Wells Fargo Sucks

[BiBottomBoy]

So i called up Wells Fargo and was like "Umm, it's been 10 days, where is my debit card?"

Then they said they'd cancel the debit card they sent out and would send a new one via "two business day expedited shipping."

Not sure why it wasn't sent out that way in the first place or whenever it will get here.

I'm gonna have to become a boytoy soon just to pay for meals.

[PeterRS]

Sounds like Wells Fargo is like the Royal Bank of Scotland. My VISA debit card expired at the end of September. Earlier that month, I received the usual reminder notice as well as the usual reminder that the bank does not send cards overseas - by any method! No problem as I have always had it sent to my brother who then just mails it to me. Plus last year I did not need to use the card until late October.

As requested, I wrote a day later requesting as I have always done that the card be sent to my brother's UK address. Since mail between Thailand and the UK could not be guaranteed at less than 90 days(!) due to covid, I had a few UK/European letters ready to go and so popped them all in a DHL envelope. It should therefore have reached the customer service people no later than the 15th. Nothing had arrived at my brother's by the 28th. I went on line to chat to one of the agents. What a total waste of time! Said they could not trace anything. Please would I write again!

Turned out in a later on line chat they had in fact received the original letter on the 15th and despatched the card three days later with the PIN advice one day thereafter. Nothing had arrived. End result was it took an expensive phone call plus a lot of checking. I was told they had posted out a second card and the PIN - but even these had not arrived. Each time the card they advised had been sent was cancelled and another mailed. Where they went to, goodness only knows. A week later the PIN letter for the 3rd card arrived. It was another 10 days before my brother finally received that VISA card. Thankfully nothing had been debited from my account during all this nonsense. I suspect I had been lied to all along.

[caeron]

I have banked with credit unions for years. I stopped using Wells Fargo about 20 years ago when they insisted on charging me for using my debit card at non-Wells Fargo ATMs in countries they had no presence in. Their answer to my complaint, "Use a Wells Fargo ATM."  My answer was to fire them.

 

(I didn't mind paying a fee to the owner of the ATM, but Wells Fargo then tacked their own separate fee on top of that, just because they thought they could.)

 

 

[Pete1111]

I fired Wells Fargo about 10 years ago.  IMO they were a bunch of rude f*ck ups that didn't care.   Not long after that came all of their customer rip off scandals.   That made me smile, to see their dirty laundry aired.   I do not miss Wells Fargo and will never return.

[Lonnie]

Wells Fargo Sucks

Big Time!

[vinapu]

47 minutes ago, Lonnie said:

Wells Fargo Sucks

Big Time!

how much he charges ?

[NIrishGuy]

On 5/30/2021 at 12:25 PM, Lonnie said:

Wells Fargo Sucks

Yes but the big question is "DOES HE SWALLOW" ! :-) 

[KeepItReal]

Come On! Somebody has to have something nice to say about Wells Fargo! So here goes: Nice stagecoach dude! 

It also explains why their service is so slow - they are still delivering via coach! 

 

They have been a disaster for me too - I was a Wachovia customer until Wells purchased them in 2009. 

[RockHardNYC]

I never met a commercial bank that I felt deserved my love (or my money). My feeling is this: If you want me to store my money with you, ALL services should be free, you should treat me like a god, and you should pay me a fair sum. No one in my lifetime has met that bar, and I have a lot of experience with many banks. Wells Fargo has always had a terrible reputation, along with Citibank. In financial conversations with younger people, I advise to avoid these two.

At least in the 80's, Chemical Bank pretended to meet my criteria. NY Magazine voted them #1 in customer service. But then J.P. Morgan Chase gobbled them up, and it's been downhill ever since.

In my personal life, I do my best to avoid commercial banks. I WILL NOT give my money to people or a business that abuses me.

[spoon]

34 minutes ago, RockHardNYC said:

I never met a commercial bank that I felt deserved my love (or my money). My feeling is this: If you want me to store my money with you, ALL services should be free, you should treat me like a god, and you should pay me a fair sum. No one in my lifetime has met that bar, and I have a lot of experience with many banks. Wells Fargo has always had a terrible reputation, along with Citibank. In financial conversations with younger people, I advise to avoid these two.

At least in the 80's, Chemical Bank pretended to meet my criteria. NY Magazine voted them #1 in customer service. But then J.P. Morgan Chase gobbled them up, and it's been downhill ever since.

In my personal life, I do my best to avoid commercial banks. I WILL NOT give my money to people or a business that abuses me.

So what bank should we used?

[vinapu]

11 hours ago, RockHardNYC said:

 

In my personal life, I do my best to avoid commercial banks. I WILL NOT give my money to people ....... that abuses me.

try me, I never abused you and I'm not a commercial bank

[PeterRS]

I have railed against RBS in the UK. But my experiences have not all been bad. About 10 years ago I had to transfer a very substantial sum of money from one country to another. Previously I had always done that by a call to the manager of my branch and following up with a fax - although never for such a large sum. Assuming all would go smoothly, I had already made arrangements to transfer much of that cash out of the incoming bank.

