the goods to ensure that the check was good. They told me that 30 days would be sufficient for "any" check to completely clear.
My customer did not want to wait 30 days, but did wait 2 weeks.
About 2 weeks after this customer received his product he placed another order. It had now been a month since the first check was deposited, so I figured I had a new qualified customer. I decided to check with the new teller I had and once again, I was told that 30 days is plenty. She also told me there was no way to verify that the first check was indeed good. I deposited the check and sent the product after 2 weeks as before.
The second check bounced, so I contacted the customer. He told me that it was a clerical error and immediately cut me another check to cover the difference. Sounds like a concientious customer, so I thought nothing of it.
90 days after the first check was deposited, Wells Fargo contacts me and says that under their policy, they have up to 1 year to come back on Forged checks. They took back the money from all 3 checks and closed my accounts after 9 years of perfect credit with them.
What do you think???
James
Aurora, Colorado
U.S.A.
7 Updates & Rebuttals
Robin
Waldron,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
To Anon in Miami
#8Consumer Comment
Sat, February 01, 2003
Anon in Miami, you miss the point entirely. When a vendor makes a sale he has to accept payment in any form in good faith. What was James supposed to do, hold the order for 90 days? Would you put up with that as a customer? I doubt it. Thirty days is too long to process a check; 90 days is outrageous! James stated very clearly that he had gone out of his way to discuss the issue with the bank; that should have alerted them to let him know if they were having problems with the payment right away. The fact that he took the time to speak to WF about this at the beginning shows that he was using good business sense.
The real shame here is that James had been a Wells Fargo customer for 9 years with no problem and they closed his account. WF is treating James like HE went out and printed bogus checks and money orders! James is a victim, both of his customer and Wells Fargo. How dare you imply that James is irresponsible. Which branch of WF do you work for?
Robin
Waldron,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
To Anon in Miami
#8Consumer Comment
Sat, February 01, 2003
Anon in Miami, you miss the point entirely. When a vendor makes a sale he has to accept payment in any form in good faith. What was James supposed to do, hold the order for 90 days? Would you put up with that as a customer? I doubt it. Thirty days is too long to process a check; 90 days is outrageous! James stated very clearly that he had gone out of his way to discuss the issue with the bank; that should have alerted them to let him know if they were having problems with the payment right away. The fact that he took the time to speak to WF about this at the beginning shows that he was using good business sense.
The real shame here is that James had been a Wells Fargo customer for 9 years with no problem and they closed his account. WF is treating James like HE went out and printed bogus checks and money orders! James is a victim, both of his customer and Wells Fargo. How dare you imply that James is irresponsible. Which branch of WF do you work for?
Robin
Waldron,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
To Anon in Miami
#8Consumer Comment
Sat, February 01, 2003
Anon in Miami, you miss the point entirely. When a vendor makes a sale he has to accept payment in any form in good faith. What was James supposed to do, hold the order for 90 days? Would you put up with that as a customer? I doubt it. Thirty days is too long to process a check; 90 days is outrageous! James stated very clearly that he had gone out of his way to discuss the issue with the bank; that should have alerted them to let him know if they were having problems with the payment right away. The fact that he took the time to speak to WF about this at the beginning shows that he was using good business sense.
The real shame here is that James had been a Wells Fargo customer for 9 years with no problem and they closed his account. WF is treating James like HE went out and printed bogus checks and money orders! James is a victim, both of his customer and Wells Fargo. How dare you imply that James is irresponsible. Which branch of WF do you work for?
Robin
Waldron,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
To Anon in Miami
#8Consumer Comment
Sat, February 01, 2003
Anon in Miami, you miss the point entirely. When a vendor makes a sale he has to accept payment in any form in good faith. What was James supposed to do, hold the order for 90 days? Would you put up with that as a customer? I doubt it. Thirty days is too long to process a check; 90 days is outrageous! James stated very clearly that he had gone out of his way to discuss the issue with the bank; that should have alerted them to let him know if they were having problems with the payment right away. The fact that he took the time to speak to WF about this at the beginning shows that he was using good business sense.
The real shame here is that James had been a Wells Fargo customer for 9 years with no problem and they closed his account. WF is treating James like HE went out and printed bogus checks and money orders! James is a victim, both of his customer and Wells Fargo. How dare you imply that James is irresponsible. Which branch of WF do you work for?
Jim
Aurora,Colorado,
U.S.A.
These were not international checks
#8Author of original report
Sat, February 01, 2003
These were local US checks and yes one of them was a money order. The last one was a money order that was supposed to reimburse me for the bad checks that had already been sent to me. This money order was also drawn on a U.S. bank and YES, this Money Order was also fraudulent.
Anon
Miami,Florida,
U.S.A.
Don't accept an international check--get a money order
#8Consumer Comment
Fri, January 31, 2003
Hey, I know you are pissed at the bank, but it seems like a lot of this could have been avoided by having the buyer get an international money order or shipping it COD, money order or cash required.
It doesn't seem totally outrageous that processing a check from another country might take 30 days. You have the exchange rate to contend with, and if the check is returned, many banks automatically re-deposit the check.
A re-deposit might be at a different exchange rate that day, possibly causing an overdraft on your customer's end (unlikely, unless he is leaving no additional cash in the account).
Hate to be harsh, but you can't expect a bank to protect you from your own lack of business sense.
Robin
Waldron,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
THIRTY DAYS to clear a check??!!!!
#8Consumer Suggestion
Tue, January 28, 2003
James, what a mess! The national bank strikes again. You did not specify, how many dollars in overdraft fees did WF collect from you while they were trying to determine whether the deposited check was good? I think that WF did NOT value you as a customer very much.
Think about this: in this day of electronic transfers, why would they need 30 days to verify a check in the first place? And add to that the fact that every convenience store, retail outlet, and gas station now has a little machine they run your check through to verify it. Wells Fargo DOESN'T have access to this technology?!!! Give me a break! You are just another victim of the "great national bank scam". Read these reports then point your browser to the OCC site; you've been had! Meanwhile, go local with a state
regulated bank; it's your only defense until the Feds get a handle on this national scam, sham, shame!