Consumer complaint received 2019-08-12
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
XX/XX/19 - A legal order from the Texas State Comptrollers was enforced on our accounts, freezing our accounts. My wife took the day off of work and went to the Comptrollers office that morning and resolved the issue with the State that same day. At XXXX XXXX, the State Comptroller faxed the Wells Fargo ( WF ) legal department with a notice to release our accounts. My wife called the WF legal department 3 times ( approximately XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX and at XXXX XXXX ). All three times the WF reps assured us that the order would be processed that same day. 
XX/XX/19- I went to my local WF branch to deposit {$2400.00} in cash into my account. At no time did the teller inform me that I would not have access to my funds. 
XX/XX/19 - I went to buy groceries and when I used my card for the total of {$140.00}, the transaction was declined. I received a text message from WF stating : " Verify Wells Fargo activity : {$140.00} @ XXXX. Reply Y if recognized ''. I replied Y and then received the following text : " Thank you. You may use your Wells Fargo card. Try again if a purchase was declined. '' I tried again multiple times and the transaction continuously declined. While still at the store, I called WF and the representative on the phone told me my card should work. Tried again, still declined. This entire time, my online account showed that I had over {$2400.00} in my account. There was a line of customers behind me. On top of being extremely frustrated with the situation, it was also extremely embarrassing. I had to leave all my groceries at the store. I stayed on the phone with WF, looking for an explanation/resolution but they were unable to help me. All they said was that someone would contact me within 24-48 hours. At this point, I have NO access to my money in my account. 
XX/XX/19 - My wife called the Texas State Comptrollers office at XXXX XXXX to confirm that they did in fact fax the release to WF on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. They confirmed that they did and that our issue with them was now resolved. My wife and I both took the day off work to go into our local WF branch at XXXX XXXX to straighten this out. We met with the branch manager to explain the situation. She called the legal department on our behalf to find out what was going on. They would only tell her that they had not received a fax from the Texas State Comptroller even though we had a fax confirmation that it did go through and we confirmed with them that the fax number was correct. They stated that the fax would have to be re-sent. We called the Comptroller again and they said they needed the WF legal department to call them to request the fax be re-sent. The WF branch manager called the legal department and gave them this information. The legal department informed her that they don't make outgoing calls and that the Comptroller would have to call them. Called the Comptroller to relay this information and the fax was re-sent. This part of the issue was finally resolved at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 
We were there with her for 2 hours trying to get a resolution. In the meantime, the branch manager was also calling another WF department to find out why we were told both via text and over the phone the day before that we could use our card, when in fact we couldn't. Their response to her was simply " I don't know '' This whole situation should have been handled on Friday. The WF legal department system is ridiculous. No one can answer any questions - all they do is very non-noncommittally say that orders are processed the day they are received. Apparently, the fax from Friday was lost and there is no explanation for it. Because of this, we went through an entire weekend and basically all day today with no access to our funds or even the simple ability to buy groceries for our family even though we made a large cash deposit on Saturday morning and resolved our issue with the Texas State Comptroller the day before on Friday. If we had not attempted to use our card on XX/XX/XXXX, we would have not known that this was an ongoing issue. This should have taken care of on Friday and in our multiple contacts with WF since then, we were never notified otherwise.

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 monetary relief