When I tried to call the manager of my branch, I found for the first time that I was put through to a general call centre. It then took around 14 minutes to get through to my branch. But I was not actually put through. The idiot call centre rep merely told me she had the day off that day. Instead of putting me through to the Assistant Manager, he wished me a good day and hung up! After a couple more tries and well over 30 minutes wasted, I managed to speak to the AM. No problem she said. Just send the fax and then we will call you back to ask you some security questions. I'm on the line now, I said. Ah, but we have to call you at the number registered in your file. Problem! I was travelling and the only numbers they had were those in Bangkok. I asked her to check with her security people. No luck! Nothing I could do would persuade her, no information I provided was acceptable.

I then told an untruth. I explained I was not returning to Bangkok for three days and the money had to be in my account the day before then. So I would have to make a special trip back home just to answer some stupid security questions and then immediately fly back to the city I was calling from. In fact, I was due to return home that evening, but she was not to know that. Sure enough, the security people called the following day and asked three perfectly inane questions. The cash was then immediately transferred.

I am a great believer in nicely worded letters of complaint sent to the highest official I can find. I found the name of the Chairman of the Bank. I wrote to him, repeated my little fiction. I soon received a letter back from an Assistant saying they had started an internal enquiry and I would hear the result soon. I assumed they would request copies of my "specially purchased" air tickets with the date of my return to the city I had called from. That would then be that. Good try! But they didn't want any evidence. A few weeks later I was informed the bank had put £1,000 into my account as compensation!

[RockHardNYC]

4 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I am a great believer in nicely worded letters of complaint sent to the highest official I can find.

Words written in a particular manner sent to just the right person can produce results. Keep in mind that most CEOs do not read these letters, but all of them employ someone who does. It is that person's job to get the job done.

Writing a good letter of complaint can be challenging work. It takes time, hard thought and energy. There are often many details that need to be explained, a lot of them are boring and difficult to keep straight in a smooth, comprehensive narrative. The goal is to have impact, to elicit good results for you. If you possess poor writing skills, it's better to find someone who does. Some people can put their heart on paper without a decent education in English, but this is not the norm.

Personally, I could write a book on bank treatment in my life. I've known my share of bank owners from around the world. All of them filthy rich. The book would be boring as all hell, I doubt anyone would want to read it. And then the financial world would hate me. It's not worth the trouble.

19 hours ago, spoon said:

So what bank should we used?

It's a complicated question without an easy answer. Much depends on your financial needs and your personal thoughts and feelings about convenience and fees. I typically recommend a little study about the available options, and see if something rings a bell in your brain. If you read high-quality travel blogs, you will find sincere love for credit unions and or private banks. A lot of wealthy people own stocks and they use investment accounts. 

Most credit unions are owned and managed by its "members," and this type of ownership can make all the difference in the world. Many people claim the best credit unions are run by military members, former and current. If you have a military member in your family, you may be eligible to join one of these credit unions. There are a few with outstanding reputations. It's almost impossible to replicate the fantastic deals they can offer you elsewhere in the commercial market.

8 hours ago, vinapu said:

try me, I never abused you and I'm not a commercial bank

Sweet eyes and a handsome face always have the power to open my wallet. 

[KeepItReal]

20 hours ago, RockHardNYC said:

I never met a commercial bank that I felt deserved my love (or my money). My feeling is this: If you want me to store my money with you, ALL services should be free, you should treat me like a god, and you should pay me a fair sum. 

Your expectations are too high, sir. But I suspect you know that already given your experience. Banking is a service - you need to pay for a service for it to be worthwhile. My 2c. 

[PeterRS]

4 hours ago, RockHardNYC said:

Words written in a particular manner sent to just the right person can produce results. Keep in mind that most CEOs do not read these letters, but all of them employ someone who does. It is that person's job to get the job done.

Writing a good letter of complaint can be challenging work. It takes time, hard thought and energy. There are often many details that need to be explained, a lot of them are boring and difficult to keep straight in a smooth, comprehensive narrative. The goal is to have impact, to elicit good results for you.

I can not agree more. Decades ago I would just dash off an angry letter, more to get the incident off my chest rather than to gain some sort of advantage. I suspect dealing with lawyers as part of my work made me realise that a cool head is needed to describe the incident in a very coherent manner. Words like disgraceful, disrespectful and dreadful quickly disappeared from my complaints, and I always now end regretting for bringing the matter to the attention of the addressee but I do not know any other way of finding redress. 

With airlines, I know that their playbook is always to deny and delay. So I play the game. I once caught an Asian airline at London deliberately misrepresenting a situation to induce me to travel. Basically their gate supervisor and gate agent both lied to me. I discovered this when I reached my destination. So I composed a letter to the Chairman seeking reimbursement of that sector of my business class ticket. A month later I got the usual letter of apology which also pointed out that the airline had fulfilled the conditions of my ticket by actually getting me from A to B. I wrote back pointing out that deliberate misrepresentation can be actionable in court in London. A month later, they continued to deny responsibility but offered me a free one-way long haul upgrade subject to load. In other words, if the plane was full, tough luck on me. I stuck to my guns. After about 4 months, I wrote again, this time giving them 72 hours to resolve the issue to my satisfaction or I would meet with my solicitor with a view to taking action against the airline. The following day I received a fax, an email AND a hand-delivered letter offering an option of three types of compensation. I took the 50,000 free miles. At that time that was only 10,000 miles short of a business class return ticket to Sydney!

