Consumer complaint received 2020-11-21
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
I recently had a mortgage experience with Wells Fargo that can only be described as negligent, hostile, and deeply abhorrent. In brief, Wells Fargo made an error and did not release our Closing Disclosure three days before our scheduled closing date. They claimed to need fee information from the title company, but the title company had provided preliminary fees weeks in advance. [ We have email evidence of Wells Fargo confirming receipt of the fees one month before our close date. ] Wells Fargo failed to inform us they were missing fees until 12 HOURS before our scheduled close time. This error caused serious financial and XXXX XXXX for us because we had someone moving into our home the day after we closed on the new home. Now, instead of moving in as planned, we had to : 1 ) Pay the moving company to deliver our belongings to storage 2 ) Pay for storage over a holiday weekend 3 ) Pay for a second move from the storage company to our new home after closing 4 ) Board our pet for the weekend 5 ) Find lodging during COVID-19 with 12 hours notice Wells Fargo 's negligence quite literally rendered us homeless. Rather than settling into our first home, we felt more afraid and more alone than we ever have before. In the time since the incident, things have only gotten worse. When we asked Wells Fargo to reimburse us for the financial struggle they caused, they pointed fingers, displaced blame, ignored our calls, and refused to admit wrongdoing. Over a dozen calls to our case manager at the Wells Fargo Executive Complaint Office went unreturned. To be fair, our attorney warned us this would happen. In this words, Wells Fargo is the most " customer hostile '' bank he has ever worked with. Since the deal was already done and Wells Fargo had made their money, he advised there was almost no chance they would agree to reimburse us for their mistake. He was right. Our personal bank account was collateral damage to the ongoing operation of a corrupt corporation. 

I can not believe this bank is still allowed to operate given the scandals its been involved with over the past decade. Our case is just a drop in the bucket, given that Wells Fargo received over 23,000 (!!! ) CFPB complaints last year. I have to ask : At what point does the government step in and impose sanctions on a bank that is taking money from the American people for work they failed to do correctly? When will we finally place consumer welfare over corporate greed? 

[ Based on previous experience, I should note that I fully expect Wells Fargo to reply to this complaint with misinformation. They will claim the title company did not provide the fees in time and that it would be illegal for them to release our Closing Disclosure without fully balanced fees. Our attorney informed us this is, to be blunt, a bald-faced lie. He had closed on several homes the same week as ours where Wells Fargo released a preliminary CD based on initial fees. There is no excuse for Wells Fargo failing to release the CD on time, much less failing to inform us of a potential delay until 12 hours before our scheduled close. ]

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 explanation