Consumer complaint received 2019-04-10
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: CD (Certificate of Deposit)
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
On XX/XX/19, a CD I have with Wells Fargo matured and entered a grace period. I wanted to close the CD and have the funds transferred to another Wells Fargo checking account. I did not want the CD rolled over as I needed to use the funds. I called and requested that the CD be closed and transferred to my checking account. 

After several business days, I called Wells Fargo again because the online system still showed the CD as open. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Wells Fargo again. The representative said they couldn't find record of my XX/XX/XXXX request so they put in another request to close the account. This time, the representative put in the request to just close the account and send me a check. 

After several business days, I emailed Wells Fargo regarding the status of the request. Rather than helping me, the representative told me the CD had rolled over for a new 24-month period. 

On XXXX, I called Wells Fargo again and finally got a hold of a manager. The manager indicated that they could close the CD even though the grace period ended because Wells Fargo had messed up my request. Finally, after a couple business days, the CD was closed and transferred to my checking account without any fees. 

Fast forward to XXXX, the 2nd of my 3 CDs at Wells Fargo matured. I called Wells Fargo to close the XXXX during the grace period and have it transferred to my checking account. After two business days, I called again on XXXX to ask about the status of my request. The representative at Wells Fargo told me that they did not have record of the request and that I should just wait another day. It's now XX/XX/19 and the CD remains open despite my request to close it. 

The reason for my complaint is that I refuse to believe that my luck is simply this bad or that Wells Fargo is simply just that incompetent by happenstance. At this point, I can't help but think that Wells Fargo is intentionally ignoring my requests to close the CD because they are hoping that the CD rolls over and I just give up and go away. There's no other logical explanation for why closing an account takes this much effort -- and why multiple representatives at the same call center are unable to fulfill a simple transaction request. 

I refuse to believe that a billion dollar bank in the U.S. just happens to have really antiquated systems that a ) doesn't track closing requests, and b ) is so difficult to navigate that no one at the bank seems to have the cognitive capacity for fulfilling the request. 

Considering that Wells Fargo is a bank, presumably in the business of selling CD products, I can't help but think they are also doing this to other customers. I find it borderline fraudulent that Wells Fargo can repeatedly ignore requests to close accounts. I would like the CFPB to investigate this issue, because where there is smoke, you know there is fire.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief