Consumer complaint received 2022-10-26
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
In early XXXX, I paid tuition to my son 's school for the following year via XXXX ACH transactions from my Wells Fargo checking account. In XXXX of XXXX, we were informed that the school would not reopen in XXXX of XXXX due to financial collapse. We were told at the time that our tuition money would be returned. Our tuition money was not returned, and promised services were obviously never provided. In the following months, we learned that the head of the school had behaved fraudulently ; she continued to collect tuition money even after she knew that the school was not viable. We do not know where the money went. 

At the time I did not realize I had any recourse, but in XX/XX/XXXX learned from other former parents of this school that most of them had their payments returned by their banks upon filing a fraud complaint. ( These were also tuition payments made by ACH transactions from a checking or savings account, from banks including XXXX and XXXX XXXX for example ). I immediately filed such a claim with my bank, Wells Fargo. After many administrative errors on the bank 's part, the claim was finally filed. I offered to provide documentation and additional information about the fraud that was committed ( this is available in court filings, media reports, etc ) but was told that it was not necessary because the bank would do its own research. 

I received a denial of my claim that indicated that I could request the research materials used to make the determination, which I did. Over a month later, I received a generic form restating my claim ( date, amount, etc ) with no additional information, suggesting that no actual research was done. I called to ask if I could appeal and provide the additional documentation and was told no. At one point I was told that my bank has to " follow federal laws about what claims may be honored and federal law does not allow my claim to be honored '' but clearly this is not true because multiple other banks have refunded the same claims to other families. 

The bank 's rationale is that I authorized the payment initially, so it can not be fraudulent. My argument ( and apparently the reasoning that other banks have followed ) is that my authorization was based on fraudulent information. It is frustrating to me that the claim has been denied with no actual research into the circumstances of the charge, a considerable amount of time and bank error/sloppiness, and that there is no appeal process but only an automated process that does not seem very robust. 

I have quite a lot of documentation -- emails from the school, court filings, media reports -- but am not sure which are helpful. Before I attach them all maybe CFPB can provide guidance. I am attaching the letter from my bank ( on which there appears to be another administrative error -- the date of one of the transactions which again raises questions about the process ).

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