[RockHardNYC]

4 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

Your expectations are too high, sir.

If only I could get a free night with a hot escort every time someone told me this.

4 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

Banking is a service - you need to pay for a service for it to be worthwhile.

LOL. A service? It's a service to hold MY MONEY and protect me from...robbers and thieves? Oh my. You sound like the perfect banking customer (or employee).

I appreciate the brilliant marketers that banks have become. I've written my share of those brochures. Clearly, it works...on some people.

I suppose if you're the type of customer who needs car loans, home loans, credit cards for borrowing at ridiculous APRs, and perhaps small-business loans (good luck with that), a commercial bank is there to provide a service. IME, the service SUCKS, and it's fake (unless you have a ton of valuable collateral).

Maybe there was a time when commercial banks provided service. It seems to me, that time has long passed. Today, you are just another number, another balance. Not much different than if you're flying Coach. I keep a small account at my local bank two blocks from my home. The turnover in employees there (the entire staff) has been extraordinary. The bank building has been there for 40+ years, but the managers, tellers, desk agents; they change by the month. How can any business provide good service when a customer can't rely on the same human representative from month to month? That kind of service is a JOKE.

But by all means, ENJOY the drip, drip, drip of service you get. If customers don't speak up, they get the service they deserve. Not much different with politicians.

[KeepItReal]

On 6/3/2021 at 12:05 PM, RockHardNYC said:

If only I could get a free night with a hot escort every time someone told me this.

LOL. A service? It's a service to hold MY MONEY and protect me from...robbers and thieves? Oh my. You sound like the perfect banking customer (or employee).

I appreciate the brilliant marketers that banks have become. I've written my share of those brochures. Clearly, it works...on some people.

I suppose if you're the type of customer who needs car loans, home loans, credit cards for borrowing at ridiculous APRs, and perhaps small-business loans (good luck with that), a commercial bank is there to provide a service. IME, the service SUCKS, and it's fake (unless you have a ton of valuable collateral).

Maybe there was a time when commercial banks provided service. It seems to me, that time has long passed. Today, you are just another number, another balance. Not much different than if you're flying Coach. I keep a small account at my local bank two blocks from my home. The turnover in employees there (the entire staff) has been extraordinary. The bank building has been there for 40+ years, but the managers, tellers, desk agents; they change by the month. How can any business provide good service when a customer can't rely on the same human representative from month to month? That kind of service is a JOKE.

But by all means, ENJOY the drip, drip, drip of service you get. If customers don't speak up, they get the service they deserve. Not much different with politicians.

I agree there is little joy to be found in banking service - but (to me at least) it is a necessary service.  

 

What you are really saying is that you want the bank to

1. safeguard your money,

2. make it available to you on demand at ATMs 24/7,

3. provide internet banking so you can pay bills,

4. provide an app on your phone so you can shuffle funds around on the go or deposit a check in your jammies, 

5. give you state of the art cyber security to protect your personal account and transactions details.

 

And you don't want to pay a dime in fees.  Interesting point of view!! 

[RockHardNYC]

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

I agree there is little joy to be found in banking service - but (to me at least) it is a necessary service.

Unfortunately, it is a necessary business, not unlike cable service, which I also abhor. Abuse, abuse, abuse. That's why my heart goes out to ordinary users. They get sucked into the false narrative marketing, and they (and their money) often gets used and abused. The average, ordinary customer has no idea what their bank does with their money.

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

What you are really saying...

SERVICE. Without the customer's money, there is no bank. The job of acquiring customer trust is a serious one. Too many commercial banks have lost their way. When the perception is the business is "necessary," corrupt behavior soon follows.

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

1. safeguard your money

Let's talk about safeguards the next time we experience a "run." The banking crisis near the end of Bush's term illustrates what disaster is possible in America. Many bank customers have the potential of getting screwed, when things go seriously wrong.

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

2. make it available to you on demand at ATMs 24/7

This is not a service I need. I almost never use an ATM (unless I'm traveling). And for the huge amount of money that I'm required to maintain in my account to attract no-fee service, the bank better give me free ATM use abroad, or they will lose me as a customer.

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

3. provide internet banking so you can pay bills

I do not use the internet for banking or bill paying. My computers have been hacked more than once. I know too many people who have had their identities stolen. I refuse to endure that pain and suffering.

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

4. provide an app on your phone so you can shuffle funds around on the go or deposit a check in your jammies, 

I do not use my cell phone for banking or bill paying. I employ people to deposit checks. No one sees me in my Tom Ford jammies (except the sleepover guys).

20 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

5. give you state of the art cyber security to protect your personal account and transactions details

Shall I introduce you to my friend Chris Krebs?