Complaint Review: Wells Fargo Brokerage Bank & Mortgage Companies

You know how sometimes in retrospect you can see the handwriting on the wall, but you missed it at the time? That's my situation with Wells Fargo.

When my Dad moved out here last August we set him up a premier account at Wells Fargo that linked his brokerage and checking together. I was also set up to sign checks on this account.

He needed a document notarized and Wells Fargo told me they indeed had a notary and would provide this service at no charge to customers. I got my father into his wheelchair and brought him into the branch where we were kept waiting for an hour past our appointed time. When the person who was the notary saw us, he said he could sign and stamp the document, but it was bank policy to allow employees to act as witnesses. (This document needed 2 witnesses plus the notary). Think about that -- they can do the more official witnessing by the notary but couldn't have anyone simply sign indicating that they just saw my father sign the document in the presence of the notary! We, of course, had to have the document redone as the notary had signed it already but I couldn't submit it nor ask someone who didn't witness the signature to sign as a witness. That was the beginning.

Fast forward to February of this year. My Dad unfortunately passed away in October and I had 50% of his funds transferred into my own Wells Fargo brokerage account. I decided to use those funds to pay down a chunk of my mortgage and was shopping around for rates that would enable me to cut the term from 30 to 15 years at roughly the same payment.

I go into the Wells Fargo branch where they kept me waiting for 45 minutes to find out the rates. They don't post them like other banks. At the end of the 45 minutes, I was directed downstairs to the mortgage department because they don't handle mortgages in the branch. Couldn't they have told me that IMMEDIATELY instead of having me sit around for 45 minutes?

I met a loan officer named Monica who negotiated with me awhile until we got to an agreeable 4.875% rate. I talked it over with my wife and then decided to proceed. The day we went to sign paperwork, I was deathly ill, but even through my flu fog I could tell she was making mistakes. I had my laptop there and proved to her that her numbers didn't add up. She fixed it and we signed on the dotted line.

A few weeks later I get my documents in the mail for the wrong mortgage amount, the wrong term, the wrong rate, the wrong address and a line item for a survey fee despite my having provided it to them already. About all they got right was the spelling of my name.

After that I got nothing in the mail ever. I did get some faxed documents that were scanned and emailed to me, but they were totally illegible. Up to the day before the closing I still had not gotten any figures for how much to bring in a certified check.

On Monday of that week I sold mutual funds from the Wells Fargo brokerage so I could have them in the money market account where the amount could be transferred online into checking. On Thursday the funds were indeed there, so I transferred a portion of them into checking.

Imagine my surprise on Friday morning to find out that they weren't there! I was panicked because I had a closing at 11:00 AM!

Many phone calls later we discover that Wells Fargo takes up to 3 days to transfer CASH from a money market account into a checking account online, yet it could be done in person immediately. Hello? Aren't online services supposed to be FASTER?

I get to the closing office without the name of anyone I'm supposed to meet because Wells Fargo didn't provide it, and asked what to do since I didn't have the funds in my account yet. While sitting there I get a call on my cell from the regional manager for the southwest who said he would do a wire transfer. Problem solved, right? Wrong!

Later I get a call saying they can't do that since I'd already initiated a move of the money online. Instead he would in effect give me an interest free loan of the exact amount into my checking account so I could fund the mortgage. Great.

I'd left word with Wells Fargo and their title company that I needed to know the amount, the payee and to whom to deliver a check.

Later that day I hadn't heard from anyone, but I now had DOUBLE the amount of money in my account as the loaned sum and my original request apparently came through. I called again to let them know I had too much money in my account. No one called back.

On Saturday I was willing to go to the bank to get the certified check I needed. By then I had the amount (though it didn't match the documents they'd sent by email), but still no idea who the payee was nor where to deliver the check.

Monday rolls around and I walk into the downtown branch where this debacle started. There were (I counted them) 59 people on line because it was the first business day of the month. I went straight to the branch manager to raise hell. He gets the manager of the mortgage department and together they promise to fix everything. They get my check without me waiting on the long line and said they would messenger it to the title company.

Needless to say, they didn't do that either. Now I have the title company screaming at me because I signed paperwork and they don't have a check. We finally get that straightened out.

I then write to the mortgage manager to get some questions answered. He doesn't reply. A week goes by and he hasn't returned my phone calls either. Finally I send another email that was decidedly sarcastic and that motivated him to write back.

He then fails to answer several of my questions claiming he doesn't have the document he needs despite it being attached to the email message.

Finally, I get a letter in the mail from my OLD mortgage company informing me that they were never paid. Wells Fargo took my money and never gave it to the other bank!

Remember -- this is Wells Fargo Brokerage, Wells Fargo Bank, Wells Fargo Mortgage and their own title company. Shouldn't the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

Good luck to anyone who deals with these clowns. I registered a formal complaint to their executive offices, but no one has followed up. The next step is the banking commission.

Reese
El Paso, Texas
U.S.A.

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