Complaint Review: Wells Fargo

Yesterday at 3:30, I transferred all of the money from my savings account in to my checking account. At 3:45, I went to an ATM to withdraw some of the money, but my transaction was denied. Thinking that their system was trying to catch up to the changes I had made online 15 minutes prior, I decided to try the ATM later. I went to a different ATM a5 hours later to find the same problem - I was unable to withdraw any money. When I got home, I checked my account and it showed $0.00. When I checked my account activity, it showed that all of my funds had been depleted on a "TELE-TRANSFER". I called customer service to try to reverse the transfer (as it was still in "Pending" status), but they said they couldn't do it.

My step dad is on my checking account because I have my car insurance through him, and transferring the money online is much faster and easier than writing a check. All three of my siblings and my step sister also have my step dad on their accounts. We found out yesterday, he's also on my brother in law's checking account.

My brother in law was over $500 overdrawn. Apparently, the moment I moved money to my checking account, Wells Fargo's collections department decided to wipe me out for every last penny. Neither my step dad nor I ever received ANY form of notification (no phone calls, emails, or messages on our accounts with wellsfargo.com). All my account showed was "TELE-TRANSFER". My step dad and I called customer service a total of 5 times just to find out that it was the collections department that moved the money (Why they don't label it as debt collection, I'll never understand). When we were finally able to talk to someone from collections, they were INCREDIBLY rude. In the end, they asked if they could put us on hold. It turns out that "hold" is code for "hang up".

Today, we went to the local branch in person, only to have the smug stand-in branch manager inform me that it's my fault, that I should have known better.

When I asked her why they emptied my account to cover the debt of someone that I'm not directly connected with, she told me that it was because my brother in law's account is connected to mine through my step dad. When I asked her why they didn't take the money from my step-dad's account (because he's the one directly linked), she said it was probably because I had more money in my checking account at the time.

And, with pretend sympathy and a pat on the back, she informed me that "It's a hard lesson to learn".

The lesson that I learned is that apparently, having any money in your checking account means that it's up for grabs for anyone in debt. I learned that when your bank account is emptied by Wells Fargo, this "reputable" financial institution believes that they have no responsibility to inform the customer. I learned that, for this bank, customer service is merely a title, as no service is actually performed.

Needless to say, WF lost all of my accounts, and, out of fear of being targeted, the accounts of my siblings.