Complaint Review: Wells Fargo Bank

Over a year ago our small town Pacific Northwest Bank (poof!) turned into Wells Fargo Bank. Hmmm. Nobody asked me if I wanted to make that change? Do they count on the fact most people who work at least 40 hours a week will not take the time required to do the necessary research to make an informed switch..? At least not until the OD charges come rolling in like lava. So, $1000.00 dollars later I will make the change and spend my valuable time looking for another 'institution'.

It seems to me that if we are letting them use our money ( and USE it they do!) they should not be so greedy, rude and insolent. Banks and gas stations, no service any more, they just want more and more of your money.

In my first OD experience, they took $700. The OD fees just kept trickling in, even when I had heaved a sigh of relief (after the first $300) thinking I had become flush. HA!! Somehow they fenagled another $400 in OD fees. The 'kind and just' bank manager reversed three in the end.

Please keep in mind I am not an accountant nor am I a banker but I can add and subtract and I do keep a close accounting of transactions because I am one of those lowly pay check to pay check people who HAS to keep very close track. (Thank GWB for some of that)These people work fast and have the upper hand because they have the funds that once were yours and now suddenly becomes theirs.

I allowed my account to dwindle down, which didn't take long considering WFBs 'help-themselves'OD'd overdraft attitude toward my hard-earned money. I stopped automatic deposits and only deposited (personally) what was required to pay monthly bills and operated on a cash-only basis. I stopped my debit card. I paid very close attention to my account and WFBs barely legal and underhanded way of processing fees.

During this clean-up process I deposited a paycheck in the WF branch in Sedro Woolley, WA about a month ago. The woman behind the counter was not the usual nice young people I had dealt with in this particular branch. She (was OLDER) made rude comments about knowing the company I was employed with made automatic deposits and how come I wasn't and spoke down to me in the attitude I have seen some tellers use.

You know how it is: I the ignorant and lowly customer who knows nothing and she the bright and shining teller is going to set me the ignorant part of the human masses straight...ha. Well, within three days of this deposit at the WF Sedro Woolley Bank I received an email at work from WFB telling me all about automatic deposits. HOW did they get my work email?? I had never given them my work email address nor have I ever given them permission to use it. My employer does not condone unsolicited emails and I call this SPAM from an ignorant self-important bank teller who in REAL life probably couldn't grab her proverbial hiney with both hands.. And I am still wondering HOW she got my work email address. This is one I will add to the complaint I am in the process of filing with the FRS.

I was beginning to think (in spite of the ignorant and rude relapse described in the above paragraph)I had things under control and we could all get on with our lives. So, I reactivated my DEBIT card but still deposited my pay check personally. I kept very close track. But NO, it's all happening again.

The total this time (so far)is $330. I am willing to pay $197 of this because I feel I owe it to them, but the $132 they have creatively stolen from me is the last straw. It seems, once they have their claws in a person they have a hey-day and overstep moral and leagal lines.

And never mind the moral part, no one expects a corporation to be moral and it has been proven many times over in this century no corporation IS moral. But they all leave a trail, and this is one instituion that will (I sincerely hope) do themselves in just as Enron did. Legally? I will find out with time if I can recoop some of the funds they have taken away from me.

I am just adding to this thread because it is a good place to vent. I don't know if any good will come for the WF customers who have been stolen from. I DO know I will file my personal complaint with the Federal Reserve System. I also realize some overdraft fees are warranted, but I believe WF (and probably other banking institutions) has overstepped fairness and replaced it with their own kind of 'barely legal' matrix of rip-offs.

If everyone takes the time to file their negative banking experiences with the Federal Reserve System and if enough of us do this, maybe we will see some legally required policy changes in the way banks do business.

Joyce
Burlington, Washington
U.S.A.

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